The worst gig of your life....
What was the worst gig of your life. If you havn't had one, make one up and tell us.
This is mine:
A shoddy downtown building. Indoor basketball court. Acoustic qualities of an echo chamber. Audience seated... SEATED in chairs, Muddy muddy muddy sound, stone-face audiece of familys here to see other bands, even though the bands are hardcore......yuk. Makes we wonder why I bothered about tone in the first place, it all sounded like being in a boot (trunk for you Americans
) of a car with the stereo up full boar.
This is mine:
A shoddy downtown building. Indoor basketball court. Acoustic qualities of an echo chamber. Audience seated... SEATED in chairs, Muddy muddy muddy sound, stone-face audiece of familys here to see other bands, even though the bands are hardcore......yuk. Makes we wonder why I bothered about tone in the first place, it all sounded like being in a boot (trunk for you Americans
) of a car with the stereo up full boar.
Comments
Since it was a private engagement.. we didn't invite our following. You can only imagine how degrading the boooos were. We pulled it off though... SKYNYRD.. thank you for LONG JAMS!!!!!! It reminded us of Blues Bros.. wrong band, wrong time!
I only ever played one (does attempted count) and it was as a drummer at a local gala day, for free. The set up was that there was about 5 bands playing during the day and we were on last. Anyway, the dudes who were on before us ended up playing over their time. When we eventually got on and started sorting out the levels a woman from the local council came up and disconnected the power supply to the PA and told everyone \"no more\". That was the end of it. I was only about 15 years old then but it's mentally scarred me. Imagine getting ready to go on, buzzing with teenage enthusiasm, nerves etc only to have it all taken away from you in a flash.
I took my kid (13 years old) to see his first live gig last Tue, a Finnish band called HIM at the Brixton Academy. It was quite funny as I felt really old as we were queuing to get in amongst all these little kids dressed up in their best black goth clothes and black make up. I couldn't believe how well behaved they all were, all just standing/sitting watching. It made me think about the first band I went to see live, The Cramps at the Glasgow Barrowland Ballroom around 1984/5. What a night, bouncing around fired up on teenage excitement and the buzz of my first concert with my mates and some cheap cider, yes I was a bad 'un back then LOL.
We actually all got back together for my 40th birthday and currently gig! 8)
The plan was: guitarist/singer will rap as he's playing for two of the songs, our guitar tech/roadie will play guitar on a Sweet Home Alabama cover, and the drummer will rap while he's playing on the final number. A few other arrangements had been made to make up for deficiencies, such as I had to quickly adjust to filling in for both guitars, learn some rhythms parts that weren't normally mine, and a few extra solos.
Rapping while playing guitar turned out to be implausible. The roadie could barely play guitar, and didn't quite know Sweet Home. Rapping while drumming sounded like some kind of a robot learning to speak - very mechanical.
Long story short, worst show ever. We had to cancel all the upcoming gigs until broken leg healed enough to drag him out in a wheelchair.
The piano was not near in tune,
We played for half an hour, no one did any extended solos, but the residents seemed to be happy that someone even came.
Three months later we were invited back, :shock: this time we brought our own keyboard, I brought an extension cord and found a good outlet. When we played the second time things were much better.
Lesson learned, check the \"house\" piano.
Or the summer gig in 110* heat where the other guitar plyr puked & passed out mid jam
Or the primo gig we had at a really nice club in Asbury Park NJ (beautiful huge new club)...except Springsteen played a secret suprise gig right across the street that nite at the famouse Stone Pony!...so we played our asses off to the TWO BARTENDERS!
Or an early gig where the bar owners Mother's funeral was that day--and he got REALLY HAMMERED and really angry as the nite went on--refused to pay us - and a near riot broke out between us and the staff --AND the other guitar plyrs Father's friend pulled a 9mm Browning out and pointed it at them so we could load our gear and get the hell outta Dodge!
One of my gigs, the lead fell out of the main vocal mic just as he pulled it out to sing the first line of the first song. :oops: He also stepped on my gnx4 and made it go the the factory preset \"riffmatic\" - yuk.
Thats pretty extreme pulling a gun....
Thinking of the worst gig is hard. I tried to think, because seemed they all had possibilities. One time that went bad, actually turned out fun. We set up at an American Legion Hall for a wedding reception. Small towns up here in N.Michigan, so we all know each other. It was a small reception, middle of November, and had started snowing at 07:00. We are on Lake Michigan, so we get heavy Lake effect snow. By the time of the reception, it had snowed 14\", and was now full force. We started playing some rock songs and thank God for power chords...when your fingers are cold. This building was not able to get very warm with it's old oil burner. The accoustics were so bad...even we hated the sound and the mike feedback..so we toned it down. Couldn't hear us much then over all the talking and laughing. The power went out. Some folks wanted to go home, and we all were outside trying to push cars out. Some with 4-wheelers were able to go. But by now the snow was about 2 foot deep. We got the fireplace arranged so those who were left could sit around and keep warm. Our old Ford Van was not going anywhere, and many of us knew we were there for the night. We had plenty of food and booze!! We broke out several acoustic guitars and sat around the fireplace singing Elton John, Jim Croce, John Denver, Cat Steven's, James Taylor type songs....and it became a fun night after all.
It was like a scene out of the movie \"The Wedding Singer.\" I recently broke up with my girlfriend of 2 years. It was a simple case of growing apart. the love was there, but we were just incompatible after time. The real problem was that she wanted to stay close friends after the breakup. For me, it was a case of 'how can I miss you, if you never go away.'
I wrote a song about the break-up, and the band wanted to play it. The original vocal on the recording was done by a family member. My close friend was the bands singer, and he wanted to sing it at our next gig. So, we planned to play it that weekend.
I was still in that \"not dating\" stage, even though it was a few weeks later. I guess I needed time to sort s#!t out.
When the weekend gig came up, we were feeling good, and we sounded (pretty) good. About half way through, the singer noticed that my ex was in the audience with her new beau. He pointed her out to me, and even though time had passed, it still hurt to see her for the first time with someone else.
The singer then declared \"We've all had that significant other break your heart. This next song was written about someone in the audience who broke one of our hearts, and was inconsiderate enough to bring her new boyfriend here.\"
I felt it was unfair, she really did nothing wrong. She was moving on, and I was stuck in neutral. It was my problem, not hers.
The song started. She had never heard it before. I guess it was the first time that she really knew how much it hurt. To top it off, the singer gave the vocal a \"F-you\" vibe, that wasn't there in the original version (or on the practiced versions).
That was the last time that I saw her. The song (or the singers redition of it) stopped her from calling me. I was able to move on once she was completely out of the picture.
To wrap up, the worst gig had NOTHING to do with guitar playing, technical problems, managers, etc. It was an emotional worst.
One time we were set to play for this huge motorcycle rally called the \"Toy Ride\" where they ride their bikes all over and raise money for kids. The first year we played outside under a gazebo and it rained, didn't stop most people but we were playing facing south and they had a tent set up to the east, where everyone was out of the rain, so they were dancing a shit over there, we were playing for an empty field with about 500 people out of our sight.
The next year they didn't want that to happen so they rented the arena here and set us up inside, the sound was horrible, and since it was a beautiful night everyone stayed outside, so we played for another 500 ppl we couldn't really see. I got pissed off and started playing Slayer's War Ensemble full blast, the rest of the band wasn't to thrilled, but I said who cares, nobody is listening anyway..
Another time we were playing an outdoor gig and we were rocking, nailing our stuff, real tight, everything coming off great. Some people had been requesting Guns and Roses and stuff and we had been practicing Sweet Child o Mine with our new female singer. We get going everyone is enjoying it.. Right when the solo comes in, I start it off and this dog runs by and pulls 2 of the plugs out of my pedal, so now the tune sounds like crap, and 80% of the people knew the tune as they were singing along and stuff.. Frantically, in order to save my solo, because it was the first time I had tried it live, I started plugging stuff back in, then BOOM!! and a pile of feedback, I kill my pedal and we stop the tune, only to be met by a round of boos and laughter. I don't sing, so I'm not close to a mic all the time, but I grabbed the singers mic and said, Who's fuckin dog is that? Come get him or I'm putting him in the bass drum for the rest of the show.\" He was still on the stage, running around sniffing stuff, he even \"left his mark\" on the bass drum. After that everything kinda fell apart, the last set was terrible, really screwed up our vibe.