Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Entry 3 - Down Below Review

SHAZAM!  What a great show!  But we'll get to that later. First, let's rewind back to before the show, a few days in fact.
It's always a little hectic before an event we are playing and this time was no different. The week of the show we had a bunch of various things to consider or do including another practice to get ready.  This show we were only able to get in 2 practices before because of scheduling and the first didn't seem as sharp, so there was a little extra attention to making this practice go well.  Everyone came focused even though we were all tired from the week at hand and pulled together to be ready for Saturday's event.  That's the one thing about my band mates, I know I can count on them when the time comes no matter how out of whack things are beforehand.  We also decided to get shirts as many of you know and I think this went well.  Thursday at a certain point we didn't even have a shirt order in or shirt design selected for that matter, but came out with a nice looking shirt by Friday.  Great job on C's part for spearheading that project with B and I's input.  I really like the first version a lot but you can count on some future designs later on in the game for sure.  We also came to the conclusion that we didn't want to just sell our fans a shirt this time, we had to give them something more, so we decided to include a 3 song CD of our music from www.ReverbNation.com.  Hopefully, everyone was pleased with that package as we put a lot of thought into it.

Now on to the show (and what a show it was).  The turnout was awesome!  We had a good feeling on our potential numbers based on initial feedback and we saw many folks right before the show headed into Barnacle Bills to grab a bite first.  But there's really no way of really knowing until the show and we were pleasantly surprised.  It was great seeing so many of our friends and family make it out to the show! The support from everyone really means a lot to us and it's always a great time when we are all together, especially when we are jamming!  We had a sound check around 8:30 and everything seemed right on.  But once the crowd came in, those sound levels ended up being skewed somewhat.  We give the sound guy there a lot of credit, he did us very well!  When a sound guy doesn't know your music, it's a little harder to dial things in that are sounding off.  He did a solid job and we appreciated everything he did. There seemed to be something slightly off with the sound at times from what we are used to and I never really heard one tom that I hit throughout the whole show (and I have 3 of them!).  It seems I was the only one who couldn't hear them, so hopefully that was indeed the case.  They checked out fine in the sound check, but once folks got in they disappeared on me.  Overall, I did like the sound there and think that venue provides a solid sound based on its acoustics.  We'll just use our experience from this time to be sure we've accounted for those little things next time.  You really do learn something new every time. I'd say all in all it went well.  I saw a few clips of video from my phone and it sounded solid for the little bit I got to see.  C had this nice little ending on Not Fair that seemed new and on the spot, but it was right on!  B had several leads that just slayed it up. Both of them did a great job and I hope I did my part as they certainly did! I know we had a really good time playing there with everyone for sure!  We also got a lot of compliments from Down Below on our crowd and the kind of folks we had there and they mentioned believing us next time when we say we're bringing the party!  We tried to warn them, but sometimes you just have to experience it for yourself!  hahaha!  Our crowds are always consisting of awesome people wanting to have a great time and it always shows!  A big shout out to everyone who came out and represented!

As for Pimp Lightning, we are planning to gather very soon to recap our Down Below experience and go over our next stage of planning for the band.  We've taken a different approach to managing our goals (thanks to C) and it really has us moving along very well.  We've accomplished many things this past month or so and are looking to take our momentum into our next phase ahead.  Look for a few more new things on the horizon.
Our next show will be at a private party known only as Bombtown on August 1 then onto the Backwoods Bistro on August 17 to help them celebrate an anniversary with a few other bands.  As of this moment, Pimp Lightning is #3 on the local Reverbnation Rock Chart and have been for the last 6 days!  Shock on!

Until that next Lightning Show!

-  DMaster Miagi - Drums, Percussion, Vocals

Monday, July 8, 2013

Entry 2 - The Riot before the Storm!

Hello friends! It feels like a lot has happened since my last entry so let me jump right in. 
I had mentioned last time we were looking to get together a couple of shows and somehow we've pulled it off. I say somehow because the world of scheduling events in public venues is quite the battle. The good news for us is that there are many great locations in Tallahassee and the surrounding areas to play. The bad news is that actually securing these venues sometimes takes some major hoop jumping. It should get a little easier as we get out there in some of those venues a little more. But all in all we are finding some great spots to play local music. 
Our current schedule has us at Down Below under Barnacle Bills on 7/13 9pm and then at Backwoods Bistro on 8/17 in the early afternoon. And you never know, we may sneak in another show out of nowhere... We also got back in the studio like we promised and as you know, we now have 3 songs posted @ www.reverbnation.com/pimplightning (also at facebook and myspace as well under our name). At this current moment, we sit at #4 on the Reverbnation Local Rock Chart. All the way to #4 in a little over a week! A big thanks to the fans for that one! As much as we enjoy playing, it might as well be the global top 40 chart! 
Speaking of myspace, we now have a myspace page so be sure to like us or follow us now on facebook, myspace and reverbnation! Along with a new alternate blog site location at http://pimplightning.blogspot.com/ We're jumping right into this internet world baby!

We hope you can make one of our upcoming shows noted herein.
@ Down Below we'll be rocking the whole night after 9pm. We'll also have a couple of band specific drink specials there for our fans to enjoy.
@ Backwoods Bistro, we'll have some other bands we will perform with and our block of time will run about 1 - 1 1/2 hours in the afternoon.
Both should be great venues and we look forward to jamming them both!

Sorry for all of the rain these last couple of weeks but there's a lightning show about to happen...and well, it's a part of the riot before the storm!

Shock you Later! - DMaster Miagi - Drums