Most difficult gig ever

maxgrant · #1 11-09-2008, 08:56 AM

I am not like a seasoned pro. I've been a hobbyist all my life. So I'm sure someone's had a more difficult gig than what I just did last night. But it was a doozy for me.

I've played with a 100+ degree fever. I've played with a broken, tied-back-together string (the song I played was YYZ, even!) I've played with my bass accidentally unplugged for half the song by my guitar player stepping on the cable and yanking it out (I was singing lead so I couldn't exactly stop to grab the cable).

But last night, I had the worst experience ever. I had gone out the evening before to meet some friends, check out some clubs that might be fun to play in, and see my guitarist's other band play a cover show. Was out until about 3:00 and had several drinks more than I intended. Woke up with a blistering hangover. Spent most of the morning doing what you do with a hangover; a little exercise, liberal amounts of water and painkillers, and waiting it out. By 1:00 or so I felt human, if exhausted, and I went to our pre-show rehearsal. Which even went really well.

Got to the gig. I had been worried about my voice all week, as it's November and I'm in Kentucky. The weather had changed just yesterday from being a nice comfortable Indian summer to chilly and unpleasant. But during rehearsal my voice did its thing (it's very high and some of the songs require a delicate touch). Got to the show and got the butterflies. Didn't drink any beer until just a couple of sips right before we started. Got on stage and sang the first few phrases of the first song, which started out very quietly. It sounded better than I'd ever hoped for it to sound in rehearsal.

Hit the first real loud, high note, and my head started pounding like it was going to explode. For the entire rest of the show, which thankfully was only 40 minutes, every note I sang was followed, after I was finished with the note, by a pounding in my temples. I'm sure the weather, the drinking, the total exhaustion, and a million other things combined to make this happen just so. I think the lighting on the stage had suddenly changed my body temperature and I was also wound up like I hadn't been 2 hours before in rehearsal. I have terrible sinuses and I'm in the worst place in the country for them.

Anyway, nobody but my drummer seemed to know anything was wrong. The show was a fabulous success, and I only briefly considered stopping. But I sure have learned my lesson: don't have TOO much fun the night before a show.

So who else has had a show that just . . . was torture to finish?

Lazylion · #2 11-09-2008, 10:23 AM

Good job. Sometimes you gotta tough it out.

I played a show 1 day after we'd learned that our keyboard player had hanged himself.
I played a show the night my then-wife had informed me over dinner that after 18 years together, she was dumping me and the kids, and taking up with a new guy.

Sometimes toughing it out is tough.

Montsegour · #3 11-09-2008, 10:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lazylion

Good job. Sometimes you gotta tough it out.

I played a show 1 day after we'd learned that our keyboard player had hanged himself.
I played a show the night my then-wife had informed me over dinner that after 18 years together, she was dumping me and the kids, and taking up with a new guy.

Sometimes toughing it out is tough.

Ah man.. Tell' you what :
All you need is your bass and your kids ( your wife probably doesn't deserve you ) but i'm sure there's plenty of those who do, waiting for your groove =)!