Noise Chronicles

Filled in drum duties again for jazz variety act Melody Six this passed Friday.

24 November 2017 - Conville Civic Center

initially it felt like proceedings were gonna be late, since I ended up having to rush to the venue, to make it in time for soundcheck. However, when I arrived there, i was first on scene. Malcolm and Wally arrived shortly after.

Filled in drum duties for jazz variety act Melody six for a double header weekend.

17 November 2017 - Riversdale Town Hall

Ended up carpooling with Malcolm(bass) for this one. Which spared me the effort and expense to have to drive to the venue myself, which is about an hour and half away.

The gig itself was a little wonky and I struggled here and there to get into the pocket. You know you’ve had better shows if the sound engineer is asking you why you’re off of your drum game.

The production team was pretty much drowning me with the smoke machines though.

18 November 2017 - Oudtshoorn, Bridgeston Community Center

There was confusing about the transport arrangements to the venue, which resulted in me having to drive there by myself anyway. Which was a bit of an drag, but it turned out alright, I suppose.

Another sidesmen gig this passed weekend filling in drum duties for Melody Six.

5 November 2017 - Garden Route Casino’s Bravo Lounge

In my personal opinion this wasn’t one of my better nights.

I had been battling a severe case of sinusitis pretty much the whole week, it’s caused congestion that’s seems to have affected my hearing too. So for most of the set it felt like I wasn’t quite in the pocket, since it felt like there was water in my ears the whole time. Adding to that, the vocalist and saxophone player arrived half an hour late!

Filled in sidesmen duties for Melody Six again this weekend, at new venue that opened up in town.

29 October 2017 - Mzanzi Lounge

The day didn’t start of too well to be honest.

I think I might be coming down with a summer flu or some crap like that. So annoying. Welp, suppose would just have to keep ingesting the meds, to ward that off as soon as possible.

So yeah, new venue in town opened up over the weekend. Mzanzi Lounge. Seems their MO is to be an exclusive jazz club. It could be a good thing, to have something like that here I suppose, but we’ll see how it goes.

Filled in some drum duties for a gospel group over the weekend 

21 October 2017 - Outeniqua Park 

it’s been a while, but got to hit the stage again, filling in sidemen duties for jazz act, Melody Six, this passed weekend.

13 October 2017 - Conville Civic Center

I was a little for soundcheck with this one, I have to admit. Since it was scheduled for 18h00, but when I got there, the sound team was still doing setup anyway, and I ended having to wait anyway.

They did however have a nice little toy that they gave us to use for the night.

Each player got their own monitor mixers, so you can mix your headphones yourself. No more complaining to the sound engineer about how you can’t hear yourself( a few people come to mind ;P)

Back at the ‘office’ filling in sidesmen duties for jazz/dance act Melody Six this passed weekend. 3 Nights in a row.

28 July 2017 - George Civic Center

Things started a tad bit late with this one, and the on stage sound wasn’t too great. The sound team that was hired was running a new system they got recently. Suppose some of the kinks still have to be ironed out.

The saxophone player was slightly hammered from apparently having more than one earlier the day Things started off shaky, but he seemed to have sobered up as the night went on.

29 July 2017 - Oubaai Resort & Hotel

This is quite a fancy place...i was quite pleasantly taken aback.

Although, I have to admit, the people at the event were a little on the stiff side.

30 July 2017 - Bravo Lounge,  Mosselbay Casino

Ended off 2016 and started off 2017 filling sidesmen duties for jazz outfit Melody Sounds

31 Dec 2016 - The Kondor Hall

A Little with this entry, but figured to take in some time with the holiday season and all.

The gig was pretty much a standard affair, just something a little interesting.

The organizers actually played dance games aswell. That was a first for me.

15 Jan 2017 - The Bravo Lounge

Back at it again with Sunday Sessions.

This one started off with a slight bit of uncertainty, since the vocalist was out of town, and we were unsure if he was actually going to show up.

17 December 2016 - Purple Turtle Jazz Fest

This was kind of a last minute squeeze in for the gig, didn’t know about it, until last week.

The arrangements were a bit shakey aswell, since not all the original members of the band were available; no saxophone, no usual vocals.

A replacement vocalist had to be brought in to cover for that gap.

Had a double gig run with jazz outfit Melody Sounds this passed weekend again, filling in sidesmen duties.

2 December 2016 - Louterwater Community Hall

We were a bit behind schedule with this one, since we left home quite late, and Louterwater is about 2 hours drive away.

Car pooled with Malcolm this time around, he pretty much floored it most of the way there. Glad we didn’t end up dead!

Was pleasantly surprised to see the organizers provided us with a pretty decent spread! Free food; whats not to like?

The gig went pretty good too.

a sparrow somehow found it’s way into the  venue, and was flying from the stage to the other end of the hall, pretty much all night.

4 December 2016 - The Purple Turtle

Residency gig times again.

Had a 1-2 this passed weekend filling in sidesmen duties for Melody Sounds again.

19 November 2016 - Pacaltsdorp Civic Center

This turn-out was pretty good, was quite surprised by it actually.

With the regards to the set, there were a few hiccups here and there, but all in all it was a pretty decent show.

20 November 2016 - Mosselbay Casino’s Bravo Lounge

Was booked to play the Sunday Night sessions for this one again, it’s been a while actually.

13 November 2016 - The Purple Turtle

Well, to start off things were a bit rocky, seems the keyboard player had his dates mixed up.

We were pretty much set to go, but yeah, no keyboard player. After initially struggling, Malcolm managed to get hold of him, and he rushed all the way to the venue.

The set in it self, in my opinion, didn’t go too great, a lot of mistakes were made, and things just didn’t feel as dialed in as it should be...but I suppose you get your off days.

Double up coming up this weekend

It’s been a little while, but filled in sidesmen drum duties for Melody Sounds again this passed weekend

5 November 2016  - New Dawn Park Assembly

The evening’s proceedings started off a little rocky, with there being some issues with getting the vocalist to show up for the gig. Malcolm seems to have had to tap dance through a minefield, to get him to the gig.

Filled in sidesmen duties for Melody Sounds, doing a 2 hour set at the newly revamped Purple Turtle.

16 October 2016 - Purple Turtle

Had another double header weekend filling in sidesmen drum duties for Melody Six this past weekend. 

1 October 2016 - Pacaltsdorp Civic Center

Pretty much another blue milk run.

I was running a little late for soundcheck, but seems by the time i got there, the sound engineer was still busy with his setup anyway. So not too much of train smash.

Ended up being a little bit of an earlier night as well. Set ended at 11pm.

2 October 2016 - Herold Saxophone Festival

This was an open-air gig. First time for me in Herold. A quaint little town.

The wind was quite cold here though, damn, although I felt I was a little more in the pocket this time around. Which is more than what I can say about the soloists though. Seems they had an off day.

Had a double header of filling drum duties for Melody Six this passed weekend

.23 Sept 2016 - George Civic Center.

Pretty much a blue milk run with this one, apart from the new sound team that has been contracted in, it was pretty straight forward.

24 Sept 2016 - Herbertsdale Town Hall.

It’s strange how things sometimes turn out going into these small towns.

About 3 songs into the first half of the setlist, there was a power outage. You’re busy playing, then all of a sudden its pitch black no sound coupled with a few startled screams from the audience! luckily it got resolved quick.