Time for another gig report and pics

[Inazone]

On Saturday, I played a gig that was a little different from what I'm used to. An hour's drive south of Minneapolis, an indoor skate park in a small town has recently started having bands play while people are in doing stunts on their skateboards and bikes. It sounded like a good opportunity to play an all-ages show, minus the bar atmosphere. We arrived just as a major thunderstorm was ripping through with 70-80MPH winds and a torrential downpour. The skate park itself was a pretty big place, with the stage in one corner so everyone in the place could see and hear the bands from anywhere within. Luckily for us, a good number of the patrons decided to check out some good ol' fashioned thrash. It was encouraging to see an audience consisting mostly of highschool kids getting into what we were doing, even if some of them were young enough to be our offspring.

As always, a bit of Jackson/Charvel action went on. The opening band's guitarists (fresh out of highschool themselves) were using a stone-finished Stealth EX and gloss black SLSMG, which was cool. We played second, and our drummer's "other" band (out of four he plays in) played third. It was a lot of fun, and a refreshing change from the venues we usually play. Anyway, on to the pics.









It looks deceptively calm, but by a few songs in (around the time the camera called it quits) we had a pit going and horns up high.

[skorb]

cool pix!

nothing goes together like skating and metal.

[guitarsjb]

Looks like a great time!!

[Nuclear Vampire]

Very cool. They used to have a place like that here, but we never got to play at it.

[RacerX]

Pretty cool, man!

[texasfury]

.

[SlasZ]

cool pix!

nothing goes together like skating and metal.

Except not skating and metal :ROTF:

[VitaminG]

looks cool, man. How was the sound in a big old shed like that, with the storm raging outside?

[Norton]

How to tell the guitar players in the crowd? Count the folded arms and divide by two.

:ROTF:

[SpiralArchitect]

Holy fuck, that's the funniest shit EVER! hahahaha ssoooooooooo true!

How to tell the guitar players in the crowd? Count the folded arms and divide by two.

[Inazone]

looks cool, man. How was the sound in a big old shed like that, with the storm raging outside?

I don't know how it was in the far corners, but the guys from the third band were standing close to the front and said that they could hear everything very clearly. From my perspective watching the bands before and after us from back by the merch table, the overall mix was quite good, actually better than most typical live-music venues. The weather outside was outmatched!

It was also an opportunity to check out different amps going head to head. The first band had three guitarists, with two using Peavey 6505s and the third using a Johnson Millenium. I'm not sure what they were tuned to, but it sounded to me like maybe they should spend a bit more time learning how to dial in their amps with such a "busy" setup. I could *see* them doing some pretty intricate stuff, but none of it cut through. The third band has two guitarists (Peavey VTM-60 and Line 6 Spider ???) and no bassist, and the Spider seemed to get really harsh in the midrange. That's the third or fourth time I've seen Vulnerata (3rd band) play since getting their respective amps, and even though the stock VTM doesn't strike me as having the clearest tone ever, it sounded surprisingly well-defined without any sort of boost in front of it. Sometimes I kick myself for selling the VTM.