Currently listening to ‘Getting Killed’ by Geese
It was a long drive to Norwich, stopping off via Milton Keynes to pick up our sound-man. Motorway issues did not help, crawling along at minus one mile per hour due to a closed lane, but we got there.
We were running behind but it was a pretty chill set up and when I say chill, I don’t mean in taking our sweet time but more trying to keep composure and not letting panic take over due to the extra travel.
When our great support act, St Agnes had finished their set, we went to the stage for changeover. I was meticulous in my preparation, set up a Spare lead, vaselined my eyebrows (so if I sweat, it doesn’t pour into my eyes,) attached the strap that stops my glasses sliding off my nose and changed the battery in my second bass. I was going to do this in my primary bass but it was too cumbersome and we were too close to show time to mess about. I put the battery cover back on, did a second line check and placed it back into guitar world, which is the cool name for the fold out suitcase that holds our guitars.
We are using a piece of music from Terminator 2 as our walk on theme for this tour, not the main theme but a the track called Trust Me, where Arnold as the T-800 takes out the police with a mini gun, leaving no deaths. Very considerate.
The music was cued, our time came, we walked on to the lovely crowd, full of applause, I plugged in my bass… no sound.
Somehow, I did not collapse from panic. All the lights are where they should be on the amp and fx processors, the patch is still selected, everything is on… feck… what is going on? We were now a couple of minutes into our opener 7 weeks and there is still no roar from the bass. The only thing I can think of doing is swapping to my other bass. That’s the only thing I have left to try.
I switch and… sound.
I turn to the crowd come in for the chorus of 7 weeks, hope I’m in the ‘correct’ chorus, smile and crack on.
Then the thoughts start racing - I now have no backup bass, what if a string breaks, what if the neck falls off, what if I accidentally jab the headstock into the ceiling during a moment of heavy rocking? Also that horrible feeling that I had let my band mates down.
I had chosen not to drink alcohol tonight so I couldn’t even down some ale to help dampen those intrusive thoughts that stuck with me through the whole gig. So I spent the rest of the gig being hyper aware but also trying to give the best show I could in the circumstances.
I wasn’t the only one with a technical problem. To the left of me, Johnno’s guitar cut out during our song Underdose. He dealt with it swiftly, swapping out his wireless for traditional, old school cable and we were back in business.
Despite the hiccups, I think we had a good show and it was lovely to meet a lot of the crowd afterwards. Early on my plan was to run and hide when we left the stage but making it to the end of the gig with such a supportive and kind audience waiting for us, was delightful.
Tonight, Newcastle.
Photos by @tjx_photos
