I only saw this thread today (coming home after 6 gigs in 6 days) so my apologies Dennis.

I'm going to be as detailed as I can, not because I think my opinions in general are more valid than anyone else's on these boards, but because we play (as a duo Keyboards/Electric Guitar) in ALL types of venues with the Bose **in Australia** including Pubs/Hotel/Club situations, AND we play (at times) **almost IDENTICAL setlists to Dennis**.

So this is one of the few times (maybe the only time? ) I think my opinion is more relevant than most other people's - ONLY IN THIS PARTICULAR THREAD - so you can all go back to ignoring my comments/advice in every OTHER thread.....I would!


Now Dennis,

THURSDAY:
We played a local pub here, very close to where we live. We have standing requests there for "Copperhead Road", and "It's a Long Way to the Top" (AC/DC) - Fairly Hard Rock imo, and we do authentic, loud, "full on" versions.

FRIDAY: A large-ish Leagues Club on the Gold Coast, (Halloween) where people were on the Dancefloor from start to finish. Age range - 5 years old (cute kids), teens-20's (girls/guys wanting Top40), 40's-50's (wanting Pubb-ish rock) to people in their 70's (slow dancing couples). So the setlist there was CCR (Bad Moon, Proud Mary) RnR (Great Balls of Fire, Shake Rattle & Roll), Top40 (I'm Yours, I Kissed a Girl, Sweet About Me), Ballads (When You say Nothing at All, Crazy), Country (Chatahoochie, Boot Scootin' Boogie)

SATURDAY: Small Sports Club where the stage is setup DIRECTLY across from the bar - VERY bad setup.

SUNDAY: A suburban RSL Club, conservative tastes.

TUESDAY: Melbourne Cup(!) A very large Historic venue in the CBD

TUESDAY (2nd Melbourne Cup gig) same Pub as mentioned earlier for Thursday.


The Bose covered all these gigs without missing a beat technically.

What you WILL find regarding problems is the following:

On our Saturday gig (with the bad bar setup) we were forced to turn down to very low levels early in the night because the Bar staff (apparently) couldn't hear people's orders - the Bar was maybe 25 feet from our speakers.

So ISSUE #1

When you start up at a gig initially with the Bose, you may be asked to turn down straight away.

This is an issue I've thought about a lot when we first got the system, and have had many discussions with audiences (People seeing us for the first time, Venue Staff, Friends, "Fans" (i.e. people who have seen us with the Bose in many different venues), Musicians and Non-Musicians.

My Conclusion: Many people are simply not used to the CLARITY of the Bose. They assume that because they can hear everything so plainly, from vocals on down (including breathing, slight vocal noises etc) that the PA must be VERY loud.

It is not.

It is just very... well... clear.

***Outcome*** Later on in the evening at that same club, we turned up and nobody seemed to mind - they had "adjusted to the sound".

(Same Issue)
At the 1st Melbourne Cup gig (large CBD venue) we had an unfortunate situation of being placed far away from their wonderful dancefloor and in the middle of the audience (seated diners) with the Bose tower and stacked Subs literally 3-4 feet(!) from one table.
We had to reach a HUGE spread (a full 180 degree of patrons spread out over a 35 metre (or more) area with (well over 150 people). Initially we got a complaint from the lady seated nearest to the Bose (understandably enough) and we did our utmost to turn down yet still reach EVERYONE - which, according to many audience members, we did!

***Outcome*** Once a few drinks were had and the race was done, we "officially partied" and turned up to more than 3 times our dinner Volume. The people danced wherever they could find room (right off to our extreme left side mostly where there was a mere "patch" of Dancefloor) and the "badly placed table diners" stayed and clapped/sang along with a 30 people strong Conga line erupting at the end (song: HOT HOT HOT).

(This is a venue we have been trying to "get into" for quite some time, and we have now been invited back (thanks to the overwhelming response of the audience).

TUESDAY (2nd gig) Same Hotel/Pub as Thursday, playing 6pm-9.30pm, so we were asked to keep it down because of dinner service times (6.00-8.30) we played at a great volume for us (loud enough to be "comfortable") with people dancing from the very first song, and no bar problems (this bar is much CLOSER to the stage then that other sports Club Bar) and after 8.30 we turned right up as the Patrons (some very drunk and in party mode) danced along to everything from "Ring of Fire" to "Bust a Move" (80's rap classic) and the Black Eyed Peas (Pump it & Let's get it Started - Rap/RnB/Pop) and more Hard Rock, Alternate ("Zebra" - John Butler Trio - Dennis knows), Ben Harper etc etc etc etc etc

This is probably my longest post - my apologies, I try to keep things much shorter these days so as not to bore people, and to be a better post writer - I really DO believe less is more - but I had to give everyone, particularly Dennis a peek into just what we (and more importantly the Bose) covers.


Lastly, nobody has ever ---- E V E R ---- come up to us and said ANYTHING derogatory about our sound "punchy wise" or "Hard Rock Wise" or "Top 40 wise" if you all see what I'm getting at.

They have been drop dead amazed though...

Allow me to cut n paste from another thread directly related to this discussion (this occurred at that conservative RSL we played on SUNDAY mentioned above)


"A young guy came up to me at a gig last Sunday (yesterday Oz time) at a club that is very conservative in it's tastes music wise.

I thought, "oh no, this alternate looking dude is going to blast me for playing Brown Eyed Girl etc".

Turns out he was a part time DJ (and full time Teacher) who was drop dead amazed at the sound that was coming out of my Model 2 L1 (2 Bass Modules and a Tonematch) - he asked where you can buy it, how much was it yada yada. He is a mobile DJ who plays weddings, High School Dances and the rest.

He just bought a Roland Board (that new Juno re-issue (?) circa 2006) and was seriously considering adding samples and full dance mixes to his DJ set.

He was a nice guy, and I got him a job at that same gig when another audience member approached us for a Party Boat scenario (we were booked - so I passed it on to him).

He said goodbye after a couple of sets with a big smile (for the Job) and shaking his head (at the Bose) and the last thing he literally said to me was basically how if he sold his current rig (including some giant JBL 18" sub and two top speakers) he could afford the Bose....

I wish him well."


So Dennis,unless things are RADICALLY different interstate at the venues you play, you will NOT have a problem sounding "credible" enough in pubs/Hotels/Clubs with the Setlist you describe.

Thanks for reading, again sorry for the long post.