Plain Tiger 003: Inuit + Seas Starry + Godzilla Blues + Flights

[kirsten]

GOOD GIG.

Sad to have missed Flights From The Internet due to having a longer than anticipated dinner. A poor excuse, I know   Next time!

Really enjoyed Martin's set, it was ace, but it would have been cool to have some nice visuals because I always feel a bit awkward just staring at someone when they're concentrating at a laptop. Seas, Starry were punishingly good once things got going and this is coming from someone who normally gets far too impatient when it comes to watching bands do improv. I enjoyed what I saw of Inuit too, but missed some of their set after buying a drink when a lady insisted on taking photos of me, davidm and Mike Blair in the corridor at the bottom of the stairs for reasons unknown. I suspect we're going to end up on a cuntsatgigs Tumblr or something.

Downstairs seems like it'll be a lovely wee venue.

[colb]

I watched that photoshoot - it was all about Mikey...

[MikeyEB]

That was smashing fun. I really enjoyed Flights, brilliant sounds and lovely, gentle eyes. The Godzilla Blues set was incredible, all the tunes built up really well and the zombie noises between tracks were a lovely touch. Martins face was alight with wholesome mischief throughout.

 

Our semi-improve Seas, Starry set was a lot of fun and there was even time to shoot some 'selfies' from stage partially blinding an all ready deafened bassist.

 

Inuit were super tight and professional, as were their jeans. Some of the tracks were beasting.

 

Downstairs is a great wee venue, thanks to Phil for putting us on.

 

PS COLB, I saw that lady in Drummonds. She said 'I looked like I should be in a band'. Mentalist.

[Flights]

Thoroughly enjoyed myself. Nerve wracking playing all by yourself but I'm glad I did it. Martin should be doing the soundtracks to Ghost in the Shell or some other industrial Anime. Glorious tunes. Really dug seas, starry playing the chord of A for 25 minutes. All the tonez.

Inuit were awesome, really liked them. Could of been a proper stalk fest but I think I said hello to everyone I thought was from the Internet.

Thanks everyone for coming down!

[girl anachronism]

This was excellent fun, exactly what was needed after a late Friday and work all day Saturday.

Really enjoyed Flights' dreamy ambience. I dig that minimalistic swelled chord stuff. Very SOTL. Phil has a kind face.

When Godzilla Blues' set got going, it was majestic and the last track in particular was highlight of the evening for me. Loved the theme running through with the zombie sounds and some of the more electronic bits reminded me of Errors. Really well thought through and constructed. Agree with Kirsten though, I didn't really know where to look, went with the laptop stickers and blinky touchpad lights in the end. Visuals, please!

Enjoyed Inuit, they were incredibly toight and there were some serious flashes of brilliance. Huge sound.

Live improv is terrifying, took a while to get going, I chickened out a few too many times before eventually getting loud, but I definitely enjoyed hitting drums. Thanks to everyone for being patient and sticking with it. Hopefully we'll do more and get better at it!

Cheers to Plain Tiger for making it happen. :-)

[girl anachronism]

Also, good sound and nice atmosphere. My only bugbear was the TV at the back of the stage with the flashing Downstairs and Facebook logos. Very annoying.

[Monster Zero]

Yeah, cheers, that WAS my visuals.....

[Flights]

I think bands get a free reign of what's on the tv. I was thinking about using it for doing visuals but I completely suck at video editing.

[Flights]

So stoked everyone had a good time! Thanks for comin' y'all!

[colb]

I think bands get a free reign of what's on the tv. I was thinking about using it for doing visuals but I completely suck at video editing.

I wish i'd known that - you'd have been playing with Dire Straits ground-breaking video of Money for Nothing on a loop behind you:

[Flights]

Is that you in the picture Col?

[kirsten]

Yeah, cheers, that WAS my visuals.....

 

At one point, it cut back from black to the Facebook logo in time with part of your first track, so I did keep watching it in case it happened again. It didn't.

[Monster Zero]

Fucking Zuckerberg, cant get anything right....

[Monster Zero]

Despite the untimely arrival of a cold on Friday, leading to me feeling pretty grim for most of the day, Saturday night was great fun. Bit devastating that I am not visually stimulating enough but this has been a conundrum in my head, playing live presents obvious 'man poking buttons' limitations but offers opportunity to get some exposure and just have some fun. I would rather have no visuals than try and offer up some poor excuse that would be the inevitable result of my endeavours. I was a tad nervous of cocking it all up, the choice of headgear was a deliberate means to hide a bit. Hopefully next time I will feel a bit more at ease and may interact a bit more. Thanks to all who listened and said nice things.

Flights was very nice and relaxing, reminded me of seeing Stars of the Lid at the Tunnels a few years back, was SO relaxing I dozed off on the stairs nursing my pint. Where did the vocal samples come from, seemed familiar and I forgot to ask?

It was cool to see Seas, Starry doing an improv, worked pretty well to my ears, the middle section in particular was extremely nice, quite Pelican-esque.

Inuit were decent, I think I would have liked some bass in there for some low end but tight and obviously well rehearsed.

Downstairs is a nice wee venue, thanks to Phil and Col for taking a punt and having me there, much appreciated.

[Flights]

Two of the vocal samples were extracts from the audiobook of Vonnegut's Slaughter House 5. The other one was some old CIA guy going on about going around the world investigating UFO sightings. I think I pulled the audio off either a youtube video or a documentary I downloaded.

[Jaaakkkeee]

How did you guys find the sound at Downstairs? I went to see Cavalcades not long ago and the sound guy seemed more interested in fucking about on facebook. You couldn't hear the bass at all and when a few folk told Frank to turn it up he was like "really? this is the loudest my head has ever been..."

and during The Winter Passing you couldn't hear the girl's vocals very well at all.

[girl anachronism]

I thought it was fine. We were the only band that had bass and you could hear it on stage, can't speak for front of house. The PA seemed reasonable, but then nobody had vocals on this occasion. The drums were mic'ed though and that all came through really well. Didn't know the sound guy, but he seemed pleasant and attentive.

[Flights]

I've put on 3 gigs there now, played and been to a couple more and the sounds always been decent.

Thought everyone's levels were spot on at the gig on Saturday. The only 'issue' I had was the drum kit having a rattling snare but it was sorted out pretty quickly so it wasn't really a problem. 

[kirsten]

Despite the untimely arrival of a cold on Friday, leading to me feeling pretty grim for most of the day, Saturday night was great fun. Bit devastating that I am not visually stimulating enough but this has been a conundrum in my head, playing live presents obvious 'man poking buttons' limitations but offers opportunity to get some exposure and just have some fun. I would rather have no visuals than try and offer up some poor excuse that would be the inevitable result of my endeavours. I was a tad nervous of cocking it all up, the choice of headgear was a deliberate means to hide a bit. Hopefully next time I will feel a bit more at ease and may interact a bit more. Thanks to all who listened and said nice things.

 

I hope you don't take my comment as a negative thing because it was absolutely not intended that way. I was far from bored because I did really enjoy your set. I guarantee you it's nothing personal, but I have been to a few gigs where I've thought "that was ace, but my stupid little brain could have done with something else to look at". I come from, and please ignore the wanky phrasing of this, a film-making background so I love visuals by default and think it can be a missed opportunity by not having any, but I'm also aware that not everyone has the means to produce them so it's never really a big deal. I think it's just I thought that if that was me, I'd keep my head down and feel a bit awkward that people were staring at me and I wasn't sure that, if you looked up, you'd feel the same. Not being a performer, I'm never sure how off-putting it is to have all eyes on you, but I think if I was doing it, I'd want as little attention on me as possible!

It's a difficult one to judge, though, because as much as I imagine you'd like to thank people after certain pieces, interaction ("HELLO WEMBLEY!") could disrupt the flow of the lovely noises that you were composing.

All in all, lovely debut gig. Well done, min.

 

Two of the vocal samples were extracts from the audiobook of Vonnegut's Slaughter House 5.

 

Even more gutted I missed this now. KV4lyfe. What was the extract?

If you fit my favourite line from Galapagos into another track someday, I promise to buy all your merch: "MacIntosh was barefoot and wearing nothing but a pair of khaki shorts whose fly was unbuttoned and under which he wore no underwear, so that his penis was no more a secret than the pendulum on a grandfather clock"

[Flights]

Even more gutted I missed this now. KV4lyfe. What was the extract?

If you fit my favourite line from Galapagos into another track someday, I promise to buy all your merch: "MacIntosh was barefoot and wearing nothing but a pair of khaki shorts whose fly was unbuttoned and under which he wore no underwear, so that his penis was no more a secret than the pendulum on a grandfather clock"

Quotes were from the bit when Billy Pilgrim gets caught by the Germans and he see's the guys Hungarian Colonel boots and seeing the 15 year old boy. The other one was when Billy and Wildhack are in the dome and she wants him to tell her a story.

I'm quite fond of that quote too, I'll need to see if I can source an audiobook or reading of it somewhere.

I'm all out of official Flights windbreaker unfortunately though!

[Monster Zero]

I hope you don't take my comment as a negative thing because it was absolutely not intended that way. I was far from bored because I did really enjoy your set. I guarantee you it's nothing personal, but I have been to a few gigs where I've thought "that was ace, but my stupid little brain could have done with something else to look at". I come from, and please ignore the wanky phrasing of this, a film-making background so I love visuals by default and think it can be a missed opportunity by not having any, but I'm also aware that not everyone has the means to produce them so it's never really a big deal. I think it's just I thought that if that was me, I'd keep my head down and feel a bit awkward that people were staring at me and I wasn't sure that, if you looked up, you'd feel the same. Not being a performer, I'm never sure how off-putting it is to have all eyes on you, but I think if I was doing it, I'd want as little attention on me as possible!

It's a difficult one to judge, though, because as much as I imagine you'd like to thank people after certain pieces, interaction ("HELLO WEMBLEY!") could disrupt the flow of the lovely noises that you were composing.

Nah not at all, inevitably my crap sense of humour fails to translate online.....I get exactly what you are saying. Trouble is that I have no experience in making visuals (I can barely operate the software to make the audio) and I would rather have nothing than something crap. I'm not sure how effective having some visuals playing on that TV would have been tbh, I think it needs to be a decent sized screen, which then needs projection etc and thats all kind of outwith my budget for a first couple of gigs....

It was rather unnerving, I could just see a line of feet as I tried to hide behind my cap. The interlinking sounds were a planned mechanism to cover the gaps between songs as the tracks loaded to avoid my crap attempts at banter. I have a couple ideas for something to look at next time out, not great ideas but something at least....thanks for listening in any case....