Band space wanted-Lower Hutt area.

[cholera]

Looking for an office or something in Lower Hutt CBD or Petone to take out a short term lease. Only needs to be big enough for one band, tho a bit of storage space for other gear would be good. I don't think theres a lot of Huttites on here but you never know. Looking to spend 100-120 bucks a week....Doesn't need to be flash, or even nice, just has to be away from residential areas. I'm aware that office space will probably mean no noise between 9-5 but nights are the only times we can jam anyway really. ANY suggesstions (maybe even WGTN locations) are welcome.

[Scooter13]

My new band uses a storage shed at a storage complex near the Taita train station on the east hutt rd. $50 pw with free power. Considered something like that?

[cholera]

I'm actually looking at one in Seaview that's about 65 per week. How big is your guys room? These are 6x3 which is all good but if I can get a cheaper one I will.

What's your band anyway Scooter?

[cholera]

Sweet found one!! No more stupid headphone jams. They don't really work with grindcore. Time to make a goddam racket again!

[Vince]

Sweet found one!! No more stupid headphone jams. They don't really work with grindcore. Time to make a goddam racket again!

Cool, where/what is it (roughly) ?

[cholera]

It's basically a large warehouse but it's had wooden framing/partitions installed. I heard a guy offering it for $50 a week and tried to just take the whole lease, but he wants to hold on to it even though he's not in a band at the moment. We do have to share with one other band but there's plenty of room for 2 kits and other gear, so no pack down/setup time wasting. Right at the bottom of Ngaio Gorge road so noise won't be a problem. First jam Thursday so hopefully it all goes well! It's actually bigger than the last storage lock up I had, and it's not just a corrugated iron box so wo'n sound like a train wreck in a tunnel. Plus cheaper, so I am stoked.

[Scooter13]

Cool man. Good to hear! I managed to get contact details for the place I was talking about yesterday. If you end up still needing them let me know.

[The Scarecrow]

There's something to be said for having a dedicated practice space vs. going to a studio/practice room each week. I've been doing the practice room-hire thing weekly for some years now, and the prices have gone up with the market, which was to be expected, but I have a pretty good deal now where I am in that there's often no-one before or after us on most given times we jam, so a three-hour session actually becomes 3 useful hours with 20-30 mins setup each side.

Years ago my father used to let one of my Uni-era bands practice in his mechanical workshop on weekends/nights. it was an industrial area, so no issues with noise. Gear could be stored there in a back room and vocal PA consisted of a couple of mics running through practice amps, which worked fine. Only issues were if he had to store extra cars in there, work space was minimised and everyone would invariably get covered in grease stains to some degress just from bumping on workshop benches. But, it was free! Pity the old boy has filled all the extra space up with new machines now, or I'd be hitting him up.

Done the storage locker thing as well.... works fine for quiet-ish bands... loud bands tend to sound horrific in those tin sheds.

[cholera]

Loud bands are indeed horrible in a tin shed. My other band uses a proper studio to jam and while it's a dam sight flasher ( leather couches, coffee, water coolers etc) its 50 bucks a pop for a 2.5 hour jam, plus a little extra for storage. When you take into account set up time, that becomes very expensive. Trying to convince that band to share with my other band now.....

[The Scarecrow]

Loud bands are indeed horrible in a tin shed. My other band uses a proper studio to jam and while it's a dam sight flasher ( leather couches, coffee, water coolers etc) its 50 bucks a pop for a 2.5 hour jam, plus a little extra for storage. When you take into account set up time, that becomes very expensive. Trying to convince that band to share with my other band now.....

I use the same spot for all three bands I'm currently playing for... leave my cab there most times as I'm back every other day of the week. Plus it's 5 minutes from work and 15 from home. That and there's recording facilities as well, takeaways and a liquor store within a few mins drive. Plus, there's the added fact that it's secure - always at least or or two staff around and one guy lives on site.

Looking further down the track, the next house I buy would ideally be somewhere semi-rural with some sort of garage or lack of neighbours within an acre or so to bother....

[aliasceiza]

We currently practice in a shed on a farm about 25kms out of Tauranga, and we still get noise complaints from people living about 1km down the valley...can't do much about it either, and we've had a DB metre at the boundary and the noise level is under 50db, so it's all legal, but still they complain!

[cholera]

In the past I have come to the conclusion that volume doesn't matter- if a neighbour is a prick they will complain no matter what, even if its a whisper they can hear when standing on their boundary with their head on your side of the fence!

If they aren't pricks you can get away with a lot provided you show respect and talk to them first.

Anyway, we made a hell of a racket the other night and it was awesome, no hassles at all! Finally!

[aliasceiza]

Living in Matamata in my late teens, my first round of guitar learning, my neighbours circulated a petition to get my power disconnected...my parents got a call from John Luxton's (our local MP) secretary, wanting to know what it was all about because they'd received the petition in the mail!

We never lost our power, but we did loose our amps a couple of times, and in all fareness, I played a lot, and usually loud...I'd hate having neighbours like me!

[cholera]

My 75 year old neighbour threw a tree stump through my window from his side of the fence when I was about 15. Still no idea how he did it, it was heavy as hell. Gave me a goddamn heart attack anyway as I was standing right next to it at the time!

Who's got more jam nightmare stories?

[Scooter13]

The flat underneath us used to stay up late until 2am in the morning shouting and banging in to things. I don't mind neighbours being rowdy, but I got pissed off when it was on a school/work night 4 nights in a row. We eventually went down in the middle of the night to ask them to keep it down, but it didn't change much.
I had enough one day, so I waited till their flat had gone quiet, laid my Rockerverb 50 Watt 2x12 combo pointing in to the floor, turned everything up to 10, and wailed for a few minutes. I'm sure most of Wellington CBD would of heard it!

A few summer's ago, I was practicing at my parents beach house, through a little 5W tube amp. My mum came storming in shouting at me, "TURN IT DOWN, the whole street can hear it". The she looks over at the couch and sees my girlfriend, dead asleep, lullabied by my guitar playing. MY girlfriend still gives my Mum shit about it.