Connexions troubles

The vBP’s next gig is at a pub in Chaddesden, as part of a Connexions event.  We have known about this gig since around February, but things are starting to crop up now.  Our set is 20-30 minutes and we’re probabaly able to do:

• Every time (own song) (emotive song)
• Dead Man (own song) (flagship song)
• This Pain (own song) (only about two minutes, including dodgey bridge)
• Uncivilized (only about two and a half minutes)
• Maus (lacks words)
• Hand of Blood (cover)
• House of the Rising Sun (cover)
• Chapter Four (cover) (not ready yet)

That lot might just fill a 20 minute slot.  Two of the songs are quick, This Pain has the most awkward (and currently, frankly rather painful sounding) bridge, and Chapter Four is virtually un-doable because of Elliot’s downright stubborness towards buying some locking tuners and actually keeping his guitar in tune for a few minutes.  Without two perfectly-tuned guitars, harmonies sound ridiculous.

Another huge problem is tightness… we need several practices to get up to performing level from the lax standard we adopt whilst writing and refining songs.  OK, fair enough, we have been re-writing the songs and teaching our new bassist his parts, but we can’t exactly turn around on the night and say ‘oh, sorry for the shitness, but we’ve been busy’.

The one cure for a lack of tightness is practice time, and that’s exactly what we don’t have.  Our drummer and bassist are on holiday for a fortnight, and arrive back on the 11^th or 12^th.  This was fine, as it gave us a whole week within which we could practice at our leisure.  However, in a very stupid and highly irritating move, Elliot thought it would be a clever idea to book a holiday with his girlfriend from the 12^th to the 17^th or 18^th.  And that’s commitment for you.

Our gig is on the 19^th.  This gives us – at most – two full-day practices, plus the odd short one.  Realistically, I predict we will have perhaps 7 hours.  In terms of actual practice time, thats nothing, especially looking at what we need to get through.

What we’re having to do is rehearse in segments, where the whole band is never together as a unit.  This isn’t really practical, as a metronome is no substitute for a drummer, two guitars will not fill the gap of a bassist, and a 16 bar gap where a solo used to be somewhat kills the momentum of a song.

But, its the best we have and we’ll have to make the most out of it.