So for those who have been around at least a year you may remember we did “The Big Gig” last year. It’s sponsored by EDF in aid of Prostate Cancer Research and features 5-6 local bands for an evening at a club. It’s a good set-up, 40-45 mins of playing and a decent sound check before.
I think we’d been together as a band for about 3 months last time and literally played all the tracks we knew. This time we had a little more choice although due to challenges over the summer hadn’t had as much time as we’d have liked to practice .
We had a great time and it was probably our best performance to date with plenty of people getting up to dance as the set progressed (we were fourth band on and the first to get anyone on the dance floor). Yeah we still had mistakes on a few songs but we’re able to blow through most of them now so it’s not overly noticeable to the audience. Definitely got us enthusiastic for more this year.
The video below is a “highlights” reel of 16 minutes. Most of the songs are ones you’ll have see us perform before with perhaps Common People being the only new one. If you’d like to jump between songs there are chapter marks if you open in YouTube itself. Best positioning of the camera was a bit of challenge last year…so hopefully this angle works better.
Congrats on your 2nd Big Gig Jason and Co, I am sure it felt very different to that first time ! I’ll take a listen this evening but good to see the band going from strength to strength.
Great to hear from you again, Jason. Congrats on a return performance at The Big Gig. It all sounded good to me. The camera angle gave a good view of your drummer, the dance floor, and the impressive array of gear on the floor.
Brilliant Jason.
On stage, a great set, lights, sound and people dancing.
Just a few years ago I remember you stafting out and suffering the issues we all face of fumbling fingers over simple three chord songs.
Now you’re a rock star fronting your own band.
Mega cool.
@DavidP Thanks David and yes given the camera sat at the back of the stage the sound quality is not too bad and that’s definitely a better angle. All the gear on the floor is the multitude of pedal boards each band brings!
@jkahn@skinnyt Yeah it really really makes a performance when you hear people singing or they get up to dance. You know at that point that they are really enjoying it.
@Richard_close2u Yep it was another great night and I do have to pinch myself occasionally to realise where I’ve managed to get to! It does feel good and motivates me to continue. Just to need to start sharpening some of those guitar skills now.
A fantastic watch Jason congrats to you and the whole band! Must have been such a buzz to see the interaction from the audience grow. Hope you enjoyed your post show refreshments, they were well earned for sure!
That’s a great wet Jason, I particularly liked (no surprises there ) she’s electric, you gave it a Beatle-esque vibe with the vocals that I really dig.
Keep on rocking, I’m sure you’ll have bigger gigs soon enough!
Congratulations to you and your bandmates Jason, really great job and it’s fantastic to see how you develop with every gig. Lots of people dancing makes it a good indication that people enjoyed it so keep on rockin on!
I love it seeing people playing, being on stage, having people dancing and all!
Just as much as “bedroom recordings” but there you are, thrown fro the lions
Bam, fly in right away with the Yardbirds; thanks for inspiring me, I’m adding great song that to my ‘to-do’ list!
@Notter Thanks for taking a listen and glad you enjoyed. It’s always a buzz when doing it but nonetheless pretty nerve wracking to work through 40-60 mins of music…you soon learn that you are bound to fluff something up so you just get used to playing through it…non musos almost never notice.
@KevinKevan Thanks and glad you liked Shes Electric…I definitely can’t sing it Oasis style but it seems to work and most people like it.
@adi_mrok Thanks and this one definitely had a better vibe…that said there were three bands before us an no one danced…maybe they needed a drink first. Plus we were lucky we had a sweet spot which was supposed to 8:30pm but actually wasn’t until 9pm…by the time the last band got on just before 11pm a lot of people had had enough.
Glad you enjoyed it @LievenDV and that you like the Yardbirds (a band which in various guises featured Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck)…we have a few 60s covers in our set now, but to be honest as we’ve probably got 2 hours of music now have to limit which ones we play at a gig like this. For Your Love is a nice one to start with but still a difficult vocal work out.
Hey Jason, I decided to enjoy the whole thing rather than spend a lot of time trying to find witty things to say in the comments.
Top notch performance (as usual). This was by far the best camera angle/ performance documentation so far (although it would also be nice to see a bit more of the lads from the front).
Nice editing- Impressive to see the progression from seated punters to folk throwing shapes.
Bravo & encore!
Cheers Brian…yeah a couple of those “early” risers to the dance floor were a little odd…completely threw Simon on Bass and that knocked on to me…but we got through it. It settled down as we played other stuff.
Having another camera out front would probably have been the solution but the post editing etc. becomes an even bigger bind then…really not worth the hastle.
Haha, I only mentioned the lads faces so they wouldn’t feel left out. It’s quite refreshing to get the drummer’s view. Multiple cameras would be overkill
) she’s electric, you gave it a Beatle-esque vibe with the vocals that I really dig.
