Monday 27 Jul 2020, 11:47am
Established, stable and gigging 6-piece band looking for a replacement guitarist.
We are Raising Cain, a Somerset and Avon based covers band and one of our two guitarists is leaving the area. Our current line up comprises 2 Guitars, Keys, Bass, Drums & predominantly female lead vocals, with 2 backing vocals, and within a broad age range of 35-70, all based within a 30-mile radius of south west Bristol.
We play Classic Rock and Pop Rock covers, mainly (but not exclusively) female sung and to a high standard. We rehearse near Avonmouth on a Monday night. Being a 6 piece, our set list is unusual and affords us more flexibility, and although we focus on 80’s and 90’s songs (plus or minus the odd decade), but by choice we are not a function band.
We take pride in playing covers as faithfully as possible, and as a team we are effective, get on well, and enjoy playing together. We are tight, well-rehearsed, and we stick to our arrangements.
From a two-guitarist perspective, we rarely play the same thing as each other at the same time. We strive to keep the guitar parts separate, helped in part by quite different styles between myself and our outgoing guitarist, and maintaining this separation will be important.
It’s important to say that we need a guitarist who can REALLY listen to the original material, (and that skill tends to come with experience). You have to be able to focus on the separation of the less obvious guitar parts. We don’t play where there is no need for guitar, we don’t fill space just because we feel like, and we don’t overplay. In short, we require a disciplined, capable and thoughtful all-round guitarist who has empathy for the arrangements, and willing to share the responsibilities of backing and leading at the appropriate times. But we don’t need a virtuoso, or someone who wants to shred a million notes.
A good backing vocal ability would be a bonus, but anyone with a competitive ego, or who can’t work cooperatively within the team isn’t likely to fit the relaxed and fun atmosphere we have fostered and are most anxious to retain. Raising Cain is better than the sum of its parts.
We have decent gear, including a good quality active Mackie PA system with QSC Touchmix digital desk, and have been using this to reduce our backline volumes to a manageable level. We can provide 6 individual monitor mixes, and 4 of us are running IEM’s. Even though our drummer can be a little punchy 😉 we use the front of house PA to do the heavy lifting, so big and loud backline guitar amps are a positive disadvantage, as is the desire to be louder than everything else. Space can also be challenging at certain venues so compact gear is preferable.
You need good quality gear, and a range of guitars to suit the material, including an electro acoustic guitar, and electric guitars that can cover Acoustic, Strat and Les Paul range of sounds. Some of the songs are minus 1 semitone tuning, some are in drop D. An acoustic amp is not required though as you can go direct into the PA. We’d expect you to provide a wide range of gain settings from clean through crunch & overdrive to full distortion depending on what the song needs, and to be able to switch seamlessly between them, while also maintaining appropriate and consistent volume levels.
Twin harmony guitars are a feature of some of our setlist and again it comes down to detailed work on timing, intonation and interplay. A good ear, experience, musical empathy, attitude, personality, and a team approach are more important than pure technical ability, as well as being willing to do your homework and come to rehearsal prepared. Playing in some alternate tunings will also be required.
You need to be available to rehearse on Monday evenings, and due to young families and other professional commitments from some members, we don’t really aspire to gigging more than a couple of times a month (unless by special agreement). This is about quality rather than quantity for us, so while the pay isn’t great, the avoidance of divorce lawyer fees sweetens up the deal a little. 😉
Our website is a great place to find out more about us. There are some audio tracks, and (hopefully by the time you read this) a short video clip that was work in progress (now halted) due to this departure. In the “About” section is a list of tracks we play although it’s not exhaustive.
As far as assessing your own capability, and potentially moving forward to potential subsequent audition, here are some questions to ask yourself.
Are you capable of learning and playing the lead guitar parts in “Baby when You’re gone” by Bryan Adams, including faithfully reproducing the solo?
Are you capable of learning and playing the following lead guitar sections of “Reeling in the Years” faithfully and fluently at full tempo? The timings refer to our demo version which you can play on our website.
• I.00 to 1;12 Lead Break
• 2:10 to 2:25 Upper harmony guitar part
• 2:25-2:50 Main lead guitar break
Can you see yourself playing the acoustic/resonator guitar part of Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain” in dropped D tuning Capo 2, pretty much as per the record?
Can you invest the time and effort?
We appreciate we are asking a lot. This profile will put a lot of guitarists off, but we are a friendly and fun bunch of people and recent covid events mean we have the luxury of time to find the right person to bring the set back to at least its previous standard (if not better). So yes, we ask a lot, but the musical rewards are there for the right person, and there aren’t that many chances to walk into an existing "semi-professional" band playing at this level.
So please do get in touch if you are interested and can confidently answer yes to the above questions, and equally importantly if you feel you are a good fit.
contact@raisingcain.co.uk
www.raisingcain.co.uk