Big Band Concert 18-12-2012

Last Night saw a successful concert at SCE. Good attendance and a very appreciative audience were there.

The night started off with Some of DFM students play Rock n Roll classics they have been recording over the last few weeks. I was very impressed by the quality that they were producing some promising musoz to watch out for here…

The first song I though was mega loud but I quickly noticed Annette jump from here seat and I can only imagine she was running towards the control booth up the stairs, Saying that the engineers where on this fast and got the levels sounding great… Some of the equipment used is unbelievable! I heard a rumour that one off the small monitor cost £1500, so I hate to think what the larger bins cost… I reckon the whole PA system is around 20k + but you can really hear the difference and its definitely worth it (as long as I aint paying)

One band stuck out and that was Ded Rabbit –

I would describe them as a modern sounding, indie rocking, and chorus blasting, full on rock n roll experience.

I checked out there my space and they have songs. They are a young band that knows what they are doing and I would be surprised if they don’t do big things as long as they keep the energy and the Ded rabbit train a Rollin.

http://www.myspace.com/iamdedrabbit - First of all I would say that it’s not the kind of music I go for, coz, as many of you know, if it’s not ACDC is pisch!  However I was blown away by the simple but very intelligent structure of the tunes.  There something interesting about them, they make you want to listen more…

The Band is made up of Four Brothers. Right away they look like a band, they have the image, they definitely have the musical ability and to top this off they are all great guys…

One song, which I didn’t catch the name for, had a few time changes in it and almost seemed like two songs glued together but they made it work somehow.

I suppose this is the magic of the whole band thing.  If it works for you then really that’s all that matters. Everyone has their opinion and they are right… to themselves that is. Everyone should be encouraged at the end of the day.

I really want to catch the band live again and watch the longer set. I hear they are about to release their new EP at Sneaky Pete’s around the 11th of Feb. Il be there!

Jazz band finished the night. Dr Simon Van Der Walt really stands out as a fantastic conductor… I don’t know if he means it but he brings a certain level of humour to the event.

The Dr seems to just live for Jazz… Over the last few weeks he really has made me think about music differently. There so much more to songs if you dive into them and pull them apart, research them, listen to the close harmony parts or even look at the structure of the songs….

2nd Last song was my part… “You make me feel so young” by Frank Sinatra… I worked hard on this. I studied the videos, I learnt the song without having the words in front of me and anyone that knows me will know that that’s a big thing.

As you would expect I was suited up, introduced to come on and then I went for it. I felt a little bit stiff but I remembered the words… Its hard getting into character, one song isn’t enough and I felt I could have done a better job getting more practice with the band. I feel time is against me these days but its all-great fun.

One thing I have noticed about singing with a big band is that you really need to make sure you stay in key. The horns can be really loud and they can go out of tonality every so slightly. I listened to John the piano player who did a great job and I believe kept me in tune…

Overall I really enjoyed the big band experience and it goes through my mind that there may be a direction for me in this. Feedback has been great

I also here that Oliver one of the bass players took some HD video. My fingers are crossed that its good if so it will be up on the page.