Gigs

This is our first gig in Chesterfield since TOAST popped back in 2015. We made our first foray into the world of the trio with this gig too and it seemed to go down rather well.

Obviously and change in line up creates the potential for snags and snafus but our trepidation meant we had thrown some time, effort and money at our rehearsal space and Ben had put in lots of work to fill out the space that Adam would normally inhabit. A set list heavily laden with material from famous trios like Green Day, The Stereophonics, Muse and Supergrass helped out quite considerably.

A surprise hit from the night was Somebody Told Me from the Killers which is a song we’ve been meaning to do as a quartet for sometime. Our version is a little more punk but it works.

Here’s a bit of Facebook footage from the gig:
https://fb.watch/s1UTV00qdG/
https://fb.watch/s1V5nZbNCT/

We’re back in Chesterfield on the 6th of July 2024 at the Hasland Club. It would be lovely to see you. You could sing Valerie with us if you like. Don’t wait for a bluer sky or a better hour.

We found ourselves back at Katie O’Brien’s in Sheffield in March for another 90 minutes of 90s and 00s guitar hits. The “green room” is becoming more habitable. The tool boxes and plasterboard have gone and there are some lights, which is nice.

We’d hoped to chuck in a few new tunes to the set for this gig but unfortunately illness meant our lead guitarist couldn’t make the rehearsal. Better to be too ill for rehearsal than too ill for the gig I say. It’s tempting to just lob a new one into the set without a rehearsal, just to keep things spicy, but we thought better of it this time. We did include Muse’s version of “Can’t Take My Eyes off You” which went down a storm.

There was a real energy about this gig. The crowd were up for it and the lads were all on form. We all came off stage buzzing. We’re back at Katie O’Brien’s Sheffield on the 18th May and I intend to get that banner hanging correctly next time.

If you can’t wait that long for another slice of TOAST we’re playing GAS bar in Chesterfield on the 26th of April. Don’t wait for a bluer sky or a better hour.

Toast were invited to play at the opening weekend of Katie O’Brien’s Sheffield, an Irish Tavern just off West Street. It has been a long time since we played at a bar in Sheffield. Indeed let the record show that our last performance at a bar was at West Street Live back in 2017. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s interesting to note, but I see there have been some set list changes since our West Street Live days.

Back in 2017 the set list included Learn to Fly by Foo Fighters, The Stone Roses’ Waterfall and the contemporary hit Cake by the Ocean (or Pasty by the Peace Gardens as it was affectionately known). Other than these exceptions, the set list today remains largely unchanged. As the saying goes, “if it ain’t broke, don’t privatise it”.

Although the customer facing areas of the newly refurbished Katie O’Brien’s Sheffield were polished to a high shine, the back stage areas are in need of some work. I use the the simile “it was like a building site” in this sentence, quite incorrectly, as we were greeted by an actual building site. We had to move tool boxes and plasterboard to make room for our gear in preparation to load it to the stage. All this was done in the dark as the lights didn’t work.

That said, it’s understandable that the refinement of the “behind the scenes areas” would take a back seat to the front of house refurbishment. We’re sure that this area will make a lovely green room, full of comfortable leather sofas and Guinness in the not too distant future.

Although we were provided with a desk we elected to use ours as it drives our monitor speakers. Ideally, in this scenario the desk would live downstairs in the DJ booth and the band would plug into a multicore on the stage. This would give a sound engineer control over each instrument and make levelling possible. Martin, our sound guy, was of a similar opinion. I guess once Katie O’Brien’s Sheffield is out of it’s teething stage, things like stage monitors, microphones, mic stands, a shell drum kit and perhaps a bass amp, will be provided. This would significantly speed up turnaround times between acts and make life easier for everyone. We muddled through and it seemed that the audience remained unaware of the minor technical snags that we encountered.

From our pinnacly perch on the balcony, we overlooked the bar with spotlights pointing at us. This meant that the audience were quite hard to see and we were only really made aware of them during the quieter parts of songs when the raucous singing drifted up to us. Our friends in the audience reported that the bouncers were going around telling the lads to “calm the f@*k down”. Always a good sign.

We’re delighted to say that we’ve been invited back to play at Katie O’Brien’s in Sheffield on the 23 of March 2024. You should come, do not wait for a bluer sky or a better hour.