What's been your most "uncomfortable" gig?

[jpfeifer]

Hi Everyone,

This past weekend our Beach Boys/Surf/Oldies band was hired for a wedding reception. Normally, we're excited about these events because this music is good for a mixed crowd and everyone likes to dance to it. Perfect for a wedding celebration.

So many of the details of this gig were vague from the wedding coordinator, but our understanding of the event was that it would be held inside of a large air-conditioned reception hall with plenty of room, etc.

We arrived at the gig only to find out that the venue was being held in a residential backyard. Normally, this isn't a huge deal, however I forgot to mention that I live in Phoenix and it's late June. It's so hot that the dairy cows are giving evaporated milk this time of the year. The temperature on Saturday peaked at 112 F on the afternoon of our gig. Luckily, we were setup under the shade of a large tree but still our equipment was getting really hot, and I was very concerned about my guitars. We had to chug water for the entire gig to keep from passing out

We made it through the gig, probably a few pounds lighter than we arrived. But we got through it. I felt very sorry for our drummer who had more of a physical job than we did, although the entire band was melting by the end of our gig.

I kept wondering who would knowingly plan such an event, outside, in Phoenix in late June? They should have their head examined.

--Jim

 

[mapka]

Well as we out East here say, "At least its a dry heat" :thumbsup :thwap
Man that sucks. I went to a military academy and every Sunday in the spring before the end of the school year we had a military style parade (see the movie Taps for reference. Filmed at the school and uniforms were similar) We had to wear 100% wool uniforms (grey tunic, black pants, and a black helmet that weighed about 2 pounds). One Sunday they gave an award at the parade to a Senator or some such person. He was in the shade and we, on the hand, were in the 90 degree humid sun. He talked like Foghorn Leghorn and rambled for an hour. Cadets were falling like flies. lock your knees and before you know it your blacked out heading nose first for the tarmac. i survived but watched many a man fall. Got back to the barracks and t-shirt I was wearing was so wet it was like I jumped into a pool with it on!

 

[Eric]

Considering I've only ever "gigged" at church, I don't have much to share in the way of stories. That sounds like a bummer of a gig for you, Jim.

 

[Perfect Stranger]

Back during high school, about 40 years ago.....my band played for the mental patients at the state mental hospital. Had to be the strangest gig of MY career.

 

[R_of_G]

Back during high school, about 40 years ago.....my band played for the mental patients at the state mental hospital. Had to be the strangest gig of MY career.

Like this?

 

[marnold]

First, some background:
My Synod (church body) has worker-training system of prep schools which in turn feed the college and then eventually the Seminary. At the time there were three prep schools and two colleges. Now we're down to two and one, respectively. Anyway . . .

When I played bass in a bluegrass band in college (we called ourselves "Ban Jovi") someone in the recruitment department thought it'd be a good idea to send us to one of the prep schools to play and then someone would speak about the college. We also went with a barbershop/a cappella group. I assume they chose us because we didn't technically need a drummer/drum kit. The girls at the school thought the a cappella group was all that. Then we came on. Let's just say that not many high schoolers in the late 80s were into bluegrass. We played to mostly semi-respectful silence, although if rolled eyes were audible I would have been deaf. I was laughing for most of it just because it was such a train wreck. The only positive reaction we got is when one of the teachers from the prep school was trying to take a picture of us and I mugged with a profoundly stupid grin.

That school was the one that closed, but I'm not sure that it had anything to do with us.

 

[ZMAN]

Most likely a last minute fix. I knew a couple of young people who rented a hall and paid the money down. They then decided to change the date and couldn't get a hall for that date. They lost their deposit and ended up doing it on the
"cheap" in a friends yard under a tent. I would be all over the wedding planner about that one.

 

[NWBasser]

Back during high school, about 40 years ago.....my band played for the mental patients at the state mental hospital. Had to be the strangest gig of MY career.

There must be more to this story!

 

[jpfeifer]

While I'm on a rant about weird gigs the other part I forgot to mention about this gig was the fact that some people in the audience seemed to help themselves to our equipment during our breaks and take a test drive on the drum set & keyboard for as long as they like. What is it about some people who think that it's o.k. to just walk up and try out the drums, or allow their children to pile on someone else's professional gear and bang away? It's just inconsiderate especially when the band is not a family member, but a hired group to play for their event.

We almost felt like asking these parents "hey, would you mind handing me your car keys? I'd like to take your car out for a spin while you're on break, not driving it"

--Jim

 

[scruff]

Well as we out East here say, "At least its a dry heat" :thumbsup :thwap
Man that sucks. I went to a military academy and every Sunday in the spring before the end of the school year we had a military style parade (see the movie Taps for reference. Filmed at the school and uniforms were similar) We had to wear 100% wool uniforms (grey tunic, black pants, and a black helmet that weighed about 2 pounds). One Sunday they gave an award at the parade to a Senator or some such person. He was in the shade and we, on the hand, were in the 90 degree humid sun. He talked like Foghorn Leghorn and rambled for an hour. Cadets were falling like flies. lock your knees and before you know it your blacked out heading nose first for the tarmac. i survived but watched many a man fall. Got back to the barracks and t-shirt I was wearing was so wet it was like I jumped into a pool with it on!

Off topic, but...You went to FU? I went to Camden in South Carolina. Similar experience.

 

[Eric]

While I'm on a rant about weird gigs the other part I forgot to mention about this gig was the fact that some people in the audience seemed to help themselves to our equipment during our breaks and take a test drive on the drum set & keyboard for as long as they like. What is it about some people who think that it's o.k. to just walk up and try out the drums, or allow their children to pile on someone else's professional gear and bang away? It's just inconsiderate especially when the band is not a family member, but a hired group to play for their event.

I think it's the longstanding attitude of music being a hobby and instruments being toys -- at least when it comes to non-orchestral music. My mother-in-law has commented on my pedals being "toys" in the past. I understand the idea, in that it's something that is for my enjoyment, but it comes off as dismissive, condescending, and disrespectful. I think that attitude is pretty common among non-music people.

 

[scruff]

My most uncomfortable gig so far was back in high school, for whatever reason my metal/hard rock band got booked to do a church picnic. No idea how all this went down. We were cadets in a military school (I was 17), very little practice time, all that sort of thing, and you know someone had to know someone to get us the special permission required to even go to this church thing, much less play there.

Anyway, we were playing stuff like Black Sabbath to a hardcore church crowd, and being largely ignored by the "understanding" older folks there. Sometimes at these events there's one table or corner of the room where the church people's rebellious teenage kids hang out. Well we kinda got them rockin a little, and that's when the organizers of the event decided to stop being "understanding" and save our souls. They staged a little revival right there, just for our benefit. Man, we couldn't get back on the bus fast enough. I laugh about it now, but back then I was scared out of my mind.

 

[Monkus]

Played at a school for the deaf once, it started out really really weird but ended up okay. They clapped. :rockya

That story made me remember this one. When I was in my late teens we played at a church where there was this deaf kid about 11 or so. We were acoustic and the kid kept coming up and touching our guitars while we were playing. We didn't know he was challenged until (and really I don't know what made me do it) i put his hand on the body of my guitar. He stayed there for the entire session, with a kind of zen on his face. Awesome experience. Maybe we should start a thread with most inspiring gigs....

 

[mapka]

Off topic, but...You went to FU? I went to Camden in South Carolina. Similar experience.

No went to VFMA (Valley Forge Military Academy)

 

[deeaa]

Most of my gigs have been very very uncomfortable. I don't know how a gig could be very comfortable actually, it's always a mix of being stressed for time and fervently hauling things around and making them work and then waiting for hours on end in some place you'd rather not be.

Anyway, I guess the top three would be...in no particular order...once we had to play a gig on a stage so small ( I dunno what the designer built it for) that we had to open a door behind it (thankfully a double door) and the drummer had to play in the room behind us, and STILL I had to sit on my amp the entire gig, because there literally was not enough room to stand on the stage once we'd put up our gear. And there were like 6 people watching us anyway.

Another really bad one was once there had been some sort of misunderstanding between the bar and our agency, and instead of our normal 45-60minutes rock burst we had to play three separate hour long sets. There were maybe half a dozen viewers at best, who kept changing...and we played till like 2 in the morning, everyone dead tired from the gig the night before, and had to play long improvs and whatnot. We also got so drunk towards the end that the bassist fell off the stage. Had to sleep in my car after that too, as it was too late to drive to the next venue...so we slept sitting on the seats...kind of. Guess how refreshed and eager we were on the next gig...

And finally, the only time I was the culprit really was once we were playing in this rather large festival, and I got either too much to drink or something like a sunstroke, and I felt like I was having a panic attack all the time. At least twice I quit the song at the solo section, because I thought it was over, and it was generally just horrible, I dunno how I managed to get thru it somehow. I felt I was in hell. Also broke 2 strings at the end, which I never do, and I was so disoriented I could not fix the situation, so we played the final songs without my guitar and they must have sounded really hollow.

But yeah, I could go on for hours like that...in fact, out of a hundred gigs, I'd say maybe 10 were enjoyable, all the others were more like varying degrees of being in hell really.

 

[bigoldron]

Like Eric, I've only played with our church band, but we had two separate times when we played outside when the weather decided to turn cold with a 30 mph wind. Once we were on the front porch of the church for a "Fall Festival" (no Halloween in a Baptist church - lol) and it kept getting colder and colder so when we finished our teeth were chattering. We also played at our town's "Harvest Festival" at the city pavilion downtown. It was an overcast day, not TOO cold until the wind kicked up. It was blowing about 20-30 mph and the pavilion had a concrete floor and a roof that acted as a wind tunnel. My hands were hurting and numb before we finally got through!

 

[Eric]

Like Eric, I've only played with our church band, but we had two separate times when we played outside when the weather decided to turn cold with a 30 mph wind. Once we were on the front porch of the church for a "Fall Festival" (no Halloween in a Baptist church - lol) and it kept getting colder and colder so when we finished our teeth were chattering. We also played at our town's "Harvest Festival" at the city pavilion downtown. It was an overcast day, not TOO cold until the wind kicked up. It was blowing about 20-30 mph and the pavilion had a concrete floor and a roof that acted as a wind tunnel. My hands were hurting and numb before we finally got through!

That actually reminds me of a story. The past couple of years, I've gone Christmas caroling with some co-workers in a neighborhood near work. The organizer of it brought his acoustic guitar both years, and both years it was ridiculously cold. I kind of split time with him on the guitar, and it's the only time I actually have not been able to tell what I'm playing -- because I couldn't feel my fingers! Makes it kind of difficult to play...

I suppose that would have to be my most uncomfortable "gig."

 

[deeaa]

Yeah it doesn't really even have to be very cold outside and it's quite uncomfortable. Luckily I never had to play anywhere really cold...but I've been loading the equipment and 'touring' with a tiny Escort and a trailer with a full band in -32 degrees weathers with strong winds, that was pretty uncomfy.

This thread sure brought some memories

 

[jpfeifer]

In college I played with a small Jazz combo and somebody was crazy enough to hire us to play for the opening of a Burger King fast food restaurant. We setup inside right by the place where you place your order. All of the customers were annoyed with us because they had to shout to get their orders heard by the attendants at the cash register. We were getting odd stares from the customers and other employees as we played our songs from "The Real Book". I remember how it felt on that gig, hoping that the whole thing would end quickly since nobody wanted the live music, even though we were obligated to play.

Another uncomfortable gig situation was also in college when someone booked our Jazz fusion band at a Blues bar, which was a popular hangout for all of the local bikers. When we started our set of fusion music the biker crowd wasn't amused at all. A large guy with tattoos, handlebar mustache, and Harley shirt, jumped onto the stage in the middle of our song, grabbed our other guitar player by the shoulders and shouted in his face "Play some f!@$ing Blues!" That's when we abruptly stopped our song and finished the rest of the night with blues progressions. I'm surprised we didn't get our butts kicked, it was close.

--Jim

 

[MAXIFUNK]

Back in the early 80's my band played in a bar in West Virginia with chicken net in front of the stage and confederate flags and pro south stuff everywhere.
We won a battle of the bands contest at WVU and the bar owner asked us to come play his 'lil ole joint" as he called it. The pay was allot more than our usual so we jumped on it instantly.

There was more people wearing skoal & various similar style hats, patriotic confederate flag t-shirts and hats everywhere, trucks with loaded shotgun racks.
The DJ was playing Country music while we were setting up and they screaming and yelling a very rowdy crowd fights the whole works. We were like man how did we end up in this joint. We played nothing but hard rock and funk that night they loved us. WHAT A RELIEF man-o-man they keep saying 'MAN YOU BROTHERS CAN ROCK HARD" buying food & rounds for us. They only got rowdier while we playing but never once did we get anything negative vibes towards us but it was hard to feel completely comfortable in that setting of confederate flag wearing folks. We played free bird and someone even pulled out a confederate flag and was waving it around. The owner gave us a tip and wanted us to play there once a month for the next 3 months, well we decided do not judge a book by its cover and we did it and couple of times the next summer (with the tip plus our pay it was one of our better playing gigs). We never had any issues but it was just damn hard to feel completely safe in that setting. Looking back now I know how guys playing the Chitlin' circuit must have felt back in the 50's and 60's.

We always made sure we had a full tank of gas before we reach this club never want to stop in that area. LOL

 

[mapka]

Wow and I thought that The Blues Brothers was all Hollywood Hoopla but after reading some of these experiences it looks like it was based on some reality!

 

[scruff]

Back in the early 80's my band played in a bar in West Virginia with chicken net in front of the stage and confederate flags and pro south stuff everywhere.
We won a battle of the bands contest at WVU and the bar owner asked us to come play his 'lil ole joint" as he called it. The pay was allot more than our usual so we jumped on it instantly.

There was more people wearing skoal & various similar style hats, patriotic confederate flag t-shirts and hats everywhere, trucks with loaded shotgun racks.
The DJ was playing Country music while we were setting up and they screaming and yelling a very rowdy crowd fights the whole works. We were like man how did we end up in this joint. We played nothing but hard rock and funk that night they loved us. WHAT A RELIEF man-o-man they keep saying 'MAN YOU BROTHERS CAN ROCK HARD" buying food & rounds for us. They only got rowdier while we playing but never once did we get anything negative vibes towards us but it was hard to feel completely comfortable in that setting of confederate flag wearing folks. We played free bird and someone even pulled out a confederate flag and was waving it around. The owner gave us a tip and wanted us to play there once a month for the next 3 months, well we decided do not judge a book by its cover and we did it and couple of times the next summer (with the tip plus our pay it was one of our better playing gigs). We never had any issues but it was just damn hard to feel completely safe in that setting. Looking back now I know how guys playing the Chitlin' circuit must have felt back in the 50's and 60's.

We always made sure we had a full tank of gas before we reach this club never want to stop in that area. LOL

MY band plays places like that now. I've never been put off by the Confederate flag, but of course here in Texas it's more about the Texas flag. Some of these biker joints, you're playing to Bandidos and other biker MCs, you just have to treat them like any other audience and they'll love ya. They're just folks, like the rest of us. Only they might tend to get a little rowdy at times, if ya know what I mean. When that happens, you just keep on playing. lol

That said, for some reason they seem to gravitate toward music with heavy blues progressions. Thrill is Gone, Further On Up the Road, that kind of stuff, so our sets are full of that.

 

[kiteman]

Back during high school, about 40 years ago.....my band played for the mental patients at the state mental hospital. Had to be the strangest gig of MY career.

Interesting, we played at a local state hospital. It was a variety or talent show they put on for the patients. We played Pipeline and Walk Don't Run there. That was back in the late 60s. It was fun but it was our first stage presence and we were nervous.

 

[Brian Krashpad]

double post deleted

 

[Brian Krashpad]

Oh, there have been plenty over the years.

From a physical standpoint, around '94 or '95 I played an afternoon show on the day before Easter Sunday on an outdoor stage with no cover. In north central Florida, it's already HOT by Easter, and at one point my bass amp just stopped working. I borrowed a little fan for it and after it cooled down I got it running again. Up there with that'un was a show that I played with Crash Pad a few years later on July 2, 1999, in a venue that had no air conditioning and no windows, here's a pic from that:

It was stifling onstage but in the name of fashion I wore that denim bike jacket and the wighat for the whole set. Another heatstroke in the making occurred on August 11, 2007 at a show in Ocala, Florida (45 minutes south of Gainesville). Same deal, no windows, no A/C. There was a big shop fan at the back of the venue but the breeze did not reach the stage. At least I didn't wear a wig or anything, but a couple times onstage I thought I would either puke or pass out from the heat.

In the emotionally/psychologically "uncomfortable" area, I've played a number of house shows that've been shut down by cops, and that's seldom fun. Worst of those was one with Allen Wrench (same band as the Easter weekend show) in the mid '90's, that turned out to be my last night as a member. It was supposed to be a practice at their house, but it turned into a party and the cops showed. There was beer there and other intoxicants, and some of the other band members' (all of whom were much younger than I) friends were under 21. The cops tore the house up a bit looking for anything illegal, which they didn't find, and threatened us all with arrest, and me personally with same on the twisted logic that because I was the oldest person there, that made me "responsible."

Another threatened arrest came with Crash Pad on June 12, 2000, but that was a bit more fun. It really deserves it's own post though, so I'll break off here for now.

 

[Brian Krashpad]

Back in 2000 Crash Pad was asked to play at Media Play. They sold music and books and computer games and guitars and t-shirts and just about anything else even vaguely connected with entertainment. Huge-*** store. How they found us or why they chose us I don't know to this day. Got an e-mail out of the blue.

Anyhow, the deal was: would we like to play in-store, at like 11 pm on a Monday night? They wouldn't pay us, but we could sell CDs and stuff. They would have a promotion where new releases would be available at midnight. We would have to bring our own PA.

So I brought them a CD of ours just to make sure they really wanted a loud punk rock band, and could actually hear our material. No prob, I'm told.

You can guess where this is going.

We get all set up in the middle of the store. First song, and the night manageress comes running up and says we have to turn down. We're already playing as low as we can and still be heard over the drums. I explain that drums don't "turn down." She's pissed because her stupid sales staff can't hear their in-store pagers.

Not my problem, they shoulda thought of that when they hired us.

So she orders us out.

My response is that she's breached the contract hiring us. She has two options to avoid breach: let us play as agreed, or pay us for the lost promotional opportunity and out-of-pocket costs including our time in going out there for nothing.

Of course she says no way.

Our other guitarist says over the PA (just before I shut it off): "Media Play does not respect local artists and is trying to back out of letting us play here!" along with a couple well-placed cusses. Meanwhile manageress lady is calling the cops.

So I tell the kids to pack it in, and tell the lady we'll see her in court.

We get out to the parking lot to load up and 3 sheriff's deputies' cruisers roll up. "What seems to be the problem, guys?" I explain that Media Play hired us and then wouldn't let us play because of their dumb-*** in-store pagers, and we were just leaving. The cops actually laughed at the manageress for calling them out there over such a matter. We took some photos with the cops and actually discussed the punk rock with one of them.

Unfortunately the cops shots didn't come out because of the poor lighting outside, but we did get some of our single song:

So anyhow the next day I call the store manager, explain what happened, and tell him they owe us some bucks or I'll sue him. And even if we don't win it'll still be fine because they'll have to hire local counsel and spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars defending, plus they'll look like dolts in the local media. I might have let slip that I wrote for a regional entertainment magazine at the time.

The following day one of their corporate counsel from Minnesota or some such place calls me. We have the same conversation. I tell him the whole thing can go away for a hundred bucks, which is roughly our gas, time at minimum wage (including doing flyering, trips out to the store, etc.), and incidental expenses (such as flyers).

They thought about it for awhile and decided to cut their losses. I still have the receipt for the hundred bucks somewhere. Plus, I wrote a song about it called "One Hundred Dollars" that used to be in our setlist thereafter. And, although Crash Pad still exists, that store has long since bitten the dust.

All's well that ends well.

 

[kiteman]

Wow, cool story bro.

 

[Eric]

Nice. Way to be a hard-***, BK. It was justified, methinks.

 

[Brian Krashpad]

Nice. Way to be a hard-***, BK. It was justified, methinks.

Haha, I RARELY play the lawyer card. But they kinda d*cked us around, and calling sheriff's deputies when we were more or less civil with them (a few swear words by our other guitarist notwithstanding) was a bit much.

I doubt I'd actually have bothered to sue them. But it was worth the bluff.

 

[kiteman]

Nevertheless it was a breach of contract and you stuck to your end of it.