Well, it seems our gigging is going a bit gangbusters at the moment. We are playing our first ever show as “Geeban” at the Troubadour (in Brisbane) next Wednesday night with two up and coming Brisbane Acts - the Villians of Wilhem, who play Strokes like rock with a bit of a punk edge, and Black and Blue, who dabble in blues. We’ll be playing second, for approximately 45 mins. I have also recieved my KORG KAOSS PAD this week, and will be looking to manipulate the sounds on that night.

It’s was a bit of diverse lineup for this night of music. A Tuesday night is not exactly the most ideal night for playing as many people are at home watching All Saints and current affairs shows. One of the acts is a unapologetic grunge band, while the other one plays with doses of primus and red hot chili peppers mixed together. It’s hard to say where Geeban fit in, but I guess we’re like the indie-pop-rock band.

We quickly learn what it is like to do your own sound, and we quickly figure out that it is not exactly the most enjoyable experience. We’re were blessed at our last gig to have such a competent sound ‘guy’, one obviously more talented than our efforts of sound checking. We were limited to a fairly cramped stage, so Dave and Josh took up positions on the stage while Derek and I played in the crowd. We played first this time (as compared to last, last time), and I have to say playing first can be an enjoyable experience. I didn’t feel as nervous as last time, despite having some initial tech hitches (i.e. my pedals’ power chords becoming unattached and killing all the guitar sound during the first song) we were soon ‘in the zone’.

From my perspective (and after listening to a fairly rudimentary recording of the set), we performed three or four songs fairly tightly, while three or four were fairly loose. But for a second gig, I guess it was a big improvement, at least in attitude. Derek was noticeably less nervous and it showed with some great keys and second guitar.

The setlist was:

Gotta Get Good to Get Gigs to Get Girls

Jedi Bop

Choke on My Love

Robot Insurrection

Oh Columbia

Poor James Frain

Always Play the Happy Chords

Gibbons Have Feelings Too

Computer Killed the Cat

We got good responses to “Choke on My Love” and “Oh Columbia”, whereas our take on “Poor James Frain” was rather terrible! We were all over the place. I’m guessing this song will be dumped from future performances!

Thanks to all who made it out – your support was really appreciated! Extra thanks goes to Jac for her ‘inspiring commentary’ from the crowd as well as her crazy antics which included dragging Geri on to the floor for a wrestling bout during “Computers Killed the Cat”. Thanks to the Lovebuckles and Sonic Porno for letting us play with them. We’ll be playing again real soon.

Hi Kids.

Geeban are supporting The Lovebuckles and Sonic Porno at the Tongue and Groove Cafe next week. Specifically the date is the 2nd of October. We’ll be on around 8pm, so it shouldn’t be too late a night! (hopefully my new amp will be here by that time).

Firstly, many thanks to all the punters who attended our first ‘real’ gig at Rics last Monday night (September 10^th, 2007). While Geeban have played to the public before in various guises, we had never played longer than 25 minutes. The Rics gig enabled us to try a lot of new material in front of a decent sized crowd.

From the offset it didn’t seem like our night. Firstly, my amplifier refused to work. I could hear it turn on and off, but the tubes simply weren’t warming up. At first I thought my amp was somehow damaged on the journey to the venue, but I also suspected that the fact that their was half a dozen objects plugged into a variety of power-boards that probably were running off one or two power sockets had something to do with it. Indeed, the next day, when I got the amp home, it worked fine when plugged directly into the wall socket. For the time being, I was lucky I could borrow Dave’s (from the support band, Black and Blue, Roland Cube – which worked fine).

Derek had problems of his own. His new baby, “Keira” the Key-tar, was being as difficult as the actress he named it after. At first, it just shut down and stopped working, and he was forced to use a backup keyboard. He also had problems getting the laptop hooked up through the PA, which therefore wouldn’t allow him to use his vocoder (and thus would have to sing one of his songs without it). He eventually managed to get the Key-tar going again, but half way through the set, it suddenly started emitting high pitched whirring sounds (like the sound of steam escaping from a coffee machine), thus forcing Derek to switch to the backup keyboard half way through.

However, despite these little issues, I think it went pretty well. We got good feedback from our friends, and also from other punters. I have heard from two different sources that a member of the pop-outfit The Veronicas was present at the show. Wow.

Our setlist was as follows:

Gibbons Have Feelings Too
Gotta Get Good to Get Gigs to Get Girls
Fairground Attraction
Robot Insurrection
Always Play the Happy Chords
To Columbia
Jedi Pop (Get By With the Jedi)
Computers Killed the Cat
Choke on My Love
Poor James Frain

We were supposed to play “My Digital Love”, but due to the technical issues we had to skip it (damn!). I felt that “Computers Killed the Cat” and “Always Play the Happy Chords” drew the best crowd response. Personally, I think “Poor James Frain” was slightly sloppy, but I guess that was just nerves coming through. Perhaps the song might need a bit of tweaking.

Again, many thanks to all that came along, and many thanks to our support band on the night – Black and Blue – who were formed by Dave and Lee. Dave had some incredible blues guitar playing and I can’t believe he ain’t super famous! Also, a shout out to The Lovebuckles, who were originally slated to support us, but due to a few issues outside of their control, weren’t able to play.

We’re playing again on the 2nd of October at the Tongue and Groove Café in West End, supporting the aforementioned Lovebuckles, and if you’re in the area, you’re most welcome to come along.
Perspective by Daz

PEOPLE OF EARTH. I ANNOUNCE THE IMPENDING INVASION OF YOUR AUDITORY SYSTEM BY REFRACTIVE WAVES OF SOUND.

This is the first post of the new geek revolution - geeban! We’re a rock/pop band from Brisbane, Australia, and we are here to save you from the evil schemes of skeletor!
Welcome to our new website / blog - we’ll be working to improve it over the coming months and have media and pictures and all that fun webstuff that lots of people like! For the time being, check out http://www.myspace.com/geebanband!