Gig number 3

So I had my 3rd gig with Lauren Bannon on Monday night, at The Winchester pub in Bournemouth. The night got off to an interesting start, its always interesting when you turn up to a show having been told to only bring your breakables and then the promoter says to you as soon as you're through the door “We need your drum kit on stage asap”! Unfortunately for us, the headlining band had dropped out and we were to replace them as headliners which meant we needed a kit, the promoter had left us a message on Lauren's Facebook, informing us that we needed to bring a kit, but we hadn't checked it. If we had, we might've been able to say that my drum kit lives in Bicester, and there was no way I'd be able to get it there! Luckily, the only drummer playing that evening lived locally, and was able to have somebody drive in his kit, this did of course mean that the gig got off to a late start, and considering it was supposed to start at 9, meant it was going to be very late by the time we played!

Once the gig did get started however, it turned out to be a really good night. First on was an acoustic act, female singer and her guitar player. I wasn't sure of her name but we had played a gig with her before and I recognised her remarkable voice. The first time I herd her sing, it took me a while to get it, she sings in sort of a ballad type way and uses a lot of minor keys and odd guitar tuning. She has a big voice that fills up the room and her lyrics are just a little bit dark, one of the more memorable songs being “Murder Ballad”! But she was very good and I enjoyed her set, the only thing that I would maybe suggest is possibly having more instruments behind her, maybe some strings and a piano? But that''s just my opinion.

The next act on seemed like a bit of a reunion. I was told before turning up to the gig that we were playing for the 10th anniversary of “Solid Air”. I've not herd of them before but that is probably down to me not being local. Solid Air, from what I gather, are a promotions company who run regular gigs in Bournemouth and get plenty of local bands to play for them. The main guy, not sure of his name, was playing with this group and said a few things about Solid Air, there was also a very good birthday cake. The band were pretty good, considering they hadn't performed as a group before, and their music was really enjoyable and brought a great atmosphere into the pub. I really enjoyed their set but by the end of it, I was itching to get on stage.

Our Set

It was about 10 past 11 when we got on, so sadly, the pub and mostly emptied, but there were still about 15 patient people who sat through our set, and to be fair to them, made a fair amount of noise between songs. I felt the set went very well, and certainly the rehearsal time put into it really paid off. Me and Kris were much tighter and put together a much better grove. I still really feel the need to expand the band, and certainly we missed the presence of the bass player! It sounded good to me, Lauren sounded the best I'd ever herd her so that was really good. I still think they we are looking at these as practice gigs, trying to build the band and make it tighter before we start pushing the band as far forward as we can take it. Our next gig is on Saturday, in Bournemouth, not sure exactly where though, but it is during the day. I'm dead excited for that one!