My humble impressions from playing many intimate bar and restaurant gigs. Remember it's not a concert. Just have fun. Enjoy what you're doing. If you're having fun, then the customers are having fun. That's what it's about. This is not necessarily a musical crowd. They're there for the beer. The musician adds some good vibes but again don't make it too important. The best part is that you're working on your repertoire and performance. And you're learning your ax. This is not a negative against the scenario. I still do these "shows". Played last night with the worst cackling bar girls ever. Not a serious music venue. But I was still making music and working on my craft. And I made a few dollars (and fans).
That's my opinion, I could be wrong.

Bart Ender

Steve, you're absolutely right and this is exactly how I perceived it. I'm so happy I've found a place where I can actually practice live!

O.

PS: and they have amazing beer!

After a 1 1/2 year hiatus from public performances, I'll do my first restaurant gig next saturday. I'll try to remember that to avoid first tunes stress (I'm pretty OK with your statement but still think that if you earn money from a gig, you can't consider it as ONLY fun)

To play, have fun, get paid and watch sports (Yankees, NFL, or NBA) on the overhead TV is my fave gig. You get to practice, meet nice people,. have fun and indeed get some cash. Great gig.

SA

No matter what the gig, it's a good idea to start with something you know really well. Train wrecks in the first tune are a good way to lose people, even at a casual gig. Make sure everything's working, and that you're in tune before you start.

Once your first tune is done, then you can start with the ones you want to work out a bit.

Just got back from my 2nd happy hour gig at Café du Cerf.

I didn't use the same setup this time.

The bass side went straight into a Mackie 802-VLZ3 mixer, with a Boss VF-1 effect loop for reverb (warm hall - not too much).

The melody side went into a Zoom G2.1u multieffect for a touch of JC drive, reverb, and a delay, pedal-controlled.

Both signals were fed into the Mackie mixer, which in turn was fed into the house PA and into a Jam 150 used as a monitor right nex to me.

The whole thing sounded very good.

Here's the setlist and some debriefing remarks (no remark means no problem)


Mad world
Englishman in New-York
Waterloo sunset
Heaven
Every grain of sand (I interverted verse 3 and 2 - nobody cared )
Un homme heureux
Life on mars
Walk on the wild side
Roxanne
Un vieil amour
Thunder road (1st time I sang this one live - slight chord salad in the middle but that actually didn't sounded too bad )
Watching the detectives
Perfect day (BIG clam in the 1st chorus - naughty boy! )
Rouler dans les plantes
I'm so happy
Amsterdam
Fragile

Beer consumption per hour: 2 LEFFE

Can't wait until next friday (playing live is quite addictive)

O.

I don't know, maybe it's a coincidence, but the majority of your mistakes were in the
second half of your show, could they have been Leffe induced?


Congratulations, Daniel.

Leffe Brown??? Great stuff

Leffe blonde, but still perfect fuel

Mistakes weren't beer induced, I should stop watching the ladies moving their lower half