Jump to content


Please note: You can easily log in to MPN using your Facebook account!

The Gig from hell...


Recommended Posts

I cannot measure up to the insanity already posted above, but:

 

One of my first-ever top40 cover gigs. I was in over my head, and woefully underprepared, but just about able to pull it off.

 

Had an Electro2 for organs and clav, and the SY77 on top for a bunch of strings, brass, pianos, and synths, with the Rock & Pop expansion cards supplying a lot of the samples.

 

Sound check is all good.

 

Get up on stage for the gig, and I notice the first patch sounds really weird. Turns out the card slots had failed in the meantime. Okay. I figure Ill have to start playing and switch to alternative sounds on the fly if theyre missing sample elements.

 

Third song in, monitoring dies. Completely. For the rest of the show.

 

At some point, the panicked adrenaline gave way to hilarity over the realisation that not only could I not hear what I was playing, but I couldnt hear whether I was playing at all.

 

The singer hired me for another project a decade later though, so I must have come across okay...

 

By far the worst gig Ive ever played was two nights in a row at a notoriously raunchy carnival festival here in Northern Germany. The...it...there was this guy in the audience wearing a wig, a black corset which left his belly spilling out underneath, and blue nylon pantyhose in black stilettos, with nothing underneath... and that, while poignant, wasnt the worst thing about that job...nor was the Roman guard dry-humping the Greek flower girl against my Monitor the next night...nor the fact that I could hardly hear the drummer nor my own monitor over the accordion music and dance polka blaring at my side of the stage from one of the other stages some twenty yards away...

"The Angels of Libra are in the European vanguard of the [retro soul] movement" (Bill Buckley, Soul and Jazz and Funk)

The Drawbars | off jazz organ trio

Link to comment
Share on other sites



  • Replies 61
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

1)Got to gig, 2 hour drive. There was no gig. Client had provisionally booked us then decided not to go ahead with the event. Forgot to let us know. Main roads were flooded on the way back so had to go a longer way home.

 

That was annoying: this next incident was almost my very definition of a gig from hell; a situation that many musicians probably have nightmares about.

 

2)A few of us were asked to play the wedding reception for our singer. She wanted a few songs from me and the others, then wanted me to do a solo rendition of Claire de Lune. "Sure, i played that when I was younger, I can do that." I was a lazy student with no sense of priorities at the time, and decided to finally start learning it again less than 2 weeks before the wedding. Listened to it, looked at the sheet music..."This isn't what I remember" I thought. Turns out I'd learnt a kids version when I was younger. The real version wasn't in C and wasn't 1 and a half pages long. I wasn't a classical pianist, so I couldn't learn it all in that short space of time. Tried and tried to learn it u til 2 days before the wedding. I'd kinda got the hang of 2-3 pages, but had no clue how to play the last 6. Tried calling the bride (my good friend the singer) to tell her. No answer (she was about to get married, cant blame her). Tried emailing and texting. No reply.

 

Morning of the wedding comes. Arrive and she's at the Manor House getting ready but comes out to see us before we go set up. Find out she doesn't know a thing and still thinks I'm playing. Never got any of my calls or voicemails. I decide I can't tell her the morning of her wedding that I'm not doing it.

 

She's been excited to hear Claire De Lune because her grandparents used to play it to her when she was young. It's even mentioned in the Order of Service that I'll be playing. Seems I've no choice; I buy a version of Claire De Lune on iTunes and download it. Hook the iPod to the mixer and start to practice miming it. The other singer is the only one who knows what I'm doing. People start arriving. Wedding is busy and in a marque so I'm 2 feet from the front row. Everyone can see my hands, including all of her musician friends and family.

 

Signing of the register comes, the celebrant (the bastard that he is) announces to everyone that "[bride]s good friend and keyboard player Nadroj is going to now play Claire De Lune, in rememberence of her grandparents who sadly are no longer with us. Nadroj, the floor is yours."

 

AS SUBTELY AS I CAN I lean over to press play on the iPod, which is hidden under my thigh. It's locked. Unlock it slowly, in absolute silence as everyone looks at me. It plays, I know the first two pages, so I start miming along with the volume on my keyboard turned down to zero. Had to really be ready to come in as soon as the track starts; there's a few seconds of silence at the beginning. By the 4th page no one is looking at me except for her brother in the front row and the camera man. I can see one of my band mates sitting just to my right bobbing up and down trying to keep his laughter in (he was the other guy playing so was there at soundcheck).

 

Celebrant nods me to stop as they've signed and got their pictures. I lean over with one hand, still miming, and turn it off at a point where the pianist on the track is obviously playing with two hands. The celebrant sees this and stares at me. At the same time I'm trying to turn my keyboard volume up so that I can play a little closing melody on the piano to make it look like it was me playing...It must have looked awful.

 

She came to me later in the day thanking me because it meant so much to her. Said I played it "beautifully." I drank a lot that night.

 

Then 2 years ago in front of our whole band during a break at a gig she asked me if I remembered playing Claire de Lune at her wedding. I said yes. Asked me "...were you miming?" Now by then everyone in our circle of friends and musicians, in our agency and who was at our college know this story; everyone except her. Must have been central Scotland's best kept secret. I actually became famous for it. I go scarlet red and can't say anything.. She starts laughing, then everyone else starts too. Turns out they rewatched their wedding video that week and noticed that after a certain point in the piece my hands were doing something totally different to what was being played.

 

We all laugh about it now, but I can say with all honesty that those seven minutes were the worst seven minutes of my life. If I was put in that situation again I don't know how I'd cope. I know people who have nightmares that they're on stage and suddenly don't know how to play; it was literally just like that. Decided then and there 1) I'm never taking any classical jobs or favours ever again, and 2) I will never be unprepared for anything ever again for as long as I live.

Hammond SKX

Mainstage 3

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Those were two great stories!

I know!! I get all paranoid when I splash a little gasoline on my hand overfilling the tank.

 

But to use Gasoline as a solvent for cleaning your body, now *that* is hard core!!!

 

I wonder how it compares with Turpentine?

[video:youtube]

J a z z  P i a n o 8 8

--

Yamaha C7D

Montage8 | CP300 | CP4 | SK1-73 | OB6 | Seven

K8.2 | 3300 | CPSv.3

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've used gas to wash my hands many times - takes of oil and grease very well, but I follow up by washing with soap and water. Really dries out your hands though.

Dan

 

Acoustic/Electric stringed instruments ranging from 4 to 230 strings, hammered, picked, fingered, slapped, and plucked. Analog and Digital Electronic instruments, reeds, and throat/mouth.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Seems I've no choice; I buy a version of Claire De Lune on iTunes and download it. Hook the iPod to the mixer and start to practice miming it.

I did the miming thing a few times on wedding gigs. The trick is to have a workstation keyboard with a built-in sequencer! It makes things much easier. Subtly pushing a button on the keyboard sure beats fumbling with an iPod! Classical midifiles are easy to find online too. Not only was I never busted, I did one ceremony with a trumpet player, he was the bandleader & booked the gig too and he had no idea, and complimented me on my spectacular performance! Since the sequencer is playing your sounds, all you need to worry about is seamlessly switching to your actual playing when it's time to end the tune.

 

BTW I'm not particularly proud of this but I don't play classical much and sometimes clients make some pretty audacious requests. Like the two-handed sonata I was asked to do once. Got to the ceremony and they wanted me set up in front, right next to the officiant I'm usually pretty incognito in the back. I gave it m best Glenn Gould that day!

 

[EDIT - I meant to say FOUR hand piano piece, ha! Two-handed is a little more common!]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1)Got to gig, 2 hour drive. There was no gig. Client had provisionally booked us then decided not to go ahead with the event. Forgot to let us know. Main roads were flooded on the way back so had to go a longer way home.

 

That was annoying: this next incident was almost my very definition of a gig from hell; a situation that many musicians probably have nightmares about.

 

2)A few of us were asked to play the wedding reception for our singer. She wanted a few songs from me and the others, then wanted me to do a solo rendition of Claire de Lune. "Sure, i played that when I was younger, I can do that." I was a lazy student with no sense of priorities at the time, and decided to finally start learning it again less than 2 weeks before the wedding. Listened to it, looked at the sheet music..."This isn't what I remember" I thought. Turns out I'd learnt a kids version when I was younger. The real version wasn't in C and wasn't 1 and a half pages long. I wasn't a classical pianist, so I couldn't learn it all in that short space of time. Tried and tried to learn it u til 2 days before the wedding. I'd kinda got the hang of 2-3 pages, but had no clue how to play the last 6. Tried calling the bride (my good friend the singer) to tell her. No answer (she was about to get married, cant blame her). Tried emailing and texting. No reply.

 

Morning of the wedding comes. Arrive and she's at the Manor House getting ready but comes out to see us before we go set up. Find out she doesn't know a thing and still thinks I'm playing. Never got any of my calls or voicemails. I decide I can't tell her the morning of her wedding that I'm not doing it.

 

She's been excited to hear Claire De Lune because her grandparents used to play it to her when she was young. It's even mentioned in the Order of Service that I'll be playing. Seems I've no choice; I buy a version of Claire De Lune on iTunes and download it. Hook the iPod to the mixer and start to practice miming it. The other singer is the only one who knows what I'm doing. People start arriving. Wedding is busy and in a marque so I'm 2 feet from the front row. Everyone can see my hands, including all of her musician friends and family.

 

Signing of the register comes, the celebrant (the bastard that he is) announces to everyone that "[bride]s good friend and keyboard player Nadroj is going to now play Claire De Lune, in rememberence of her grandparents who sadly are no longer with us. Nadroj, the floor is yours."

 

AS SUBTELY AS I CAN I lean over to press play on the iPod, which is hidden under my thigh. It's locked. Unlock it slowly, in absolute silence as everyone looks at me. It plays, I know the first two pages, so I start miming along with the volume on my keyboard turned down to zero. Had to really be ready to come in as soon as the track starts; there's a few seconds of silence at the beginning. By the 4th page no one is looking at me except for her brother in the front row and the camera man. I can see one of my band mates sitting just to my right bobbing up and down trying to keep his laughter in (he was the other guy playing so was there at soundcheck).

 

Celebrant nods me to stop as they've signed and got their pictures. I lean over with one hand, still miming, and turn it off at a point where the pianist on the track is obviously playing with two hands. The celebrant sees this and stares at me. At the same time I'm trying to turn my keyboard volume up so that I can play a little closing melody on the piano to make it look like it was me playing...It must have looked awful.

 

She came to me later in the day thanking me because it meant so much to her. Said I played it "beautifully." I drank a lot that night.

 

Then 2 years ago in front of our whole band during a break at a gig she asked me if I remembered playing Claire de Lune at her wedding. I said yes. Asked me "...were you miming?" Now by then everyone in our circle of friends and musicians, in our agency and who was at our college know this story; everyone except her. Must have been central Scotland's best kept secret. I actually became famous for it. I go scarlet red and can't say anything.. She starts laughing, then everyone else starts too. Turns out they rewatched their wedding video that week and noticed that after a certain point in the piece my hands were doing something totally different to what was being played.

 

We all laugh about it now, but I can say with all honesty that those seven minutes were the worst seven minutes of my life. If I was put in that situation again I don't know how I'd cope. I know people who have nightmares that they're on stage and suddenly don't know how to play; it was literally just like that. Decided then and there 1) I'm never taking any classical jobs or favours ever again, and 2) I will never be unprepared for anything ever again for as long as I live.

 

hahaha... wedding gig nicely described! You do what you gotta do! Next time you'll be better, you can add in some pained facial expressions, furrow your brow, squint your eyes, a bit of chest heaving, make eye contact with the pretty girls, sell it baby!

 

By the way, I guess you were doing what a DJ does, right? You should have charged more for those extra services. :wave:

Some music I've recorded and played over the years with a few different bands

Tommy Rude Soundcloud

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My worst gig experiences involve fights breaking out. The worst one was a wedding where there was bad blood between the two families. After a few hours of getting juiced up on booze a brawl broke out. There had to be at least 40 people beating the hell out of each other. Then someone threw a bottle at a mirror wall -- glass everywhere! The bride stormed out of the catering hall in a rage walking alone down the highway in her wedding gown. That was quite a sad / disturbing sight.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I used to play the bar at the local casino. They went from riverboat to land based, and when they did that the powers that be decided that only non local bands were worthy of playing there, so, sadly, the gig is no more, but....about 5 years apart, we had 2 different guys drop dead in the bar. Same band, both times. Same SONG, both times...."Since I Fell For You"......
Link to comment
Share on other sites

If cancelled/non-gigs count, then my worst one was when the semi-famous band I was playing with at the time told me they wanted me in the video for the first single from the new album, and gave me a date they were going to fly me to New York for a week to shoot it. Great! So I made sure my calendar was clear for that week.

 

The night before the flight, the manager called me and said he's so sorry, they've had to push it back a week, but they still want me in it. Which is a crappy thing to do on no notice, but it was a REAL BAND with a REAL ALBUM that I was on, making a REAL VIDEO that was gonna be on MTV! So I agreed, cancelled all my gigs for the next week, and spent that week sitting around with no work.

 

Now repeat the above process two more times, resulting in me sitting around with no work for three weeks...

 

Then the night before I was finally, definitely gonna fly up, for REAL this time, the manager called and said he's SO very sorry, but because of all the production snafus they just didn't have it in the budget to have me in the video after all. And for the cherry on top, instead of flying to New York the next day, I evacuated to Birmingham in my car because there was a frikkin' hurricane coming.

 

Needless to say, had that happened today it would have marked the prompt termination of my relationship with that band, and I'd have turned the matter over to a lawyer immediately. (Actually, it would never have gotten past the first step.) But I was young and eager and blah blah blah. Eventually they wrote me some paltry check to attempt to make up for leaving me unemployed for a month, which it didn't come anywhere close to doing.

 

Karmic comeuppance: the video cost them a fortune, and I think MTV showed it twice.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you're into weird gig movies, the GD "Sunshine Daydream" video from 1972 is a classic. It's definitely from another kinder gentler era. Not really a "gig from hell", more like a "gig from a different planet"

 

Everyone is blown out and totally happy: crew, audience, band. You'll see some images that will definitely stay with you. I caught a bunch of this vibe back in the day. That is, before I had to grow up.

 

Like the infamous naked dude on the pole. Seriously happy guy. Worth a watch?

 

Want to make your band better?  Check out "A Guide To Starting (Or Improving!) Your Own Local Band"

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've used gas to wash my hands many times - takes of oil and grease very well, but I follow up by washing with soap and water. Really dries out your hands though.

When i was a kid, used to go grandmas at Mission beach. Beach had a lot of tar/oil in it so whe we went back to her house, shed clean all our feet with turpentine.

 

I think theyll call CPS nowadays if you clean your kids with solvents lol.

The baiting I do is purely for entertainment value. Please feel free to ignore it.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've used gas to wash my hands many times - takes of oil and grease very well, but I follow up by washing with soap and water. Really dries out your hands though.

When i was a kid, used to go grandmas at Mission beach. Beach had a lot of tar/oil in it so whe we went back to her house, shed clean all our feet with turpentine.

 

I think theyll call CPS nowadays if you clean your kids with solvents lol.

 

The s**t that used to be OK back in the days. No seat belts. No bike helmets or airbags. Free-range parenting was the norm. Bullying in schools. Smoking. Fatty foods. Toxic s**t everywhere.

 

The list goes on and on. It was a very different time.

 

But somehow, we're all here. Maybe everyone should take a chill pill? Humankind has survived for many thousands of years. We just keep getting smarter.

Want to make your band better?  Check out "A Guide To Starting (Or Improving!) Your Own Local Band"

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've used gas to wash my hands many times - takes of oil and grease very well, but I follow up by washing with soap and water. Really dries out your hands though.

When i was a kid, used to go grandmas at Mission beach. Beach had a lot of tar/oil in it so whe we went back to her house, shed clean all our feet with turpentine.

 

I think theyll call CPS nowadays if you clean your kids with solvents lol.

 

The s**t that used to be OK back in the days. No seat belts. No bike helmets or airbags. Free-range parenting was the norm. Bullying in schools. Smoking. Fatty foods. Toxic s**t everywhere.

 

The list goes on and on. It was a very different time.

 

But somehow, we're all here. Maybe everyone should take a chill pill? Humankind has survived for many thousands of years. We just keep getting smarter.

I keep reading stuff in that vein, and it really irks me.

 

The laws and regulations werent written because of those of us who are still here.

 

Yeah, we rode to birthday parties in the backs of station wagons without real seats, let alone seat belts. And we lived. Seatbelt laws werent passed because we survived.

 

Yes, parents today are overprotective in many cases. But lets not act like the laws and regulations arent there for good reason. Enough of us did NOT make it.

"The Angels of Libra are in the European vanguard of the [retro soul] movement" (Bill Buckley, Soul and Jazz and Funk)

The Drawbars | off jazz organ trio

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've used gas to wash my hands many times - takes of oil and grease very well, but I follow up by washing with soap and water. Really dries out your hands though.

When i was a kid, used to go grandmas at Mission beach. Beach had a lot of tar/oil in it so whe we went back to her house, shed clean all our feet with turpentine.

 

I think theyll call CPS nowadays if you clean your kids with solvents lol.

 

The s**t that used to be OK back in the days. No seat belts. No bike helmets or airbags. Free-range parenting was the norm. Bullying in schools. Smoking. Fatty foods. Toxic s**t everywhere.

 

The list goes on and on. It was a very different time.

 

But somehow, we're all here. Maybe everyone should take a chill pill? Humankind has survived for many thousands of years. We just keep getting smarter.

Those are components that push the average life expectancy up.

It's actually quite amazing that the expectancy at birth so high because of all these protections that add up.

 

Advancements in medical care and knowledge + safety measures have been the keys.

J a z z  P i a n o 8 8

--

Yamaha C7D

Montage8 | CP300 | CP4 | SK1-73 | OB6 | Seven

K8.2 | 3300 | CPSv.3

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've had some bad gigs, but in my fifties I have recurring bad gig nightmares. We're opening for the Stones! But my keyboards have all been pushed to the side of the stage and buried under cables. Something like that, at least once a month. I envy people that fly and/or make love to beautiful women in their dreams. Not once for me. Just a comedy of foot-stuck-in waste-basket scenarios.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another gig from hell last weekend, and it involves the sound check, or lack there of.

 

Played at the PGA Arts Center in West Palm Beach. We get there 3.5 hours before the gig, the drummer is already set up and the sound man is working with him. We set up, no problem. But again, it takes this one person forever to wire everyone, get levels, and send monitor signals to each person.

 

He hooked up our wireless controller incorrectly, and it took an hour to sort out the channels and what levels to set for each singer.

 

We didn't even have a sound check except for one song that didn't include the drummer, who was now home changing cloths.

 

The sound turned out good and there were no feedback issues at this gig. I even got some great video, we were in front of a huge screen with fractal images being projected on it.

 

If you have a wireless monitor system or you're playing an outdoor party where they have to set up the stage and sound system from scratch, you need to arrive 4 hours before the gig. It's also a good idea to have exact directions on how to hook your wireless system to the board so it works.

 

The problem with the wireless monitor system, is each person wants different levels, and they have to be set one person at a time. Our band leader has an in ear wireless, and a wedge on the floor. He was asking the sound man to duplicated what he just did in the wedge, but that's not how it works, all the levels have to be set one at a time.

 

We went on 15 minutes late with everyone in the crowd waiting but they were ok with it. It was very stressful wanting to do the sound check and start on time, but everything dragged out.

Korg 01W/FD, Hammond XK-2, Neo Ventilator2, JBL Eon, Rhodes 88
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Similar situation to my last post. We played a gig with a different sound man because our guy had something come up. We went into a 16 channel snake into a rack board with 6 monitor outputs. I helped the guy wire the board so we could start on time, which we did. The sound man thanked me for doing this, it was a lot of work and there's no way we would have started on time if I hadn't helped.

 

Between sets 2 and 3 my Korg 01W/FD died. I went up on stage to get ready for the next set, and it was dead. However, I knew this day was coming, and had my Korg PS60 in the car. I swapped keyboards and played the last set with no problems. The PS60 is a light weight gigging board, it did the job.

 

I took my Korg to a place in West Palm Beach that fixes equipment. Turns out it was the floppy drive that went bad and was drawing power from the rest of the board. Tom had an extra floppy and was able to swap circuit boards and other parts for $188. I don't see a repair thread so I'll post his link here. They have a bunch of equipment for sale from people leaving stuff behind.

http://www.audiomagnetics.com/

This place is legit, Tom and Cindy are nice people.

Korg 01W/FD, Hammond XK-2, Neo Ventilator2, JBL Eon, Rhodes 88
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I used to play the bar at the local casino. They went from riverboat to land based, and when they did that the powers that be decided that only non local bands were worthy of playing there, so, sadly, the gig is no more, but....about 5 years apart, we had 2 different guys drop dead in the bar. Same band, both times. Same SONG, both times...."Since I Fell For You"......

 

:o:o Surely "Since I fell for you" is no longer on your set lists??

Stan

Gig Rig: Yamaha S90 XS; Hammond SK-1; Rehearsal: Yamaha MOX8 Korg Triton Le61, Yamaha S90, Hammond XK-1

Retired: Hammond M2/Leslie 145, Wurly 200, Ensoniq VFX

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I used to play the bar at the local casino. They went from riverboat to land based, and when they did that the powers that be decided that only non local bands were worthy of playing there, so, sadly, the gig is no more, but....about 5 years apart, we had 2 different guys drop dead in the bar. Same band, both times. Same SONG, both times...."Since I Fell For You"......

 

 

 

:o:o Surely "Since I fell for you" is no longer on your set lists??

 

sure it is....that song is now officially "pre disastered".....twice...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

Bumping this zombie thread... what a weekend. Had two gigs in New England this week, and let's just say I'm very happy to be home.

 

- One band member did not know that the USA requires a passport valid 6 months beyond the date of entry; his was only valid for 3 months past the date of entry.

- The bandleader(!!!)'s previous passport was lost, and has since been used by someone else, which set off a ton of flags in the system. After three hours at the border, we were unable to resolve it there. The core of the band (drums, percussion, bassist who now assumed lead vocal duties, me now taking on LH bass, and female vocals) continued to gig #1 and the horns plus the two other guys who couldn't get across turned back for home.

- Gig #1 was fine; audience and booker were very understanding. Local band provided backline including a Hammond E series and Leslie 760. Good, well-needed beer, and the Raptors won!

- I gave up my shotgun/co-pilot position on the way to gig #2 and thus we proceeded to get lost.

- Arrive at gig #2, chill for a few minutes horns have driven back down again, we regroup and talk down a set. The last two bands on the festival stage are supposed to soundcheck at the same time, given that our configurations are similar. There is no liaison or festival co-ordinator/volunteer assigned to us, so we're left to ourselves to figure out the whole situation.

- Band before us goes a little overtime... fine, we have less time to fill without our bandleader.

- 35 minutes into our set, mid-trombone solo, I see people leaving the stage. OK, maybe there's a different headliner, maybe they really don't like trombone solos. Then, I see people RUNNING away from our stage. The drummer abruptly stops and I see the stage manager giving me the universal sign for "stop right now and GTFO." Somebody fired off six shots into the air, two blocks away from our stage, and directly behind our hotel. After a few minutes, we're given the all clear to pack up.

- This morning, as we're loading up the cars to go back home, another band member realizes they lost their wallet with multiple pieces of ID.

 

So how was your weekend?

My Site

Nord Electro 5D, Novation Launchkey 61, Logic Pro X, Mainstage 3, lots of plugins, fingers, pencil, paper.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's my impression that passports must always be valid for a minimum of six months, regardless of the destination. Maybe I'm wrong.

 

I believe in the EU it's only three months... hence our confusion.

My Site

Nord Electro 5D, Novation Launchkey 61, Logic Pro X, Mainstage 3, lots of plugins, fingers, pencil, paper.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Years ago I got a frantic phone call to rush to a casino a few hours from me to do a show that night. The leader was a French/Algerian star, but his entire band was turned away at the border! So it was myself and a bass player & drummer showing up a few hours before showtime and scratching out chord charts to get through the gig which we did.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bumping this zombie thread... what a weekend. Had two gigs in New England this week, and let's just say I'm very happy to be home.

 

- One band member did not know that the USA requires a passport valid 6 months beyond the date of entry; his was only valid for 3 months past the date of entry.

- The bandleader(!!!)'s previous passport was lost, and has since been used by someone else, which set off a ton of flags in the system. After three hours at the border, we were unable to resolve it there. The core of the band (drums, percussion, bassist who now assumed lead vocal duties, me now taking on LH bass, and female vocals) continued to gig #1 and the horns plus the two other guys who couldn't get across turned back for home.

- Gig #1 was fine; audience and booker were very understanding. Local band provided backline including a Hammond E series and Leslie 760. Good, well-needed beer, and the Raptors won!

- I gave up my shotgun/co-pilot position on the way to gig #2 and thus we proceeded to get lost.

- Arrive at gig #2, chill for a few minutes horns have driven back down again, we regroup and talk down a set. The last two bands on the festival stage are supposed to soundcheck at the same time, given that our configurations are similar. There is no liaison or festival co-ordinator/volunteer assigned to us, so we're left to ourselves to figure out the whole situation.

- Band before us goes a little overtime... fine, we have less time to fill without our bandleader.

- 35 minutes into our set, mid-trombone solo, I see people leaving the stage. OK, maybe there's a different headliner, maybe they really don't like trombone solos. Then, I see people RUNNING away from our stage. The drummer abruptly stops and I see the stage manager giving me the universal sign for "stop right now and GTFO." Somebody fired off six shots into the air, two blocks away from our stage, and directly behind our hotel. After a few minutes, we're given the all clear to pack up.

- This morning, as we're loading up the cars to go back home, another band member realizes they lost their wallet with multiple pieces of ID.

 

So how was your weekend?

 

I live in Providence, so I heard all about that---on Saturday i had a gig in Newport...last time i did a gig there i told myself never again--too bad I didn't listen to myself. NEVER again, and NEVER Block Island again. Nothing but manic traffic, annoying tourists, and overall asshat managers that think you're lucky to play at their useless yacht clubs. You're not!

Hammond B-2, Leslie 122, Hammond Sk1 73, Korg BX3 2001, Leslie 900, Motion Sound Pro 3, Polytone Taurus Elite, Roland RD300 old one, Roland VK7, Fender Rhodes Mark V with Roland JC90
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This doesn't compare to some of the stuff posted above, but over the last two days I had quite an experience.

 

Got asked about two weeks ago to be the keyboard player in the backing band for a show choir camp going on at the university 45 min down the road. It paid well so I agreed. A week before the show, asked the contact when I could expect the music and was told I'd get it 3 days before the show. Little did I know that it wouldn't be only one show choir I'd be playing for, but 6, with 24 total songs to play. Not that big of a deal...except the music never came and I got it the day before the show at the 4 hour rehearsal the band had, during which we played through each song once. Different director for each choir, all the while making last minute cuts, additions, and add-ons to the music (my music was hardly legible at the end of it all and very difficult to follow). So I sightread through everything decently, kind of BSing it as I went along and it was alright, but would have been a lot better if I had gotten the music in advance (as promised).

 

The next day is the show, but before that is the 4 hour sound check in the morning where we run every song again with the choir this time (no time to practice the music the night before, by the time I got back home from the rehearsal it was time to hit the sack to wake up at 6 to drive to the sound check). So this brings my grand total of playing through these songs to twice. Brought a VR-09 to cover some basic synth, strings, brass, and pads, as well as organ, but was able to use one of their amps (thankfully). Here's the kicker. This performance was taking place in one of the top-ten collegiate performing arts facilities in the country. 3 tiers of seats, huge impressive concert hall...yet no one thought to mic the keyboard amp (or the guitar amp). So they have this amp cranked all the way up, and asked me to have my VR turned all the way up for a great deal of the show so my sound could reach the audience. Why, in such an impressive facility, with a sound crew, did no one think to mic the amps...beyond me. Anyway my chair was vibrating through the whole show because of how loud this amp was as I played through everything for only the third time. And this camp is a pretty big deal, lots of prep and planning (one would assume).

 

Really not worthy of a "gig from hell" title, but still frustrating and exhausting (easy fixes for all these problems).

"...and that TV channel at the hotel that's, like, ABOUT the hotel?"

 

Yamaha CP 73 / Numa Organ 2 / Korg Prologue 8

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...