Jump to content

Feeling Uncomfortable Right Off the Bat


Sgt. Rock

Recommended Posts

  • Members

Had a strange uncomfortable gig feeling yesterday.

 

Showed up for a private party at a gated community clubhouse and found out it was a bridal shower. 45 girls and women, ages 12 to 60. My 2 bandmates and I were the only males in the place.

 

Everything went great, though. They loved the music and paid me in cash. Doesn't get any better than that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Had a strange uncomfortable gig feeling yesterday.


Showed up for a private party at a gated community clubhouse and found out it was a bridal shower. 45 girls and women, ages 12 to 60. My 2 bandmates and I were the only males in the place.


Everything went great, though. They loved the music and paid me in cash. Doesn't get any better than that.

 

I'll go ya one better...my band was booked to play a wedding reception, so we were dressed nicely, only to find out it was at a nudist resort (a small fact that we weren't informed of at the time of the booking)...

 

BTW, the drummer and bassist/girl singer (husband/wife) were devout CoC and were NOT interested in performing nude, and not happy about being there...AWKWARD! :eek:

 

That was one L-O-O-O-O-O-N-G gig! :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Moderators

I'll go ya one better...my band was booked to play a wedding reception, so we were dressed nicely, only to find out it was at a nudist resort (a small fact that we weren't informed of at the time of the booking)...

just a small, inconsequential detail...:rolleyes:

not much point in trying to imagine the audience naked under those circumstances...

played an event at a well known nudist colony many years back, and we were told our performance was 'clothing optional'...fortunately, back in those days I played my guitar slung low...;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

I always call before I fire up the equipment truck. I call the venue and ask,"Hey, you all have a band tonite?" If it the right answer, I start the truck.

 

 

Great idea. And if you ask what time the band starts, you'll know that your real downbeat will be 90 minutes later, which will be 20 minutes after the soundguy shows up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Speaking of nudists. I was walking along the beach of a state wildlife refuge many years ago, with my camera to capture some great wildlife photographs, and unknown to me, the nudists had established it as their beach. I walked paste a few naked sun worshipers and thought nothing of it. Pretty soon there were dozens. I had a swimsuit on and was carrying a camera, and soon I felt like I was a pervert. So I took my suit off and continued walking, being careful not to point my camera in the direction of any sun bathers.

 

I never got a good wildlife picture, but I did get a little sunburn in a place that never got burned before.

 

But that's hijacking the thread so I'll get back on topic.

 

In Florida New Year's Eve is a big party. Back in the late 1960s a person in a condominium was desperate for a NYE band so he hired us. We told him we were a rock and roll band, but he offered us big money and hired us anyway (we should have refused).

 

So we got there, and the place was full of grey hairs. Back then, retired people listened to Glenn Miller and thought Elvis Presley was too modern. Talk about uncomfortable. We could do nothing to pleas them. They were very angry and some of them even yelled at us. We tried to explain the person hiring us knew what he was getting and even heard us before hiring us, but that didn't matter.

 

Lesson learned - unless they are offering millions - up front - refuse any gig you aren't comfortable with.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Too funny...one time I played a gig at a bar down in Dayton (same place I'm at this Saturday night but under different ownership) and they forgot they booked me...bartender was surprised to see me. He wanted to confirm with the owner that I was scheduled...I was thinking, brother, I drove an hour and a half to be here, I'm playing whether I'm scheduled or not...needless to say, I was scheduled but it was awkward at first to say the least.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...
  • Members

I hate it when you show up for a gig and the owner and workers look at you with that "deer in the headlamps" look, which says "we weren't expecting you".
:rolleyes:

 

Have to necropost here a bit.

 

How about when you show up for a gig and the manager not only looks at you with that look, but actually has no idea you were supposed to be there?

 

As in, the booking person booked you and the venue didn't actually know. Just happened to me - that was awkward.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I think everyone has their breaking point-the point when you walk or refuse to do something. I think it may happen more in private gigs where people who aren't used to hiring musicians ask for something outrageous or offensive. If I showed up at a gig, and it turned out it was a nudist resort and they didn't tell me, I might have walked. Not that I have anything against attractive nude females, but if I have to look at fat old dudes with their business hanging out while I'm playing, I think there's a very good chance I'm out of there. If I had agreed in the first place, no biggie. Spring that crap on me when I get there, and I'd get my back up.

Once I was doing some background music-playing solo flamenco guitar and the lady who hired me walks up and puts a red cordobes hat on me with dingle balls. For a second I thought "whatever" and then thought about how I must have looked. I took it off and handed it to her. She said "No?" and I said "No"

Another time a lady wanted the flanmenco dancers to be on a stage 100ft from where I'd be acconmpanying them. She was insistant. Again, that was a no. My dad told me that you can't let people make the rules when it comes to your own business. He said you aren't going to walk into a car dealership and tell them how it works. He was right I think. You have to establish the rules for your own business.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

A lot of the gigs I do are the same; I feel totally uncomfortable at first but it always ends the same way with people digging it. Many times I ask myself at the start of a night how I'm ever going to get through it but I always do.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

Have to necropost here a bit.


How about when you show up for a gig and the manager not only looks at you with that look, but actually has no idea you were supposed to be there?


As in, the booking person booked you and the venue didn't actually know. Just happened to me - that was awkward.

 

 

Hate it when that happens, and it happens at least once or twice a year...usually, the person who set the booking up is no longer there, and never told the new "booker" the score...

 

I always bring my copy of the contract, though, and by proving I was booked prior to the other person standing there w/ his or her guitar, I generally don't get screwed...and one time, management told the two of us that we'd take turns doing 45-minute sets and both would get paid, as per our bcontracts...and really, you can't get fairer than that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...