Syndicateofsurf
Joined: Oct 08, 2014
Posts: 1073
Northern Ohio
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Posted on Jan 18 2017 08:26 AM
So we had this cover band in the late 70's called 'The Chickens'. Did Ramones, Elvis, bubblegum and anything with 3 chords. We were used to all our buds giving us massive support and crowd response.
Played a high school dance where the kids pretty much just stared at us and our singer freaked out and walked off the stage. Refused to come back. Played a few more with me doing vocals and then the bass player said enough so that was that. My buddy from work who'd set up the gig said 'what's the problem, the kids are loving you?'. No soap.
Packed up humiliated and went home.
Soon after the singer smashed my mic at another gig onstage. He refused to replace it. I said enough.
And that was the best band I was ever in.
— 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/
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shake_n_stomp
Joined: Jan 09, 2014
Posts: 600
Vancouver BC
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Posted on Jan 18 2017 03:28 PM
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. 
— Lorne
The Surf Shakers: https://www.facebook.com/TheSurfShakers
Vancouver BC Canada
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philjudd
Joined: Dec 05, 2016
Posts: 151
Queensland
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Posted on Jan 18 2017 04:49 PM
Syndicateofsurf wrote:
So we had this cover band in the late 70's called 'The Chickens'. Did Ramones, Elvis, bubblegum and anything with 3 chords. We were used to all our buds giving us massive support and crowd response.
Played a high school dance where the kids pretty much just stared at us and our singer freaked out and walked off the stage. Refused to come back. Played a few more with me doing vocals and then the bass player said enough so that was that. My buddy from work who'd set up the gig said 'what's the problem, the kids are loving you?'. No soap.
Packed up humiliated and went home.
Soon after the singer smashed my mic at another gig onstage. He refused to replace it. I said enough.
And that was the best band I was ever in.
It's never to late to pull a better one together. I have done it over the years and worth it to just have done it. And forget the lead singers... 
Last edited: Jan 18, 2017 16:50:03
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CrazyAces
Joined: Jul 31, 2012
Posts: 4052
Nashville, TN.
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Posted on Jan 18 2017 07:28 PM
I was fortunate to play at the Olympics in Vancouver a few years back.
It was televised and live.
On the fourth last song my entire pedal board went dead.
My tech was looking at me from side stage with an expression that said "I don't know what the hell is wrong!"
I just casually unplugged from the pedal board, plugged direct into the rental backline Fender Deville, cranked the gain and used my volume on the guitar to vary form clean to dirty.
I was laughing the whole time - Of course it would happen at a bigger gig being televised.
Murphy's law but you know what?
It sounded amazing, even better than the rig with the pedals.
My tech looked at me, looked at the amp and had a look of wonder, then gave me a hearty thumbs up sign, LOL.
Probably not the worst thing to happen to me but, one I actually remember.
Cheers,
Jeff
— http://www.facebook.com/CrazyAcesMusic
http://www.youtube.com/user/crazyacesrock
http://www.reverbnation.com/crazyacesmusic
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shake_n_stomp
Joined: Jan 09, 2014
Posts: 600
Vancouver BC
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Posted on Jan 18 2017 08:02 PM
CrazyAces wrote:
I was fortunate to play at the Olympics in Vancouver a few years back.
Cool! My city!
Hold on for a bit of insanity...because I am now going to tell you that the Olympics were....seven....years....ago. Yoiks! Sure feels like only a few years ago!
— Lorne
The Surf Shakers: https://www.facebook.com/TheSurfShakers
Vancouver BC Canada
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SixStringSurfer
Joined: Sep 23, 2014
Posts: 1353
Memphis, TN
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Posted on Jan 18 2017 09:45 PM
Crazy, that is really cool that you played at the Olympics. Very few people can say that. 
— MooreLoud.com - A tribute to Dick Dale. New videos uploaded
Last edited: Jan 19, 2017 12:05:06
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Syndicateofsurf
Joined: Oct 08, 2014
Posts: 1073
Northern Ohio
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Posted on Jan 19 2017 05:13 AM
philjudd wrote:
It's never to late to pull a better one together. I have done it over the years and worth it to just have done it. And forget the lead singers...
Hell I've canned the rest of the band- and now I have a recording contract. This must be the part about how I got through it.
— 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/
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philjudd
Joined: Dec 05, 2016
Posts: 151
Queensland
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Posted on Jan 19 2017 06:14 AM
CrazyAces wrote:
I was fortunate to play at the Olympics in Vancouver a few years back.
It was televised and live.
On the fourth last song my entire pedal board went dead.
My tech was looking at me from side stage with an expression that said "I don't know what the hell is wrong!"
I just casually unplugged from the pedal board, plugged direct into the rental backline Fender Deville, cranked the gain and used my volume on the guitar to vary form clean to dirty.
I was laughing the whole time - Of course it would happen at a bigger gig being televised.
Murphy's law but you know what?
It sounded amazing, even better than the rig with the pedals.
My tech looked at me, looked at the amp and had a look of wonder, then gave me a hearty thumbs up sign, LOL.
Probably not the worst thing to happen to me but, one I actually remember.
Cheers,
Jeff
Hi Jeff
Great story. You showed a cool head to just unplug and get organised. Not freeze like a deer in the headlights! Did you ditch the pedal?
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philjudd
Joined: Dec 05, 2016
Posts: 151
Queensland
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Posted on Jan 19 2017 06:15 AM
Syndicateofsurf wrote:
philjudd wrote:
It's never to late to pull a better one together. I have done it over the years and worth it to just have done it. And forget the lead singers...
Hell I've canned the rest of the band- and now I have a recording contract. This must be the part about how I got through it.
Recording contract?...way to bounce back!
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CrazyAces
Joined: Jul 31, 2012
Posts: 4052
Nashville, TN.
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Posted on Jan 20 2017 09:14 AM
shake n stomp - yes, that's crazy, I feel like it was about three years ago but then again that's how my brain works, LOL.
I always love visiting your city.
I always find a new guitar in Victoria as well, weird but fun.
SixStringSurfer - Yes, it was quite fortunate and fun. I've been lucky enough to do some interesting gigs through the years and sometimes I need to be reminded of that.
philjudd - I've been playing professionally since my teens and I was also a touring guitar tech for many artists . After you are forced to fix a problem in front of a few tens of thousands of fans while a show is in progress - you either find a zen state of tranquility or you freak out. I fortunately adopted the tranquility approach. There is very little now that can shake me on a stage when it comes to gremlins.
I did ditch the pedals for the rest of the show but had to find and address the problem for future shows as the artist's music that I was playing requires some delays, overdrives and such to perform his catalog correctly.
Cheers,
Jeff
— http://www.facebook.com/CrazyAcesMusic
http://www.youtube.com/user/crazyacesrock
http://www.reverbnation.com/crazyacesmusic
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revmike
Joined: Feb 26, 2006
Posts: 3743
North Atlantic
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Posted on Jan 20 2017 10:40 AM
I was playing an out of town, out door gig in Saint John,NB when my sound got very thin and quiet, then smoke started pouring out of the back of my amp. One of the tubes went belly up. I unplugged the reverb from the amp, and played the rest of the show direct through the PA (guitar>reverb>PA). I could hear the guitar through the monitors. Though it wasn't a great sound, it was ok for the rest of the show. No one out front really noticed a difference. Maybe they thought it was a smoke machine. Not a huge disaster at all, just a bump in the road.
Rev
— Canadian Surf
http://www.urbansurfkings.com/
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Squid
Joined: Aug 22, 2010
Posts: 1013
Portland, Oregon with Insanitizers
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Posted on Jan 21 2017 02:59 PM
That would be the unamplified acoustic gig at an art gallery. The arty folks wanted nothing to do with amplifiers, the performance had to be entirely acoustic. I used my loudest acoustic, a goliath-sized Goya-Martin O-hole steel string that manages 100 db a foot away (per sound pressure meter). The volume from our acoustic guitar duo could not compete with the loud and assertive conversation of the visiting artist-painters. The general public was not so loud, but the artists were, well, tooting their horns. We could barely hear our own playing. That was our first and last unamplified guitar gig. Lesson learned.
After that we bought ZT Lunchbox amps. They are small and look innocuous, and sound fine at low volumes, but if loud is needed they're there. "Oh, we use tiny amplifiers, the size of a lunchbox."
— Insanitizers! http://www.insanitizers.com
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philjudd
Joined: Dec 05, 2016
Posts: 151
Queensland
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Posted on Jan 24 2017 02:24 PM
da-ron wrote:
At the opposite end of the scale - we played a biker do in Cornwall. We'd done a few and they'd gone OK. This one though - we started to play and everyone, I mean everyone left the venue. We played to two bar staff and a guy heckling us. It sounded awesome in the big reverby room, but there was no one watching. We played our show like proper professionals.
When we finished I went outside to see how many where hanging around outside and there was nobody outside either. The whole site was deserted. While we were packing up the woman who booked us came up and paid us the full amount and was very apologetic.
Apparently there was some biker politics/show of strength thing going on with Hells Angels putting on a rival bike rally that everyone was 'obliged' to attend. I couldn't believe a club would put on a do, pay for a venue and a band then just go somewhere else! But we played, got paid and left intact.
That was the last biker do we ever did, and hope we don't get asked to do any more - just in case it goes the way a friend's band responded:
Biker: "We'd like you to play our clubhouse"
Band: (gulp) "I'm afraid we're busy that night"
Biker: "I haven't told you what day it is yet"
Band: "Ah."
That last example was hilarious. Like declining a mob gig.
At least you got paid. Like a fully funded rehearsal. Though it would've been hard to keep the energy up to an empty room. Good that you didn't cut corners.
Speaking of bikies I had a friend who played guitar and banjo in a country rock band for a Bikie Rally. He said they did the Deliverence Theme and Beverly Hillbillies theme as a joke for the guys doing burnouts up and down a hill right next the stage. The bikies liked it so much they made the band play those two songs for solid hour and a half so they could all ride up and down this hill to that music.He said the band were to frightened to say no. Had his chops up though by the end on the old banjo...
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Nokie
Joined: Oct 06, 2008
Posts: 549
So Cal
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Posted on Jan 24 2017 03:02 PM
Worst experience at a gig? A: I got blowed up real good.
How did you cope? A: I went to the hospital.
Now the details: It was a graduating high-school backyard party gig in 1977. I was playing bass in the 5-piece band. We had a friend who was going off for a chemistry degree who demonstrated a very cool aluminum chlorsomething-r-other powder that produced a heck of a lot of smoke. He'd wired up a detonator to a coffee can half full with the powder and buried in the ground a few feet from the guitar player. What a great rock show spectacle this is gonna be!! Towards the end of our first set it's the guitar intro to "Long Train Running" and just as the drums are to kick in, the guitar player steps on the detonator - KA-BLAMMO!!! It was as loud an explosion as I've ever heard. In a flash of white light, my long hair blows to the right across my face as my body is transported a foot in the same direction. In coming to my senses, I see the girl behind me hunched over her Rhodes piano (she's the guitar player's girlfriend). She'd been hit by shrapnel of the exploding Folgers can - it left a bit of crater. I was shaken but fine. The trip to the hospital was with the keyboardist who had a broken rib. Oh yeah, our set was over at that point. Why the boom instead of just smoke? We didn't account for the moisture in the air compressing the powder - that's the theory anyways.
— "Hello Girls!"
Last edited: Jan 26, 2017 11:17:00
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philjudd
Joined: Dec 05, 2016
Posts: 151
Queensland
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Posted on Jan 25 2017 02:55 PM
fenderfan wrote:
Back when I played da blooze, we were playing at a club where the dancing crowd came right up to the edge of the small stage. A lady fell into the stage at just the right angle to knock all three microphones into the teeth of the three of us who were at the front. Felt bad.
Ouch! Yes distance between you and the crowd isn't a bad idea..
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philjudd
Joined: Dec 05, 2016
Posts: 151
Queensland
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Posted on Jan 25 2017 05:50 PM
Nokie wrote:
Worst experience at a gig? A: I got blowed up real good.
How did you cope? A: I went to the hospital.
Now the details: It was a graduating high-school backyard party gig in 1977. I was playing bass in the 5-piece band. We had a friend who was going off for a chemistry degree who demonstrated a very cool aluminum chlorsomething-r-other powder that produced a heck of a lot of smoke. He'd wired up a detonator to a coffee can half full with the powder and buried in the ground a few feet form the guitar player. What a great rock show spectacle this is gonna be!! Towards the end of our first set it's the guitar intro to "Long Train Running" and just as the drums are to kick in, the guitar player steps on the detonator - KA-BLAMMO!!! It was as loud an explosion as I've ever heard. In a flash of white light, my long hair blows to the right across my face as my body is transported a foot in the same direction. In coming to my senses, I see the girl behind me hunched over her Rhodes piano (she's the guitar player's girlfriend). She'd been hit by shrapnel of the exploding Folgers can - it left a bit of crater. I was shaken but fine. The trip to the hospital was with the keyboardist who had a broken rib. Oh yeah, our set was over at that point. Why the boom instead of just smoke? We didn't account for the moisture in the air compressing the powder - that's the theory anyways.
Wow Nokie...I think you win. When someone gets blown up, hit by shrapnel and a broken rib then that is definitely a nightmare gig territory...did the keyboardist survive okay? Were any instruments damaged in the explosion?
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Nokie
Joined: Oct 06, 2008
Posts: 549
So Cal
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Posted on Jan 26 2017 11:15 AM
philjudd wrote:
Nokie wrote:
Worst experience at a gig? A: I got blowed up real good.
How did you cope? A: I went to the hospital.
Now the details: It was a graduating high-school backyard party gig in 1977. I was playing bass in the 5-piece band. We had a friend who was going off for a chemistry degree who demonstrated a very cool aluminum chlorsomething-r-other powder that produced a heck of a lot of smoke. He'd wired up a detonator to a coffee can half full with the powder and buried in the ground a few feet from the guitar player. What a great rock show spectacle this is gonna be!! Towards the end of our first set it's the guitar intro to "Long Train Running" and just as the drums are to kick in, the guitar player steps on the detonator - KA-BLAMMO!!! It was as loud an explosion as I've ever heard. In a flash of white light, my long hair blows to the right across my face as my body is transported a foot in the same direction. In coming to my senses, I see the girl behind me hunched over her Rhodes piano (she's the guitar player's girlfriend). She'd been hit by shrapnel of the exploding Folgers can - it left a bit of crater. I was shaken but fine. The trip to the hospital was with the keyboardist who had a broken rib. Oh yeah, our set was over at that point. Why the boom instead of just smoke? We didn't account for the moisture in the air compressing the powder - that's the theory anyways.
Wow Nokie...I think you win. When someone gets blown up, hit by shrapnel and a broken rib then that is definitely a nightmare gig territory...did the keyboardist survive okay? Were any instruments damaged in the explosion?
My immediate thought was that someone not invited to the party tossed us a half stick of dynamite (they were circulating among the fireworks lovers at the time). It took a moment to recall that we'd set up the pyrotechnics. Becky was indeed bandaged but ultimately fine. No instruments were injured in the making of this episode.
— "Hello Girls!"
Last edited: Jan 26, 2017 11:17:20
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BC4DdrummerAK
Joined: Oct 07, 2012
Posts: 66
Anchorage, Alaska
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Posted on Feb 03 2017 05:33 PM
Yikes...I don't really have anything that quite follows these stories up...especially Nokie's!! DAMN.
Anyway, here are two gigs that stand out as 'awful' (warning, a bit of language in here):
When I was playing extreme metal before the mostly instrumental surf inspired rock I do now, we played a show at bar called the Carousel. Shit sound gear, microphones that shocked singers if they got within 3" of the screen, etc. We always liked playing there because it was guaranteed pay, no matter what. Anyway, so we are all but not even half way through our second song when a waitress decided to set a pitcher of beer on top of our singer/guitarist's tube amp, and promptly knocked it over, causing the amp to short out. On the other side of the stage, the power supply our 2nd guitarist was using kept cutting in and out, so of course, his guitar kept cutting in and out. It was a literal shit-show. So the bassist and I were the only ones to finish two songs. Our singer gets on the mic says "Fuck you, we're Bound by Entrails and we're fucking done", storms off the stage. So I'm sitting there afterwards, trying to take in all that had happened, and here comes the gal who booked us, walks right up to me and hands me an envelope. I sat there wide eyed at her, and she simply says "What? Every band gets paid". We received full pay! Note-BBE's name is a reference to Norse Mythology, in regards to Loki's punishment, as we had quasi-Viking themes in our music
Show two was with the current band. To preface it, we have a hard time getting gigs in the town we live in. Mainly because most bar owners tell us their patrons want songs they can sing along with, not songs to listen and maybe dance to (one even going as far as to say "Instrumental? I could just play house music if that's the case). So we had an opportunity for a 4hr gig, in town, we jumped on it. Before I make this an exceedingly long story, basically we couldn't play quiet enough for the place. Our guitarists had volume down on their guitars, amps on '1', and the bartender/music booker STILL telling us we were just too loud and that HER PATRONS WERE COMPLAINING THAT THEY COULD NOT HEAR THEMSELVES TALK, VIA TEXT MESSAGE TO HER. ON A SATURDAY NIGHT. WHEN LIVE ROCK AND ROLL WAS BOOKED AND ADVERTISED AS SUCH. I was down to playing with rods (somewhere in between brushes and regular drum sticks for those not familiar), with minimum arm and leg motion, and I was told that my drums were STILL loud. We somehow survived the gig, got paid in full, and swore to never play there again. We mainly concentrate on our out of town gigs, as we are welcomed as conquering heroes in the smaller towns, and those gigs are what got us the cash to finally record our full length album. So I'm fine with it.  The End.
— Gear:Kit:Pearl Reference series in Emerald Fade,Pearl rack,Pearl Demon Drive pedals,Tama Iron Cobra hi-hat stand, Sabian & UFiP cymbals.
Last edited: Feb 03, 2017 17:36:02
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JohnnyMosrite
Joined: Jun 14, 2006
Posts: 858
New York City area
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Posted on Feb 03 2017 05:59 PM
BC4,
Ah yes the "Playing too loud" idiocy.. I often wonder why some brain wave deficient types would book a ROCK band and expect that band to play
at G.V. (Geriatric Volume). Kinda stupid.
But it happened to me on the gig experience that I related earlier on this thread. Someone actually took a video of some of the tunes we played. With my Showman on volume '3', it sounded like thin soup. But I was getting complaints that it was "too loud".
There's an old saying - "If it's too loud, then you're too goddamn old."
I like soft low volume music; it has it's place.. but instrumental rock has to have some teeth and presence to it.
Oddly enough, I've gigged with a Gibson Byrdland. Surf on one of these babies is sonically unreal. I had the whole Ted Nugent setup going. I knew what notes would start a feedback at what position the Byrd was in relation to the amp. This took some skill and preparation to keep the feedback under control.
For that - no issues with crowd or the establishment.
Go figure..
J Mo'
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philjudd
Joined: Dec 05, 2016
Posts: 151
Queensland
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Posted on Feb 14 2017 04:59 AM
Brian wrote:
Gig horror stories
Lol...funny stuff unless you're caught up in one of these horror stories...
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