Oct.22 Gig at Wingin' It

Our last two gigs were to near-empty audiences. I think at the last gig at Friar's Tavern at one point literally the only person in the audience was our soundman. It was strange but we treated it like practice. We'll be back there Dec.3 and hopefully it'll be more like Wingin' It depicted above at our last gig, Oct.22. I much prefer playing to a full room and at this gig we had a good turnout. In the pic someone wanted to blurt out something over the mic, so I got a couple minutes' break in which I could snap a quick pic on my iPhone. So you get to see what the room looks like from the drummer's point of view. This was probably one of our better gigs: we played well and I think the audience was getting into it, especially during the third set when we tend to play faster, more recognizable stuff. The Allman Brothers' One Way Out has a rather recognizable riff (and ride cymbal) that the audience usually responds to pretty well. I think we played that song particularly well and I had a blast banging out those snare rolls at the end of every verse.

Dylan

This past weekend we went to the Dylan concert held on campus in what is normally the basketball arena. An excellent show for which we had pretty decent seats except maybe a bit too close to the stage. It was great seeing Dylan and his band up there, but the sound was, for us, imbalanced as it was mainly directed toward the left ear. The highlight, for me I think, was Ballad of a Thin Man which they played at a pretty fast tempo. Come to think of it, they played most things at a pretty fast pace, which I rather enjoyed. I'm always being told by my band mates to slow down, but I think a slightly faster pace is better enjoyed by the audience.

Hounds at Friar's Tavern

This is a shot from The Hoodoo Hounds' gig on Oct.1. It's a new(ly refurbished) place called Friar's Tavern (the old Explorers'). The stage is pretty small there, but we managed to fit somehow. My drums were right behind our front man who said that I was trying to beat the snare through his head :) I like my snare to snap when I hit it, what can I say? For this gig our front man brought in some fancy equipment that can analyze the room acoustics and automatically balance the output while canceling feedback. It does this by having you stick a microphone in the middle of the room while it sends out white noise through the speakers. Some home theater systems do this as well. I think we sounded pretty good that night, but unfortunately we played to a non-existent audience. It ended up being a practice gig for us with the only person applauding being our sound man...Another gig is coming up this Friday (Oct.22) and hopefully there'll be a larger crowd.