Gig Report - Life is Drama @ Heroes West (Joliet)

[Tommy Guns]

This past Sat night my band LIFE IS DRAMA played @ Heroes West (Joliet, IL). I’ve never played here but they have numerous times. Heroes West is a pretty LARGE room!!! When you walk in its set up like a restaurant with booths & tables and WAAAYYY in the back is the stage coming off the left corner. I had a group of friends that called me to let me know they were coming out this night and to reserve some tables for them. When I walked in the place was PACKED and people were waiting on tables!!! Not too long ago my friends were the only ones who came to see me NOW I can’t find a table to save for them!!!

We loaded in and it was COLD!!! We joked while loading the gear in that next year we’re going to take off from just before Christmas until it warms up in March. This night I was going to use my new “in-ear” monitors. I planned to tap off the drummer’s “in-ear” feed so I could hear what he hears. I was going to have the other guitar player and vocals in 1 ear and my guitar in the other. We tested them using his loops and everything was fine in my ears but his feed had my amp BLARING in his ear so he turned me so low I couldn’t hear myself so we just decided to dial it in later at practice.

Before sound check we talked to the manager who was pleased at our turnout and he threw in a couple of rounds of drinks for us!!! The place was still PACKED when we started and during the first set there was a girl to my right that was on our website looking at the “songs we play” and started requesting songs from me. We played 3 sets this night and we started off strong but I think after the first 5 songs we had some hiccups in there the rest of the night. We started off a song in the wrong key, forgot lyrics, solos didn’t sound quite right and one of the light towers slid down and was flashing in my face. It was just an “off” night for us. I think we might have came in a little complacent after our last gig where we just ROCKED the place. This night was “work” for us and it took until the 2nd half of the second set till the dance floor started to see any action, but we did see “chair dancers” early in the night. We had a good crowd until late in the night which helped us and they manager said he definitely wanted us back again!!! We talked about this gig at band practice last night and we agreed we’re going to have to STEP IT UP if we want to keep playing at these BIGGER venues!!! We REALLY made an effort to improve last night and played everything we’re planning to play this Saturday night and it sounded AWESOME!!!

Our next gig is THIS SATURDAY (2/18/12) @ America’s Bar (2308 W Higgins Rd, Hoffman Estates IL). We’re playing an opening slot (1 hour) & then the band “Bad Day” headlines. We’re hoping to just “tear it up” Sat night so we can play a full show here sometime!!!

Thanks for reading and all the great comments & KEEP ROCKIN’ !!!!

Tommy Gunz

[dogbite]

I enjoy the working band stories. hope I can post some too. soon. our debut gig is April 7.

[Tommy Guns]

Dogbite, thats AWESOME!!!! Hope your debut gig goes well and much success to your band going forward!!! There's nothing better than playing LIVE & having the crowd into what you're doing!!!

[1armbandit]

Keep coming with the updates.

My wife and I went to IEM's and we really like them. We went cheap and the set up is all wired. Our mics go through the control so we can turn ourselves up or down seperately from whatever else is in the monitors. The way our stage is set up we are in an "L" with a my wife and I on the short leg with a screen for lyrics beside me. then on the other leg is the piano, guitar-lead vocals and drums. The drums are pretty much shooting right at us and floor monitors had to be turned up so much we didn't need house speakers. And I still couldn't hear my harmonica which is bad, unlike piano or guitar you absolutely need to hear that harp. I usually let the right bud hang so that I hear the wifes harmonys directly but if the drum is particularly loud I plug both ears just for noisy blocking.

Again keep coming with the updates, it is interesting to hear about the trials and the victories out in the real world.

Jack

[Tommy Guns]

Thanks for the response Jack!!! My IEM is wireless along with my guitar, I just hope my pants don't start falling down from the weight of the body packs. We're moving around a LOT more than we used to and the stages are starting to get bigger so the bass player & I started switching places on stage and we go out into the crowd now too. When that happens I can't hear my guitar so I figured this would be a good fix for that. It also helps to damper the cymbals!!! I'm sure we just need to dial them in. This weekend we're just concentrating on ROCKIN' the place and next practice we'll work on the monitors again. Currently the drummer and the singer and I have them now so we're looking at getting 2 more for the other guys and then I think we'll be all good.

Might need a "talk back" mic next so the band can get instructions in our IEM w/o the audience hearing!!!