You know, I like the local talent in McHenry County. I also am beginning to like Yellowtails more and more. It's a fun crowd, a mixed crowd and most importantly, this bar is not afraid to have local McHenry County talent performing there. I don't know if JD is the booking contact there or not anymore but it doesn't seem like he is since there are local area bands performing there. It's important for local area bands to have a place to hone their skills in. I absolutely applaud you Gregg and Lisa Sherman and Rob for doing what you're doing there and everyone please support this place. It's really the only game in town now, and a very pleasant one at that.
Now, to Built For Pleasure. I was impressed. This is a good band! It really is. Built For Pleasure consists of two guitars, bass, lead vocalist and drummer. They're billed as "rock from the 70s to today" and that's what they do. The vocals were very good and in tune. The singer sang in his comfort zone and didn't sound strained. Anyone who reads this blog knows how I feel about that. The guitarists were good as were the bassist and drummer. They played within their capabilities and made the most of their abilities. Again, these are the signs of a good up-and-coming band as they lay it down solidly and simply and within their abilities. Very good! They also looked like they were having a good time up there and that is vital to an audience.
Down sides. Not much. Get a "flow to the show" happening. My biggest complaint is that they took about a minute or more between each song to take a drink or wipe down or whatever. You need to keep things moving up there. It's OK to talk with the audience but not specifically to the friends who came to see you. Talk to the whole bar and keep the show moving. The only other thing is that you should have a pretty good idea what your mixer settings are before you play. Dial them in or mark them at the end of the gig. I am not a huge fan of full blown sound checks in a crowded bar where people are itching to hear you. It's always a bit more impressive to an audience when the first thing they hear is the whole song, not a 5 minute song check. Pick a song where you can make your fine tunings on the fly. It's only Yellowtails. It's just not that huge a place to get fancy with mixes in.
There was a pretty brisk business happening there last night at Yellowtails and it was a little obvious that many of the patrons were band friends. However, I noted many people there who I know are not band friends singing along with the songs and liking what they were hearing. This is a real good thing. You're playing the right songs.
What did they play? They opened (on time) with Sweet Emotion, then some Pink Floyd, then some Steppenwolf, Roadhouse Blues, Sweet Home Chicago, The Boys Are Back In Town, Hard To Handle, some Lenny Kravitz, some Tom Petty and some AC/CD. Good stuff. Great ending on the Petty tune!
Again, good band. Go out to see them. Go to Yellowtails and support the place. See Built For Pleasure at: http://www.myspace.com/built4pleasure
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3 comments:
Eric of B4P here. Thank you for the kind words. Glad to hear people other than our just our buddies enjoyed the tunes. My boss is Buddy of Alex and the Allstars, he's the one who told me about this blog and the good review. Thank you again for the plug. We'll be sure to tighten up the downtime between songs next time too!
:)
Hey thanks for all your work and for mentioning us in your article (Built For Pleasure). All of us enjoyed reading it, even the "downsides" part. All of your comments were very helpful because we are still pretty new band and still trying to iron out things such as "flow to the show". Thanks for taking the time to review us.
Keep rockin,
Built For Pleasure
This is a great band - anybody and everybody get out to see them.
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