Had a reunion show with my first band!

Walter Broes

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Hey all,
About a month ago, I played a reunion show with my very first band.
It had been a loooong time - we made one record with this band, in 1988, and I was seventeen at the time we recorded it.
The band's name was "the Ratmen", and we played "psychobilly" - for the uninitiated, it's pretty much rockabilly played usually in minor keys, too fast, and too loud, haha.

this is the record : (that's me with the glasses, have contacts now, and a lot less hair!)
nercd041.png


I wasn't particularly interested in doing this, but there was a promotor here in town who kept bugging me about it, and he finally "made me an offer I couldn't refuse"... :oops:
Myself and the bassplayer are original bandmembers, the original drummer hadn't played in at least ten years, so we replaced him with the drummer in my current band.

In retrospect, I was a little too rusty on the material (and the tempos!!), and should have worked a little harder at, but it was a fun night, and the crowd liked it.

Anyway, there are a couple of clips on youtube now, even if just to show what an old X175 sounds like cranked through two blackface Super Reverbs. :mrgreen:

Here's one clip :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h971Hd-Xd18

and here's another :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_HsSgfreAs&feature=related
 

BluesDan

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The Guilds of Grot said:
Holy crap that was rockin'

Nice sounds from your X-175!

First time I've ever seen a cut-away bullfiddle!

I'd like to see that cut-away upright with a couple of over-sized single coils and a bigsby!!
:lol: :mrgreen: 8)
 

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AWESOME!

I was going to post a hand holding up a lighter but all I could find was this.

TheViewFromIndependence44.jpg


Sorry.
 

jp

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Very nice, Walter! Gutbucket rock n' roll at it's finest. Is that a Framus upright your bass player is wailing on? Don't see too many of the cutaway double-Bs here.

Is there a big rockabilly scene in Belgium? It always kinda jars me to see the huge rockabilly culture that keeps evolving with every generation, especially in Europe. When I lived in Sweden there was a whole circuit of venues for rockabilly bands associated with the Swedish raggare. You know about them? The ones that are into the American pop 50s culture and big ole cars? Amazing.

Thanks for sharing!
 

Walter Broes

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Thanks for all the kind words guys!

It's not a Framus bass, but I've seen those cutaway framus-es. In fact, I got an email last night from the bassplayer that he's sold that particular one - and got a different bass instead!

JP, I'm familiar with that scene in Sweden, and we've played for a couple of those car things already.
I guess "the scene" is about as big as anywhere else over here, percentage-wise. That said, the band I'm in now is not exactly "rockabilly" (although I guess in the big scheme of things it is..), but it's not like we play gigs "for the scene only" - that would get old VERY fast!

The band you see in the clips doesn't really "exist" any more though, and this show was strictly a one-off reunion thing.
 

jp

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Walter Broes said:
Thanks for all the kind words guys!

It's not a Framus bass, but I've seen those cutaway framus-es. In fact, I got an email last night from the bassplayer that he's sold that particular one - and got a different bass instead!

JP, I'm familiar with that scene in Sweden, and we've played for a couple of those car things already.
I guess "the scene" is about as big as anywhere else over here, percentage-wise. That said, the band I'm in now is not exactly "rockabilly" (although I guess in the big scheme of things it is..), but it's not like we play gigs "for the scene only" - that would get old VERY fast!

The band you see in the clips doesn't really "exist" any more though, and this show was strictly a one-off reunion thing.

Hi Walter,
Gotcha. Didn't mean to imply that you guys played only rockabilly or to pigeonhole the music. I do know that if you are a working musician, you take it where you can get it. And often if one can find an audience that's receptive, it's a gig. Often like-sounding bands play together. I just mention "a scene" because it's less and less common nowadays to find people are into that style of music.

Also, I find the subcultures for different kinds of music fascinating. That's often where exciting new fusions of sound happen. The Raveonettes are a good example. They know 50s and 60s American music better than most Americans, and it's obviously an influence. Yet they're a modern-sounding band and sound like no other band. Kinda like how reggae is another wild stepchild of 50s music. European interpretations of American culture are often puzzling to Americans, but most often the music that's processed and regurgitated is unique. There was one notable band. . . I think they're name began with a B. . . .hmmm :?:

Dug the music/thanks for posting.
 

Walter Broes

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Oh, nono, I totally caught your drift JP, no need to explain, I was just talking! It is funny to see all the little subcultures, and it has its charm - but some of it does get old too.
My main musical interest is with "american roots music" too, and it's sometimes a little tiring to see that there's a subculture within a subculture within a subculture.... :lol: (there an "authentic rockabilly" scene, there's "modern or neo-rockabilly", "psychobilly", ......can't we all just get along...?!? :lol: :lol: )
 

Walter Broes

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I should be in bed, but I just got home from a gig and I'd left my computer on...

I would say "from me", but the current dollar/Euro exchange rate would make that a bad deal for both of us.

You can get most (if not all) CD's from my current band at "cdbaby.com", they're USA based and have our stuff in stock at reasonable prices, and I haven't heard any complaints about them.
Just type "seatsniffers" in their search engine, and it'll take you to a page that has all our stuff.

Thanks for the interest, I'm sincerely flattered. :D
 

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The lovely Mrs. Default had bought something from cdbaby not too long ago. I should have looked there first.

I flattered that you would accept the dollar- at the moment, it's not worth very much. :roll: :lol:
 

gilded

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Walter, really enjoyed your playing.

Say, I could really hear the X-175 really well, but I couldn't hear the black guitar cut through the recorded mix. Was that because of the way the black guitar was recorded, or is it just the way that guitar sounds? How do you compare the Starfire with DeArmonds and the X-175 with Franzes? Does one guitar or the other sound better with Fender Reverb amps (I have a Vibrolux and a Pro)?

The X-175 looks like a late fifties model with Franz pickups, right? Post '63 Bigsby, maybe?
Wait, I just did a search and saw some photos of your guitars posted in October. You were playing the '62 X-175, right?

Finally, what volume levels were you using with your Super Reverbs? I want to know how loud it really was!!

Thanks again for the links! Makes me want to get a Bigsby for my '53 P-90 Gibson 175D!
 

Walter Broes

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West...use your imagination...(no drug reference in the name in any case)

Gilded, thanks!

The show wasn't "recorded" as such, what you're hearing in those youtube clips are mics off of handheld cameras picking up the front of house mix as well as the onstage backline blaring away.
Notice how you hear a LOT more guitar when the camera's standing in front of me.

I think it's a coincidence that in these particular clips you're not hearing the Starfire as well as the other guitar, the person with the camera it is not standing as close to me at that time.
And maybe this - I just used the starfire for that one song, as it was in "drop D", but the amps were tweaked for the X175.

The X175 works perfect with 10" speakers though, and the Starfire has such gnarly, "angry" trebly, midrangey pickups that it tends to sound better through 12's or 15's. (the lead pickup on the Starfire measures out at 12.5 K on a meter...!!!)

The rig I was playing that night was : guitar into Electro Harmonix Lpb-1 (one knob preamp booster set for just a tiny, minimal amount of boost) into a Chandler stereo digital echo set for a short slap echo with one repeat.
One Super reverb got the guitar/echo mix from the Chandler, and had the reverb turned up to about four, the other amp gets a dry (guitar only) output from the Chandler, and the reverb on the amp is off. Running the effects into only one of the amps kept things from going muddy and blurry.
The amps were turned up to between four and five on the volume, bass between 2 and 3, middle around 4, treble around 3, bright switches ON.

The X175 is my '62 indeed, and that guitar just loves Super Reverbs and 10" speakers in general. (it sounds pretty sweet through a Vibrolux Reverb, tweed Bassman or a Princeton Reverb too!)

Two Super Reverbs by the way, is something I can only get away with in a room that size - much too loud for average to small sized clubs!!
 

gilded

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Thanks for the reply, Walter. Again, great tone and wonderful playing.

Man, I understand that the volume would be lower with the tone controls set as indicated, but wow, 2 Supers on 4-5 in a club!!?? I've seen biker bars clear out with one Super on 5!! Jeez!! How big was the place dimensionally? How many people?

Also, if you were using the Starfire with the Dearmonds as your primary instrument, would you add the LPB-1, or is that
just because of the lower output Franz pickups on the X-175?
 

Walter Broes

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The place those Ratmen videos were shot wouldn't qualify as a club any more - it holds about 1000 people. (there were about 500 there that night) The stage itself is about as big as the average club I usually play, haha.

I was using that booster because for that particular band/material, I could do with just a hair more gain and overdrive, but I usually don't use any boosters or gain pedals at all, just plug the X175 straight into the amp.
Those Franz pickups are "technically" low output pickups (on a meter), but in practice they're pretty loud and aggressive when adjusted right - plugging them into an average size 2X6L6 Fender amp will get you blues type juice at normal club levels.
I read you have a 53 ES175 (nice!!!!) - it probably has about the same output, the Gibsons just tend to be a little darker, the Franzes are a lot brighter.

And if I have *one* guitar that doesn't need its output boosted, it's that Starfire, it's a beast! Very, very loud pickups in that one!

Thanks again for the kind words man, I appreciate it!
 
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