Saw Dada last night - guitar rig died!

Jarick

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Went to see the band Dada (early 90's alt rock) last night as they don't seem to tour much anymore. They actually sold out the decent sized club which was impressive.

But right off the bat, the guitar rig went down. I'm not sure what he was using, but between the pedalboards and amps, the guitar didn't function properly for about 45 minutes. There was probably 15-20 minutes worth of time they were trying to kill either playing just the bass and drums, or talking to the crowd.

Finally at some point I think they just plugged directly into one of the amps and cranked it up and the rest of the show was fine. But I'm pretty surprised that they either didn't just do that right off the bat, or that there wasn't some kind of backup rig.

Was a real bummer because it killed the energy for much of the night, and given the band and crowd were pushing 60, there's not a lot of energy to spare. And either with the equipment issues or the sound guy being awful, the mix was not good at all and you couldn't really hear the band too well. This is a club that has a great room and sound system too, one of the best I ever played back in my gigging days and I've seen a lot of shows with great mixes here.

It got me to thinking about relying too much on gear, and getting too hung up on having just the right setup. Could you just plug your guitar right into the amp and do a show? If not, maybe that's something work practicing!

Also thought that hey, one of those little Blackstar Amped 2 pedals would be brilliant as a backup rig. It's a solid state 100 watt amp with a couple preamp/poweramp options and some basic built in effects. If the amp or pedalboard dies, just plug this in and go.

f39322486fmhe2OPAT5or43ucUcWoMSxVyk9S88D.jpg
 
dear lord. how on gods green flat earth can that happen? i cant imagine that much down time at a show like that. id imagine they had gotten a decent sound check before people got there? taking that long to figure out just to go straight into your amp is beyond nuts.
 
Went to see the band Dada (early 90's alt rock) last night as they don't seem to tour much anymore. They actually sold out the decent sized club which was impressive.

But right off the bat, the guitar rig went down. I'm not sure what he was using, but between the pedalboards and amps, the guitar didn't function properly for about 45 minutes. There was probably 15-20 minutes worth of time they were trying to kill either playing just the bass and drums, or talking to the crowd.

Finally at some point I think they just plugged directly into one of the amps and cranked it up and the rest of the show was fine. But I'm pretty surprised that they either didn't just do that right off the bat, or that there wasn't some kind of backup rig.

Was a real bummer because it killed the energy for much of the night, and given the band and crowd were pushing 60, there's not a lot of energy to spare. And either with the equipment issues or the sound guy being awful, the mix was not good at all and you couldn't really hear the band too well. This is a club that has a great room and sound system too, one of the best I ever played back in my gigging days and I've seen a lot of shows with great mixes here.

It got me to thinking about relying too much on gear, and getting too hung up on having just the right setup. Could you just plug your guitar right into the amp and do a show? If not, maybe that's something work practicing!

Also thought that hey, one of those little Blackstar Amped 2 pedals would be brilliant as a backup rig. It's a solid state 100 watt amp with a couple preamp/poweramp options and some basic built in effects. If the amp or pedalboard dies, just plug this in and go.

f39322486fmhe2OPAT5or43ucUcWoMSxVyk9S88D.jpg
Yeah, that can be a vibe killer for sure. Even if it only last 5 minutes trying to fix... can't imagine 20.
Side note: I almost bought one of those AMPED 2 when I was searching for a modeler. I ended up with a Helix Stomp XL which in hindsight was much better for me I think. If I were to use the HX live I'd make sure to have another one as a patch for patch copy.
 
Went to see the band Dada (early 90's alt rock) last night as they don't seem to tour much anymore. They actually sold out the decent sized club which was impressive.

But right off the bat, the guitar rig went down. I'm not sure what he was using, but between the pedalboards and amps, the guitar didn't function properly for about 45 minutes. There was probably 15-20 minutes worth of time they were trying to kill either playing just the bass and drums, or talking to the crowd.

Finally at some point I think they just plugged directly into one of the amps and cranked it up and the rest of the show was fine. But I'm pretty surprised that they either didn't just do that right off the bat, or that there wasn't some kind of backup rig.

Was a real bummer because it killed the energy for much of the night, and given the band and crowd were pushing 60, there's not a lot of energy to spare. And either with the equipment issues or the sound guy being awful, the mix was not good at all and you couldn't really hear the band too well. This is a club that has a great room and sound system too, one of the best I ever played back in my gigging days and I've seen a lot of shows with great mixes here.

It got me to thinking about relying too much on gear, and getting too hung up on having just the right setup. Could you just plug your guitar right into the amp and do a show? If not, maybe that's something work practicing!

Also thought that hey, one of those little Blackstar Amped 2 pedals would be brilliant as a backup rig. It's a solid state 100 watt amp with a couple preamp/poweramp options and some basic built in effects. If the amp or pedalboard dies, just plug this in and go.

f39322486fmhe2OPAT5or43ucUcWoMSxVyk9S88D.jpg
I just farted out of fear of this happening to me. Did you just scare me into backup GAS?
 
Damn... I love Dada - Michael Gurley is a great guitarist!

Sorry the gig wasn't great.

I felt bad for them, it wasn't really their fault. Technical issues and bad sound guy. Crowd was still pretty cool. Joie was outstanding on vocals too.

When they were killing time Michael told an extended story about the background of the story Posters that was definitely NSFW lol.

I saw them way back in late 1994 but I was only 11 years old at the time so it's a pretty foggy memory.

Also the songs got me inspired to put the whammy bar back in my Strat and run a tube screamer into a Fender model. Dude had a cool SRV thing that was out of step for 90s rock in a good way!
 
Man, I wore out Dada’s album “Puzzle” back in the day. Killer album!
I saw them at Red Rocks on this tour opening for Sting. Killer set for the pop rock thing they do. I bought the album after it and lost the spark for them pretty much immediately. I lumped them in with Spin Doctors and Big Head Todd etc. etc.
 
I saw them at Red Rocks on this tour opening for Sting. Killer set for the pop rock thing they do. I bought the album after it and lost the spark for them pretty much immediately. I lumped them in with Spin Doctors and Big Head Todd etc. etc.
I'm not familiar with Dada's albums to be honest. I remember the Dizz Knee Land song, and it didn't grab me enough at the time to buy the album. Catchy riffs, great musicianship though -- same with Spin Doctors. Now Big Head Todd I was fully absorbed in at the time, loved them (and still do). Listening to them changed my perspective on songwriting and shortly thereafter I was in my first band. I owe a lot to the Sister Sweetly and Stratagem albums, they were big influences that were a nice counterbalance to all the instrumental stuff I was into like Satch, Vai, Beck, etc.
 
I saw them at Red Rocks on this tour opening for Sting. Killer set for the pop rock thing they do. I bought the album after it and lost the spark for them pretty much immediately. I lumped them in with Spin Doctors and Big Head Todd etc. etc.

I could see that. They are a bit quirky and while the songs are pretty good they aren’t the timeless anthem stuff.

There’s other bands that were a little more on the pop side of alt rock like Toad The Wet Sprocket and Gin Blossoms that had bigger songs and still draw better today. I think of those groups as being the first generation directly influenced by REM.

Dizz Knee Land was a good song but I love Dim, All I Am, and a lot of stuff off Puzzle like Dorina and Tim.
 
I saw them at Red Rocks on this tour opening for Sting. Killer set for the pop rock thing they do. I bought the album after it and lost the spark for them pretty much immediately. I lumped them in with Spin Doctors and Big Head Todd etc. etc.
Maybe because I started with American Highway Flower (the 2nd album) I like it more. I think the production is definitely a step up.

But among the Dada fans I know, most of them seem to like Puzzle better.

When they were killing time Michael told an extended story about the background of the story Posters that was definitely NSFW lol.

The song definitely paints a picture lyrically, so not surprising!

Dizz Knee Land was a good song but I love Dim, All I Am, and a lot of stuff off Puzzle like Dorina and Tim.
All good stuff!
 
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