What's the strangest gig you've ever done?

[MoD_Scotty]

Mine had to be when I was in Air Force Basic Training. I found out that if you were a musician, you could play in the Protestant choir. That meant a couple hours a week of practice, and about 20 minutes of playing during the 1-hour service.

This may not seem strange at all...but if you've ever seen any movies about basic training, or been in the military...you know that basic is 24/7 CRAP. So being able to play bass in basic was monumentally awesome for me. Plus, I thought it was funny that I was playing in a Protestant service...and I'm Jewish!

[Dave Muscato]

I did a wedding a few weeks ago. It was pretty strange. Due to a misunderstanding, we not only did not get paid, but we had to each pay $120 to rent a tuxedo. It was a duo gig, so just guitar & bass, no drummer, but we were supposed to play electric covers of some John Mayer songs. They wanted us to play for 1/2 an hour. It was bizarre.... electric guitar & electric bass, playing a half-dozen John Mayer songs, in tuxedos. Did I mention that the tuxedos were gold? They were gold. The food was pretty good, though.

Once, I showed up at a recording session. Over the phone, they told me it would be $800, but that's split 5 ways... I figured they had hired some horn players or something. They gave me directions to the "studio," which turned out to be some kid's parents' basement. The mp3s they sent me were just acoustic guitar tracks (no vocals), and they told me to make up a bassline, which I'd done in advance. So I got down there, no horn players, just five 16-year-olds and a Roland table-top all-in-one thingie. I lay down the bass tracks, eight songs in about 40 minutes (one take each), and say, "Well, is that it?" and the kid behind the controls says, "Yep, that's it. Good job." And I said, "Okay, I guess I'll be heading out then. Should we settle up?" and he says to me, "Sure. Your share is $160." I said, "Okay, thanks." And he sat there, waiting for me. Apparently, the "engineer" was charging $800 to record these 8 songs for this band, and each of the 5 of the rest of us were supposed to pony up $160! I said, "Whoa man, I thought I was here for a session." One of the other kids said, "Yeah, man, I know it's kinda weird to lay this on you since you *just joined,* but we need to have something to take around so we can get gigs."

hahaha

- Dave

[Kenny Allyn]

Several years ago my drummer and I did a series of "pick-up" gigs with a guy who called himself BLUE ... that alone should have clued us into the fact that something was wrong...

Well turns out BLUE had this kind of obsession/fixation with the movie "Eddie and the Cruisers" ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_and_the_Cruisers ... so about halfway into the night he would morf into Eddie, all of the moves, attitude etc:

Attachment 64707

... Needless to say it was a little STRANGE! ...

[BillyB_from_LZ]

I played several weird ones...all with the same band.

We'd been together about a month, I was the new guy. We played a block party for the guitarist's friend. Our song list included anything from Born to be Wild to some Dokken to Three Doors Down. We played so loud that folks couldn't stand the volume from across the street (both guitarists had 100 watt Marshalls and 4x12s each) or hear the bass (I was using a 2x10, a 4x10 driven by a cranked Crown CE1000 power amp (and Pearce BC-1)).

The other really weird one happend to be our second gig...a back yard party for another one of the guitarist's friends (see the pattern here...and for what it's worth everyone in the band was in their mid to late 40s)). The homeowner did absolutely nothing to prepare for the party she was throwing...the lawn was about two weeks overdue for mowing and her big dog had blessed it with poop landmines everywhere. Load in/load out was quite interesting to say the least and the audience kept looking at the bottom of their shoes any time they moved.

[Busker]

LOL

These are great. Keep 'em coming.

[Turock]

I did a gig with a group of strippers.

[troy mcclure]

My bass teacher got called for gig he couldn't make and turned it over to me. It was a Yougoslovian band for a spring festival. The leader wouldn't let me look at the charts. He said he put too much time into writing them and he didn't want me to steal them. (This was 1982, no digital cameras implanted in my eyes.) I just watched the piano players left hand all day and played root /5. The food was good and I got like $40.

[Drucocu]

I opened last week for motörhead...really strange to see Mr. Kilmisters basses allready on stage..hehe, not to mention meeting him backstage...

[funkybassinator]

Originally Posted by troy mcclure

My bass teacher got called for gig he couldn't make and turned it over to me. It was a Yougoslovian band for a spring festival. The leader wouldn't let me look at the charts. He said he put too much time into writing them and he didn't want me to steal them. (This was 1982, no digital cameras implanted in my eyes.) I just watched the piano players left hand all day and played root /5. The food was good and I got like $40.

i like you!!

[Audiophage]

Originally Posted by troy mcclure

My bass teacher got called for gig he couldn't make and turned it over to me. It was a Yougoslovian band for a spring festival. The leader wouldn't let me look at the charts. He said he put too much time into writing them and he didn't want me to steal them. (This was 1982, no digital cameras implanted in my eyes.) I just watched the piano players left hand all day and played root /5. The food was good and I got like $40.

Thats awesome.

Once I played bass in one of my college's vocal groups at a psychiatric center. It's no wonder those people are crazy with the lights turned up so bright. Luckily I had my sunglasses with me so that the charts didn't blind me.

I probably shouldn't even disclose some of what I saw there since it's probably against the form I signed upon entering the place. Let's just say I was glad to go home after dropping off a couple of the singers who carpooled with me.

[RickenBoogie]

Many years ago, I walk in the front door of some seedy little club, carrying my bass case, and the door guy says, " that's 5 bucks". Whoa dude, I'm in the band, I says, and he goes, "yeah, 5 bucks, it's for the soundman". I've never been so insulted. We never played there again. The gig itself was unremarkable.

[bass4u]

The strangest show I ever played was at Gallaudet University. It is a University for the deaf. They wanted us not to use any vocal mics so the students could read the singer's lips. The best part for me since I play bass is they wanted the bass cranked as loud as it could get,turn the guitars down,turn the kick and toms up and max out the subs in the PA. People had there heads inside the bass bins!!!!. In between songs it was very eerie because there was almost dead silence.......no crowd chatter. After each song you heard clapping but no cheers. And the girls there were quite friendly. The University paid extremely well. If you ever have a chance to play there go for it.

[BassOverflow]

I was in an up and coming Christian rock band where we played this gig where we were the headlining band. There were five bands before us AND we were playing in a gym (booo). Luckily we brought our PA because there was no PA at this "venue". All the bands had to play through our PA, but wasn't a big deal.

Well, once the "venue" open, the kids pilled in and we started with the five bands before us... wow... ALL five bands were death metal bands. We should have known something was up when we saw them all dressed in black with white painted faces and their "groupies" wearing Jason masks. It was entertaining for a while, but each band played a full set!

We finally got on stage like 4 hours later and most of the kids had left. Only the 5 previous bands were there. Well, we were a pop/rock band and didn't really seem to impress the others!!

That was ackward, but we still had fun!

[PatTheAnchor]

Wait...why did you play at a deaf school if they couldn't hear anything??? I mean, they can feel the beat, but its the same thing as honking a horn right in their ears.

[bass4u]

I thought when we were first offered the show at the deaf University that it was a joke but our booking agency said it was for real and the money was HUGE. The band I was in at the time was playing cover tunes and I guess the students would just read the singer's lips and feel the beat. Actually the show was quite fun.

[sobie18]

I was playing a country gig one time in ArkansaW and during our break, this Manager & "new up & coming artist" wanted to do a set with us. Cool, I thought. Well, the catch was that we were gonna "back him up" while he sang HIS songs and a DAT hooked into the PA rolled the music. Kinda like an MTV video. I was never so embarassed in my life. Funny thing is that the crowd loved it and didn't notice a thing. Even when the drummer got out of time with the backing music.

[Zooberwerx]

Our "Tributes" entourage played a sold-out show at Carytown's (Richmond, VA) Byrd Theater. This is an old-timey movie house with an orchestra pit and a huge prehistoric organ which ascends to the stage by some form of elevator. Neat effect but spooky nonetheless. No dressing rooms so we used the utility space beneath the stage as best we could. For whatever reason, we were big with the local "Red Hat Society" chapters which accounted for the sell-out. During the performance, one hapless Red Hatter was bringing flowers to our "Elvis" impersonator when she missed a turn and tumbled down the steps into the orchestra pit. Luckily, she wasn't hurt and we never missed a beat.

Riis

[mrpackerguy]

It's coming up in August. We play for a nude car show at a nudist camp.

[toaster2k3]

Once, when we were on tour, a club canceled our show two hours before. We were kind of mad so we parked the van (we're an indie band so we don't travel in style) in the parking lot adjacent to the club, ran extension cords into the building and performed from inside the van.

[Asomodai]

Originally Posted by Dave Muscato

I did a wedding a few weeks ago. It was pretty strange. Due to a misunderstanding, we not only did not get paid, but we had to each pay $120 to rent a tuxedo. It was a duo gig, so just guitar & bass, no drummer, but we were supposed to play electric covers of some John Mayer songs. They wanted us to play for 1/2 an hour. It was bizarre.... electric guitar & electric bass, playing a half-dozen John Mayer songs, in tuxedos. Did I mention that the tuxedos were gold? They were gold. The food was pretty good, though.

Once, I showed up at a recording session. Over the phone, they told me it would be $800, but that's split 5 ways... I figured they had hired some horn players or something. They gave me directions to the "studio," which turned out to be some kid's parents' basement. The mp3s they sent me were just acoustic guitar tracks (no vocals), and they told me to make up a bassline, which I'd done in advance. So I got down there, no horn players, just five 16-year-olds and a Roland table-top all-in-one thingie. I lay down the bass tracks, eight songs in about 40 minutes (one take each), and say, "Well, is that it?" and the kid behind the controls says, "Yep, that's it. Good job." And I said, "Okay, I guess I'll be heading out then. Should we settle up?" and he says to me, "Sure. Your share is $160." I said, "Okay, thanks." And he sat there, waiting for me. Apparently, the "engineer" was charging $800 to record these 8 songs for this band, and each of the 5 of the rest of us were supposed to pony up $160! I said, "Whoa man, I thought I was here for a session." One of the other kids said, "Yeah, man, I know it's kinda weird to lay this on you since you *just joined,* but we need to have something to take around so we can get gigs."

hahaha

- Dave

So what actually happened after that? I would have blown my nut if that happened.