Suffered thru a 4 set gig tonight.

chicago_mike · #1 08-15-2010, 04:28 AM

I woke up at 8 am...Dont know why..

Left the house at 8:30 pm, for the 10:30 gig.

Played till 4:10ish am.

It was one of those looooooong nights.

what was the longest most body aching set / gig you guys have done?

Rip Topaz · #2 08-15-2010, 04:42 AM

Played a Friday night gig (3 sets) six hours away. Stayed the night, next morning drove home for an afternoon gig. Played 3 sets, the drove 2 1/2 hours for another 3 sets. The whole time, it was snowing like crazy. Was afraid I wouldn't survive.

After the 7th set, no one in the band wanted to keep going. We did, and took naps in a booth between sets.

JDJen · #3 08-15-2010, 05:16 AM

Iowa State Fair vendor tent.

Left at 8:00 AM, and got there around Noon. Set up while a KJ was blasting distorted, underpowered, karaoke mix music with tone deaf singers. Played from 5 PM until 12:30 AM. No real ventilation at the end of the tent in 95 degree heat and humidity, with a row of Port-A-Potty's less than 15' away from the stage.

We did this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, two weekends in a row for 4 years, the only thing that saved us was not having to tear down every night. We just took our instruments with us and left the PA set up.

Good Times. Good Memories.

Stinsok · #4 08-15-2010, 06:49 AM

As a much younger man, we played a standing Saturday night gig from 9 to 4 at a toilet called "The Jammer." That's not counting setup. We came back another day to tear down. I would cry if I knew that gig was coming back.

bigtiny · #5 08-15-2010, 07:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chicago_mike

I woke up at 8 am...Dont know why..

Left the house at 8:30 pm, for the 10:30 gig.

Played till 4:10ish am.

It was one of those looooooong nights.

what was the longest most body aching set / gig you guys have done?

Wow.....the times have changed. When I was a youngster EVERY gig was 4 sets!!! Seriously.

bigtiny

buddyro57 · #6 08-15-2010, 08:04 AM

This was circa 1977, I was 19 or so, living in Knoxville TN. I got a gig at a downtown after-hours club called "The Rainbow Room". The hours were from midnight to 5 am. The owner was a former radio personality V.G. Kennedy. He and his wife would come up to sing 3-5 songs per set. They would sing warbly country standards, backed up by a rock trio. The weird part was the clientele; as every club in town would close, those not yet ready to give up on the evening would flock to the Rainbow Room. There were transvestites, prostitutes, cowboys, hillbillies, hippies....well you get the picture. And, this collection did not always coexist in harmony; there were fights, and once a pistol shot rang out arout 3 am one night- the place emptied out, the band escaping into the back alley.
It was rather like a costume party out of a Stephen King short story. And it paid 35.00 per night.....we would stagger out, go directly to Krystal for breakfast, then onto my 7 am "day gig", busing tables at the Best Western.....them were the days and good riddance.

chicago_mike · #7 08-15-2010, 09:31 AM

Most my gigs are pretty cool. 2 70 or 75 minutes with a short last set. But thats my touring band.

Here it was just one of those gigs that brutal. 20 minute break between the hour long sets. At Kingston mines its worse or not as bad because theres that hour break..2 bands, 2 stages..each play an hour.

Thursday we drive for a weekend in Atlanta and come right back. I mean we drive right back asap because some of us have gigs that sunday night back in chicago.

treekiller · #8 08-15-2010, 09:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JDJen

Iowa State Fair vendor tent.

Left at 8:00 AM, and got there around Noon. Set up while a KJ was blasting distorted, underpowered, karaoke mix music with tone deaf singers. Played from 5 PM until 12:30 AM. No real ventilation at the end of the tent in 95 degree heat and humidity, with a row of Port-A-Potty's less than 15' away from the stage.

We did this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, two weekends in a row for 4 years, the only thing that saved us was not having to tear down every night. We just took our instruments with us and left the PA set up.

Good Times. Good Memories.

Iowa State Fair time is always a miserable, hot & humid bit*h!!! Do you remember the Iowa jam days? I wish they would do something like that again.....

FuzzBoxVoodoo · #9 08-15-2010, 11:18 AM

It seems like it would be hard to stay in the groove when you play dance rock type stuff with a break every hour or what ever the industry standard is,we play 2 sets with one break only which means we play for 2 hours take a 20 to 30 minute break and then finish out with a 2 hour set.
Dont get me wrong it is a little tiring at times but when the dance floor is packed it would seem nuts to stop,and if its not packed then its nice to get done with the paid practice.

Jefenator · #10 08-15-2010, 11:41 AM

5 set gigs used to be more common. That came to be a bit of a red flag for me, since the venues that endorsed that format tended to be more sleazy and rowdy as a rule.

The tiny bit of touring I've done, seemed like a 4 am bedtime was the norm. Never did a long enough stint to acclimate.

These days, I mostly nuke myself by doing double or triple shifts. Blow glass for 6 hours, then 3 sets, then 4 sets. That's what it takes anymore to make the rent in a day.

modulusman · #11 08-15-2010, 11:51 AM

Back in the 80s in Alaska the band I was in use to play 5 sets from 10pm to 4am six nights a week. A few years back I played at the county fair. We were the back up band for the Colgate Country showdown. got to the fairgrounds at 9 am, set up and soundchecked. At 11 am we rehearsed with the contestants until about 2. Contest was from 4-5:30. We then played a dance on the same stage from 8 to midnight.

chicago_mike · #12 08-15-2010, 01:33 PM

5 sets a night..hope you guys who did that stuff made money.

mikezimmerman · #13 08-15-2010, 02:05 PM

A few years ago, my old country/blues bland shared the bill with another band (friends of ours), playing outside on the opening day of RAGBRAI (Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa), which was pretty much a massive weeklong rolling party on bicycles.

We had to get into town at 8am to set up the stage and PA before the streets were closed off to vehicle traffic, so everything was up by 10am. Well, we aren't supposed to start playing until 6pm, but with 10 musicians hanging around drinking beer in the July sun with with a stage full of instruments and gear right there, we couldn't resist and started jamming by about noon. That lasted 'til after 1am as I recall. The two bands had a couple individual sets, but an awful lot of the time was spent with people just getting on and off stage when they felt like joining in and no real breaks. If you weren't up there playing your "real" instrument, you were singing harmony or banging a cowbell or something.

We had a few thousand people there watching and drinking and dancing and singing along. It was a great time, but we were all pretty useless by the time it came to tear down!

Stingray89 · #14 08-15-2010, 02:08 PM

The longest sets I've ever played were a music festival. We got there around 12 pm, got set-up and did a sound check and went on at 2. Played four 3 hr sets with a 20 minute break in between each set. Took everything down and got to waffle house around 4 am for breakfast.

busmandan · #15 08-16-2010, 10:18 AM

Just played three one-hour sets on Saturday. Outside. The temperature was 104° when we started and cooled down to 98° when the sun went down.