Gig Review - The New Roscoe, Leeds 24th February 2006

This was my first time at the New Roscoe and I'd been told to expect a good crowd with lots of musos in the audience. So if that wasn't nerve wracking enough, we also had a batch of new songs to showcase. I arrived early/first (as is my habit - hate being late and rushed) and took the time to tune the kit, change snare drum head, generally arse about! The others arrived shortly after but seemed to take an eternity setting up (funny how sometimes it takes much longer than others). This meant we had to soundcheck with quite a few punters in - another pet hate! Anyway - it all sounded good and we had a short breather before getting up for the first set.

The place was pretty full when we went on for the first set - although me being Billy No Mates couldn't claim to have contributed to this. Only good old Barbara from my workplace was there, with her partner and newly acquired Dutch friend who were both demon dancers. Barbara was even heard to be chanting "Go David" during Radar Love! Talking of which - I've known that song since it first came out in the 70's and played it almost non-stop then in various bands. I was not looking forward to coming back to it in 2006 as I thought it might be a bit hackneyed - plus at first for some reason I really struggled to get the tom-tom bit in the middle right. Anyway - the adrenaline must have kicked in 'cos it turned out alright in the end and I really enjoyed playing it again. It's a cracking song!

New songs included Take Me Out (Franz Ferdinand). We'd almost dropped this one in the previous night's rehearsal as it sounded a bit lame. But we persevered and by giving a bit of a kick in the tempo I think managed to make it work. Time will tell whether this one lasts or not.

However - the real showstopper and potential for disaster song was Hysteria (Muse). This is not an easy song to play for anyone. The bass line's a thundering riff that never stops - guitars have very exposed melody lines to get right - and the drums have very specific tom-tom/bass drum combo fills that complement the guitar lines. Plus - it's vital to get the tempo absolutely spot on from the word go. Too fast and the bass player's fingers will drop off. Too slow and it sounds like a dirge. Anyway - shouldn't have worried about these guys carrying it off - and in some style. The muso’s (no pun intended) told us afterwards they were amazed we had the b***s to even try this one. A true sense of achievement!

The second set began with new song Are You Gonna Go My Way (Lenny Kravitz) - this is a great song to play and I've just heard back the recording from the night which sounded really good! We also did Times Like These (Foo Fighters) which starts of in 7/4. And not only that, the chord/guitar progressions don't scan over the standard 4 bars which means lots of counting in the head to get the change to 4/4 right when it comes. Well - let's just say we nearly made it and some clever vocal cues from Fin helped us keep it on track!

I was really pleased with the sound on stage and from the recording think it must have sounded pretty good off stage too. The kit's holding up well for a vintage! Keeping its sound during the gig and so far no bits have dropped off - though the infamous Premier tom-tom mountings are a bugger to keep tight and unfasten aftewards!

It was a late night (bed by 2:00am) following Thursday's rehearsal (8:00pm to 11:00pm) so I was a bit of a zombie on Saturday - sorry Christine!