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SurfGuitar101 Forums » Surf Musician »

Permalink Worst performing experience and how you survived?

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ArtS wrote:

We played a gig (in DC maybe?) where we were so out of sync. Not sure if it was lack of practice or beer, but we were introducing new material and there seem to be a lot of hesitation, equipment malfunctioning, a broken string and it was getting embarrassing.

After two blown intros and exits, I stopped the guys and said "Dudes, Miserlou in E, can you frickin' play that?" You know what, we did and then after that and we played another familiar (comfortable) original. It gave everyone time to settle in and re-adjust gear/volume. Then we went back to our set list, asked someone to bring us some beers from the bar and all was well!

I swear I thought it was free-form-surf-jazz-night...
Viktor

Playing a show in the 80s, I looked over to see smoke rising from the direction of the keyboard player. I thought 'cool, this place has fog machines!'. Then I saw real fire ebbing out of Tommy's Vox Jaguar. To his credit he unplugged it and kept playing riffs on his synthesize till the show was over. He was a real pro! The attached video is Tommy, and the keyboard, all better.
https://youtu.be/zjQdBleZIPI

Last edited: Feb 14, 2017 06:35:45

Viktor,
Is that you on bass? That's a great video! Insect Surfers right?

Surfcat

2023 SG101 Compilation - Tribute to Noel
The Journey Home - Agent Octopus (Our SG101 Comp download)

From Atlantis with Love - Released - July 2023
Agent Octopus-Spotify
Christmas on the Beach - NEW SINGLE Dec 2023!!
Reverb Galaxy - Angle of Attack CD - BANDCAMP

Surf, the most dangerous of all musical genres...

ArtS wrote:

Viktor,
Is that you on bass? That's a great video! Insect Surfers right?

lol , yes. All 105 lbs of me. Mostly hair...

Yes,
Days gone by. Looking forward to seeing the "new" you this Monday!

Surfcat

2023 SG101 Compilation - Tribute to Noel
The Journey Home - Agent Octopus (Our SG101 Comp download)

From Atlantis with Love - Released - July 2023
Agent Octopus-Spotify
Christmas on the Beach - NEW SINGLE Dec 2023!!
Reverb Galaxy - Angle of Attack CD - BANDCAMP

Surf, the most dangerous of all musical genres...

We were invited to Chicago to play with a pretty nice guarantee. I say "nice" regarding it being enough to justify the trip without having to plan an entire tour around it. This was a "Halloween" show. So we decided to take it and pass up numerous other opportunities closer to home. I believe we only set up one date leading into it. We arrive and it is in a sports bar and grill. But we had played worse. The first band started to play around 7:00. It was an all female "alternative" band made up of members that were all underage. And, of course, their following was mostly underage. So these members had to be out of the venue by 9:00 pm. Yes, they played entirely too long. But they were having a good time. Once they were out the door our host band went on and played an amazing set. Then we went on. We were playing a pretty solid set. Anyone that is familiar with us knows that we rarely play more than 35-40 minutes. Twenty minutes in the promoter sent word that we needed to cut our set short to make room for the final two bands. So we reluctantly did. Then the next band went on, which happened to feature the previously mentioned "promoter" on lead vocals. This band went on to play a 1.5 hour set. But, yes, there was still one band to go. And the final band went on. Their audience also showed up around this time, making a once nearly empty room full just in time for their performance. Oh well...you take them as they come. But at the end of the night the "promoter" started to give me a guilt trip about our guarantee and how he had received a lot of pushback from the venue owner due to the limited turnout. Needless to say, I wasn't having it. We were twelve hours away from home with no following dates to make up for a loss. Yes, we left with our guarantee, full stomachs of great Chicago Deep Dish, and a lack of really increasing our following.

THE KBK ... This is the last known signal. We offer Sanctuary.

www.thekbk.com
http://www.deepeddy.net/artists/thekbk/
www.reverbnation.com/thekbk
www.facebook.com/thekbkal

killbabykill34 wrote:

We were invited to Chicago to play with a pretty nice guarantee. I say "nice" regarding it being enough to justify the trip without having to plan an entire tour around it.

Been there, now we never take a show where we are expected to "draw" people in. We played a gig at the old Chic's Surf Club in Maryland with 3 or 4 other bands. The "newby" band, forget their name, who played before us had a female bass player who was attractive and rock solid. We got along with her great, but the lead guitarist (and leader of the band) played on and on, and kept calling out songs. We kept telling the promoter that each band was supposed to be 45 minutes, but she was ineffective. So the newbies probably played a little under 2 hours. Our set got cut short; I was beyond pissed. And I think one the bands (maybe the Atomic Mosquitos???) got bumped completely. Never took another gig from that promoter again. Argh

Surfcat

2023 SG101 Compilation - Tribute to Noel
The Journey Home - Agent Octopus (Our SG101 Comp download)

From Atlantis with Love - Released - July 2023
Agent Octopus-Spotify
Christmas on the Beach - NEW SINGLE Dec 2023!!
Reverb Galaxy - Angle of Attack CD - BANDCAMP

Surf, the most dangerous of all musical genres...

We played a benefit for a local Co-op radio station here in Baton Rouge. The MCwas a dj and big supporter of the band. There was a huge crowd and he is giving us "the big introduction", mentioning our great reviews from Europe etc. I think we're all set to go..."Ladies and gentlemen HERE IS RONDO HATTON..." and the bass player says wait let me tune up. He proceeds to tune up audibly for 5 minutes. I wanted to kill the guy.

Trail Dust Days in Pine Bluffs, WY. We were a kind of folk-rock band. The first thing the asked us was "How many country songs do you know?" The first night was kind of rough. There was another band at a competing bar that played real country. The best food in town was the Subway. We didn't get comped for our rooms. One of the bar owners gave us a pep talk and after woodshedding at the motel, we did pretty well.

One of my favorite incidents was when a drunk cowboy came up and said, "Y'all know any Skynyrd? You know, like 'Stairway to Heaven?'"

We weren't a country band when we got there, but we were by the time we left.

I'm sure there were worse, but I seem to have blocked them from my mind.

All opinions expressed by this poster are well thought out and based on actual experience and/or scientific experimentation, except for those which are knee-jerk reactions or good sounding fantasies.

Great stories...any others welcome! Makes me not feel so alone... Cool Cool

The worst gig experiences I've had were all volume related. Not as in playing too loud ... rather, being accused of playing too loud and even yanked when we weren't. One unforgettable night at a lower east side NY dive. We got yelled at from note one. It was crazy. To the point I actually turned the amp off, got yelled at again. They made us break early, put on deafening house music, without irony or comprehension. Never again for that joint. Then there's the NY promoter who for several reasons hates me personally, so took it out on our band several times. Last time was the worst. Yanked us in the third song for being too loud. Every other band there was significantly louder. It was humiliating, and pointless. Clearly done as a warning to anyone who questioned his authority.

Four experiences, one my worst gig, the others, variations on themes mentioned in other posts.

Dateline: Minneapolis, MN, the late '70s

I was a young jazz guitarist ready to set the world on fire with my startling jazz chops. (In retrospect, they were startling, but not necessarily the good kind of startling.) I was new to the town but got a recommendation which got me an audition with an agent. I worked a night with his band and he liked my stuff. With the ink barely dry on my AFM Union card I started playing gigs, usually background music, instrumentals of Pop tunes and modern standards.

I went into these gigs cold. No charts, no rehearsals, just show up and act like I already knew the other guys. I never played with the same musicians twice, never played the same songs twice and everything was by ear. In most cases, I had never played the songs before. It was challenging, but very educational. I got to where I could tiptoe through the first verse, have figured out the changes by the second verse and could play a solo after the chorus. I think it was a combination of youth, a good ear and a bit of luck.

Then, one summer's night, I played a wedding on West Broadway in Minneapolis, which was a rough neighborhood then, but would require urban renewal to even ascend to the level of "rough" these days. The instructions were: "Play Country and Rock. Be sure to act like you know the guys when you get there." When I got there, it was a blue collar wedding in a cheap rented hall. Knowing it was a rough part of town, I left my Gibson Johnny Smith at home and used a Les Paul that one of my students owned.

The "guys" turned out to be a grandfather/grandson duo, the grandfather on accordion and the grandson on drums, and panting to keep up. The song selection was simple, a polka, then a schottische, repeat infinitely until the end of the night. The accordionist couldn't even begin to understand how I could follow him without charts and was bound and determined to make my night as miserable as possible. He didn't call out names of songs, not to mention keys, probably from ignorance of the latter.

The crowd hated us, with good reason and by 15 minutes in, it was obviously not going to be a good night. The attendees got drunker as the night wore on and for the most part this mellowed them, but during the third set there was talk of uprising and a sympathetic listener warned me that a few of the guys were going to storm the stage and take our instruments. That matter resolved relatively quickly, because when I saw them coming I grabbed the Les Paul by the neck, elevated it and asked who wanted to be the first to get a dented forehead. We survived, somehow, but it was a suck night if there ever was one.

In the eighties, I was no longer playing for money, but did some casual gigs from time to time. I met a woman that played jazz piano and she asked me to play some gigs with her. Several times, she played jazz in a biker bar, which I never understood. This place was Skynyrd territory and maybe some early Doobie Brothers, but this diminutive woman would play jazz piano in the background. I have no idea why they would have hired her. The last time I played there, a chair flew past me just as I stood up at the end of a set. I think it was aimed at someone else, but I'm not certain. The person that threw it may not have been either.

Living in Arizona, there are RV parks galore filled with retirees from up north. Many of these hire bands and the best way to be known is to go play at the afternoon jam sessions most parks host. One park, which claims to be the most elite in the area, hosts a Sunday jam in their recreation room. Here's the deal, they want the music to be sub audible. So you'd be on a stage with. perhaps, 12 - 15 people playing, and were required to keep your amp so lo that you couldn't even hear yourself. One day I played an acoustic, un-amplified and was sternly told to turn that guitar down.

The final comes under the category of sound disasters. We played an outdoor neighborhood festival where various homes in the neighborhood competed for the attention of various people that wandered by. Thee were catering trucks and about two bands per block.

We used a PA provided by a fellow that was with us for a few months, and he was having a hell of a time getting the settings right. I finally told him to mute the mains and get the monitors setup, then set the mains to whatever volume the crowd required. We played our 90 minutes and drew a fair crowd. It seemed like the Surf went over better than anything else. When we were packing up, the PA owner realized that he had never brought the mains up and anything the crowd heard was either from the monitors or directly from the amps.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

Synchro,
Even though I'm from the generation, I just won't play for retirees. What you described is what I call the "nursing home/geriatric volume" level. I've had complaints with amp volume on '3' as well as "strumming too loud" on just an unamplified Maccaferri gypsy jazz guitar.
As has been said - "If it's too loud then you're too damn old". ForChrissake - listen to Perry Como or Bing Crosby and leave me alone.
J Mo

I would go in with a 5 watt amp and barely have the volume off of zero.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

I work in hospice and sometimes get stuck visiting Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) of a Friday when they have the entertainment program going in the common room. I dread these occurrences as I can’t get any chaplaincy work done when the entertainers are carrying on at very high volume. The clients are deaf and need it to be at concert level to enjoy it. No thumping bass mind you but full karaoke with hundreds of watts blaring vocal + backing.
So I don’t get this ‘geriatric’ volume smear. Those people like it cranked.

Squink Out!

JObeast,
"People like it cranked" (??!!) - Maybe in your experience but most certainly not in mine. A few times was enough for me. Count yourself lucky.
J Mo'

JObeast wrote:

I work in hospice and sometimes get stuck visiting Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) of a Friday when they have the entertainment program going in the common room. I dread these occurrences as I can’t get any chaplaincy work done when the entertainers are carrying on at very high volume. The clients are deaf and need it to be at concert level to enjoy it. No thumping bass mind you but full karaoke with hundreds of watts blaring vocal + backing.
So I don’t get this ‘geriatric’ volume smear. Those people like it cranked.

There’s no “smear” intended or implied. I am relating a real world experience where the management some of these 55 and older RV parks have become quite indignant with regard to volume matters and, in my opinion, have taken it to an extreme. I’m talking about them objecting to an archtop being played accoustically and doing so with indignation.

For the record, I do not like to play “cranked”. I like to have the amps at a level where they are responding in a non-linear fashion but not to the point of breakup. Very rarely so I use an amp larger than 22 Watts and I have two 5 Watt amps which I prefer when mic’d through a PA. When we are mic’d, our stage volume is usually at living room levels. Actually, the loudest playing we are likely to do is when we rehearse, because we’re confined to a 500 sq ft area and have to play loud enough to,hear ourselves over the drums.

I have no intention of “smearing” the elderly in any way. I have had and lost (to death) many dear friends in this age group. The places I mentioned tended to be managed by people that had a bit of an attitude. It may be that they’ve had some bands which actually were too loud and it’s a bit of a sore spot. Nonethelsss, it doesn’t make for a pleasant situation. I don’t enjoy being treated like a petulant child, or being treated as if playing Chet Atkins numbers at a modest volume is somehow the same thing as playing Hendrix at Woodstock volumes.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

Nice stories...makes me not feel these things just happen to me

philjudd wrote:

Nice stories...makes me not feel these things just happen to me

It’s a big, fun, wonderful thing to be a musician. I guess we gotta pay for that in some fashion. Smile

I look at all the experiences I had and I laugh, mostly at myself. One thing I’ve learned is to crank it up to a reasonable level and enjoy the fact that I’m able to wail away on an electric guitar. Music is about expressing ourselves and joy is an important expression.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

synchro wrote:

JObeast wrote:

I work in hospice and sometimes get stuck visiting Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) of a Friday when they have the entertainment program going in the common room. I dread these occurrences as I can’t get any chaplaincy work done when the entertainers are carrying on at very high volume. The clients are deaf and need it to be at concert level to enjoy it. No thumping bass mind you but full karaoke with hundreds of watts blaring vocal + backing.
So I don’t get this ‘geriatric’ volume smear. Those people like it cranked.

There’s no “smear” intended or implied. I am relating a real world experience where the management some of these 55 and older RV parks have become quite indignant with regard to volume matters and, in my opinion, have taken it to an extreme. I’m talking about them objecting to an archtop being played accoustically and doing so with indignation.

For the record, I do not like to play “cranked”. I like to have the amps at a level where they are responding in a non-linear fashion but not to the point of breakup. Very rarely so I use an amp larger than 22 Watts and I have two 5 Watt amps which I prefer when mic’d through a PA. When we are mic’d, our stage volume is usually at living room levels. Actually, the loudest playing we are likely to do is when we rehearse, because we’re confined to a 500 sq ft area and have to play loud enough to,hear ourselves over the drums.

I have no intention of “smearing” the elderly in any way. I have had and lost (to death) many dear friends in this age group. The places I mentioned tended to be managed by people that had a bit of an attitude. It may be that they’ve had some bands which actually were too loud and it’s a bit of a sore spot. Nonethelsss, it doesn’t make for a pleasant situation. I don’t enjoy being treated like a petulant child, or being treated as if playing Chet Atkins numbers at a modest volume is somehow the same thing as playing Hendrix at Woodstock volumes.

Sync,
Dude, I’m on your side. By ‘smear’ I don’t mean something like ‘racial slur’. I’m just pointing out the irony of entertainment in the geriatric context.

Squink Out!

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