weekendwarriors

Plan Be were originally scheduled for this gig, which was one of the jobs Bob has engineered to showcase Warrior talent, but they were unable to perform and so 'Los Gourdos' were substituted.

It was my first time at Coorparoo RSL and I liked it: they have a down-to-earth place with good service, good food of a pub rather than restaurant quality, cheap drinks and live music!

The crowd was about 70, with ten or so of those being band or warrior supporters. The opening song was 'it's too late' by Carole King, and it was followed by another King song. The volume was miniscule - I heard several pins drop in the first set. But the balance was really good: you could hear the whole band behind the delicious vocals of Julie-Ann and Cyn. In fact the only slightly jarring sound was the brittle thump of David's kick drum. Not bad considering the initial mix was done by Mike while he played guitar from the desk and then pretty much left the same all night except for volume tweaking of the vocals (which were the only things going through the PA. From the third song there was a steady stream of dancers and during the night it was not unusual for half the audience to be on the (thankfully large) dance floor. The music was a mix from sixties to eighties and there were a couple from outside that range. It was presented well and at a sensible volume level: the crowd liked it. More importantly, the bar staff liked it - this is a very good gauge of how a band is going: the bar staff hear everybody and they know which bands work for the audience. I was told they would definitely be back! And as an added bonus they were accompanied for several songs by Bernie from Plan Be on sax. He sounded good but was a bit back in the mix - fair enough as there had been no rehearsal but he could come up a bit next time. He should also get his own mic. as he had Julie-Ann doubled over trying to sing harmony into the one he was using (but that got sorted later as well). I must mention Big Steve on bass: not only did he contribute an essential to the overall sound but he did some backing vocals as well. Justin also sang while playing rhythm and could have done with a little more light on him.

OK, you ask, how about the down side? You just want to get me into trouble - nobody wants public criticsm, do they? Oh, all right, but let me preface this by saying that firstly they are my observations only and I have a particular viewpoint, and secondly that in spite of any comments to the contrary Fat Chance did a great job - they kept the crowd there and they kept them dancing (and drinking) until their scheduled closing time. I have been in bands that did not always do that! I would have liked a bit more chat with the audience at the start of the night, to establish a bit of rapport. Also I felt the chat when it was there was too quiet. I think the band should have a large banner behind them with their name on it. I thought there was overall a bit too long between songs, especially as the re was not much chat (to be fair this got better as the night progressed and the last set was pretty good in this regard). I have already mentioned these comments to the band and the bandages come off next week!

So there you have it: Fat Chance entertained a crowd for four hours on a Saturday night. I don't care what you say, this is always an achievement, and they did it with ease.

Well done guys!

And if you are in the area you could do worse that drop into the Coorparoo RSL for a meal; you could even see a band!

Cheers,

Thanks Al for a really excellent review. We were chuffed by the support on the night and the response of the audience. I was particularly pleased to read both the positives AND the things we need to work on. I receive that with the respect that I believe it was given.
Fat Chance has always had the philosophy, raison d'etre, vision thing (whatever) that the music comes first, so if we are having fun then the audience will too. Sometimes that's not easy, but last Saturday it seemed to be.
That said, there was a lot going on behind the scenes for some members of Fat right now. I think that made the night even more remarkable.