Gig gone bad quickly!

[Jake Morris]

So my band and I had a gig tonight. It was our school's battle of bands. It was drummer, guitarrist, and I. All of us were singing and we had our material down and good. We walk on stage ready to go. About 20 seconds into our first song the guitarrist's amp shuts down. We stop 10 seconds later. Had to get the whole sound and light crew to help us. A fuse was blown on half the stage. And we were the last band playing so this didn't affect anyone else. Also, when we got all set back up my amp was too loud, the guitar was too quiet, the drums were barely audible, and the vocals were shut down. Here's the worst part, once we got all set to start over I checked my tuning. My g-string was out of tune. Really badly. I tune it up, but it goes back down. It kept doing this. We could only perform half of our set. What do you experienced guys have to say? How would you handel the situation and what should I have done differently?

[jgroh]

Not much you could do really. At a outside gig this past summer (at a nudist resort!!) it started raining on us and the gear, and my G string (no pun intended) kept going out of tune. I just played whatever had to be done on that string on the D string. Only so much you can control. Chalk it up to a learning experience.

[Ric5]

Sometimes Sh** happens ... it is a good learning experience.

[HattoriHanzo]

Its smart to have a back up bass. As for the other stuff sounds like a really bad sound crew

[Jake Morris]

Originally Posted by HattoriHanzo

Its smart to have a back up bass. As for the other stuff sounds like a really bad sound crew

Yeah they sucked. In fact I taught half of the crew everything they know. But what really ticked me off was that we (the commitee for battle of bands) payed for the sound and light. The head guy was a teacher... who left half way through the show!!!

[HattoriHanzo]

Like jgroh said

Only so much you can control

[EricssonB]

Well it probably had something to do with your setlist - original or covers?

[electracoyote]

So that blown fuse made your bass go out of tune and cranked your amp up so loud the drummer couldn't be heard?

That's a one hell of a blown fuse.

[elgecko]

Originally Posted by bassmasta1209

...the drums were barely audible...

Really?

[Munjibunga]

[robot]Roll with the punches, Will Robinson.[/robot]

Mama said there'll be days like this, there'll be days like this my mama said. (Mama said, mama said.)

If nothing sucked, you wouldn't be able to tell if something else was cool. That, and just because one thing sucks doesn't mean something else doesn't.

[spaz21387]

isnt there a pa? mic up the bass cab guitar cab and drums and then turn up the guitar in the mix its a school they should have a decent pa.

[Jake Morris]

Yes. The auditorium has such bad acoustics people in the audience told me the drums were weak and quiet.

[Jake Morris]

Originally Posted by spaz21387

isnt there a pa? mic up the bass cab guitar cab and drums and then turn up the guitar in the mix its a school they should have a decent pa.

Barely working pa.

[Jake Morris]

Oh. And the reason the fuse blew was because the huge power tower/ machines on the sides of the stage don't have a fan cooling system to prevent it from over heating. Happens at every show or event on that stage.

[spaz21387]

Id much rather host a house show back in school then play a school battle of the bands thing. The only cool thing to happen at a school battle of the bands was watching a metal band play and the bass player tried that over the sholder bass toss. He failed horribly the strap came off the strap buttons and slid string side down scross the floor. It made an interesting noise as it scraped across the floor.

[c2thej2theizzo]

Get one of these.

Honda Power Equipment - EM6500S

[jaywa]

Originally Posted by bassmasta1209

Oh. And the reason the fuse blew was because the huge power tower/ machines on the sides of the stage don't have a fan cooling system to prevent it from over heating. Happens at every show or event on that stage.

Yup. It all starts (and sometimes ends) with the power supply. We played a wedding dance a few years ago at a small town Legion Hall that didn't have 220 and we tripped the breakers 3 times in the first set... making us look like amatuers and pretty much downing the whole gig. We wound up pretty much not being able to use any of our light show, and the power we could get to the stage was so dirty that our amps were flickering and sounded like sh*t.

I don't have a lot of expectations or requirements for the venues I play, but if they don't have plenty of good clean power on a dedicated circuit the gig ain't happening.

[HeadyVan Halen]

You must know more songs than the ones on the set list..Improv some Drum 'n' Bass stuff.
Tune on the fly...know when you have that 2 sec. pause between notes to find it. It won't be perfect but better than suck.

If your good on the mic, talk.
If not, do not step within 3 feet of it.

[Killspringer]

always rough when you're only playing a song or two at an event... no time to fix a problem for the next song or even get warmed up.

best advice I can give is figure out how to not put yourself in those situations, and have confidence in your music to carry forward, and hold out for better gigs if you don't trust the logistical situation of the whole thing.

[Never_grew_up]

Originally Posted by c2thej2theizzo

Get one of these.

Honda Power Equipment - EM6500S

Wish it would fit in my rack...