Welcome page for Live Musician Central
My live band Bonne Nuit played the Cystic Fibrosis Great Strides 5K walk in Salt Lake City, Utah on Saturday May 15, 2010. Bonne Nuit is my latest rock band that I’ve put together with myself, Matt Rushton and my three oldest sons Erik, Austin and Skyler Rushton. We’ve been landing a lot of gigs lately and I”m telling you that having a family band is a great marketing ploy. I do have to say that my sons can really play and we’re getting a lot of compliments on how good we sound. (more…)
I play in multiple live bands as well as record with these bands in the studio. One band I’m involved with is named Highway 6 and is headed up by my good friends Tom and Heidi Nedreberg. They are a Father-Daughter team who write and perform their own original music. I’ve been playing with Tom in various bands for the past 20 years or so. This past year they’ve recorded their debut album, Love Songs To The Desert. (more…)
The live band I have with my three oldest sons, Bonne Nuit, played a charity gig this past weekend. I’ve written in a previous post about how playing a gig at a charity function is an excellent way to get free exposure for your live band. Not only are you supporting a great cause but your band will get to play for people that normally wouldn’t come to your shows.
So Bonne Nuit played at the H2O For Mexico Benefit Concert on Saturday May 8th, 2010. We were one of nine bands slated to play and we got a time slot right in the middle of the festival lineup. We would be playing outside so we kept a close eye on the weather forecast all week. Fortunately the weather turned out to be beautiful and we were really excited to get to play outside. (more…)
Hey everyone that lives in Utah. Me and my sons will be playing with our band Bonne Nuit in Provo on Saturday May 8, 2010. We are part of the Utah Valley University charity concert called H2O For Mexico. There will be 9 bands playing from 12:00-9:00 PM. We are slated to play from 4:00-5:00 PM.
For details on this event including the address, check out the event page on Facebook: Bonne Nuit @ H2O For Mexico Benefit Concert.
We hope to see you all there! 🙂
Hey everyone, it’s been 2 years since Live Musician Central went online. I’ve been posting information to help you improve your live band for two solid years and Live Musician Central has gotten a very good response. We’ve had 86,945 page views and have been averaging around 5,000 visits per month. That’s pretty good traffic for a non-commercial Blog/Website.
I’ve put up 603 posts including this one and you readers have responded with 445 comments. I thank you for that because the comments you leave let me know that you’re actually reading Live Musician Central. Leave as many comments as often as you want! I’ve also put up 18 pages such as the Fender Cyber-Twin SE preset patch download page and the Live Musician’s Special Offers And Discounts page. (more…)
I’ve been playing in live bands for years now and have seen their popularity swell and recede at various times over the years. I remember when I was going to High School in the 80’s that we rarely had a big dance without a live band. Live band’s were the best and it was always a special occasion when we had one. I ask my kids if they ever have live bands play dances at their school and they don’t.
When I started playing in clubs there were dozens of them for our band to play at. Over the years and especially recently I’ve seen a lot of clubs switching over to using DJ’s. It seems like a lot of gigs that bands used to get are now going to DJ’s. I personally haven’t played a High School Prom in years because all the schools are using DJ’s in my area. (more…)
I played a gig with my sons in our live band Bonne Nuit this past Saturday night at the Cybergate Cafe in Provo, Utah. Even though we’ve played some live online concerts, it was our first live show in front of a live audience. We rehearsed a lot to get ready for the show by doing standard practices with a couple good dress rehearsals in our practice space. The pressure of putting on a live show really helps to focus band practices and we really improved a lot getting ready to do this show.
We know we’re having a real rehearsal when the neighbors across the street call the Police to come give us a listen. They’re the only neighbors that do this and I believe it’s because they want the Police to have an easy call coming to listen to our band and talk to us about it. Luckily, the Police always seem to like our band and simply tell us to carry on playing. While we were practicing for the Cybergate Cafe gig, our nice neighbors called the Police to come have a listen when we were practicing at 5:30 PM. The Police apologized profusely for bothering us and told us to carry on, that we sounded great and to shut it down at 10:00 PM. So we knew we had a hit show prepared! (more…)
I had an interesting gig with my good friend Tom Nedreberg in the live band Highway 6 on Saturday April 10, 2010. We played for the UEA (Utah Education Association) Political Action Committee Capitol Club Event. It was the first time I’ve ever played a show that had a political purpose. It was also the first time I’ve ever followed a speech by the Governor of Utah.
Highway 6 was the entertainment for the evening and we were asked to play 6 songs on acoustic guitars. The members of Highway 6 that played were myself and Tom Nedreberg on acoustic guitars and Disa Nedreberg making her debut singing lead vocals. We practiced and were ready for the gig with a tight set of songs. (more…)
Having a big gig on the calender is the main goal of every live band. If you’re lucky, you’ve had plenty of time to prepare for your gig, you’ve got all the songs learned and your show is completely rehearsed. There are a few things I like to be on top of my game the week before a big gig.
The first thing I do is spend time alone practicing any parts that I have trouble with. This includes complicated guitar solos, tricky lyrics or anything that gives me rhythmic problems. I like to just put a little more polish and sparkle on my playing the final week before a big gig so I put in some extra time playing with a metronome as well. I try not to overdo it but the extra practice really settles my nerves.