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Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | Now, THAT'S what i'm talkin' bout. |
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Location: Warren, OH | About fell out of my chair reading it... Nothing I've done comes close.
I thought it was going to be about "that smell" or something remotely similar... |
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Posts: 2487
| Believe me there's more and it's all funny I just can't type it here. It's just not right.
That was some night.
Funniest thing I remember as a young man! An it's all true.
Randy |
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Location: Boise, Idaho | Randy wins. Maybe the end of this thread. |
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Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | Well, I have to chime in. My story is a bit different.
We were a fairly well know group in Houston in the 70's and played most of our gigs in 5 or 6 of the top clubs in the area.
Within a 6 month period, 4 of the clubs mysteriously burned to the ground, never to reopen.
Think somebody was trying to tell us something? :eek: |
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Posts: 370
Location: Isle of Man, UK | Surreal gigs? I've been playing too long not to have any...
In no particular order:-
Support for a group of male strippers [not that kind of support]
On a 3-masted barque called Kaskelot, where we had to be shipped back to shore on a row boat after the gig. All the way through, I felt like Simon Le Bon singing "Rio"
In an Indie-themed marquee. I've never been so scared...
JB |
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Posts: 417
Location: Cicero, NY | Great story, Randy. Totally overshadows one of mine that wasn't exactly a "strangest place" but the first time we played with flash pots (maybe your friend came down and helped out with these too). We're all ready to start playing the opener, amps are on and turned to 10+ (smoke 'em if you got 'em, right?) and everybody's hair is just right...the drummer starts slapping his sticks and the pots go off. The problem was that they were overloaded and our lead was WAY too close. Keep in mind that we're 16 years old and have the typical nerves of warm butter. Anyway, the wall of flash scared the living HECK out of him so bad that he actually broke into tears and had to go home.
That lineup never played together again. |
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Location: Minden, Nebraska | I had an experience in a church in Nigeria in 1983. The music was going really well with multiple drummers producing amazing rhythm. The people were dancing and the house was filled with joyful energy.
The senior pastor decided to receive an offering, which in that culture is done by dancing up to the front and putting your offering in a big bowl. So, first the children danced to the front and gave their offerings and danced out a side door to dance around the church building. They were followed by the young women, the young men, the older women, the older men, and then the ministry staff and dignitaries up on the platform. Then the pastor, who was at the back of the line, pointed at the musicians and me and beckoned us to follow.
I end up at the end of the line of several hundred graceful dancers. Now, here is the kicker: one of the main reasons I took up guitar was because I was a terrible dancer -- or at least an extremely self-conscious one. It seemed that if I didn't want to dance or get asked to dance... be in the band. So that is what I did.
Now here was this choreographically challenged white guy from Nebraska doing his best to dance like the Africans who have beautiful rhythm and have been dancing since childhood. I did my best to just give myself over to the joy and move with it, but I definitely drew some stares from people in that town as they saw me dancing around the outside of the church at the end of that long line.
My self-consciousness subsided enough to dance around the place until I got to the door on the other side where everyone had entered. Being at the end of the line, I came in to find most everyone else seated and watching me make my way back to my seat as the last dancer standing. All I can say is that they were polite, and what was seen was never mentioned. And I have never been so relieved when the music started up again.
Then I was playing one of my Ovations in a church in Honduras a couple of weeks ago, where no one spoke English. After a feeble experiment singing in bad Spanish, I decided it was time to heed the old admonishment, "Shut up, and play yer gittar!" |
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Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | Originally posted by Paul Blanchard:
All I can say is that they were polite, and what was seen was never mentioned. Funny... while in a small African village, during the evenings, we sat around the campfire spinning yarns, I was regaled by a hilarious story of the "The Great White Dancer"
...and here I thought it just an old wives tale to encourage the kids to learn to dance at an early age.... |
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Location: Minden, Nebraska | Jeff - thanks for giving me my first belly laugh of the day! |
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Location: Corvallis, OR | When living in San Diego in 1970, I heard that a certain coffee house had an open mike policy after 9 pm. I showed up one night at the back door, and was immediately ushered onto the tiny stage and started my little set.
If you have ever done any performing on a stage, you know that the bright stage lights blind you for a few minutes, and you cant see the audience untill your eyes adapt.
As I played my first piece, I gradually started looking out into the audience, and saw people sitting at tables around me, and I noticed that the women had rather boney kness, and muscular looking calves. As my eyes became more and more useable, I noticed that the womean also had some pretty heavy makeup on. As I neared the end of the first piece, I realized that the women were not women, and that I had blundered into something unpleasant.
When I finished, I asked the owner what the heck was going on, and he shrugged and said, "Oh, it's just the usual Friday night crowd. Its cross dresser night.You didn't know ?"
For years afterword, I was afraid that one of the audience would recognize me on the street, and say something to me in front of one of my friends. |
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Location: Tampa, FL | It might be more interesting, 4fingers, if one of your friends came up to you one day and said, "Hey, I kind of liked your performance the other day..." :eek: |
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Location: NJ | the year is 1974.
I am in high school and our drummer got us a gig at the local "moose lodge" Apparently they had a dance every other weekend and for this saturday the "youth council" convinced the elders to have a band for the "young folks".
Well, we went on at 6 so we met at the drummer's house and packed up the equipment and drove off to the gig. We were 5 hours early since the drummer got the gig time wrong and the fat bastard that he was, was always hungry he decided he wanted to get something to eat. Me I am nervous and could not eat a cracker but since I am in the band I go along.
Well, the only place open was a truck stop. Now remember this is 1974 and I have hair down to my ass and am wearing some sort of bell bottoms with suede fringes (still have them in the closet some where) and a flourescent shirt. The other guys look slightly more conservative but not enough for a truck stop. well we go in against my better judgement and massive protests and immediately start getting crap from the truckers. You remember that scene in easy rider at the diner? multiply it by 100. I thought we were gonna die. Somehow we made it back to the moose lodge to do the gig.
Well we get to the gig and the majority of the folks there are not who we expected. In fact we found out that the "youth council" only had about 12 members. I asked the guy that hired us what to do and he just said play.
We did.
We played Neil young tunes and cream and Free and santana etc. after every tune DEAD SILENCE. I still remember the glare of the 350lg grand poobah as he looked at me in disgust.
We took a break and went outside. The band was freaking. I took charge and said guys we have to change our set list. I put together a list of 50's stuff like "kansas city" and "you belong to me" tears on my pillow, elvis stuff etc.
We went in and started the next set. I stepped up to the mic to sing kansas city since no one else knew the words, well, after the first verse we had the whole place up and dancing, the problem was I only knew one verse to kansas city and I sang it over and over, we exchanged leads back and forth hell, I even thing we did a drum and bass solo to stretch the damn thing out.
Finally it ended. There was a brief pause then the whole place burst into applause. We played every shit kicker and rocker tune I could come up with in every key in I IV V. We threw in a couple of beatles tunes in for good measure.
The night ended and I threw my guitar in the case, covered up my amp and put them in the trunk of my 67 olds delmont 88 as fast as I could. That was when the grand poobah approached me. "You know son, you boys got off to a slow start but those last 2 sets were great, we would love to have you back here again"
He paid us and they took up a collection for us to play another set and gave us a tip.
I never went near another moose lodge again. |
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Location: NJ | "One time at Band Camp . . . . . " |
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Location: Boise, Idaho | I should get my brother to join this board and chime in. He was in a band that went up and down the west coast for about 8 years. They did backup for the Drifters for awhile, who didn't show up once for a gig in an all Black bar. Course my brother and the band were about as white as you can get. They survived.
Another time they were playing up in the Yukon or Northwest Territories when the ice bridge went out. That was the only route in except by plane. He got 3 weeks of paid gigs out of that one, but the guys in town got pretty tired of his band. |
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Location: Hicksville, NY | The year was in the fall of 1995 during my years in college (actually, it was my return to college, since it was a bust the first time around!). I had a hard time "fitting in," until I discovered some students who held weekly meetings in various coffee shops. There, they would have a cup (or two) of their favorite beverage, and share each other's writings by reading them aloud. Besides originals, some of them guys and gals were very "crafty" with their ability to orally interpret other's works.
I, on the other hand, wasn't into writing, but fortunately I brought my guitar along in these meetings. When someone in the crowd pointed out that I had not shared anything, all eyes were on me. Nervous, I humbly told them the truth that I had no poetry or such to share with with them. I did, however, knew some music and perhaps it would be alright if I sang to them instead. That night, I played Jim Croce's "I'll Have to Say I Love You in a Song" and "Time In A Bottle." At the end of the second song, it was a sigh of relief knowing that they loved it! That was the very first time I ever played in front of a crowd, and it turned out to be a pleasant surprise. More coffee shop appearances followed after that ... and it all ended in the summer of 1997 when (for some unknown reason) I gave a very poor performance as an opener for Roy Hurd - a well known singer/songwriter/storyteller in the North Country region of New York. While it may be a benefit concert, that also turned out to be the biggest gig I ever played in, and I was quite humiliated and discouraged by it. I haven't played in front of an audience since.
Years later (2002), there I was working as a lowly school teacher in the NYC public schools. One day I decided to bring my guitar in the classroom, and accompanied the children to a few songs .. even simple ones like "twinkle twinkle little star." Suddenly, I felt a great desire to play again. In the here and now, I rarely play in coffee shops, but I would rather play in classrooms, facilities for person(s) with disabilities, nursing homes, parks (especially when I'm alone), and the like. As always, I prefer small, intimate gatherings. |
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Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | Originally posted by cliff:
"One time at Band Camp . . . . . " Cliff,
You play flute? |
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Posts: 2150
Location: Orlando, FL | OK, after the mime post, I reluctanly admit that around the same time I was one third of the "Orchestra" at a local dinner theater production of "Bye Bye Birdie" for about 6 weeks.
Hey, I also played rock and roll in some crappy local bars but you asked about the strangest... |
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Location: NJ | ". . Cliff,
You play flute? . . ."
Actually, I do. |
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Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | Pussy. |
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Location: NJ | That's MISTER Pussy to you, sir . . . . |
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Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | This exchange is supposed to get me laid, Right? |
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Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | Growing-up(?) a huge Tull fan, I naturally ventured down this road. I started out on a crude, "ukelele" version of a proper flute. Consisted of a length of anodized aluminum (numerous colors available) that was "tuned" and had precision holes drilled for a mouthpiece/fingering and a plastic plug in the end - from the very shop that I bought my first O in '76. Once that I was able to develop an emboucher (look it up:-) I was able t'do various little tunes with a good degree of volume and inflection. I was pretty much limited to what my finger dexterity was able to accomplish. Graduated to a silver-plated Armstrong concert flute (in C). I liked Galway, Dave Valentin, and was a HUGE fan of Tim Weissberg. Lots of fun & GREAT for the lungs & cardio. It definitely helped my singing (and vice-versa).I first taught myself based on the phrasings and styles of Ian Anderson and developed some bad habits (Anderson once admitted he always played "wrong" and went and re-learned the instrument). With an hour's practice, I can still pull off some decent tunes, but I "winded" easier now . . . . :rolleyes: |
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Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | iron lung. |
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Posts: 1300
Location: Madison, Wisconsin | "em-bou-chure" "The manner in which the lips and tongue are applied to a mouthpiece"
I'll let someone else take the next step. |
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Where's the strangest place you've done it?
