This was our first gig as The Negotiators and our first at an RSL. It was a fiftieth for a fellow called Wayne who Steve knew from his swim club. He had first seen us at a show we had played for the club about 1 ½ years ago under a marquee in a back yard.
Playing an RSL was great. These are generally licensed facilities composed of bars and decent catering facilities, usually with a large sized hall a part of the set up. They are the physical infrastructure of Australia’s fraternity of Returned Sevice men and woman, the veteran community. They are as much a part of the australian landscape as Anzac Day (our national day of remembrance) and the egalitarian myth of the people. As such, they exist in most towns and suburbs as part of the social landscape connecting this country with its important and proud military heritage. They are also people’s organisations, and have thus been a part of the australian mucic scene. A lot of great aussie bands have played the local RSL on the road to professionaldom. Not that The Negotiators intend to become professional, but I did enjoy joining the tradition of playing an RSL.
Wayne had over a hundred people at his party, and a lot of them stayed through the night. We had upto 20 people dancing several times, and there was almost always someone up. The waltz kept showing itself, sometimes to the strangest musical accompaniment!
My favorite moments were having a Cloe (10 years) almost reverantly checking our gear out as we set up, and later accompanying Nancy on the vocals for ‘Not Pretty Enough’ and ‘Nutbush’, and Steves winding riff through ‘Satisfaction’. The audience seemed to all enjoy us, with most either obviously enjoying by the grins, claps and dancing, or the surreptitious toe tapping that is almost always a give away. In the corner, the most sceptical of the audience was a table of veterans in their fifties. But they stayed all night, and they seemed to like our balls (having a go at some pretty hardcore rock, and pulling it off both energetically and passionately). I thought, if we can win those blokes over, we can win anybody! Of course, it may have had something to do with the time of the evening?
Onwards and upwards…
Monday, July 11, 2005
Requiem for Requiem - The Negotiators emerge!
Those who have been following this blog for a while will remember that we have already tried to change our band name. The marking point for the start of this blog was when we agreed to call ourselves The Odd Sox.
That change of name was doomed from the start. The first publican we mentioned it to refused to book us under the name and insisted we retain ‘Requiem’ for her gig. I’m not sure why she did this, but it was an omen. Our followers were sceptical, and kept calling us Requiem. We produced no posters with the name, and kept playing as Requiem. The name change had even stopped being a vaguely funny in joke within a couple of weeks. Perhaps this blog IS the only permanent trace of this period of our band.
Anyway, since then we’ve had someone float proposed band names past us at every practice (which is pretty often when you add them up). The most persistent suggester was Nancy, but sadly no – one’s ideas seemed to grab everyone’s imagination at the same time, and Requiem remained our name by default. Without Nancy’s persistence in keeping the issue alive, Requiem we would remain until today. Now that that’s not the case, others have told me what Requiem evoked (wedding, funeral, serious music). I am glad Nancy kept plugging away.
Then, I was talking to my sister in Melbourne about my nephew, who’s nickname is ‘The Negotiator”, when the idea of “The Negotiators” as a possible band name struck. I tried it out on Nancy and a few friends, everyone had a positive reaction. It seemed an evocative, indefinably humerous name that drew a response from all. It seemed to ‘mean’ something without putting us in a box, and it sounds cool. The band all liked it when suggested at the next practice. No-one else was using it as a band name that we could work out from our internet searches.
So we became The Negotiators!
That change of name was doomed from the start. The first publican we mentioned it to refused to book us under the name and insisted we retain ‘Requiem’ for her gig. I’m not sure why she did this, but it was an omen. Our followers were sceptical, and kept calling us Requiem. We produced no posters with the name, and kept playing as Requiem. The name change had even stopped being a vaguely funny in joke within a couple of weeks. Perhaps this blog IS the only permanent trace of this period of our band.
Anyway, since then we’ve had someone float proposed band names past us at every practice (which is pretty often when you add them up). The most persistent suggester was Nancy, but sadly no – one’s ideas seemed to grab everyone’s imagination at the same time, and Requiem remained our name by default. Without Nancy’s persistence in keeping the issue alive, Requiem we would remain until today. Now that that’s not the case, others have told me what Requiem evoked (wedding, funeral, serious music). I am glad Nancy kept plugging away.
Then, I was talking to my sister in Melbourne about my nephew, who’s nickname is ‘The Negotiator”, when the idea of “The Negotiators” as a possible band name struck. I tried it out on Nancy and a few friends, everyone had a positive reaction. It seemed an evocative, indefinably humerous name that drew a response from all. It seemed to ‘mean’ something without putting us in a box, and it sounds cool. The band all liked it when suggested at the next practice. No-one else was using it as a band name that we could work out from our internet searches.
So we became The Negotiators!
Glanville Wharf, 3 June 05
This Friday night gig was a ripper. The audience came from about five separate social cirles, plus those who came because of their link to the pub rather than us. Had between 30 and 50 people through the evening, with the peak being the middle two of four sets.
Although it’d been a while since we played, a few things are memorable.
Firstly - The audience, besides being decent in size and demeanor, was noteable because it wasn’t dominated by any one particular social group. There was a nice mix which we knew had come to see us by various paths and connections. To be there of an evening, however, one would have noticed the 'diverse homogeneity' of our audience. Their age was thirty plus, the males were not somewhere on this side of the tracks, the women were all dressed up. They all seemed comfortable in each other’s presence. The only one who looked like he didn’t was the man from cambridge.
Secondly - Steve came into his own as a lead guitarist. The band as a whole was a bit disjointed in the first set, competent but not flowing. We were all aware of it, and those who've seen us before would have, but not too many of these there in the first set. We knew that things were only going to get better off an already solid base. The second and third brackets were amongst the best we’ve played.
And this was due in no small part to Steve’s work on the guitar. His leads were on time and in tune, and busy enough figurations that were at the same time solid because simple worked their way into much of what we played. I’ve always felt rock music needs a driving guitar, and we most certainly had it. Best of all, I think Steve was aware of the fact that he had passed a bend in the road.
Thirdly – we had a few very cool ‘dance’ moments from the audience. We had people up dancing from the second or third song, for a start, which is always good. We had the floor full of dancers at some point in each of the sets, and solidly so through the third and fourth. It was great when we played ‘500 Miles’ towards the end of the third. This always draws out the scots and party animals, and they tend to stalk stomp and sing their way through the song with the band. The display was exhuberantly passionate on this night – great fun.
The most memorable moment, however, was during ‘Jumping Jack Flash’, at the end of the Third. Steve was grinding away on lead, Nancy was totally lost in the hypnotic rhythms of the vocal refrains. And in the audience was one of our Stompers, a fellow who’d only been up for ‘500 Miles’ to this point. It was like the dance demon got him, and he started driving himself in a dhervish jumping light footed dance. There was energetic feedback between him and the band, one of those alchemical moments when the dancer drives the band drives the dancer and everyone has their eyes shut. I didn’t, and could watch what was happening and ride the wave that the moment graced us with.
Although it’d been a while since we played, a few things are memorable.
Firstly - The audience, besides being decent in size and demeanor, was noteable because it wasn’t dominated by any one particular social group. There was a nice mix which we knew had come to see us by various paths and connections. To be there of an evening, however, one would have noticed the 'diverse homogeneity' of our audience. Their age was thirty plus, the males were not somewhere on this side of the tracks, the women were all dressed up. They all seemed comfortable in each other’s presence. The only one who looked like he didn’t was the man from cambridge.
Secondly - Steve came into his own as a lead guitarist. The band as a whole was a bit disjointed in the first set, competent but not flowing. We were all aware of it, and those who've seen us before would have, but not too many of these there in the first set. We knew that things were only going to get better off an already solid base. The second and third brackets were amongst the best we’ve played.
And this was due in no small part to Steve’s work on the guitar. His leads were on time and in tune, and busy enough figurations that were at the same time solid because simple worked their way into much of what we played. I’ve always felt rock music needs a driving guitar, and we most certainly had it. Best of all, I think Steve was aware of the fact that he had passed a bend in the road.
Thirdly – we had a few very cool ‘dance’ moments from the audience. We had people up dancing from the second or third song, for a start, which is always good. We had the floor full of dancers at some point in each of the sets, and solidly so through the third and fourth. It was great when we played ‘500 Miles’ towards the end of the third. This always draws out the scots and party animals, and they tend to stalk stomp and sing their way through the song with the band. The display was exhuberantly passionate on this night – great fun.
The most memorable moment, however, was during ‘Jumping Jack Flash’, at the end of the Third. Steve was grinding away on lead, Nancy was totally lost in the hypnotic rhythms of the vocal refrains. And in the audience was one of our Stompers, a fellow who’d only been up for ‘500 Miles’ to this point. It was like the dance demon got him, and he started driving himself in a dhervish jumping light footed dance. There was energetic feedback between him and the band, one of those alchemical moments when the dancer drives the band drives the dancer and everyone has their eyes shut. I didn’t, and could watch what was happening and ride the wave that the moment graced us with.
Easter Sunday - Cumberland Gig
On Easter Sunday, March 2005, we played at the Cumberland Hotel in the afternoon. The day was quite okay as gigs go, pretty well attended with an audience that stayed basically until we were done. There were quite a few young bucks that were initially sceptical as they rocked up, but nearly all of them were at least singing along with us, if not dancing, by the final sets.
Competent, but not brilliant, is how I’d measure our performance. Though, once again, I’d say that the audience who had not seen how good we can be were not too upset at what they saw. I guess our performance is more dynamic than that of a lot of bands, and this is always a bonus in live gigs.
This was the last show we played at this venue with its wooden floors. I have heard that where the bands play now has a concrete floor. This should be good, as we have always had a bit of a challenge to keep the bottom end vibration under control with the floor set up.
Competent, but not brilliant, is how I’d measure our performance. Though, once again, I’d say that the audience who had not seen how good we can be were not too upset at what they saw. I guess our performance is more dynamic than that of a lot of bands, and this is always a bonus in live gigs.
This was the last show we played at this venue with its wooden floors. I have heard that where the bands play now has a concrete floor. This should be good, as we have always had a bit of a challenge to keep the bottom end vibration under control with the floor set up.
Thursday, March 24, 2005
Glanville Wharf - 18 Mar O5
Glanville Wharf Gig – 180305
Requiem played at the Glanville on Friday night, show started at 8.30 pm and went to about 12.45 am. We played four sets, plus a couple songs tacked onto the end. Had about 3 dozen people present from midway through the first set ‘til after the last song. Everyone was happy with the performance, audience seemed very excited. Got another gig booked at the same place for the afternoon of the Sunday after Easter.
This is the third show we’ve played here, and all have been good or better. I know that for some reason I feel quite comfortable playing at this place, both in myself and as a member of the band. Which is strange because, ‘objectively’ speaking, as a venue, it has no outstanding positive features, and quite a few negatives. There’s something to ponder about here…
We had a bit of a scattered arrival time, and Sox was the last to turn up which is unusual. Playing on a Friday night could have contributed to this, as we all have occupations that keep us busy during week days. Perhaps Sox was last to arrive because he had furthest to travel (work – home – gig)? In our stage layout we reverted to having me front left/centre and Steve rear left. That worked fine. Apparently the sound was evenly mixed through the pub, and I know the beat was strong and steady.
We didn’t have any set lists drawn up fifteen minutes before the show. Instead, we (Nancy) put them together in the breaks and wrote out copies of each list for the band. It worked well, but would be too exhausting to do every gig as it means that some of us don’t actually have a break during the ‘breaks’. Gigs are hard enough to get through as is (just learnt from a TV show where a sports physician speaks of ONE song in front of a big crowd putting a singer through physical stresses (respiration and heartrate) equivalent to an endurance runner on a five km run).
Our truest fans were already there, eating, when I arrived. God bless them, they always stay as long as they can (usually till after we’ve packed up), drink lots and thoroughly enjoy themselves. They also listen closely and give us feedback if we want to listen. Including band members, we brought in a dozen meal orders for the pub.
First set was unusual in that, of eleven songs, over half we haven’t played publicly for at least six months, and about half were first made famous by Austalians. Although there weren’t many punters there yet, it was good to dish these songs up to those who have seen us rotate a fairly steady song list for six months. People were rocking up through the first set - a handful of locals, around a dozen people connected through Adelaide University, or through the women who had come up to Peterborough. There were even a couple fellows from the Mid North! Great crowd, most of them stayed all night and those that left did so because they had a long way to travel. Fair enough, was good to see them.
Second set was different in that we had a sax player who Steve knows join us. I’ve never played with brass before. I liked it, but it certainly is easier to fit five on stage than six (for a couple years we were a six piece). The sax player’s name was Rob, he hadn’t much experience with bands before. He loved doing it. Hope we see him again.
The rest of the night was cool. Everything went smoothly with a high energy level. We all raised quite a sweat (necessary, this, for a good gig – don’t know why). Tempos, leads, rhythms and memory all worked well, and audience got right into it. Had dancers for much of it (including a very martial scotts dance to ‘500 Miles’). The best thing about this good gig was that there was no ‘vibe’ that night except that which we brought on, it was due to us playing great rather than us playing on a great night. If you know what I mean.
Next Sunday we’re at the Cumberland again, and then return to the Glanville the Sunday following.
Requiem played at the Glanville on Friday night, show started at 8.30 pm and went to about 12.45 am. We played four sets, plus a couple songs tacked onto the end. Had about 3 dozen people present from midway through the first set ‘til after the last song. Everyone was happy with the performance, audience seemed very excited. Got another gig booked at the same place for the afternoon of the Sunday after Easter.
This is the third show we’ve played here, and all have been good or better. I know that for some reason I feel quite comfortable playing at this place, both in myself and as a member of the band. Which is strange because, ‘objectively’ speaking, as a venue, it has no outstanding positive features, and quite a few negatives. There’s something to ponder about here…
We had a bit of a scattered arrival time, and Sox was the last to turn up which is unusual. Playing on a Friday night could have contributed to this, as we all have occupations that keep us busy during week days. Perhaps Sox was last to arrive because he had furthest to travel (work – home – gig)? In our stage layout we reverted to having me front left/centre and Steve rear left. That worked fine. Apparently the sound was evenly mixed through the pub, and I know the beat was strong and steady.
We didn’t have any set lists drawn up fifteen minutes before the show. Instead, we (Nancy) put them together in the breaks and wrote out copies of each list for the band. It worked well, but would be too exhausting to do every gig as it means that some of us don’t actually have a break during the ‘breaks’. Gigs are hard enough to get through as is (just learnt from a TV show where a sports physician speaks of ONE song in front of a big crowd putting a singer through physical stresses (respiration and heartrate) equivalent to an endurance runner on a five km run).
Our truest fans were already there, eating, when I arrived. God bless them, they always stay as long as they can (usually till after we’ve packed up), drink lots and thoroughly enjoy themselves. They also listen closely and give us feedback if we want to listen. Including band members, we brought in a dozen meal orders for the pub.
First set was unusual in that, of eleven songs, over half we haven’t played publicly for at least six months, and about half were first made famous by Austalians. Although there weren’t many punters there yet, it was good to dish these songs up to those who have seen us rotate a fairly steady song list for six months. People were rocking up through the first set - a handful of locals, around a dozen people connected through Adelaide University, or through the women who had come up to Peterborough. There were even a couple fellows from the Mid North! Great crowd, most of them stayed all night and those that left did so because they had a long way to travel. Fair enough, was good to see them.
Second set was different in that we had a sax player who Steve knows join us. I’ve never played with brass before. I liked it, but it certainly is easier to fit five on stage than six (for a couple years we were a six piece). The sax player’s name was Rob, he hadn’t much experience with bands before. He loved doing it. Hope we see him again.
The rest of the night was cool. Everything went smoothly with a high energy level. We all raised quite a sweat (necessary, this, for a good gig – don’t know why). Tempos, leads, rhythms and memory all worked well, and audience got right into it. Had dancers for much of it (including a very martial scotts dance to ‘500 Miles’). The best thing about this good gig was that there was no ‘vibe’ that night except that which we brought on, it was due to us playing great rather than us playing on a great night. If you know what I mean.
Next Sunday we’re at the Cumberland again, and then return to the Glanville the Sunday following.
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Gaslight Gigs, Feb - Mar 05
On Thursday Requiem rocked up at the Gaslight Jam, a weekly jam session at the Gaslight Tavern in the suburb of Brompton. The format for these evenings has basically remained unchanged over several years. There’s a ‘house band’ which has all its gear on stage, and plays music to warm up the crowd. The band at the moment has been there a year or two, a fairly tight rock combo with a steady diet of seventies music. They’re pretty good, though they do tend to play the same songs from week to week. They’ll play a set, and then introduce the next batch of musicians. This might be a ready made band (like us), or a thrown together band composed of musicians that are present. Unless there’s a special need (such as occasionally a keyboard) the jammers will plug their instruments into the amplifiers on stage. These ad hoc combos can be pretty damn good. There’ll be from three to six songs (depending upon how many are waiting to get up and how the audience likes the music). Then the next jammers get up. This goes on until 1 am, interspersed with the house band if there’s a gap between jammers.
It all depends upon how many musicians rock up for how the night will go.
We played around 11 pm, all covers. Tight, loud, professional. Maybe too much so, as the audience didn’t cheer like they usually do when someone’s cooking on stage. That would be a bit worrying, if I didn’t see that they were watching us very intently. Adelaide audiences can be a fickle thing. I think the audience was ‘judging’ us, as most of those people hadn’t seen us as a band, but had seen Nancy sing in lots of adhoc combos over the years as she often goes to jam nights on her own. I think they like her, and were judging her band, to see if ‘they’ll’ look after her. I guess they think we’re okay because they were fairly friendly to us afterwards.
The following Saturday night we played there in a regular gig. It’s been about nine months since we last played a real gig at the Gaslight. Was nice to be back again.
The dissapointing thing was the crowd, about a dozen through the evening. I don’t think the night would have paid for the publican. I spoke to her afterwards, she thought that there were quite a few other things on which drew her regular crowd away for the night. “That’s rock’n’roll,” seemed to be her attitude and I appreciated that. As always, there were also about half a dozen of our own followers who rocked up and stayed. As always, this was inspiring to us.
Musically, it didn’t seem to work as well as it has in past. Might be because, foolishly, we put steve back centre and me front left. Wrong move, as putting Sox and Steve together seems to disrupt the flow. We did it for various reasons that seemed good enough at the time (to Steve’s doubt). We should have left it the way Steve had it. Anyway, live and learn.
I broke strings on two guitars in the evening. Made a change of strings in the third break. We were tight, but there was a lot of work holding it together. I think Nancy had a sore throat and this restricted what she could do. Still, it was a pretty neat gig.
Next Friday night we play at the Glanville Wharf hotel, and on Easter Sunday at the Cumberland (Glanville). Both of these gigs look like being well attended. We have one practice session before then, so we hope to work out a few bugs in the meantime.
It all depends upon how many musicians rock up for how the night will go.
We played around 11 pm, all covers. Tight, loud, professional. Maybe too much so, as the audience didn’t cheer like they usually do when someone’s cooking on stage. That would be a bit worrying, if I didn’t see that they were watching us very intently. Adelaide audiences can be a fickle thing. I think the audience was ‘judging’ us, as most of those people hadn’t seen us as a band, but had seen Nancy sing in lots of adhoc combos over the years as she often goes to jam nights on her own. I think they like her, and were judging her band, to see if ‘they’ll’ look after her. I guess they think we’re okay because they were fairly friendly to us afterwards.
The following Saturday night we played there in a regular gig. It’s been about nine months since we last played a real gig at the Gaslight. Was nice to be back again.
The dissapointing thing was the crowd, about a dozen through the evening. I don’t think the night would have paid for the publican. I spoke to her afterwards, she thought that there were quite a few other things on which drew her regular crowd away for the night. “That’s rock’n’roll,” seemed to be her attitude and I appreciated that. As always, there were also about half a dozen of our own followers who rocked up and stayed. As always, this was inspiring to us.
Musically, it didn’t seem to work as well as it has in past. Might be because, foolishly, we put steve back centre and me front left. Wrong move, as putting Sox and Steve together seems to disrupt the flow. We did it for various reasons that seemed good enough at the time (to Steve’s doubt). We should have left it the way Steve had it. Anyway, live and learn.
I broke strings on two guitars in the evening. Made a change of strings in the third break. We were tight, but there was a lot of work holding it together. I think Nancy had a sore throat and this restricted what she could do. Still, it was a pretty neat gig.
Next Friday night we play at the Glanville Wharf hotel, and on Easter Sunday at the Cumberland (Glanville). Both of these gigs look like being well attended. We have one practice session before then, so we hope to work out a few bugs in the meantime.
Monday, February 21, 2005
Cumberland Hotel, Glanville, 20/2/05
On Sunday afternoon Requiem played our first gig at the Cumberland Hotel, just down the road from the Glanville Wharf (where we played the previous Sunday). Good gig. It was several weeks ago that Steve dropped into the pub and organised the booking. At the time I was really glad about it (I still am), as I remembered the pub fondly from a few years ago as a friendly and comfortable pub (it still is). The woman who handled the booking has maybe either heard us, or heard of us, because she booked us for Easter Sunday also. I suspect that will be a good show.
Terry and Steve were there first and had done the bulk of the setting up by the time Nancy and I arrived around 3 pm. When we arrived the barmaid welcomed us with a beaming smile, very nice. Sox was running a bit late for him, but we were all ready to go by 4 pm. Unlike the previous week, we were all fighting fit.
With ten minutes to go we were asked to start with a quieter set as there was still quite a few punters having a bet on the TAB in the bar and they’d want to hear the final races. This was no problem for us, but did entail reorganising the set lists, which Nancy had spent quite a while putting together. She’d intended to start with a bang, so there was a bit of shuffling around to do. If you don’t know, creating set lists is an artform in itself.
We played four sets, progressively heavier as the evening drew in. We kept the breaks to 15 min (except the last, 20 min). No complaints from anyone there. It was almost dark when we finished.
The pub seemed to draw a fair Sunday crowd under its own steam. We had forty to fifty people there throughout the show, with up to ten of them dancing on several occasions. I think we would have had a few more there except that Port Adelaide was playing footy that evening against the other local team in the national league (Adelaide Crows). The song that drew the most dancers was ‘Midnight Special’. There was some really good rock’n’roll dancing from the older members in the audience, the most shining example of the day when a barmaid danced with the publican (?) and the others left the dance floor to them for a song they were that good. I applauded them at the end of that song (can’t recall which song it was). Audience sang along most lustily to Mustang Sally and Can’t Always Get What You Want. My favorite audience participation song was ‘500 Miles’, as we had a ‘scottish circle’ kicking up their heels on the floor as we played.
The Requiem crew this show included a handful of Steve’s friends, Tracy & Wayne, and Jo with two of her cowgirl friends. As always, wonderful to see them, and even more wonderful to see them getting right into the music (rather than just turning up out of politeness). Tracy and Wayne brought our grandkids, Jack brought his toy guitar and spent about a set imitating and studying the poses of guitarists. Very cute. Blake in his pram just burbled away for the couple sets they were there. Beautiful to see Nancy dancing with Blake in one of the breaks. Great family show.
As for our performance, not as tight as the week before but a better gig all round. Maybe half a dozen times we screwed up, but each time managed to pick up the pieces and improvise our way back on track. Not a problem, audience enjoyed. The grandest screw up was one of our originals (Internet Blues), which we hadn’t played together for half a year. The band started playing in different keys, and Nancy started singing in yet a third key. Sounded very weird but coordinated by half way through first verse. What capped it off was that Nancy was able to repeat the key changes in the remaining verses, thus making a whole new way to play the piece. I think we all actually liked the way it turned out.
Only technical problems were that the venue had a vibrating floor, making the bottom end of our sound quite dominant, and that I broke a string during ‘Rising Sun.’. I kept up the vocals, and changed guitars between verses. Quite professional.
We next play on Friday next at our old haunt, the Gaslight Tavern in Brompton. Looking forward to it …
Terry and Steve were there first and had done the bulk of the setting up by the time Nancy and I arrived around 3 pm. When we arrived the barmaid welcomed us with a beaming smile, very nice. Sox was running a bit late for him, but we were all ready to go by 4 pm. Unlike the previous week, we were all fighting fit.
With ten minutes to go we were asked to start with a quieter set as there was still quite a few punters having a bet on the TAB in the bar and they’d want to hear the final races. This was no problem for us, but did entail reorganising the set lists, which Nancy had spent quite a while putting together. She’d intended to start with a bang, so there was a bit of shuffling around to do. If you don’t know, creating set lists is an artform in itself.
We played four sets, progressively heavier as the evening drew in. We kept the breaks to 15 min (except the last, 20 min). No complaints from anyone there. It was almost dark when we finished.
The pub seemed to draw a fair Sunday crowd under its own steam. We had forty to fifty people there throughout the show, with up to ten of them dancing on several occasions. I think we would have had a few more there except that Port Adelaide was playing footy that evening against the other local team in the national league (Adelaide Crows). The song that drew the most dancers was ‘Midnight Special’. There was some really good rock’n’roll dancing from the older members in the audience, the most shining example of the day when a barmaid danced with the publican (?) and the others left the dance floor to them for a song they were that good. I applauded them at the end of that song (can’t recall which song it was). Audience sang along most lustily to Mustang Sally and Can’t Always Get What You Want. My favorite audience participation song was ‘500 Miles’, as we had a ‘scottish circle’ kicking up their heels on the floor as we played.
The Requiem crew this show included a handful of Steve’s friends, Tracy & Wayne, and Jo with two of her cowgirl friends. As always, wonderful to see them, and even more wonderful to see them getting right into the music (rather than just turning up out of politeness). Tracy and Wayne brought our grandkids, Jack brought his toy guitar and spent about a set imitating and studying the poses of guitarists. Very cute. Blake in his pram just burbled away for the couple sets they were there. Beautiful to see Nancy dancing with Blake in one of the breaks. Great family show.
As for our performance, not as tight as the week before but a better gig all round. Maybe half a dozen times we screwed up, but each time managed to pick up the pieces and improvise our way back on track. Not a problem, audience enjoyed. The grandest screw up was one of our originals (Internet Blues), which we hadn’t played together for half a year. The band started playing in different keys, and Nancy started singing in yet a third key. Sounded very weird but coordinated by half way through first verse. What capped it off was that Nancy was able to repeat the key changes in the remaining verses, thus making a whole new way to play the piece. I think we all actually liked the way it turned out.
Only technical problems were that the venue had a vibrating floor, making the bottom end of our sound quite dominant, and that I broke a string during ‘Rising Sun.’. I kept up the vocals, and changed guitars between verses. Quite professional.
We next play on Friday next at our old haunt, the Gaslight Tavern in Brompton. Looking forward to it …
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