My band The Preachers performed at The 1865 upon Wednesday the 18th of December as part of the Fareham College Christmas Showcase.
The first song we played was ‘Love Rears Its Ugly Head’ by Living Colour. Out of all our songs, I have to say that this is our strongest out of our catalogue of new material but on certain days we all may beg to differ. This wasn’t our best performance for a plethora of reasons but it has some good qualities, we did perceiver and worked with what we have got.
Our singer was not very well on the day of the gig and for her to get up there and give it her all on antibiotics and a rough voice is amazing, because she put on a great show for the audience. On my head any slip ups were due to the fact that I was staring at the audience too much rather than focussing just a tad more on what I am playing. I was told when we went to Solent University that I should play more to the crowd rather than the fretboard, I tried and it kind of failed…
I had trouble throughout trying to lock in with our bass player, if you want me to be brutally honest he was sort of in a mind of his own when it came to playing on the beat, as it was more of the backbeat, however when he focussed it came together well.
The next song we played is called ‘I’d Rather Go Blind’ by Etta James, but we played a version covered by a band called Stan Webbs Chicken Shack which is a bit more exciting and catered for our bands arrangement. Within this track my part revolves around two chords so there is nothing particularly challenging so it is a few minutes for me after going hard in the previous song. The only bit that requires full focus is when I have to improvise a solo but then it goes back to the chords, this song is especially for the singer.
At this point in the set I got particularly cold and my hand started to seize and it was sending some sharp pains down to my wrist. Next time I will try have a jumper on hand that fits within the dress code for our set to prevent getting to cold up on stage.
We have another Living Colour song called ‘Ignorance is bliss’ this one is a bit trickier in the way in which we have to focus and lock in as a band, me and the drummer made sure we were in as soon as she counted but our bassist was in a world of his own.
Getting the strumming pattern down for me was definitely tricky as its not straight its swaying in a way which makes it sound a lot cooler than usual which is one of the aspects of this song that I enjoy. The chords were fun to learn by ear, I picked them up as they reminded me of the chords used in ‘Sultans of Swing’ so in my head I went “oh there are the Dire Straits chords”.
The solos were impossible for me to replicate in such a short span of time, to get up to Vernon Reid’s standard of playing takes a lot of practice and a Floyd Rose… I did my best and improvised within the key of the song and it sounded pretty good considering the space I had to fill with no whammy bar and effects.
And finally, the ending, to me it sounds correct but we all have to lock in to not sound like its being dragged out for longer than usual, as a band I know we can improve on this but it takes time, practice, dedication and most importantly concentration. Overall I thought that song went well and it sounded the best that it could on the evening due to the circumstances our band was in.
Last but not least would have to be ‘Merry Christmas Everyone’, now this song was quite literally thrown at us last minute via a chord sheet. I was fine with reading and playing it but it was trying to find the time between learning the Living Colour stuff properly, my part time job and making sure my blog was up to date.
On the night you can see on the floor that it was there for me to read if I got lost or got caught up with what our bass player was doing, and not to play the blame game but it was something special. I don’t want to come across as harsh or unprofessional but nearing the end of the track there were bits where he was not counting properly and when he kept behind it made me sound off and it was honestly a catastrophe waiting to happen.
The only saving grace was calling up our Technician, Dan to play the solo as I never got round to it during this expensive, chaotic and almost depressing month. In the end our performance was not dreadful but it was not our best, this is a low point for us but we will only be getting better as we can criticise our selves and say that we don’t want to be shown up by other bands ever again, or at least that is what I will be telling myself…
I have chosen to peer assess The Fever, to me the set was pretty top notch, there set was definitely catered to everyones comfort zone when it comes to performance and that would have to be rock but it gets a crowd going which is something you always have to take into consideration before you go out performing.
Their stage presence is there and their outfits fit the genre and era they were playing, every song packed a punch and it was a guaranteed way to keep the audience in a tight grasp throughout. Between songs the guitarist should not be playing over the singer, especially if she is trying to interact with the crowd as it clashes. Another thing which caught my eye was he kept walking to his amp to check his settings though out the song rather than playing to the audience which is a habit everyone gets.
I think their set could have been within a different order to, rather playing all of the upbeats and leaving ‘Dream On’ to the last as I feel like it is something that could divide rather than end as it is a strain for the singer as you can hear her trying to get it done with and trying to breathe after giving it her all in the three songs before it.
Apart from that their set was spot on and it got the crowd going or what was left of it this late within the evening, it was a shame but at least there was a crowd!
Ellie Thornton Music 