The Gamers Arms

Well Gojira were as good as I expected, absolutely legendary live act. Alien Weaponry were fantastic too. Employed to Serve were also good but I couldn't really get behind the vocal style, not my thing.

Huge crowd too, but I am not a massive fan of the Ally Pally - it is just a bit too big and an absolute pig to get to and from - Mrs Snowy and I got a hotel nearby so we could watch the whole show without having to worry. I suspect that next time around they will be looking at stadiums and the like, which will be a shame as I generally avoid larger venues.

Not quite the usual post, but my band actually played our first ever gig last night. When we put word out among friends and socials that it was happening we ended up drawing a much bigger crowd than expected and ended up filling out the little venue we were in quite nicely.

I'm still buzzing from how well it went.

Aw nice one mate, congrats! Let me know if you ever play down this way.

Mantis wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 26, 2023 1:10 pm

Not quite the usual post, but my band actually played our first ever gig last night. When we put word out among friends and socials that it was happening we ended up drawing a much bigger crowd than expected and ended up filling out the little venue we were in quite nicely.

I'm still buzzing from how well it went.

Nice!

Unfortunately hiding in one of the forum threads I never delve inside

Nice one, Mantis!

Did you end up playing everything faster than usual? That was my experience and that of many others that I know within the local music scenes.

Any footage? There is a video of my first show (the band I was in played an instrumental set before we had a vocalist) and it's mad to look back upon. 8 years ago...

Cheers guys. I'll see if I can dig out some clips once people have sent bits over to us. I'm told there are quite a few photos and such.

ManBearSquid wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 26, 2023 5:42 pm

Did you end up playing everything faster than usual? That was my experience and that of many others that I know within the local music scenes.

No actually. We were always a bit guilty of that at rehearsal just because we like playing stuff faster but our drummer has since started using an analysis app on his phone that he keeps on screen which detects the tempo of whatever beat it hears and displays. We've been good at keeping the intended pace since then, give or take a bit of natural drift here and there.

Ed:
In fact, the best way to see the pics is probably through our Facebook or Instagram pages. Shameless plug away

https://www.facebook.com/FirmamentUK

https://www.instagram.com/firmamentuk/

Most of the clips are just short bits from a mix of songs so here's a selection of those.

We're still polishing off two more tracks ready to record an EP so the set was only 3 originals and 3 covers then we did a cover of Mastodon to top it off as an encore.

Good stuff!

Nice! I'm working up to doing a local open-mic to get performing in front of people again, it's been absolutely years since I played anywhere except in the house.

That beat-detecting thing sounds like a smart idea, an old band I was in were definitely guilty of the nervous energy making us play faster than normal. A particular highlight from an early gig was the guitarist turning to me with an "oh fuck!" expression as the realisation set in the solo was coming up. He pulled it off though!

Yeah that's one of the reasons even I was up for slowing down. It's usually me pushing us to add a few extra bpm to give the song some extra oomph, but some of the guitar parts I've written are quite intensive and we were reaching speeds where I couldn't even play them.

It pays to slow down a bit to be fair. Gives stuff more of a chance to breathe so you can actually hear the notes rather than just a mess of widdling.

Caught MONO headlining last night after seeing them at Arc Tan Gent last year. Amazing band, really easy to just zone out to that kind of stuff. They've got a great live vibe.

Sorry you caught mono mate, hope it's cleared up now

Yes, my other half made a similar joke when I came back from the merch stand with my t-shirt which says Mono in a large font across the front. -_-

At least I'm raising awareness.

Bought tickets for Bloodstock again this year.
I wasn't going to but went to a tribute festival that had a really good Foo Fighters and Queen acts and really made me want to see some heavy chugga chugga again

Don't really know the bands again but that's the beauty of Bloodstock. All the stages are really close so I can come and go to check them all out.

As an added bonus I'm taking my son again and told him that as he's working a weekend job now he needs to pay me for his ticket. The kicker being that when he gets around to paying me I can tell him it's a gift (I mainly want to check he'll actually try to pay me back )

Which also reminds me, he did about 40 hours for a restaraunt and they didn't pay him for nearly 2 months despite him asking countless times! They finally paid him yesterday.