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| The Ovation Fan Club | ||
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| Random quote: "One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain." - Bob Marley |
 OT: WHAT'S THE WORST (OR WEIRDEST) GIG YOU'VE EVER PLAYED?
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rick endres |
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Joined: August 2005 Posts: 616 Location: cincinnati, ohio | Originally posted by Mark in Boise: "I keep expecting dark bar to post a video of his performance in his infamous shirt." Rick, I don't think I could do "laid back." I'd stress out too much and then screw up from lack of sleep. I keep expecting dark bar to post a video of his performance in his infamous shirt. I looked for it, but I think it been banished from the internet along with OMA's half naked performance. Then of course there was Slipkid's cocoanut bra performance. There is plenty of photographic evidence in the archives of gigs that should have been embarassing to anyone of normal sensitivities, but those people apparently have no shame, or they don't think of those as "gigs". Dark bar and his infamous shirt? Uhhh...Bob? :D Mark, I guess what I meant is, once someone moves past the point where he/she realizes they're not going to be a first-tier, arena-filling rock star, that doesn't mean they can't play live gigs and have fun doing it. Looking back on it now, we were all gung ho about making the "big time" back in the day. Jody and I were only nineteen years old when we first started (Laura was only sixteen). We were just babies. We had made some good inroads into the local music scene. Then all of a sudden we actually were staring at a bona fide chance to jump in the same pool with people like Eagles and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. And all of a sudden, we felt like we'd be some little guppies swimming in a tank full of sharks. I guess you could say cooler heads prevailed, and we passed on our chance to grab the brass ring. I still wonder, though, what might have happened. We might be rich, retired rock stars living in Beverly Hills mansions. Or we might be Skid Row derelicts in LA. Anyway, once we got past that silliness, I came to the realization that I (and we) could still be a big musical fish in a little pond, and I've been playing for over forty years. To me, being a "semiprofessional" musician is the best solution. I still get out and play, but I don't have to depend on it for a living. It's kind of like the guy who tries out for the major leagues, doesn't make it, but still plays softball on the weekends. For me, music is like softball. In all honesty, from the perspective of being where I am in my life, I think if I HAD to play music, it wouldn't be fun anymore. And if it isn't fun, I don't want to do it. | ||
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| Damon67 |
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Joined: December 2006 Posts: 6996 Location: Jet City | Weirdest.... Music For Molly Mark(in Boise)'s daughter put this benefit together for the orphanage down in Haiti in honor of her friend who passed away in the earthquake (Rachel was visiting and survived). I volunteered Chasen Chantz. Here we were an adultish contemporaryish rockish band (I have a hardish time putting us into a genre) opening the show.... in a very somber atmosphere. Rachel had just come on stage where she told her story to those in attendance. You could have heard a pin drop as the curtains opened. We started our set to a crowd of weeping wet-eyed people. Then.... The TV crews showed up. FOX and ABC both at the same time, both during our set, shooting us like we were live on stage at ACL right up in our biz.  Not to mention it was my second live performance with the band. Really, my second live performance in an original band in more than 20 years. I was a nervous wreck on the inside, sweating bullets, trying to keep my cool on the exterior. I'll never forget it, that's for sure. | ||
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| Darkbar |
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Joined: January 2009 Posts: 4536 Location: Flahdaw | For what it's worth, my shirt WASN'T gay! | ||
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| alpep |
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Joined: December 2001 Posts: 10583 Location: NJ | so let me take you back to another gig..... back into the mid seventies. we had a high school band and did gigs where ever we could. dances at schools, fire companies, parties etc. for the most part we did Neil young songs, csny, the who, zeppelin, jethro tull, etc you get the picture. the drummer (it is always the drummer) who also happened to be the head singer (double whammy) booked us a gig at a local Moose lodge. Yes right out of the old Honeymooner's show similar to ralph kramden's raccoon lodge. we rehearsed for the gig and finally the day arrived. This was a monthly event that they sponsored it was catered we were paid plus meals. we packed up the van for the show and the drummer was hungry. He was always hungry. so we made our way to the gig even though we were 3 hours early. at that time the moose lodge was in a rather remote part of the state adjacent to a truck stop. The drummer decides he wants to eat at the truck stop. So we pull in and walk inside. Imagine a bunch of 18 year olds all with long hair (mine the longest) dressed in tie dyed, suede fringe, denim, day glo fabric etc walking into a TRUCK STOP. well it was like a scene from easy rider. Hey faggot, hey you wanna date, I'm gonna kick your ass, what you boys doing in this place, etc etc etc. I think I ordered a coke but figured we would not got alive. several of the truckers thought that it was funny to come over to our table and harass us directly. we just played it cool and I gave some of it back to them. I think because I stood up to them they left us alone I am still not sure to this day. I really expected to have my head kicked in at that point. but then there was the gig...... usually the grand poobah of the moose lodge booked the band but this time they let the junior auxillary book the band and it was us. So we set up and everyone starts to come in. I remember this one guy to this day. he was around 350 lbs and just sat and stared. in fact they all sat and stared right through the first set. we played the first set of neil young, tull etc and no one got up to dance there were small applause and it was almost as red neck as the truck stop. after the first set we walked outside. the grand poobah asked if we could play stuff they could dance to. I panicked and said sure. the junior aux said we were great just play what you were going. but they were only a small portion of the audience. I gathered all the guys together and said we have to change our set. we are going to do all the old rock and roll tunes from the fifties we can think of. johnnie b goode money tears on my pillow rock around the clock kansas city anything elvis we could think of etc that was the plan. let's start with kansas city I said. the drummer sneered I don't know the words. ok I'll sing it. we started I started to sing. I realized I only knew one verse. as we started Kansas city something crazy happened, the dance floor got packed they all loved it and started to dance. well we played the extended dance mix of kansas city I think we had 4 guitar solos and I sang the same verse I knew about 8 times. we stopped. thunderous applause. even the heifer in the front. next tune johnnie b goode next tune money next tune tears on my pillow. we took a break we were running out of tunes we decided to say we had a request for kansas city again so we played it again. got through the third set and started to tear down. the grand poobah came up and paid us thanked us and said if they ever let the junior aux book another gig they would call us because we appealed to both generations. the chick that booked us loved us and several of the older people in attendance came up and said they enjoyed our show. the heifer waddled over to me and shook my hand "you guys started out slow but then you got to playing that fifties music we love" I just nodded and smiled. you see at that time it was everything we could do to NOT play 50's music and be hip. when I first joined the band we played a bunch of 50's stuff because the singer bass player (played bass on the lower strings of a harmony rocket guitar) well his father was a sax player in high school in the late fifties and that was all he played and he would make suggestions to the singer and we would play all this old stuff. lucky for me I remember it for this gig and it pulled out of of the ditch. I remember screaming at the drummer on the ride home that his fat butt almost got us killed in the bus stop and that he booked us for a gig we had no business booking or playing. so moral of the story never let drummer book gigs never let drummers be lead singer never let drummers make you stop at truck stops to eat always be ready to pull out tunes from you butt when you need them. needless to say we were never booked for that gig again or if they called the drummer he never brought it up to us | ||
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| ProfessorBB |
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Joined: January 2006 Posts: 5881 Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | Great story, Al. Like Kansas City, another song that always seems to be one of those "get 'em on the dance floor" tunes is Richie Valens' La Bumba. | ||
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| alpep |
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Joined: December 2001 Posts: 10583 Location: NJ | I think we did la bamba also I just blocked most of this stuff out of my mind | ||
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| alpep |
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Joined: December 2001 Posts: 10583 Location: NJ | forgot that the heffer's parting comment to me was now you boys would be a hellava lot better if you got hair cuts | ||
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| Mark in Boise |
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Joined: March 2005 Posts: 12761 Location: Boise, Idaho | Damon, we're eternally grateful for that. Not to make it sound like Damon was sloppy seconds, but our daughter was trying to find some outlet so she could feel like she was doing something positive for Haiti, since she was one of the first ones rescued. She got the idea for a concert, almost like a variety show. When we first talked about it, she already had a band and other performers lined up, got the facility and was doing the advertising. A couple weeks before the concert, she called and asked if I knew anyone in a band in Seattle because the band she had backed out. I emailed Brandi Carlyle, but never heard back, so I contacted Damon. I knew he had recently started up a band and had lost his job, so I thought it was a long shot, but Damon worked it out and really rocked. I watched some of the news coverage and Damon did some nice solos. There would have been more news coverage, but there as a murder right down the street as the concert started, so some of the crews rushed over there. You rock, Damon. | ||
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| Darkbar |
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Joined: January 2009 Posts: 4536 Location: Flahdaw | Damn Al...those are great stories. You could write a book, seriously! | ||
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| fillhixx |
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Joined: November 2005 Posts: 4832 Location: Campbell River, British Columbia | Most situations I was the responsible one, making sure the drummer didn't take off with someone younger than his daughter; the singer didn't get his girlfriends mixed up; the venue paid in cash before the end of the gig. (always helps to go collect with the biggest guy you can find standing beside you. He doesn't have to know why he's there, just look drunk and mean.) Finding someone to back the gig who won't mind losing a few hundred (more or less) if the gig doesn't quite work out. Stuff like that. Once I DID throw a badass temper tantrum when I was a filling in with a band on a bad (slow) night and the club owner (newby and a bit wimpy) was going to pay less-than-agreed amount. The other members were agreeing when I flipped out, swearing and screaming at these guys never to call me again to fill in. Club owner was embarrassed to cause such anger between 'friends' and agreed to pay full pop after I stormed out of the office. When they came to apologize and 'placate' me with my share I said, "Good performance, huh? You can thank me now." | ||
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| rick endres |
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Joined: August 2005 Posts: 616 Location: cincinnati, ohio | Originally posted by fillhixx: Ha - that's great; I love it. Never thought of that one. I'll have to file that one away in case I ever need it.When they came to apologize and 'placate' me with my share I said, "Good performance, huh? You can thank me now." | ||
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| alpep |
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Joined: December 2001 Posts: 10583 Location: NJ | same band as the dobb's gig a couple of years later 1984 I was going to grad school in New Brunswick and coming home from thurs to sunday for rehearsals and to play gigs. things were going along well and often the rest of the band would rehearse without me mon-weds. at this time I had a cassette recorder and was taping everything. every gig every rehearsal every song idea you name it. I had a box of cassettes which pretty much documented most of the times we played. Getting home from New Brunswick was always an adventure. My lost resort was to take amtrak into Philly but most of the time I was able to get a ride. the first guy that would give me a ride was a fellow pollock kid from trenton we shared culture and it you know trenton and you know Camden we shared many of the same growing up experiences. He got a basketball scholarship for princeton which impressed the hell out of me but he said it was all BS at princeton you only had TA's until you hit senior year. Oh yeah the interesting thing was he had a brain tumor and had his head shaved. he always introduced himself as NOT being a skinhead nazi just a cancer survivor. Pretty funny when me with my long hair and his skin head would pal around. Often he would give me a ride to the train station in trenton but we often stopped off at the infamous city gardens punk club for a beer or to see what bands were playing the second ride was my professor. He was a wild and crazy sort who had a girlfriend in society hill in philly. if he was going there he would give me a ride to the train in philly and all I would need to do was take the subway. we cured the ills of the world several times over on the ride home. since he was a lush and I was not far behind the ride consisted of a few pitchers of beer before we headed out. the third ride was a guy in my class that lived near the moorestown mall. about 30 minutes from where I lived at the time but without cell phones etc I often had to wait at a pay phone for hours for someone to pick me up. He had an old chrysler that he liked to get up to about 100 on the NJ turn pike He always kept a bottle of jameson in the glove compartment that we liberally passed around on the ride home. yup driving a 100 and passing a bottle of whiskey. we should never have made it home once. one weds when I figured out my ride I called home to get my dad to pick me up at the train station, my sister told me he was in the hspt my dad was always sickly so I didn't think anything of it my sister picked me up but in the next few days my dad suddenly died. my mom took it hardest my sisters and I stood strong for her until we got home from the funeral. all my bandmates and my sisters' friends at the kitchen table drinking whatever we had in the house. it was a somber scene. I got particularly wasted and went up to my room to sleep. at some point of my drunken slumber the lead singer comes up to my room and steals ALL the band tapes he could find. Yes on the day of my dad's funeral. a few weeks later he calls to tell me that he is going to get a new drummer and since I needed to get my life together after my dad's death he was going to "let me go" from the band. Nice guy so from "forgien bodies" they became "life after bob" bob was a x drummer. none of the other bandmates although they supported me backed me up in the lead singer's decision to get rid of me. a few months past, the other guitar player's brother calls me. we were actually closer than then me and the guitarist and he asked me if I want to go to the life after bob gig. I flatly said no. he refused to take no for an answer and insisted on picking me up in his 68 Caddillac sedan de ville which we affectionately nicknamed the MTV limo. he dragged me kicking and screaming to the bar. the bar was divided into 2 rooms the bar and the room where the band played. I stayed at the bar drinking all night noticing that they cut any of my parts and my songs from their set. Well to be honest they had no one else that could play my parts but me left in the band. it was time to relieve ourselves and paul and I made our way to the bathroom, it was crowded and there was a line so off to the parking lot we went. we immediately spotted the lead singers 78 firebird and decided that since he had the t tops we could make it rain inside. instead me opted to urinate on the honeycomb wheels. as we urinated with glee soon the lead singer's girlfriend sees me and comes over saying something about how she was sorry I was no longer in the band and then stopped dead in her tracks to say " Oh you have your Mr, Pee Pee out" she then as usual made some sort of bawdy comment about how she should take care of us or something. she was always making these comments and new following through. Paul said to her "c'mom baby I am going to show you god in the MTV limo" he grabbed one arm, I the other and we dragged her kicking and screaming into the back seat of the mtv limo and locked her in. after laughing for about 5 minutes we let her out and she never ever teased us in a sexual manner again. she went on to dump the lead singer and marry Paul's brother the guitar player at their wedding we took bets on how long it would last I had 2 years. they are still married today. I came to find out the band had some sort of deal cooking with head trauma records a subsidiary of warner brothers and the were told the drummer and I did not fit the image. they had some photos taken and a press package and that was the extent of it. the lead singer moved to NY and now writes pseudo country rock and found me on face book. Using the excuse of being an alcoholic and junkie for his past since. oh yeah and come to my gig at the tin angel in philly NOPE. the lead guitarist followed me into the vintage guitar field although he gave up rather quickly now after some 25 years has decided to come and haunt me at my favorite open mic. Yes of all the open mics in the world he has to walk into mine. his wife is with him every time and I can't not help when I see her to think about the Mr. Pee Pee incident and snicker so you want more of these? | ||
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| fillhixx |
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Joined: November 2005 Posts: 4832 Location: Campbell River, British Columbia | Yes, 230 more pages and I'm putting out your unauthorized biography..... | ||
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| The Judge |
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Joined: December 2010 Posts: 19 Location: Denver | Several years ago I was singing at a wedding reception. When I started a particular song the bride burst into tears and ran for the bathroom. It turned out that it was the favorite song of her first husband who died in a car wreck. It all turned out OK but it was an awkward moment to say the least. The hardest one was a gig one night after 9-11. They chose not to cancel the party but nobody could get into it and they wanted me to sing God Bless The USA over and over again, which I was happy to do except I could barely get through it myself without losing it myself. | ||
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| ProfessorBB |
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Joined: January 2006 Posts: 5881 Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | It wasn't me, but I was there and could not believe my wife's totally professional oomposure when she sang The Lord's Prayer at her own father's memorial service. | ||
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| MusicMishka |
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Joined: March 2005 Posts: 5567 Location: Blue Ridge Mountains | Late night band gig 1977; Hampton, Virginia: One word describes it all: Chicken-wire....(ok, two)... | ||
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| Designzilla |
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Joined: December 2004 Posts: 2150 Location: Orlando, FL | There are a lot of great stories here. This is a fun thread. Thankfully I don’t have any stories like Al! I haven’t done any gigging since the 70s, but I had a few interesting experiences back in the day. One band I was in got the power turned off on us at a dance. The audience wanted another song, the people at the venue were ready to go home. With another band we got kicked out of a bar before we got a chance to play. They didn’t usually have music, but one of the guys talked the owner into letting us play. About half way through setting up the PA the owner came over and told us we would be too loud and told us to leave. The band consisted of 2 acoustic guitars and an electric bass. We played mostly blues. We assured him we would keep it down, but no luck we were done before we started. Kind of weird, I went to see Alan Holdsworth play there about 6 years later, different owner of course. Here’s one I’m not proud of, but it fits into the weird gig category. I played backup music for a mime for a while. My wife still gives me crap about that and it was more than 30 years ago! When I quit playing I ran sound for a friend’s band. I tagged along when they went into the studio a few times. At one session, Molly Hatchet were there recording too. At one point they were passing around a cereal bowl filled with cocaine. Those guys were fun! | ||
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| elginacres |
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Joined: July 2005 Posts: 1609 Location: Colorado | I'll approach this from the "venue" point of view. In the late 70s I was asked to sit in with a cover band - playing basic rhythm guitar - sing harmony when I could....typical covers of Allman brothers, eagles, beatles,early buffet etc. I was still in HS but figured I could handle it....and hey - they guaranteed me 20 bucks. They said it was outside at a pool party - a bachelor's party the night before the wedding. Ut oh.....I get to the gig - one guitar - one amp - and an extension cord. Good thing...the gig was in the pool! They had drained the pool (Olympic size) and held the party in the pool - we were in the deep end - with not too much water in the bottom - but I did get a couple lip zips of electricity if I knew the harmony. Eventually I asked why the party was in an empty pool....it was the only place the best man could figure that the wedding party would not totally destroy! Nobody died....nothing was destroyed - and we all got paid....though they could have played a radio and saved a little money. Good topic/thread | ||
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| alpep |
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Joined: December 2001 Posts: 10583 Location: NJ | so you want another one? I joined my first band when I was in 6th grade. Arthur came up to me in the play ground and said "I hear you play a cherry sunburst guitar, I have a cherry sunburst bass, we need to be in a band together" He and his nephew Mike were in the 7th grade (mother and daughter pregnant at the same time so they were the same age) and they had a manager another kid in the 7th grade named john. I think the manager's only job was to get his older brother to drive us to Mike the drummer's house in the suburbs. It was only 10 minutes from where we lived but a totally different world. as time passed we had a small group of musicians that we played musical chairs with. we had 2 bands and would swap members like people swap wives. I would up with Richie. He lived across the street from arthur and played the accordian. He convinced his old man to swap the accordian for a bass and we were in business. Richie was one of those kids that took 3 months of squeeze box lessons and could play beer barrel polka and she's too fat for me polka like no body's business. He took 3 months of bass lessons and was proficient on bass. I taught him some guitar chords and he could play guitar also. richie had an older sister and we liked hanging at his house to check out the high school girl action. She HATED us and our music and had no time for us at all. Her girlfriends thought we were "cute". Richie and I also started getting into his dad's liquor cabinet, we walked from school to his house for lunch drank some whiskey and walked back usually falling asleep in the afternoon. We borrowed some of his mom's cigarettes also. His dad was the typical DP (not dumb pollock but displaced person) immigrant. He would give us some change for soda and ice cream we bought cigarettes usually. (please forgive me Mr. Skibinski) well richie's sister diane had a girlfriend that played drums who lived down the street. That was unusual even for the 60's and although we doubted a girl could play as well as a boy we thought it was pretty cool. We found out her band was going to enter a battle of the bands and we immediately thought we should do it too. we got an application and filled it out. Richie needed an amp so we took apart an old record player and figured out how to wire it to make a bass amp. we trash picked some old radios and used the speakers from them. Arthur loaned us his father's old PA which was one of those early 50's tube rca models with the 2 field coil speakers that clipped to the cabinet. At this point artie was in the other band but we were all friends. one day we tied dyed some shirts and I found a pair of my grandfather's old wire rimmed glasses. we bought beatle boots and bell bottoms and were ready for the gig. the one problem was all of us were too shy to sing to in the spirit of the ventures and duane eddy we did everything as an instrumental. I remember o blad di o blad da along with in a gadda da vida distinctly maybe birthday by the beatles also. so the big day came we packed up and went to the community room of the Cherry Hill mall. this was back when malls had community rooms and we set up our equipment and waited. Other bands started to come in and they had full marshall stacks, fender bassman's fender and gibson guitars etc etc etc we had our small amps and home made stuff and really felt like crap. My parents and richie's parent's drove us. I think we also had a a drummer and maybe another guitar player but I my memory is foggy. we set up by the fire door. as the last few bands pulled in some with full light shows (remember this was the sixties) we felt really intimidated. We were going to sneak out the fire exit. I popped the door and off went the alarm. well we were trapped. maybe we should just take our name off the list. There were twenty bands competing and some radio dj's as the judges. the girl drummer convinced us to stay and play and as the bands started to play around the room the tension mounted. each band was better than the next and they all had singers and horn sections keyboard etc well it was our turn we played. everyone gathered around and was really nice they applauded and made us feel good. some of the guitar players and bass players came up to us and gave us encouragement and told us to keep at it etc. so to this day If I see someone really trying I will encourage them to play | ||
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| fillhixx |
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Joined: November 2005 Posts: 4832 Location: Campbell River, British Columbia | Yes, absolutely. Everyone needs and deserves all the encouragement you can spare. ...even if all they can do is make you look good by comparison. Second gig for my first band. (first was in a prison camp as the drummers dad was a guard. captive audience jokes were a large part of our story...) Playing a teen dance at the community hall. Among other things I was inordinately proud of my 50 foot curly cord for the bass guitar. To show it off, at one point I jump off the 3' high stage to dance with the girls around the stage. (guys are still holding up the walls) Time comes for me to sing again as the lead solo is almost done, I take a flying leap for the stage and catch my toe on the edge. Come down full-length on the stage on top of the bass. Big BOOM CRUNCH from my Vox 'beatle bass' amp. But I bounce up and find the mike to start singing in time....as I recall. A little bloody but proud. All I recall of that dance other than that is the other guitarist/singers mom, formerly an opera singer in Ireland, correcting my diction. "No, no PhiiiLip. It should be 'RollinG, rollinG, rollinG on the rivER!" | ||
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| rick endres |
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Joined: August 2005 Posts: 616 Location: cincinnati, ohio | Dontcha hate when that happens? :D Great stories, everyone. Alpep, I agree with Bob - you SHOULD write a book. Word of advice - when your harmonicas have been in the trunk of your car overnight in sub zero weather, don't play "Heart of Gold" as your first song. Remember "The Christmas Story?" ('I double, DOUBLE dog dare you!') :D | ||
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| ddog |
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Joined: June 2011 Posts: 31 Location: UK | I've only played one gig, but I think it might be the worst first gig I could have possibly played! This was six years ago. I'd been playing guitar for about two months. I knew about...I dunno...fifteen chords. One day I'm walking in the street and I meet a friend I went to college with. He's a far older/ more experienced musician than I am: been around for years. We start talking about music and he says he's looking to put a guitar duo together and maybe I'd like to play rhythm while he plays lead over me. I go round to his house a few times, the jams go well and he gives me list of the songs I have to learn and says he's got a gig supporting a local (popular) band in two weeks. To say I spent the next two weeks practicing hard is an understatement. By the second week I was calling in sick at work and just sitting at home playing these songs over and over (12-14 hrs a day) just trying to get all my chord changes totally smooth and perfect. Day of the gig arrives. It's in a big bar and maybe because of the other band there's maybe 150-200 people there. Oh sh*t! 20 mins before we're due to go on, my partner says he's just popping outside to smoke a joint. Hmmmm....OK....not the way I'd want to go on stage....but you know, maybe it works for him: I'm new to this! Well, I don't know how much (or what) he managed to smoke in those twenty minutes but when he comes back he's friggin loaded. No time to say anything: the host-guy (compare?) introduces us and we go on stage. People actually fall silent: this could be like a dream first gig. I count in the first song and play my little intro waiting for him to come in. Silence. He doesn't play a thing. I go right through the song on my own and he just sits there like a freaking zombie smiling to himself. I think "F**k it: I've go a job to do. I might as well keep playing rhythm. Midway through the third time through the first song he plays two notes - the WORST two notes he could have ever possibly chosen (they're still ringing in my ears!) - which sound even lamer than me just hammering away on my own. After the first song he gives me this pathetic look like "sorry man...you know". I just think. "Well, I've been booked to play rhythm guitar so that's what I'm going to do". So I proceed to play our entire set on rhythm while he just sits there being about as much use as a chocolate frog. Finished the set to really NON-enthusiastic applause. After, I go outside to have a smoke. I can hear the host on the microphone making jokes about the opening act (us) and saying that watching us was like watching the "titanic go down!". Kind of funny in retrospect, but at the time I was nearly crying! I never really forgave him for that. We stayed in touch for a while. I'm pretty good when it comes to forfgiving mistakes (having made many of my own!)I find it hard to forgive people who show me up in public. Six years down the line and I've put in a lot of hours at the guitar since then. If I ever play with other people again, though, I want the drugs to be kept for after the gig! Hope this hasn't been to boring. Went on longer than expected. ddog | ||
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| Ammons |
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Joined: August 2010 Posts: 63 | Mr ovation, prof bb, ddog, all of you - great stories! Mr Pepiak, puh-lease write more. Should you decide on a book I would be more than happy to buy it. And translate it into Romanian lol. Not measuring up to the previous, I have a cute happening of my own. I was to play in a posh venue, the National Library. Very small hall, actually a large room and not one designed for concerts, but hey. The program was something like classical meets world music - Latin American, Irish, Russian, Spanish, neatly arranged for two nylon-stringed guitars. Full instrumental, full acoustic. Lead player, one of the best classical guitarists in my country. Rhythm, self-taught me. An actor was supposed to recite some weird poetry after every couple of songs. Again, posh stuff, lots of press - but I really loved the music and the fact I could play somth a lot different thatn usual. Ok the place was packed full. People standing, people outside the hall with no hope of seeing us, just listening. One of the first times I had ever invited people on Facebook; guys, be careful how you do that, if you do it: not one, not two, but THREE ex-girlfriends showed up. AND, even better, didn't know each other and were sitting right NEXT to each other, smack in front of me. Since all of them had at various times broken my heart, this felt kinda good. But things start bad. We hurry onstage and don't tune up right. The slight difference is brain-rattling. And on top of it it's very HOT inside. We try to fast-tune between songs, this only makes matters worse. Remember I said some people were standing? At one point, a girl in her tweens, barely 5 ft away from me, collapses on the wooden flor with a loud thud amplified and reverberated by the natural echo of the room. Of course everything stops. We are like stricken, out of focus, we get up to help her, ambulance is called etc (turned out it was nothing much, low calcium and such). The three former exes come to ME to console me ("ah c'mon, gonna be ok, get on with it after the doctors leave"). Flabbergasted, I get to introduce them to one another and witness killer looks from them towards each other (remember they have an instinct for this stuff). The concert eventually went on... semi-awful. The encore was the thing that saved us (we had a WTF moment, playing something we had barely rehearsed) and people left with a smile on their faces. | ||
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| alpep |
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Joined: December 2001 Posts: 10583 Location: NJ | This time it was the sax player..... we had a sax player in our band and it gave us a unique sound. so unique that several other bands tried and ultimately were successful with stealing him from us. shortly after my father died I met up with the saxman and we started to jam. He was a good player but never improvised before. we spent hours, days, weeks, in my basement reviewing the pentatonic scale and others and just playing. I would write out the notes and say play these, now play them backwards, mix them up, use grace notes, etc etc etc. so we were set guitar bass drums and sax. The saxman was rather influenced by others and was having a hard time of it. He lived in what only could be described as an apartment rejected from the tv show hoarders because it was too unbeleiveable his room mate was a air brush artist with minimal talent that would go around stealing paints and brushes to do jobs. He also sorta played guitar. well saxman needed to have his horn repadded and went to the music store but instead he spent the money on buying a bass and insisted on playing bass. the next time he bought a guitar. well that was ok since we needed back up guitar on some tunes. some times he would be so out of tune on his horn I would lean over to the sound board and pull his fader down. I can't remember where this bimbo came from. I think she was a hand me down from someone else in our circle but she was a nutcase. Speed, pot and alcohol did not seem to help the matter any. It only amplified what a drama queen she was. saxman was in love but started to pick up her bad habits. Now he was coming late to rehearsals or high or not showing up at all. He refused to carry any equipment to the gig opting to show up 15 minutes before with his horn in one hand and this junky bimbo in another. at this particular gig, the drummer's x wife asked a sax player she knew to come and check us out at the bar. She was trying to get us a new saxman so we could have less drama in our lives. we tried to keep it from our saxman and just introduced him as a friend. the bar was divided into 2 sections the bar and then a doorway and a large room with tables where the band performed. I was on stage left where I could see through the doorway into the bar, Sue who was playing bass and saxman were on the opposite side and their view was blocked by the wall. well as our first set stated, I noticed that the saxman's girlfriend was talking to the new saxman. eventually they were getting a little friendly, then very friendly to the point where they are making out at the bar. ALL of this in my view. Now all I could think of is how am I going to keep this together so the saxman does not go ballistic and leave mid gig. I decide to combine sets 1 and 2 to make a longer extended set this worked. when I noticed that one of the couple was in the bathroom I called for a break. saxman and bimbo got together during the break all was fine we start our second set. now things are getting hotter and heaver with the second saxman still only in my line of site. we get through the last set with the saxman blowing his lungs out because I all but shut him down on the PA he was so far out of tune with us that it was just horrible. so the set ends and he discovers his girlfriend with the new guy. Of course the only way to solve it is with screaming shouting and ultimately a fight. well saxman looses, girlfriend splits with the new guy. He goes into a depression and ultimately we never used him again or the new saxguy since we did not want any drama. to this day I am still looking for someone to play sax with my band | ||
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| FlySig |
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Joined: October 2005 Posts: 4080 Location: Utah | I can never compete with Al's stories! In high school I played in a number of bands, duets, a jazz band, etc. We had a black kid in one band, who was a definite minority in that time and place, and he was a great singer and a really good looking kid. Then this red head girl moved to town that I had a crush on, so of course I started a little duet with her! We were going to play for the kids at a local rehab hospital for handicapped kids. Of course the red head girl met the black boy a couple of weeks before the show, and that was that. Plan B was cobbled together and I put together a few songs with another girl I knew named Suzanne. I played guitar, she sang, and I butchered harmonies. We played the show and all went quite well. Suzanne later married another classmate of ours, who is now a math professor and the academic advisor of my daughter Sara, at the same college I attended. Small world! My second story is from my college days. My fiance wanted me to go to a show at a nearby college. Her best friend from high school was there, too. I get volunteered to be roadie for the guy who is playing. Hauling his crap in, tuning his guitars, etc. Turns out this guy was an ex boyfriend of both my fiance and her friend. I never did find out how sequential or not their relationships were with him, but they were both obviously not over this guy in any way. It turned out not to be a very good night for me. | ||
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