Brewbar Gig - 23 June 2007

On Saturday night The Negotiators played in the Brewbar at the Finnsury Hotel. It was a private show put on to celebrate 'Craig's' fortieth birthday. If the last gig was 5/10, I would have put this one a shade over 7. No really bad stuffups, some really good music, an audience partying on and the band having fun. Mixed in with that, cameos and audience interaction, nice venue, decent hours (7:45 pm start), and a bit of chaos as we blew our first ever main fuse. It was a good evening!

Again, I taped parts of the show. I'm only posting now because it was only last night that I got to listen to my recordings from the third and fourth sets. What I heard on the tapes (despite its quite different sound qualities compared to the actual performance - it was, afterall, only recorded on a walkman through the inbuilt mike on el cheapo tapes) only confirmed what I thought at the time, which is what you read above.

There were around fifty people there for most of the evening, a few more at peak and a few less at start and finish. A pretty cool and friendly crowd who got into the evening. I understand that quite a few were regulars at The Excelsior where The Duo (Nancy and Steve) has played several times. Not a coincidence, I understand. They enjoyed themselves, and made for a good audience.

The venue could have coped with maybe four or five times that many people. It was one big low wooden room with an island bar in the middle, decent size stage at one end. Comfortably lit and wooden pannels, it also had a similar decore colour scheme to our previous show - Club 168 (a sort of deep-peach-rose). I'd say it had less atmosphere than the pool hall, but what would you expect - it was a function room. The pool table, by the way, was in use through the evening.

We played four sets. The longest break we had was when the power blew half way through the second set. It happened at the perfect point in a song (ie. end of a verse). What is it with electricity recently? The Barman Mr Fixit in the main (gambling parlour) section of the hotel was so rush rush that he didn't say a single word or heed the barmaid after she'd alerted him to our plight. I'd say he was damned rude. Anyway, he got the power going so all is forgiven.

Musical highlights of the evening included (for me, anyway) the psychedelic bit in the middle of Whole lotta Love and a couple other numbers, Evie, Prisoner of Society and Rock'n'Roll (our encore) going off, an audience who went the distance in (Am I ever gonna) See Your Face Again, a cameo by a 'guest' drummer (thanks, Leonard) for Honky Tonk Woman and All Right Now, a folksy guitarist/songwriter/singer who wrote and sang a song for the birthday boy (as well as interactive version of Always Look on the Bright Side of Life) and at least a dozen people doing 'the aeroplane' in our penultimate song!

The sound was heaps better. Sharon lurked on the mixing desk, and provided encouragement and an ear in the audience when it counted. We did a few other things a bit different. Steve's amp was miked so that we could put it through foldback and thus all hear it easier. I think that allows for an improvement. It also allows front of house control of the guitar volume - not a bad thing. Depending upon the practicality of it, we might also like to consider miking Barry's bass and my rhythm guitar so that all can hear all. That would be a novelty for a rock band!

Areas of the show that will do with improvement are our all round co-ordination (miking amps through foldback could really help here), a bit of a heavier sound (not necessarily my own personal opinion), more thought into the dynamics of the ensemble.

As for myself personally, I really need to nail down those chord changes in the score or so of songs where my brain doesn't really know what my fingers should be doing at some point! That's just a matter of practice. Will do.

Finally, there was a real classic moment that happened. We'd just played 'American Idiot', and Nancy was saying something about the words 'fuck america' in the song. You can hear on the tape the voice of a guy, who was nearly six foot, tall, shaven headed and expressively dancing much of the evening. He starts singing 'Short Memory' (a song by Midnight Oil, listen to it if you can!). So appropriate a vignette to the way the mindset is of so many of generation X these days.

Must go. I'll let you know the next confirmed gig date when I'm told what it is.