Band Off!

So Jacqui and I went to Holt for band meal at Butlers where Steve is chef. We had a slap up feed and toasted Jacqui’s birthday with Prosecco. Then we adjourned to Sheringham social club to see Nigel’s band - The PepperMint Men. Although they had a good sound, their Bose gear was not as impressive as I expected: the vocals were a bit low in the mix and not as 100% clear as I’d been led to believe by the marketing collateral. However, I was impressed with the bass and lead guitar sound which cut through without any boominess and sounded clear. The Bose poles certainly did the trick of dispersing sound evenly around the hall and, talking to the band, I could understand that they needed a bigger stage to get the full benefit of the Bose set up. You do need to get about 6 foot away from your speakers so that you are not overwhelmed by your own sound – a tall order on this circuit! They did a lot of harmony based medleys in a low key background music sort of way - and at that they were good. However, there wasn’t a lot of attempt to entertain the audience and there was certainly room for more light and shade; and passion in their playing. Taking all in all I sort of arrived at the conclusion that the Bose system would initially work best for us in a monitoring role. So its back to my plan to upgrade the PA. At this point in the evening Dan dropped that bombshell that he had taken a job in the USA and would need to be replaced from May. He asked that he be allowed to give it a month or two to fully make up his mind and he would like the option to return to the band in that case. Dave and I also sketched out the option of recruiting a full time bassist / vocalist (like Nigel), but leaving open the possibility to take Dan back as a 4^th musician on flute, sax, percussion, mandolin, keyboard, guitar etc. My only concern is that “more might be less” in the rhythm section, but it could work if done with a “light touch”, and would provide cover for absences.