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Do you let weather cancel your gig...?

#21
I've been canceled earlier in the day, been canceled right before leaving home, been canceled on the way to the gig, but I've never refused to go if the place was open. Never failed to make it to the venue, and never failed to make it home. Well, not due to weather anyway...

And I'm knocking on wood right now. ;)
 
#23
When I lived in Colorado we had a gig in a ski town about 4 hours away. There was a blizzard with an expectation of over 70 inches of snow. We went to the gig anyway. The 2 guitar players made it, but they closed the overpass shortly after and the drummer and I had to turn back. The guitarists played as a duo and the drummer and I inched back home and got wasted. But that was in my 20s.
 
#26
steveksux said:
If you can't confirm with the other guys and the bar by phone that the gig is cancelled, best to show up. Everyone that went to all the trouble to make it will be pretty pissed at the ones that didn't show up and didn't let anyone else know they wouldn't.
Click to expand...

Like Marko's post, my band all travels together to a gig in one truck. So we'd already know all the members (4 of us) are present.
 
#28
1 time in 31 years of playing did we ever cancel a gig due to weather. We were supposed to play a gig about an hour and a half from our home town. 3 hours into the trip we only made 25 miles. just wasn't going to happen. 1 time in 30+ years. I would say there are exceptions, but in most cases, don't cancel the gig.
 
#29
a couple years ago, a friend and I were "drummer shopping" at open jam nights. One night it was a nasty blizzard happening, I called my friend and said are you sure you wantto do this? He said yes, it took me 30 minutes to drive 16 blocks! We get to the bar and they're talking about closing, four people in the bar, the two of us and the bar staff. We tell them don't stay open on our account, they said play if you want. The next two guys through the door were drummers. We played for hours, switching drummers every couple songs. Everyone who braved the storm to go out found one bar with live music that night. We wound up having a great audience by the end. If you can make it to the gig, go! Don't die trying ,though.:bassist:
 
#32
Snow? Errrr if it ever snowed here the whole town would shut down. No gig then! Having never driven in snow, if it did snow here, I'd have a hard time getting there and might call it off...not worth the accident risk....

In my area,

If it's an outdoor gig and it's raining, call the venue. 90% of the time they cancel and are grateful you asked.

If already there and it starts, depends on the amount of cover....and the amount of rain....etc. I keep garbage bags in the gig kit, speakers work with bags over them. Amps have tarps, etc...but that's only for light rain.

If it starts lightning, I'm done. Not playing in the lightning, it's not worth the risk. That's a gig ender for me.

Heat? Depends-if there's a cover so not in direct broiling sun, sure....I've played gigs where I sweat so much the strings just slide out from under the fingers. No cover, no band...did do a one hour set without a cover once, but it was spring and not broiling. Honestly, haven't had this be an issue otherwise, most places around here understand the band needs a shade.
 
#33
Canceled only 2 times due to weather. One time was us the other was the club. The one for us was a bad ice storm and our singer had and ice skating rink for a parking lot where he lives everyone else could have made it but, since he couldn't we were forced to cancel. Have to tell you though our guitarist went and the club was packed waiting on us and when they heard we had to cancel they all left. which really shows they all braved the crazy weather to come out to see us which made us feel good however, we felt sorry for the owner ( we have perform for many years in this place) since he has always been good to us and he had a packed house and ended up shutting-down early that night 9:30 since everyone cut out.
 
#34
It depends on WHERE the gig will be.

If it's gonna be outdoors and the weather sucks, cancelled. If it's gonna be indoors, we only cancel if the roads are utterly impassable.

By "impassable", read: Jack-booted thugs will try to forcefully prevent us from going through.
 
#38
Not cancelled but stopped an outdoor gig halfway once due to wheather conditions.
It was in July, on a town festival with the town booking us - no pub owner etc. The rain was so intense (like in the above pic) that our stage got flooded, in spite of the tent roof over it. I and the guitar player refused to stand in the stage covering puddle of water, playing non-wireless instruments into backline. (Don't forget that mains in Sweden is 230V, literally lethal if something goes wrong.)

/Alexander
 

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