Gig Report: The Obscure80's March 3rd edition

[OGG]

@micwalt showed up, which was awesome.

Smallest crowd yet, worst overall performance (personally) yet.

My worst fears were realized pretty quickly when I discovered that my guitar patches that I spent many days reprogramming at home, all had wildly varying volume levels at show volume. All night was a back and forth battle with the master volume knob on the HD 500. But that only worked when I had an actual opportunity to bend down and adjust it, which between singing and playing, was rare.

My voice was fantastic. For about 5 songs, then it quickly began running out of steam. Clearly still not healthy after the nearly two month battle with bronchitis.

It was just one of those off nights. Guess I'm glad that only a few people saw it. By the second set, my voice was gone, we decided to ditch the play list and just go with whatever I called out.

I'ma kill me a muhfukin guitar player.

Since I knew I could no longer sing the hard songs, I called out and introduced an ICEHOUSE song (which is gravy to sing and is a lot of fun), the dirty bastard then launches into an ICICLE WORKS song which is nigh impossible on a good night.

I nearly shat.

Needless to say, that song turned out ugly.

No more Tuesday night shows.

 

[Mark Wein]

Tuesdays are difficult. This would be way easier if you could get on the weekend.

 

[Gary Blanchard]

No matter how good a band may be, it will take time to build a following. Be patient, and be easy on yourself!

 

[Modern Saint]

Mojo Tony's OGG. Tuesday shows are tough to begin with. Add all that can go wrong just amplifies it more. Like all that comes with bad, there is a lot of good up ahead.

 

[Denverdave]

that sucks......especially when you were really building towards this. And Tuesday are about the worst night for live music imaginable.

 

[Gorgon90]

Mojo. Another vote for Tuesdays sucking as a live music night. In my old town, I could find a live band every night of the week apart from Tuesday. In my current much smaller town, its pretty much Saturdays only and that's if you're lucky.

 

[micwalt]

OGG is being too hard on himself. I was there for the first set and about three songs into the second, and his voice sounded fine. In fact, the band as a whole sounded great--they really capture the tones and the vibe of the original material. Harmonies were on, music was tight. And the only thing I noticed about the guitar rig was a bit of feedback in one song. My favorite part of the performance was two The Fixx songs segued together; that really worked! It's a crime that this band isn't playing to packed houses. I don't know why any club would even bother to do a Tuesday night show. It's crazy.
Anywho, we need to try and put another double bill together on a Friday or Saturday and rock the house.

 

[OGG]

Thanks guys. Yeah, the whole Tuesday thing has run its course. That was the fifth one, and while they were great tune up shows, the crowd has actually dwindled with each one.

Part of that, is over exposure. I think the 5 shows in 5 months thing actually made it harder to pull a crowd. Loading in and setting up last night was weird, it was like "holy shit, didn't we JUST do this?".

There's also the venue itself. It's a GREAT venue, but the locations sucks. It's far off the beaten path, in a commercial area that is a virtual ghost town after 6PM. There's shamefully little parking nearby, and there is no walking traffic to speak of other than the homeless doods bumming smokes, but whom are also quite complimentary about the music. It seems Hobos are down with the 80s all rock.

The place has there forever, long before there was a gaslamp district full of clubs and thousands of people strolling about on any given night. In the 70's and 80's it was called Spirit, and hundreds of National acts played there. It was the place to go. It became Brick by Brick in 95 and maintained that tradition for a while, but as downtown started filling up with newer, nicer clubs, it went downhill.

It shut down for about a year a while back and the new owners reopened it last August (one of the co-owners is a dood from As I Lay Dying). It is struggling mightily.

I guess when Gilby Clark played there last week, he only drew 70 people.

70.

 

[nuke_diver]

Tuesdays a rough night and from the critics review OGG you sound like you are being too hard on yourself. Sounds like it was a pretty good show.

 

[Gary Blanchard]

My pet peeve is venues that expect bands/musicians to bring in a crowd while doing nothing to make themselves a place people will want to go. So many of the Reverbnation "opportunities" that come up want you to guarantee a certain turnout, even though you may be hundreds of miles away. There was a place near me that did nothing to establish their place in the community or make themselves a destination. I have seen coffee shops do this as well. Artists should not be expected to support a business, especially when the business does not support them. Brick by Brick may not be like that, but too many places are.