21st April we performed our mock performance at TRASH Bradford which is a venue in the centre of Bradford. We were playing at Easterfest, which is a 3 day festival at the venue during the Easter bank holiday weekend. It was hosted by tXIIIrteen alt which is a new promotion company that specialises in alternative nightlife. We played on the closing day of the festival with four other bands; FMA + 12 gauge, who are a father and son rap duo. Versus, who are a local heavy rock band. Korn again, who are the UK’s no.1 Korn tribute band. We went on third, just before Korn again who were the headliners. This was good for us as it allowed the crowd to get warmed up before we went on, it also meant there were more people there as more came to see Korn again.
For this gig we had a half an hour set, this therefore allowed us to play 6 songs which were as follows; intro track, Long Time, Potential, Smackhead, Bad habit, Colossal.
below is the promotional poster for the gig
Below are the videos from the gig that a friend of ours shot on his phone
Below are some pictures that were taken by the gig photographer
One strength of the mock performance was our energy and stage presence. One thing that we always get praised for is our energy on stage, it is one of the things our fans like the most about us. Because this was the biggest venue we had played, we had a lot of adrenaline when it came to playing and that helped massively with our stage presence. We were able to jump around and bang our heads which suits the kind of music that we play. Another strength of this performance was that we were well rehearsed and all knew the setlist and the transitions between songs. This meant that I could enjoy the performance and not have to worry about what I was going to play and when I was going to play it.
One weakness of this performance was that I tended to speed up the songs that we were playing. This was primarily down to excitement and adrenaline taking over and getting the better of me. A way to avoid this during my final performance would be to practice playing to a metronome more to make sure I can play our songs without speeding up, and also try to play another gig focusing on sticking to a tempo instead of speeding up. Another weakness of this performance was our equipment. At one point during the set, Sonny, our vocalist, stamped on Liam, the guitarist’s, pedal board. He stamped on the jack coming out of his final pedal and therefore it kept making his guitar cut in and out. this is evident at 0:40 of the second video. Thankfully, Sonny being the showman he is, managed to play it off and make it into a joke.
Overall, This was a successful performance as it allowed us to see what needed to be improved on for our final performance. If it weren’t for this, we would’ve carried on the issues highlighted into our final performance and therefore lead to an unsatisfactory performance. Another reason that I think this was a successful performance is that the audience seemed to enjoy it and we got some good feedback from our peers on what they liked.