bigtikidude
you saying Irish Celtic bands don't drink???

They dont drink like that!!!! and neither do I anymore.. If I have 2 or 3 im done...

You mean Taco Hell .

.......make the Mos' of it,
.....choose the 'rite stuff!
.........owner of 9 Mosrites
proud owner and documented:
1963 "The Ventures" Model s/n# 0038
http://www.vintagerock4.com
www.mosriteforum.com

I'd have to say this was a best and worst experience, but back when I was in the Toga Kings it was customary for the audience to throw stuff at us while we played (the Toga Kings were my frat rock band and we played a bunch of songs from the Animal House soundtrack, among others). Taking inspiration from the food fight scene, people would not only throw the stuff you'd expect, like beer and bar food, but also silly string, tampons, change, shaving cream, cupcakes and so on. There were a couple of shows, including one opening for the Bomboras, where we played until we couldn't play anymore - having silly string, shaving cream and cupcake frosting in your guitar strings makes things kinda difficult.

Actually the worst experience in that band was playing an outdoor show, in broad daylight, to an all-ages crowd before an outdoor showing of "Viva Las Vegas". It was pretty embarrassing, a bunch of guys in their 20's and early 30's, wearing togas out in public, completely sober, and playing to about 500 kids, teenagers and adults. Add to that playing the theme song to the movie with only a couple of runthroughs in practice....owch, it hurts just thinking about it.

Sean
Double Crown Records
www.doublecrownrecords.com

Surf CD's / Vinyl / Fanzines / DVD's
Aloha Screwdriver - Lunar Wobble CD
The Nebulas - Euphorion LP / CD
Supertubos - The Fourth Drive CD
Continental Magazine - Issue #37 w/17 Song CD

My worst on-stage experience was a wedding reception I played on West Broadway in Minneapolis, hardly a great neighborhood under the best of circumstances. Anyhow, the agent was supposed to book a Country/Rock band for it and couldn't find anyone. He asked if I'd play it as a casual and I consented. As always, he told me to pretend I knew the other musicians when I got there.

So I went to the job and found out that the "other musicians" were a scrawny old accordian player and his kid who lagged about 1/2 a beat behind on drums. He said he didn't know how this could work, me not knowing his songs and all so I told him "just tell me the key and we'll be fine". He didn't know the key!

On we went, polka, shottisch, polka, shottisch, polka, shottisch, polka, shottisch, polka, shottisch, polka, shottisch, etc, while the wedding party had been wanting Charlie Daniels and the Eagles. About two hours (and five or six cases of cheap beer) into this fiasco there was talk of revolt. Some in the audience were going to rush the stage and take away the instruments. Had they restricted this to the old man and his beat-dragging drummer of a son I would have watched and laughed about it but since they offered me no amnesty I had no choice but to stand my ground.

The audience revolt ended abruptly as I stood there holding a Les Paul Custom by the neck and threatening anyone that dared venture on stage with the full force of that guitars mass. The rest of the night was a disaster. All order had been lost and the "music", thankfully, stopped. The bitter, nasty little accordian player packed up his junk without ever uttering a friendly word in my direction and left with his wheezing little drummer boy about 1/2 step behind him. I tossed my gear in my old Impala and got on the road as fast as I could fearing some sort of mob violence (not that I could actually blame them if they did).

I fired the booking agent the next day and went on my own. Since that time my onstage experiences have only gotten better, but how could they have gotten worse?

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

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

Last edited: Sep 26, 2008 23:26:45

MissingLink
That was absolutely hillarious -- from here, anyway!

I can laugh about it now but it didn't seem very funny at the time.

Edited to add:
What makes this even worse is the fact that I was playing a "borrowed" guitar. My axe at the time was a Gibson Johnny Smith, a very delicate, high-dollar archtop. (I played mostly Jazz back then.) I taught at a small music store and asked if I could borrow a guitar for this scroungy gig in a questionable neighborhood. They lent me a beat up Les Paul which would have been fine except for the fact that the it belonged to one of my students and was in for repair. If anything had happened to it the store would have been on the hook for the value of the Lester but you can bet that the cost would have rolled downward until it reached me.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

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