Each year in Europe, there's the so called "Fête de la Musique" with live music all over the place during one week-end of june.
So these were 2 busy days for yours truly. Friday night, I played solo on the terrace of the irish pub. Nice early evening gig, two sets of 65 minutes with a 20 minutes break from 6:30 pm to 9 pm. Great weather, great crowd, killer sound with my baby Bose L1. The pay was also good. Who could ask for more?
Yesterday night, I was scheduled with son Axel on drums on one of the stages in the pedestrian zone. We played this gig twice already and each time we had the same soundman, who does a fabulous job. He was around this time too, so we knew the sound would kill.
The only thing that bothered me was that I had no time to install the Bose on stage. So I just gave the guy my Stick signal after processing, via one direct mono outpout of my QSC mixer. This meant I had to rely on wedges to hear the whole picture (drums stick, voice).
We did a lightning quick sound check and I immediately noticed the wedges seriously lacked bass. OMG, the bass side of my stick sounds like cardboard! So I asked the soundman to boost the bass a little in the monitors. He said "forget it, these are very crappy old wedges!". So I asked him to cut some medium high at 1.5 khz and it immediately smoothened the whole thing, which became, well, almost bearable.
So here I am, having to play with a bad stick bass side sound on stage (the rest was OK) but knowing that the FOH sound is killer( there were these big fat subwoofers, yummy). So I mentally switched on "WTF, FOH is great, just go for it!". And it worked! I loosened up and we did a very good performance - no train wrecks, one lyric line sung twice on a song because I mixed up 2 verses and a couple of extra bars in "China girl" before diving into verse 2 (so many lyrics for such a small brain). One wrong chord in "Bird on a Wire", but it sounded good with the vocals, so who cares? After the gig, everybody said the sound was fabulous and we even sold a bunch of CD's!
The bottom line? Live performance is the art of coping with discomfort. It's really a matter of attitude. Do your best and be convinced it's terrific. There's quite a chance the audience will have the same feeling.
PS: Here's what we played:
No woman no cry / B.Marley Jolie Louise / D. Lanois Bird on a Wire / L. Cohen Vertige de l'amour / A. Bashung Englishman in New-York / Sting Five Years / D. Bowie Losing my religion / R.E.M Plus rien ne m'étonne / Tiken Jah Fakoly Rouler dans les plantes / Olivier V. Un vieil amour / Olivier V. China girl / Iggy pop Walk on the wild side / L. Reed Like a Hobo / C. Winston
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Last edited by Olivier on Mon Jun 26, 2017 9:00 am, edited 1 time in total.
Sun Jun 25, 2017 6:49 am
rclere
Multiple Donor
Joined: Sat Mar 29, 2008 8:53 am Posts: 1518 Location: Seattle, WAq
Re: Fête de la Musique
Great set list!!! Besides being a great player/singer on the Stick.... I really appreciate the relationship you have developed with your son.....That transcends everything!!
Sun Jun 25, 2017 8:52 am
Jzzb8ovn
Master Contributor
Joined: Sun Jun 14, 2015 5:11 am Posts: 1367 Location: Guelph, Ontario, Canada
Re: Fête de la Musique
wish i could have been there. Im glad you shared your expeiences. It willhelp me when I have to do a solo gig in September. Its just a street corner gig but my first real gig.
Joined: Mon Mar 30, 2015 12:17 am Posts: 1637 Location: Portugal
Fête de la Musique
Congrats Olivier. You're right of course: live performance really is the art of coping with discomfort. Good attitude will sell almost anything to the audience And I'm with Randy: having your son with you is the best! Plus, you're a top player anyway so there's no reason why it shouldn't be a success
Joined: Mon Jan 14, 2008 2:17 pm Posts: 228 Location: Nantes, France
Re: Fête de la Musique
Actually (at the beginning) the "Fête de la Musique" celebrate the starting of summer and it's held on June, 21st. But now it can be on the week-end around (simpler than in the middle of the week) like Olivier did.
Here's how it was with my band:
_________________ Yannick ——————————— #5162 10-string Maple Stick #5743 Tinted Salmon Light Bamboo Grand Stick
AFSTG(Association Française du Stick et de la Tape Guitare)
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