We just played the work Christmas party. We had a great time but my god what journey!
The day started badly, we were to have our last rehersal at 2 in the afternnon but most the band were late (Emma was shopping for an outfit and two of the lads were still drunk). We got to the studio at 3:30 in the end to find the PA was not working (it was also the one we were going to use on the night). Finally resolved the PA and played two songs but the singer forgot the words, I messed up the solo (three times in a row) so now we all had the jitters.
We loaded up the van with our gear and at the first bend once we set off one of the drum stands fell into and ripped the skin of a Tom. Got lost on the way and were late setting up, the hotel were pushing us to get ready ASAP. Also we were the first band on and the other band beat us to get the stage so we had to setup in front of the stage.
It was at this point the duty manager of the hotel told me about the sound limiters they have installed. If the volume goes above 100db then the limiter will cut all the power to the band for 20 seconds. The only warning of the volume we played at was a strobe light that flashed when we reached the maximum db. If the light stayed on for 10 seconds then it would cut our power. Ok so we sound checked our volume and found we had to play much lower that we had been but we set the volume right at the limit of the hotel system.
This is where things pick up! The hotel messed my room booking up so the manager said he would upgrade my room. I went up to the room number and found I had the penthouse suite.....RESULT! Next thing I knew the whole band were in there and we had a mini rock and roll party. We had a lounge area that would easily seat the 7 of us, also had dinning area and the bedroom was huge. Two bathrooms and a hot tub!!!!!!! Only thing missing was bowls of colour sorted M&M's and free vodca.
The gig went very well almost without hitch, there was a couple of moments but we have bonded as a band and covered up the odd wrong verse from the singers or early bridges in songs so no one noticed. Then the bloody sound limiter kept flashing and we spent most the night looking up at the strobe. Strangly enough the only time it cut our power was when the crowd cheered and clapped at the end of a song!
I have some video that I will put on youtube once I have converted it. Here are some photos of the night:
The lead singer was pure 80's rock!
Me:
