I'm interested to hear if any of you have stories of some unusual or even downright bizarre gigs you may have had.

Danny

Danny Snyder

"With great reverb comes great responsibility" - Uncle Leo

Playing keys and guitar with Combo Tezeta

Formerly a guitarist in The TomorrowMen and Meshugga Beach Party

Latest surf project - Now That's What I Call SURF

We had something similar Klas, when we did a gig in France in a local cultural centre - we were supposed to play in the local teens -hangout, but for some reason that was booked as a restaurant that they day so the gig was rescheduled. Obviously the cultural centre targetted a differnet audience, also with their publicity, and had a definate non r'n'r vibe.
in fact, it was a brand new small hall (100 people max) with laminated floors, blue cushioned chairs, and otherwise everything looked like a dentist's waiting room. you get the picture. also we were told to expect many elderly people. oh and it was no smoking and they didn't sell any drinks.
after our initial reaction ... ... we decided to be as pro about it as we could be. than we figured, they must have a beamer here, so what we did was set up a beamer and dvd player right next to the stage and tried to make the stage look as nice as possible in a 'beloved invaders' style. played low volume and laid back, and during the set we played bruce brown movies. Had ourselves introduced as playing "the music that was particular to the 1960's californian surfers, accompanied by authentic film footages of and by the surfers themselves"

we were to start at 9pm, and by 10 to there was NO ONE. but within the next 10 minutes, some 75 people showed up, people from 15 to - indeed - pushing 70. but I must say, they all enjoyed it a lot, and those elderly people were NOT a bad audience - in fact, they were very enthusiatstic and showing it too, albeit by uniformly clapping their hands rather than by doin' the local stomp. and we got plenty well meant compliments from them afterwards. it was great fun, we were there to entertain, and entertain we did, and after the show we went to a cafe with about half the audience and were offered a lot of drinks and a gig next year on the local village festival. great experience after all, but not something I'd like to do weekly.

WR

Rules to live by #314:
"When in Italy, if the menu says something's grilled, don't assume it is."

https://www.facebook.com/The-Malbehavers-286429584796173/

Tony here, drummer for OuterWave. Two gigs come into play here.

First, one time on a slow month we decide to play at a Bikini / Lingerie bar in Anaheim called Sugars unannounced. We talked to the owner that we were willing to play for beer. Better than practicing in a garage. The bar has a reputation with very loose and nasty waitresses. We started playing, they put up a tip jar and the tips and beer kept coming. On the second set things got a little out of hand, the streaming alchohol with the patrons and the waitresses had a lot to do with this. The patrons, instead of putting their tips on the tip jar, start telling the waitrsses to start being creative in giving us the tips, like placing the tip in the guitar players' crotch. One of the waitresses came over to me and started giving me a lap dance as my tip. All these while we were playing. Flashing their private areas to catch our attention while playing was too common this evening. This was one of those nights that what happened in the gig, stayed in the gig.

The second gig that was kind of unusual was playing for a nudist association for their annual Memorial Weekend Bash. We really did not know what to expect. I was expecting to see a lot of hairy armpits and unshaven private parts but there were some very beautiful and nicely groomed women out there, naked and dancing. Again, as the party and the alchohol got going things got pretty interesting. We were warned before our sets not to fraternize with the female members no matter what happened. Now, seeing all those men with shirts on but no pants or underwear is a sight I want to delete forever.

without going into detail, two of us played at an art gallery open house and some local middle aged hippies got wind of 'live' music and one of them showed up with wood flutes (in different keys) to play along with us......it was the usual "what kind of music are you playing?" (no, not like the beach boys), etc.........just imagine 'slaughter on 10th ave' with a flute and never mind that it changes keys........ :oops2:..... there's way more to the story, but enough said

www.surfintheeye.com

momsurfing_
without going into detail, two of us played at an art gallery open house and some local middle aged hippies got wind of 'live' music and one of them showed up with wood flutes (in different keys) to play along with us......it was the usual "what kind of music are you playing?" (no, not like the beach boys), etc.........just imagine 'slaughter on 10th ave' with a flute and never mind that it changes keys........ :oops2:..... there's way more to the story, but enough said

Funny, same thing happened to me! Casey

We played a show at the Eugene Saturday Market a few years ago and after the show our bass player Trey came up to me and said "so what did you think about the topless chick?" I said "WHAT topless chick?"
Seems I was concentrating on my playing so intently, I didn't even notice the woman who was reportedly dancing topless right in front of me.
I was also told she had tattoos all around her boobs.
The one time we didn't have the video camera...

(the wood flutes reminded me of this)I helped arrange a busking gig once where the wood flute player began randomly harassing the audience and eventually got carted off to the mental institution which we found out later he had escaped from.

Don't trust wood flute players.

Tim O
oestmann guitar

tunes

clips

While performing at birthday parties isn't all THAT unusual (unless you consider how few people Mitch and my age are STILL having birthdays), We played one Saturday night that took the cake.

The party was for a gal's 50th birthday, held at a friend's house. The house was designed, built and originally lived in by one of Frank Loyd Wright's understudies in the early 1960's. Gang, that was the damnedest house I've ever seen and I've been around a while. It was all rock and cyprus, with no right angles, no sheet rock, nuthin'. Just unpainted wood, rock and glass with four matching, additional out-buildings, game room, outdoor kitchen and guest house, and a full heated pool. Even the dog houses fit the decor. It was supposed to be a pool party but Atlanta's continuing rains put a damper (hahahaha) on that, so we set up inside in an all glass corner.

It sounded fine in there and the crowd was very into the surf and instrumental rock. The best part was the three year old daughter and her mini bongos.

ed

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

From my Squid Vicious days:

Back in March '96, we were hired to play an afternoon show at the Travis County (Austin) Rodeo and Livestock Exhibition. They stuck us on a huge stage outside at noon. Nevermind that all of the people were inside looking at the livestock. So we proceeded to play to our two friends for a song or two. Then a long line of about 50 first graders walked up and sat on the hay bales in front of the stage. After a song or two, they all got up and started dancing. They even had a mosh pit during Walk Don't Run. That was a lot of fun, but very unusual.

In June '97, we were playing at this sleazy dive downtown called The Voodoo Lounge. The owner looked like he hadn't slept in days. Too much blow, I guess. We had a lot of high school aged fans back then and, in fact, that night we were playing with a teen band. While on stage, our drummer's stripper girlfriend got up on stage and took off her shirt and danced topless for awhile. Then she dropped down on her knees in front of our rhythm guitarist and pretended to give him head. All in front of the kids. The owner ended up giving her a t-shirt and made her exit the stage.

In July '97 while on tour, our drummer (again with the drummer) would get on the mike at the end of our set and say, "I need a girlfriend for one night." He got laid three times on the tour.

Got more drummer stories. Cocaine (and heroin) is a hell of a drug. Dave was responsible for all of our crazy gig stories.

Ted James
Deep Eddy Records http://www.deepeddy.net
The Nematoads http://www.nematoads.com

I played in a bass in a blues band back in '92. The guitarist was an alumni of Stevens Technical Institute in Hoboken, NJ, so we were "hired" to play at the student union for beer and tips in May right before finals. We figured we would take time and mic the drums and amps so we could record a live demo. The guitarist used a VHS camera to record the audio mix and video. The camera wast was tucked-up in the corner of the room. VHS was supposed to be a great format for audio. If the video was OK we could use it to critique our stage presence.

The campus looked like the island of lost nerds. Every one on campus had floodwaders, glasses and huge calculators strapped to their belts. We get in the Union and start playing when two women engineers come in to hang out and sip drafts. Obviously they were a little frazzled by studying for finals and lack of attention by the nerds-boys on campus. As the night went on the two ladies pounded lots of beer and started to dance. It was hot and maybe she was a fan of the lambada because the volupuous one starts doing a grind against any guy on the dance floor. I'm playing bass saying "yesssss, this is all on video". She looks both ways, reaches up her shirt and pulls off the t-shirt, red bra and all. If her name was Victoria, she didn't have a secret any more. Needless to say the "girls" started to do a rubenesque dance routine themselves as she jumps up on stage to continue the grind on the guitarists leg. Her more petit friend jumps up on stage and starts grinding the rhythm guitarists leg but she is more modest. Needless to say the song "I'm A Man" took on a whole new degree of meaning.

Soon enough modest girl, volupuous woman and the twins retire off stage and both the red bra and t-shirt go back on. All the while I was saying to myself "yes, this is on video". We start packing up and to all of our dismay we realize......
Mr. Stevens Hoboken Technical Institute Masters Degree Graduate in Sound Reinforcement and dude with all the latest guitar crap and video junk LEFT THE LENS CAP ON.

What day is Surf Rock's birthday? Looks like Surf Rock and I was born the same year. Maybe we are both Libras?