I was reading earlier about something James Brown used to do. If his opening act was killing it, he would sabotage their set - either by cutting it short or, at worst, insisting on sitting in on drums with the opener and shutting off the momentum.
It made me think of a gig we had a few years ago at a place in Denver called Quixote's. This place has three stages, and two of them were active on this particular night. The headliner was some kind of "supergroup" containing various members of local and regional jam bands. They were on the main stage inside. We had the courtyard stage outside, which is in a tree-lined bier garden and is actually a lovely place to play on a summer night. I think Quixotes has moved to another location now, sadly.
So - we're booked for three sets this night. So is the opener, and our sets are supposed to stagger, so that one or the other of us is always playing. Makes sense to me.
Good crowd overall - probably 75 or 80 people, which is a heavy draw for this place. It seemed like 30 of them were ours.
We play set 1. It goes well. The courtyard is full.
Superband plays their set 1. It goes fairly well - it's a little stuffy inside; about half the people stay out in the courtyard.
We begin set 2. Two or three songs in, we hear music inside. But everyone is still in the courtyard with us.
Soon the owner comes out and gives us the hand gesture that any of us would interpret as "keep it going". The one where you move your arm in a circular motion in front of your chest, with the circle perpendicular to your body. So, we keep it going.
A few seconds later, the guy cuts our power in mid-song.
In the aftermath. he told us that his gesture was supposed to mean "cut it off" and that Superband was upset that we were taking their crowd and so decided to play early before everyone left. We were done for the night and haven't worked with this guy since, although we left it with a modicum of agreement that there had been a misunderstanding.
Moral of the story is that the headliner railroaded our show because we were occupying too much of the crowd's attention. I imagine that was their prerogative, but we don't have to like it.
Similar stories?
It made me think of a gig we had a few years ago at a place in Denver called Quixote's. This place has three stages, and two of them were active on this particular night. The headliner was some kind of "supergroup" containing various members of local and regional jam bands. They were on the main stage inside. We had the courtyard stage outside, which is in a tree-lined bier garden and is actually a lovely place to play on a summer night. I think Quixotes has moved to another location now, sadly.
So - we're booked for three sets this night. So is the opener, and our sets are supposed to stagger, so that one or the other of us is always playing. Makes sense to me.
Good crowd overall - probably 75 or 80 people, which is a heavy draw for this place. It seemed like 30 of them were ours.
We play set 1. It goes well. The courtyard is full.
Superband plays their set 1. It goes fairly well - it's a little stuffy inside; about half the people stay out in the courtyard.
We begin set 2. Two or three songs in, we hear music inside. But everyone is still in the courtyard with us.
Soon the owner comes out and gives us the hand gesture that any of us would interpret as "keep it going". The one where you move your arm in a circular motion in front of your chest, with the circle perpendicular to your body. So, we keep it going.
A few seconds later, the guy cuts our power in mid-song.
In the aftermath. he told us that his gesture was supposed to mean "cut it off" and that Superband was upset that we were taking their crowd and so decided to play early before everyone left. We were done for the night and haven't worked with this guy since, although we left it with a modicum of agreement that there had been a misunderstanding.
Moral of the story is that the headliner railroaded our show because we were occupying too much of the crowd's attention. I imagine that was their prerogative, but we don't have to like it.
Similar stories?
