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shermaramaYou know how some nights you go out, not expecting anything much but it beats sitting in, and you see a band, and they turn out to be excellent? And you spend the rest of the evening being very glad you went out and enjoying yourself tremendously and laughing at everything? Last night that band was US. Yeah.
Learning Curve was about the apex; people were dancing, and in the call-and-response-bit in the middle (where the call is guitar and bass and the response is a drum fill) Jodie and Debz both sort of leant back and turned round to me for the drum bits, at exactly the same time, like we'd planned it, though we hadn't, and I spent the rest of that song trying to wipe the silly grin off my face. And people were dancing. I can think of no higher compliment for a drummer.
And then, right, because it had all been working well and we'd been enjoying ourselves so we sounded good, we got paid, and got offers of more gigs, and possible recording, and other good stuff. And the bar owner gave us free beer. So let's get this right; the happier we are with the music itself, and the more fun we have on stage, the more good things happen off-stage too. I think I'm remembering why I thought this whole band thing was a good idea in the first place.
The support was the same lot who played after us at the Montague Arms a few weeks ago, a girl-fronted bubble-pop indie band going under the name Anna Vincent who I presume must be the singer, and last time they did my swede in because they had no drummer. They still haven't got one but they now have a drum machine, which I think works very well for their sound. The bassist in particular is very good and everything's built of little perky bits and details which might be swamped under the wash of a real drummer, whereas neat little machine sounds stay out of the way and give the whole thing the slightly manic drive it needs. Given that there was a drumkit there anyway and usually will be, I reckon they ought to stick with the drum machine and get a mannequin to prop behind the kit.
Learning Curve was about the apex; people were dancing, and in the call-and-response-bit in the middle (where the call is guitar and bass and the response is a drum fill) Jodie and Debz both sort of leant back and turned round to me for the drum bits, at exactly the same time, like we'd planned it, though we hadn't, and I spent the rest of that song trying to wipe the silly grin off my face. And people were dancing. I can think of no higher compliment for a drummer.
And then, right, because it had all been working well and we'd been enjoying ourselves so we sounded good, we got paid, and got offers of more gigs, and possible recording, and other good stuff. And the bar owner gave us free beer. So let's get this right; the happier we are with the music itself, and the more fun we have on stage, the more good things happen off-stage too. I think I'm remembering why I thought this whole band thing was a good idea in the first place.
The support was the same lot who played after us at the Montague Arms a few weeks ago, a girl-fronted bubble-pop indie band going under the name Anna Vincent who I presume must be the singer, and last time they did my swede in because they had no drummer. They still haven't got one but they now have a drum machine, which I think works very well for their sound. The bassist in particular is very good and everything's built of little perky bits and details which might be swamped under the wash of a real drummer, whereas neat little machine sounds stay out of the way and give the whole thing the slightly manic drive it needs. Given that there was a drumkit there anyway and usually will be, I reckon they ought to stick with the drum machine and get a mannequin to prop behind the kit.