Do you let weather cancel your gig...?

[jaywa]

This last New Year's Eve up in these parts was a mutha. Snowing, high winds, 30 below wind chill. It was only about a 15-minute trip out of town for us so there was never any question the show would go on if the bar decided to stay open (which they did). Soon after we had set up we got the news that both major interstates leading into and out of town had been closed indefinitely because of weather. So needless to say we didn't exactly play to a packed house. But it was what it was.

I've never had a gig cancelled because of weather but I did have one re-scheduled. It was an outdoor thing we were supposed to play for a Poker Run. It was scheduled for first weekend of June which up here is still a bit of a gamble for outdoor gigs, and wouldn't you know, come gig day and it was 40 degrees, windy and rain. Our singer (who also put the Poker Run together), realized we weren't gonna get anyone to ride up in that weather so we re-scheduled it till mid-July.

Friend of mine's band had their special event reunion concert (outdoors) cut short a couple years ago. It started to rain and then the tornado sirens went off and that was it.

 

[MatticusMania]

Indirectly, once. The rain had caused the power at the venue to go out and our show was cancelled.

 

[iriegnome]

You know I should add that 1 time in those 30+ years, we were on stage and the tornado sirins went off. It wasn't until the winds started to blow over our cabinets that we stopped playing... Also there was one time the Stage Roof fell over onto a band due to 50+ mph wind bursts. We took 30 minutes to remove the stage cover, reposition all lights from back lighting to front up lighting and the show went on!!! Still in 30+ years, we have only not played 1 show!! EVER.

 

[mboogiemanusa]

We just played our last 3 gigs in a row during rain storms. Luck of the draw since we scheduled these gigs months ago. Did not cancel and attendance was down a little but still had a great time. Just waited until the next day to load out in between down pours instead of doing it @2am in the rain.

 

[HailCorduroy]

It's become a running joke with our band that our shows cause bad weather. Our first show was on a night when there were major storms and tornadoes. We've always played, except for a show we were supposed to play last May. It had been raining hard all day. I was watching the news that afternoon and they started showing one of the interstates around town and it was flooded. It was the same interstate the guitarist and drummer would use to get to the gig. The venue cancelled the show and most of Nashville ended up flooding that night and the next day.

 

[azureblue]

one, in Louisiana, a wedding reception held in a town hall, during a heavy storm. The singer nudges me and point to the ceiling- the roof, actually. I could see it moving side to side from the high winds. And then the whole building started to sway. Time to go! We barely made it home, almost got blown off the road.

The other was an outdoor gig under a metal roofed pavilion in a park. A lightening storm came up - a lot of strikes, like the kind where there is no time between flash and thunder. We didn't even pack, we threw the gear into the trailer and took off. Soon after we left, a strike hit a tree about a hundred yards from where we were playing.

 

[HolmeBass]

Let the venue decide. We've toughed it out a couple of times, for gigs that were 70 miles away, an hour each way, and both times it was pretty white-knuckle getting home. One drive home from Richmond Va took over 2 hours, for a drive that normally takes 1. In other instances we have canceled and frankly I felt good about it. Now if it was in town locally, I think I would go ahead and do the gig, unless the club wants to cancel. Many times on the cancellations the club wants to cancel but is afraid the band would be bummed, but they have staff there worried about getting home later, and management worried about a full staff to pay while having an empty bar. "The better part of valor is discretion, in the which better part I have sav'd my life."