Members Tommy Tune Posted March 25, 2004 Members Share Posted March 25, 2004 I've been inspired to put up a best/worst gig thread. Feel free to post what you think was your best or worst gig ever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members lucho_84 Posted March 25, 2004 Members Share Posted March 25, 2004 i remember my very first gig a few years ago. i'm about to turn 18 now so i was probably like 13 or 14. it was in agym with horrible accoustics to begin with. (way too much echo) so we decided to doit outside and take advantage of a sunny day. well we ended up going back inside because of the rainy weather. so we're inside and i have a flimsy cable connecting all the ower amps and the board to that flimsy cord. so we begin practice and the amps clip, various times. so i pull out a million pwer cords and everything's cool. the next day we get there early to setup and all. (and by the by, we had been inviting ALOT of ppl for a while) the time to begin arrives and we commence the show. there are less than 100 ppl in this huge gym. i'm kinda down. not used to playing crowds that small. anyway, the gig goes alright and the majority of the ppl are into the music and the end of the show comes. one of the guys was supposed to accapella a song and he decides he's not gonna sing it anymore. whatever. he's killing time on the stage and the crowd is growing restless. sp his cousin (bass player)sings it with him and they do it. all in all, the song came out fine and i finished with a song myself and the girls were screaming:D so it was good only in the end i guess. oh well, got us another gig so i guess it's not as bad as it seemed at the time. for those of ya'll that gig all the time or have done it n the past know that even when the gig goes bad, you end up having laughs about it and joking about what happened. lol. i have alot of funny gig stories:) later:D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Preacher Will Posted March 25, 2004 Members Share Posted March 25, 2004 Hmmmm, worst gig? Don't know about worst -- no, it wasn't the worst, I just remembered the worst and I think I'll try again to forget it -- anyway, here goes. Last summer, I'm running sound for my wife's band--keys, guitar, bass, and a couple of singers. It's a little outdoor gig, nothing special, bunch of friends, friends of friends, maybe 30 people. We get set up, we're running a real small PA--Peavey powered mixer, couple of 2-way 15 inch Yamaha tops--enough for everybody to hear but not annoy the neighbors. The lead singer wants monitors. I tell him, sorry, there's no way to run separate monitors from this head, you'll just have to wing it. But he's got to have a monitor. While I'm not looking, he daisy chains a Galaxy Hot Spot off one of the Yammie Clubs. You guessed it, the right side went silent. Doesn't take long before we smell the problem--smoke pouring from the big speaker. I wanted to chew him out but they were his Clubs. After I explained to him again about ohm ratings and such, we threw one of my Peavey cabs on the stick and went on--this time without monitors. The Preacher Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Old Steve Posted March 25, 2004 Members Share Posted March 25, 2004 Worst gigs are kind of like childbirth to me...after the immediate pain fades away, you quickly start to forget some of the gory details. It's natures way of blocking out the bad memories that would keep you from going out and doing it again. I think I've told all my stories in the 'stupid stories' thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ATOMICDOG1 Posted March 25, 2004 Members Share Posted March 25, 2004 My best gig ever was back in 1985, I was 14 and the band I was in had our first paying gig...for an AA sober dance. it was also the first time I got drunk and the first time... oh well you get the picture. I think that that gig is what got me addicted to this biz. Even though I don't play much any more, I just can't get it out of my system, lol Man! that was some night! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Lonz Live Posted March 25, 2004 Members Share Posted March 25, 2004 Around 1986/7 my college band played a battle of the bands at a hard rock club in Manchester, NH called The Place. We didn't know it was a hard rock club, and we were decidedly a classic rock band. When we get there, the place is full of big hair and spandex. Many of the audience were wearing tee shirts saying ROXX, one of the bands. I was probably wearing sneakers, jeans and a tee shirt. Our lead singer/guitarist was wearing a pair of white cordouroys, paisley shirt, a suede vest with fringe and cowboy boots. We stood out like sore thumbs. Of course we have to go on first. We were nervous as all hell. First two songs went off without a hitch, and garnered polite applause. During the third of four songs, our retro guitarist broke a string and had no spare guitar, nor did I. I couldn't believe what he did. He asks for the lights to be turned on brighter on the stage and proceeded to change his string, while the rest of us just sat and watched him with our collective thumbs up our asses. Well, the audience couldn't control themselves and they start heckling us mercilessly. "Hey get a spare guitar" etc, etc. OK, it seemed mercilessly at the time. With the lights on I couldn't really see the audience and I must say that was the most uncomfortable two minutes I've ever experienced on stage. We finished with a bang up version of Zep's Rock and Roll and left the stage. The second band was very heavy, but not very good. Of course they also did Zep's Rock and Roll. ROXX came on and immediately showed why 75% of the audience was wearing their tee shirts. They were polished 80's metal personified. Anyway, despite the fact that we played music these folks hated, with the exception of Zep, we came in second. Not bad, for what I consider our worst gig. Peace. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members abzurd Posted March 25, 2004 Members Share Posted March 25, 2004 Last Saturday was best gig I can think of. Cool thing is the venue felt the same way!!! You have a new message in your guestbook ========================= From: Crowns A huge thanks needs to go out to you guys (NEXT EXIT) for helping us break a sales record at the Crown Sports Lounge last saturday night (3-20-04). Great turnout and you guys played awesome! The staff at Crowns Sports Lounge/Westerville. ========================= Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Tommy Tune Posted March 26, 2004 Author Members Share Posted March 26, 2004 We seem to have pretty good gigs on a regular basis but I can remember a pretty bad one. My guitarist was comming for Washington DC on a rainy friday night to do a Church carnival in Wilmington De. He was 1 hour late and Jesus was no where in site to calm down the uppity folks running the carnival. I did acoustic stuff for 1/2 hour. I couldn't remember the words to anything. I let a few people sing with me for another 15 minutes. Then we let our sound guy and his wife do a few tunes. After an hour of sheer agony and embarrassment, our guitarist finally showed up. So, we played for 2 1/2 hours straight. The show went well but I felt like an idiot every second that he was late. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members moody Posted March 26, 2004 Members Share Posted March 26, 2004 Something doesn't add up.... Originally posted by lucho_84 i remember my very first gig a few years ago. i'm about to turn 18 now so i was probably like 13 or 14. ............... the time to begin arrives and we commence the show. there are less than 100 ppl in this huge gym. i'm kinda down. not used to playing crowds that small. First gig... Not use to playing crowds that small??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members One_Dude Posted March 26, 2004 Members Share Posted March 26, 2004 My worst gig was one that really never happened. We were a new group, although each of us were experienced musicians, this was to be our first job as this group. We practiced until everything seemed perfect. The gig was for an upper class crowd and held the promise of leading to additional jobs. The day of the gig I came down with a roaring sore throat and a 103 fever. I suggested that the rest of the band try to find a "sit-in" for me for the evening since I could barely even move; they decided to cancel instead. All that potential lost. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members windbag Posted March 29, 2004 Members Share Posted March 29, 2004 Worst gig ever: I was hired to play in a special church band for some big service. This was a small wind band, so I was hired to play bassoon, my first instrument. Rehearsal Friday night was fine, no problems. Saturday, I planed the end of two fingers with a power plane. You can't play a bassoon without flesh to cover open soundholes, so I winged it on euphonium on the Sunday. There was still blood leaking through the bandages, so I got the sympathy vote if nothing else. (This is why brass bands used to be so popular - you can lose a whole hand in an industrial accident and still be able to play.) Took a year to be able to play bassoon again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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