Your "stage" experience

pklima · #1 11-30-2009, 02:08 AM

Most of us have played on stages that weren't actual raised stages, but just corners of the venue cleared of tables. So, we could say that our stage experience is actually stage and floor experience.

In that spirit, and counting paid gigs only, my stage experience is actually stage, floor, stair, tree, meadow and moat experience. Edit: add altar and choir, including a choir carved from salt in a chapel 100 meters underground in a salt mine. How about you?

nsmar4211 · #2 11-30-2009, 05:12 AM

Stage, floor, dock, deck, patio, field, porch here

schmig · #3 11-30-2009, 05:27 AM

Played a proper theatre stage lately, for first time. Was fantastic, proximity from the crowd, volume levels, overall feel of the place...I never played so well or so relaxed. Meanwhile I can suffer very badly from clamhand in smaller, corner of bar gigs..

geeza · #4 11-30-2009, 06:02 AM

I've played all kinds of places, but one stage that sticks out in my mind was an old dance hall in Erie. It was a huge old auditorium with an open floor (for dancing) and a big theatre stage behind a proscenium at one end. The stage had a slope towards the audience so they could see the whole band back in dance band days, like built in risers but sloped, not stepped. It was really disorienting.

infamusblkdeath · #5 11-30-2009, 06:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pklima

In that spirit, and counting paid gigs only, my stage experience is actually stage, floor, stair, tree, meadow and moat experience. How about you?

where do you find these gigs?!?! lol,what place has you play up in a tree? and furthermore,a moat?!?
or is something going right over my head?

pklima · #6 11-30-2009, 06:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by infamusblkdeath

where do you find these gigs?!?! lol,what place has you play up in a tree? and furthermore,a moat?!?
or is something going right over my head?

Medieval festivals. The moat hadn't been maintained in a few hundred years so it was really just a shallow depression...

JLP · #7 11-30-2009, 06:13 AM

The Red Wings had a PKlima for awhile. Anyway, I played in parking lot next to the main highway thru town and people driving by loved it.

geoff_in_nc · #8 11-30-2009, 06:14 AM

We played in sort of a field/extended backyard for a 40th anniversary of Woodstock party this past August. We were on a farm way out in the middle of nowhere, set up in front of the goat/dog/sheep/chicken pen. It was funny to have the animals wandering around and making noise behind us as we played.

stingray69 · #9 11-30-2009, 06:16 AM

All the aforementioned - been known to rock the occasional flatbed trailer & festival tents from time to time.

Edit: Forgot to mention churches, boats & casino cruises, corn field/hay bails, gymnasiums, etc...

Phalex · #10 11-30-2009, 06:34 AM

Stage, floor, outfield bleachers, courtyard lawn, deck, patio, dance floor, garage............

dmusic148 · #11 11-30-2009, 06:47 AM

I like this thread. Let's see:

Floor.
Yard/field.
Porch.
Boat.
Stage.
Garage.
Church.
Pier.
Flatbed truck.
Modified trailer truck.
Think that about covers it.

kcole4001 · #12 11-30-2009, 08:53 AM

Hmmm...
raised stages (varying heights, shapes, and sizes)
floor
bandstand
garage
raised platform on lawn/ball field
lawn/ball field (no platform)
flatbed trailer/flatbed truck
barn
really nice multi-level patio/deck next to pool

That's about it I think.

RDUB · #13 11-30-2009, 09:03 AM

Playing the anti-pit this week. Small theatre, not pit, so we're up on the balcony!

Dave44 · #14 11-30-2009, 10:13 AM

Played it all. Stage with real curtains and all the rest, floor, raised, palets and boxes. As well as the bottom of a quarry the middel of a corn field, back yards frount yards, on a flat bed, in the street, in a living room and down in the basement. Yet to play on a roof top but then that's been done before.

Chad Michael · #15 11-30-2009, 10:36 AM

In addition to the regular clubs / lounges / mid-size venues indoor / outdoor etc, here are some slightly out-of-the ordinary ones:

- my old high school auditorium (Newport WA)
- in an airplane hangar (Juliaetta ID)
- on a 400 person cruise boat (Coeur d'Alene ID)
- Silver Mountain ski lodge, world's longest gondola ride to get there (Kellogg ID)

GreggBummer · #16 11-30-2009, 10:47 AM

Ok, Here are mine:

Floor (Bars too numerous and sundry to enumerate)
Stage
Field
Radio Station
Stadium (Veterans Stadium, Philadelphia PA)
Basement stage (constructed from borrowed church folding tables and plywood for a party involving very un-church like things)
Parade Float
Military Barracks Day Room (Bamberg Germany)
Street Corner

Boy did this post bring back a lot of memories.

denhou1974 · #17 11-30-2009, 11:11 AM

Stage, floor, wannabe stage, etc.

I like the floor setups because the people are eye-level and tend to 'mix' with the band more. That's fun to me.

Phalex · #18 11-30-2009, 11:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by denhou1974

I like the floor setups because the people are eye-level and tend to 'mix' with the band more. That's fun to me.

Last time I did that I kept getting punched in the mouth with my microphone!

I'll take a stage setup thank you......

kickstand22 · #19 11-30-2009, 11:31 AM

We used to play a place in Lake Charles called OB's. They had a sunken area around the parimeter of the bar we called "the pit." You were a step lower than the crowd....weird. And god forbid the toilet in the girls room overflow...time to open the exit door and find some empty bottles to put your amp up on.

Stage, barge, ground, barn, etc.... no trees.

Rattman · #20 11-30-2009, 11:36 AM

Sure... a cleared area in a private clubhouse (1st paid gig), big church stages, small church stages, a medium-sized outdoor stage built for a weekend event (about 5' tall), an "arena" type stage that was taped and broadcasted the music/service each week for local TV... the semi-strange one was a 'stage' made from a big flatbed trailer . . .