Interesting stories...and new horrors playing live...

No but that's not good if it was a good bass? Or worse you left the bass player behind!

philjudd wrote:

No but that's not good if it was a good bass? Or worse you left the bass player behind!

It didn't matter if it was good bass or not, it was his only bass!

I remember the words, "Well, do you want to drive back and get it?", which thankfully he declined, and went back the next day to get it. On the bus - it took him hours.

To be fair, we both had guitars in gig bags - he saw me put my guitar in the van and for some reason assumed it was his bass. We also had a drummer who once forgot his drum stool. I don't think I've forgotten anything in the band, but did famously turn up at work barefoot with no shoes. For some reason I thought they were at work, and had to ask my boss if any meetings were scheduled that day as I, ha ha, didn't have any shoes. It made getting some lunch difficult!

http://thewaterboarders.bandcamp.com/

shake_n_stomp wrote:

Syndicateofsurf wrote:

...Soon after the singer smashed my mic at another gig onstage. He refused to replace it. I said enough.

...And thus Mr. Syndicateofsurf saw this as the sign to dedicate his life to instro surf.

The End.

Da Vinci Flinglestein,
The quest for the Tone, the tone of the Quest

The Syndicate of Surf on YouTube

http://www.syndicateofsurf.com/

http://sharawaji.com/

http://surfrockradio.com/

da-ron wrote:

philjudd wrote:

No but that's not good if it was a good bass? Or worse you left the bass player behind!

It didn't matter if it was good bass or not, it was his only bass!

I remember the words, "Well, do you want to drive back and get it?", which thankfully he declined, and went back the next day to get it. On the bus - it took him hours.

To be fair, we both had guitars in gig bags - he saw me put my guitar in the van and for some reason assumed it was his bass. We also had a drummer who once forgot his drum stool. I don't think I've forgotten anything in the band, but did famously turn up at work barefoot with no shoes. For some reason I thought they were at work, and had to ask my boss if any meetings were scheduled that day as I, ha ha, didn't have any shoes. It made getting some lunch difficult!

I had the same as a bass player with a guitarist always forgetting his leads! He had all his other gear but no leads. And he would always end up borrowing my good spares. And often wrecking them.So for a series of gigs I made sure my spares were old bad ones. After being threatened by other band members for noise and crackling issues constantly he started bringing his own cords....he blamed me to which all I could say was " Sorry Bro...but if you had your own you'd have no issue!"

Wow awesome and hilarious stories! I love this thread, and the horror stories one too. It’s especially wonderful to hear of stuff from “back in the day!”

I can’t say anything really destroyed me at a show, yet. Once it starts whatever happens is gonna happen. I hate breaking a string so I bring extra guitars and swap em out.

In the early 2000s I was in a surf band in Boston called They’re Gonna Get You and we played a lot of dive bars. I remember almost every show being told the guitar was too loud. It was a 100w Twin. My response was always to not do anything. I always wear ear plugs. I also always bring earplugs to any musical event. People would yell at me for wearing them while the Twin was blaring. I always had the thought “who told you not to bring earplugs?!” Now, obviously that’s a proper venue for loudness, at a wedding or other function I’d hate it if I needed earplugs! I don’t think my band will ever play anything other than a confirmed loud music event.

False starts are something I love to see, it’s a moment of honesty. When they happen in my band it just makes me laugh. I do hate it when the drummer messes up a dramatic pause. My new outfit Blood Reef played our first show in a super dive bar in Kenner, LA recently. We had a grand total of about 10 false starts, five on one song! Needless to say we weren’t ready to play but got offered the gig and jumped in. Why not? It’s not like I’m going for a polished super tight and clean sound anyway.

Daniel Deathtide

Once played bass in a 40 min set for a benefit with no songs and the lead singer reading his poetry book he wrote as the lyrics.

Maybe not a totally bad experience but unexpectedly Surf related...

When I was young and dumb and noodling around with Classical guitar in college (and had only just begun to discover instro surf) I had a dinky repertoire of maybe 6 or 7 decent classical songs, half of them out of Mel Bay books, and a buddy convinced me to play for money at a cocktail reception being held at the opening of his fiancee's Dad's law office. My buddy (who didn't play) piled on the compliments about my playing so I think my ego more than anything led me to say OK.

Armed with my trusty Yamaha and wearing my finest cheap slacks and dress shirt, I was parked in a corner on a stool and essentially played chamber music for three hours. No one said when I could stop or when I could take a break but they also didn't say the open bar was off limits. It was sheer absolute boredom and after the first hour and a half of cycling through my pitifilly small "set" I could tell everyone was as tired of my playing as I was.

BUT I had also recently bought the J&tN Album "Surf Beat '80" and had been getting into some of those great tunes. With the liquid courage instilled via a couple three or more Greyhounds from the open bar (I didn't know playing was such thirsty work!) I finally said to heck with it and I ripped into a passable classical fingerpicked version of "Rumble at Waikiki".

And right then came the moment I will never forget: immediately after playing the intro part this gaunt old old guy who had been standing nearby, turned around, looked at me and nodded in approval, like, "yeah, that's coool". Absolute highlight of the evening.

To my suprise I actually eventually received a check as well, which I felt a little bad about as payment was somewhat undeserved IMO given my non-pro status and bar tab, but, well, like I say they were lawyers so I cashed it quick.

Member in good standing, Mentone Beach Syncopation Reverberation Association

Last edited: Oct 15, 2018 16:16:29

Back in the early '80's our rock band got a last minute booking for New Year's Eve at a golf country club over in east-central Alabama. We scrambled like hell to get everything together and make the 9:00 start time. When we arrived, everyone in the place was wearing a cowboy hat........... Bad sign.

Apparently, our agent at Hit Attractions in South Carolina had lied through his teeth about our song list. Our first set was a complete and absolute disaster. We spent our breaks in the men's room trying to figure out how to fake songs and make some of what we could play, sound "country........" We didn't even have our normal lead singer that night...... You can bet that those in attendance were not members of the "Happy Campers Club," neither were we members of the band. Damn, was that a long night and an even longer drive back to Atlanta.

ed

Traditional........speak softly and play through a big blonde amp. Did I mention that I still like big blonde amps?

Playing a small festival at a golf driving range (!), about 10 mins into our set the timed sprinklers popped up and did their thing. Problem was, they were behind the stage and alongside the audience! Electricity and water - not a good mix! No-one died and no equipment was permanently damaged (thank goodness)

https://www.facebook.com/lostremoleros/