| Gig FTL
Sign in to disble this ad
Hey guys.
So, Saturday, my band had a last minute gig offered to us (last minute being only a week's notice), and being that I like to go new places and play for different people, I accepted it - it was in a section of the island we hadn't played yet, and with some other bands that we hadn't played with yet.
It was a paid gig, pay based on percentage of the door take, basically, what the promoter made, minus what he paid for renting the venue/pa, with the remainder being split between the bands.
Because we were going to get studio time the next day, we wanted to make a bit more than what we figured we would from the door take in order to help offset the costs of getting our stuff recorded. So, we decided that since there were no concessions at this venue, a local community association run gym, we'd set up a hot dog stand and sell stuff there.
Well, the promoter/producer of this show doesn't even live here, he lives in Boston. Mayhaps he wasn't aware, but Boston is a short distance from Honolulu, a little more than a ten or fifteen minute drive, so it was difficult to get in touch with him because of time differences and the like, and since we were replacing a band that opted out last minute, we needed to keep in touch with him in order to get the updated flyers with our name on them. Well, they never came. HE got the hardcopy, of course, but we never even got the digital copy for our myspace or anything. Was a bummer.
The show was to begin at 1700, but he required all bands send at least two members at noon for load out and setup. Of course, nobody else in my band wanted spit to do with that, so I was the one who ended up getting there at noon. As it turns out, only one other band (the whole band) showed up to help, and most of them ditched about five minutes after showing up... and we didn't load out for hours, we first had to spend three hours cleaning the dang gym. The stage was covered with heavy old appliances, like a chest type freezer and bunches of wooden furniture and aerobics mats and big wooden spacers/stage extenders. That was great fun.
We finally set up the stage after hours of heavy lifting and moving of things, and as it turns out, none of the other bands who showed bothered to bring any bass equipment, aside from their basses, at all, and so my rig became the de facto low end gear. One band brought their drums and guitar rigs, but they were going to be taking them down and going home after their set - meaning that the only other band that brought their drum kit, us, were forced to let other bands use that, too. By the by, the drum kit is also mine. The 'backline' the promoter promised us was apparently just the one vocal mic, the mixer, and the PA, sans monitors. Ended up having to use our own wedges for us and the other bands too.
The band who brought their drums and such set their stuff up, and disappeared. I asked the promoter where they went (he flew in that morning) and he told me that they would be back in time for their set, they had to go to their high school graduation. Well, the promoter didn't bother to tell us that the demographic he expected (15-19 year olds) were not even going to show since they had graduation and parties to go to...
My band arrived and we set up our hot dog stand. We spent roughly $200 on supplies and such, and since nobody was going to show, we knew right then and there that not only were we not likely to come out even, or even close to it with sales and possible door take, but that we'd be taking a huge loss, which was seriously going to hamper our studio session the next day.
Well, the show was set to start at 1700. About 1735 or so, the first 'band' decided to show up. I have no idea how they're considered a band. First and foremost, they suck. Not in any of the ways where they could possibly improve over time - it was straight up atrocious. The lead singer was this 60 year old hippy who was stoned to hell and back and drunk as all get out. He was apparently of the impression that all you need to play punk music is a tie die shirt and lots of loud yelling about nothing in particular. He was not only a vocalist, but also a guitarist, but not the lead. Their lead guitarist was ok, I guess, but when placed next to the screaming weenie and the irrythmic drummer, it was a cacophony that not even the most hard core of punk fans could conceivably enjoy.
And to make matters worse, since we were the only band anyone could find when they came up, since we were staying stationary at the hot dog stand, they sent the MC to come borrow a guitar for this 'singer.' We told her to bugger off and tell him that if he wanted to borrow a guitar, he could damn well come ask us himself. So this old bastard of questionable bathing practices and most obvious drinking habits comes down and asks us if he could borrow a guitar for his set. Myself, the drummer, the vocalist, and our rhythm guitard all told him exactly what he could do with himself, but our lead guitard went ahead and lent him his second alternate, a Squier strat - but didn't bother to tell him it was tuned to D Standard. When our guitarist hands him the strat, this guy then asks for a pick. Our rhythm guitard gives him one. He asks for a cord, we give him one. Then this guy has the balls to ask us to plug the damn thing in for him. That was the last straw. We refused to give him a strap.
So this guy 'plays' his stuff, loud, nasty, and not even roughly perceivable as music, and runs his set about 10 minutes longer than the schedule called for. They only managed to get him off stage by turning off the PA.
So the next band is a pretty good ska/punk outfit out here. The backup bass (OLP MM) I got from a different punk player had their stickers plastered all over it. I was kinda looking forward to hearing them play. But, they didn't show up. So, what happens next? The MC picks up a tamborine and starts singing, her boyfriend grabs my lead's strat, and starts playing some random stuff. They obviously practiced this as an emergency interlude thing, it was pretty well done. It was nonsense stuff, thought of on the fly, but the music was good. They sung about the fact that the gym had like five people in it (not of the bands) and our hot dog stand and other stuff.
Finally, the time came for the next band to play. A really good ska outfit, fun to watch, with funny stage antics and EXCELLENT music. These were the guys to show up on time at noon. I like them a lot, am playing with them again this Thursday for a different promoter. I had a really good bit of shop talk with their bassist/keyboardist, and some chats about Deadpool and Star Trek and stuff. It was a good time. If anybody is interested in looking them up, their name is Disaster Kit. The MC let them play long since the other band hadn't showed, and while they rocked my socks, it cut into our set a little bit. Show had been on for roughly two hours at this point, based on the advertised start. Truly though, this was the first real band to actually play any music that wasn't absolute crap.
By this time, the hot dog stand had made $6.
Disaster Kit gets off the stage, and we come on, and as we're getting ready to play, the gym starts filling up. One of our regular show watchers makes the comment that yet again, the crowd comes when we play, and while oftentimes it's just circumstance, we do tend to have the audiences show when we start playing. So we start playing through our normal set. Finish our first song, about 3 minutes long, then start our second, another 3 minutes. Then the MC comes up to us and tells us that we have 4 minutes left on stage. We were dumbfounded. Why the hell do we only get three songs? DK was up there for nearly an hour? Well, we decided to defy them and played a song that lasted 7 minutes or so. They cut off the PA. I later asked why the hell they did it to us, and they said they just wanted to get back on schedule for the other bands.
I was ruddy well pissed off. I'd been there working my arse off since noon, and had given the promoters and MC and the community association free drinks and lunch, and they were booting us off the stage? I went back to the stand with fire in my eyes.
Before our set began, we had to take down the other band (the graduating one's) drum kit to set up ours. Theirs was this tinny little 4 piece thing, out drummer plays on my kit with pieces of his personal kit added to it to turn it into a 7 piece with five or six different cymbals. After our set, we had to take it down and set theirs back up. they came back right as we were done, played their set (they were pretty good, hardcore something or other), then took down their gear and left. We then had to set our drums back up again.
Business at the hot dog tent started to pick up throughout the rest of the show, but it was hardly booming. We stayed till the end of the show, when the audience dispersed almost immediately, and so did the last bands who had stayed, leaving me and my guys to break down our stand (not a big deal), our gear (a mild annoyance, someone who used it coulda helped out), and the damned stage (a reall pisser, since I'd been there to set the damn thing up to begin with).
Ultimately, we, as a band, made a grand total of $31 off of the door take. Adding that to what the hot dog stand made, we took a net loss of roughly $50, plus travel, for a gig that I spent twelve frikkin hours at.
That was my nightmare gig. I can only hope the next ones will be better.
Oh yea.
We never got the strat back. It disappeared when the old guy did after the MC played with her boyfriend.
__________________
Schecter #68|Mediocre Bassists #279|Redneck #8
SX Club Member In Good Standing
|
.
