Tag Archive - performance

Performing at the Five Sails Restaurant in the Pan Pacific Hotel for RWH Myers

May 4, 2011 in Behind the scene at the Gigs with 0 Comments

The Pan Pacific hotel in Vancouver BC

Arriving at the Five Sails Restaurant for the gig

Today I’ll be leaving my home to perform at the fabulous Five Sails Restaurant at the Pan Pacific Hotel in beautiful Vancouver BC.

This is a great location on the Vancouver waterfront overlooking the water with a wonderful view of the North Shore of West Vancouver.

Today I’ll be performing as a rumba flamenco, latin jazz duo with bass guitarist Brent Gubbels. This will be another private corporate event for RWH Myers & Company. RWH Myers is a loss accounting firm http://www.rwhmyers.com.

I’ll be leaving my home at 3:30pm and plan to arrive at the venue for 5pm. (I’ll also be making a short stop by the Vancouver Musicians Association office on the way in to pick up $$$ from a previous gig)

So, back to the gig at hand…

Our duo guitar set up at the Five Sales

Brent Gubbels (bass) preparing for our performance

I usually perform at the Five Sails every Christmas and New Years Eve however this may be the first time playing there for a corporate event. I’ll give you the next update once I arrive.

I arrived at the Vancouver’s Musician Association office at 4:15ish and was disappointed to find their doors locked. They must be working some weird musician hours. Oh well, on to the gig!

I arrived downtown just before 5pm and I parked in a parking garage a block away from the venue as parking at the hotel would cost me an extra $10.

I arrived at the Five Sails just after 5pm. I’m really early as the gig will begin at 6:30pm and we’ll be playing until 10:30pm. (With breaks of course)

The view from my chair while performing

The fantastic view from my performance location

The client had us set up so we were hidden around the corner of the restaurant. They wanted to hear us (very quietly) but didn’t really want us to be seen. At least not in the middle of the room.

Also the client began arriving early so we began around 10 minutes earlier than scheduled. We then took our first break at 7:30 pm then played on with 45 minutes sets and 15 minute breaks until 10:30 pm.

This is one of those corporate background music gigs where if no one says anything to us it means we’re doing a great job.

Next up, I’ll be performing in White Rock, BC for a Wine Festival

Stay tuned…

Solo rumba flamenco guitar performance at a birthday!

March 5, 2011 in Behind the scene at the Gigs with 0 Comments

It’s been a nice relaxing day after a very busy week! I managed to upload a bunch of new youtube video’s. Rehearsed a little guitar, walked the dogs and now it’s time to get ready for this evenings gig.

Tonight I’ll be performing solo rumba flamenco guitar for a clients birthday party at a private residence in Vancouver.
I’ll arrive at the venue at 6:30pm to set up as guests will be arriving at 7:30pm. My performance will begin at 8pmish and end around 10pmish. Basically a 2 hour call time from the time I begin.

I arrived at 6:30pm, what a nice place and really great people. I was set up by 7pm then relaxed for awhile. I began playing at 8pm as everyone had arrived.

I finished my performance at 10pm and had a bite to eat. The food was fantastic!

(btw… as a rule I never eat unless I’m invited. I’m hired to work and not paid to join the party. I think too many musicians overlook this and it can lead to a bad reputation as a corporate, guitarist for hire, working musician.)

Once I finished my break I then played for an extra half hour before packing up at 11.

For this performance I used my bose T1 mixer and 2 yamaha small pa speakers with my fender pa7500 power amp. I was the perfect sized sound system for the event.

Once again I used my Fishman Aura 16 for my guitar sound. I really love the way it’s working out with my bose t1 acting as a guitar preamp. With med compression and eq my guitar sounds fantastic! No problems with feedback.

Next up it’s time to prepare for Saturday’s big concert March 12th at the Chief Sepass Theatre with Ben Woods and the band!

Solo guitar performance at the Wishing Tree in Richmond BC

March 2, 2011 in Behind the scene at the Gigs with 0 Comments

Today I performed solo rumba flamenco in Richmond BC at the Wishing Tree. I believe the event was for the new and potential tenants is this newly built town house complex.

This was an interesting location to find. The address was located on Tomicki Ave. which I couldn’t find on Google maps. (Or in my map book)

Fortunately I had a phone number for the client. (As I usually do) Unfortunately I was unable to reach anyone on the phone. Yet fortunately, there was a message that gave me great direction to the venue. So, finding the venue was easy.

This was one of those rare gigs where I didn’t get to meet my on site contact. It was up to me to pick the best performance location.

The event and venue was really nice. I began my performance at noon and performed without a break until 2pm. There is never that much to do on a break so a lot of the time it’s nice just to sit a continue playing the guitar.

Once I finished at 2pm I was invited to have a sandwich before I packed up my gear to head home.

Performance at Robson Square

February 20, 2011 in Behind the scene at the Gigs with 0 Comments

Last night I performed at Robson Square in the heart of downtown Vancouver. This is a great little spot were we have an outdoor ice rink. Unfortunately, the rink had been closed for the last 20 years and it’s so wonderful that the city has re-opened the rink once again. (I really hope the city continues to keep this going)

This gig was a free outdoor concert were I performed with my quartet. Brent Gubbels on bass, Lyndon Dewitt on percussion and Andre Stepanian on guitar. I felt a little sorry for Andre as he finished his 3 hour performance with us and had to rush off (with icy fingers) for another 3 hour gig at the Latin Quarter.

It was a very cold evening and playing outside for us means performing with icy fingers! Unfortunately with today’s new technologies our lighting system is now made up of par cans with LED lights that do not provide a lot of heat on stage like the old systems. This was one of those gigs were you really miss sweating it out under all that stage lighting. We had heaters up in the scaffolding however they really were not that effective.

For this gig we arrived at 5pm for a sound check and began our performance at 6pm. It was a little warmer then however after our first break at 7 it began to get really cold. Even with the icy fingers I really enjoyed playing this event and would like to thank everyone for coming out. We had a blast! It felt like the old days when I was performing with my old top 40 rock band at the roller rinks. It was so cool playing as everyone was skating around dancing to the music. I really hope the Robson Square rink is here to stay!

Our next public performance will be March 12th at Fort Langley’s Chief Sepass theatre with Special Guests Stephanie Pedraza (Flamenco dancer and vocalist) and LA’s virtuoso Spanish guitarist Benjamin Woods. Click here for details

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