On Friday 20 June The Monotremes played our first gig.
We were told soundcheck was from 6.00, but we were opening so would be soundchecking last and could appear at 6.30pm. Soundcheck involved the usual faffing from the bands, who were all pretty much on time but had big and confusing setups – the middle band on the bill were a metal act that had separate sync’d backing tracks feeding the pa and the drummer’s earpieces – but the small stereo system they were using to play the tracks only had about four feet of earphone cable and a standard minijack to phono calbe with minimal play for the pa, which resulted in a slightly perilous amp, stereo and drum placement).
The venue provided backline for the gig – a smart little fusion-sized Mapex drum kit (fine for our purposes but a little underpowered for the metal act) a laney bass combo and an awesomely unnecessay Marshall stack for Alex. Through the evening there was a noticeable difference in the volume of the drumshell parts of the kit and the materials that the band supplied (the cymbals and snares) which made all of the bands sound a bit splashy and accented the twos-and-fours. This is by no means a gripe – it’s always interesting to hear how your band sounds in a different venue with a different set up. Our drummer has (or so I am led to believe) a tasty kit at home, and I’ve got a nice head and cabinet to amplify my bass, but we’ve not yet had a chance to use our own kit. Maybe when we move up the bill we can have a go at that.
We got on stage to soundcheck at 7.45pm, but that was plenty of time for us – We’d tuned up when we were hanging about and our drummer only uses one high tom and a couple of cymbals. We plugged in and hammered through a song whilst the soundman adjusted the vocals (the only thing running through the pa). I chatted with the soundguy about putting the bass through the pa too, being slightly worried that the Laney combo wouldn’t be loud enough, but in the end the machine was more-or-less fine for matching the fusion kit. If it’d been a full-sized kit I don’t know if the unit could have coped as it was beginning to sound a little fuzzy at soundcheck volume.
Soundcheck took five minutes, then we had a half hour before we were on. First beer of the evening.
We basically started the moment all our friends turned up. It was sweaty under the lights. I made one glaring error and several minor errors. We had some of the classic first-gig nerve symptoms including some dead-air between the songs as Alex was tuning his guitar. Overall we played pretty wrll for a first gig, though. I was a little worried about the volume of the bass amp, so didn’t want to be standing in front of the speaker block the sound. However the stage wasn’t that large so I was hidden behind the PA speaker. Which suited me just fine.
Stu’s response to first show nerves was just to close his eyes and emote as much as possible, which was excellent.
As usual for a gig, our 25 minute set seems to roll by in about 47 seconds. We got up there, sweated, thanked the soundman, unplugged our stuff, and got off the stage in record speed. Success.
The Starts, the evening’s headliners, were excellent, and I advise you to go check them out if they’re playing near you.
Later, I got drunk.
Our next gig is on thursday 3 July at the Dry Bar near the Barbican. Come!
