Turning off the subs is SOP for a lot of headlining acts who want to guarantee the opener doesn't sound better than them.
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Ever had a headliner undermine your show?
- Thread starter Altitude
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Turning off the subs is SOP for a lot of headlining acts who want to guarantee the opener doesn't sound better than them.
Our band just did a show at a rather large local venue, mojoes in Joliet IL, last month. We were very excited to get this particular gig. Anyway, there was a few bands playing that night and we were third to go on, the headliner fifth and last. We were told early on we would get a 40 to 45 min set. Well, a day before the show, the headliner, which was there to help promote the record company that signed the headliner, stated that only were going to play a 25 min set. The promoter, which was the record company that the headliner was signed to and the company who put the show together, messages us and tells us our set is going to be 25 min long. "We can't have any of the opening bands play longer than the headliner, it's just not right". I was so livid. As were my band mates. We were stil happy to play the show/venue but the air had been taken out of our sails to say the least. We had brought out a good percentage of the crowd and it was a bit lame to only play a few songs and be done. It was still fun but we wouldve like to get a change to get more of our material out there that night considering the circumstances.
Subscribed. Great stories.
It's not mayer, it's (J) mellencamp. Out of curiosity I googled fallign from grace john m... Then figured it out.
It's not mayer, it's (J) mellencamp. Out of curiosity I googled fallign from grace john m... Then figured it out.
^ it would have been a lucky guess on my part. I went to a concert of Mellencamp's a few years ago. Musically it was excellent. He said absolutely nothing between songs. When he introduced the band near the end of the show, he did not know his keyboardist's name.
Wanna get back at a sound company for making you sound horrible? Here is how you do it.
Find the main snake from the FOH to the stage. Someplace where you wont be seen working, drive a stick pin into the snake, and cut the little head off of it flush with the outside of the snake. Do this in three or four places a few feet apart. The pin will make cross contact inside the snake with all of the wires running inside shorting out random channels. Ruins the snake. Cutting the heads off makes the pins impossible to find.
This has been a public service announcement...
BnB
Cutting the monitors way down or out was the most common problem I have had with other bands.
Have had club owners cancel us because we played the place down the street.
Biggest was a former band member started canceling our shows and booking us with out our knowledge.
Took a long time to get going again, but it back fired on him. Small towns the word spread fast, and he never
got in a band again while I lived in that area.
Have had club owners cancel us because we played the place down the street.
Biggest was a former band member started canceling our shows and booking us with out our knowledge.
Took a long time to get going again, but it back fired on him. Small towns the word spread fast, and he never
got in a band again while I lived in that area.
Chimaira tried to screw us over. It was their 2nd or 3rd show ever (1999 I believe, before any kind of labels or national fanbase- they were relative nobodies) and they had a pretty decent local following due to the members being in other popular cleveland bands. Our band set up a show with them as headliners (and us just before them, we had a big following at the time as well) and they were ok with that. There were a couple of out of town bands on the bill they brought and one other local band. About halfway through the show one member of Chimaira (name withheld) asked us to headline. I said no cause they had agreed to headline and had a bigger draw than we did. Chimaira dude threw a bit of attitude at me and got po'd and walked away. At the end of the night after a packed house, I got paid for the show (around $400 or 450) and I split it equally between all the bands as we had previously agreed upon. Chimaira dude got mad again saying he had promised the out of town bands $200 each. In fact, we almost didn't get paid or have them on the show at all, because their show a week before on a Thursday night ended up with a bunch of another club's tables and chairs busted up. I went to bat for them and fought with our venue to keep them on the bill. Then to get treated like total crap was just frustrating.
I always thought that Chimaira dude was a total jerk. Interestingly enough, a friend from high school is a neighbor of his, and says hes a really nice guy. Maybe now, but definitely not that night.
I always thought that Chimaira dude was a total jerk. Interestingly enough, a friend from high school is a neighbor of his, and says hes a really nice guy. Maybe now, but definitely not that night.
Terrible business decision by the club owner. Your band brought a bigger crowd and (presumably) worked for less money than the headliner. I would have signed you up for a residency.
hmmm...
back in the 80's and 90's, it seems like I encountered more headliner jack ass-ery than I have in the last decade. I don't know if it is because all of the "ego" headliners faded away, leaving all of us normal minded people to play (nicely) with each other? Anymore, there is tons of gear sharing to make the logistics easier. Sometimes there are last minute time changes if so-and-so's singer is late from work, or even the couple of times I have been asked to play bass at the last minute for someone else cause of a late flight, or family emergency, and there is usually no drama or attitude, as long as it goes the other way.
Mind you, this is in the metal scene too, which usually gets a bad rap for egomaniacs and wanna be's. It also might be because I am older, and could care less about the scene drama that plays out so I don't "see" as much of it as I used to.
There is still definitely plenty of examples of immature behavior or attitude, but it is usually taken care of by a swift kick, or slight shove of some gear out of the way....but more often than not, just having a straight forward even minded conversation can nip things in the bud.
Heck, most of the time we book shows, there isn't even a designated headliner. It is more like, "hey, we went on last the last time, so you guys go on last this time around". I feel like the "headlining" slot is now the middle band anymore anyways
back in the 80's and 90's, it seems like I encountered more headliner jack ass-ery than I have in the last decade. I don't know if it is because all of the "ego" headliners faded away, leaving all of us normal minded people to play (nicely) with each other? Anymore, there is tons of gear sharing to make the logistics easier. Sometimes there are last minute time changes if so-and-so's singer is late from work, or even the couple of times I have been asked to play bass at the last minute for someone else cause of a late flight, or family emergency, and there is usually no drama or attitude, as long as it goes the other way.
Mind you, this is in the metal scene too, which usually gets a bad rap for egomaniacs and wanna be's. It also might be because I am older, and could care less about the scene drama that plays out so I don't "see" as much of it as I used to.
There is still definitely plenty of examples of immature behavior or attitude, but it is usually taken care of by a swift kick, or slight shove of some gear out of the way....but more often than not, just having a straight forward even minded conversation can nip things in the bud.
Heck, most of the time we book shows, there isn't even a designated headliner. It is more like, "hey, we went on last the last time, so you guys go on last this time around". I feel like the "headlining" slot is now the middle band anymore anyways
That's a bad situation right there, it's really a shame to see musicians acting in such a manner. At least you have learned from this experience.
About the hand gesture. I do the same one when I'm on the phone and I'm getting impatient and I want the person to wrap it up. Maybe that's what he was trying to convey. Either way, he should have made it more clear and I agree that the classic cut across the neck would have been more effective.
About the hand gesture. I do the same one when I'm on the phone and I'm getting impatient and I want the person to wrap it up. Maybe that's what he was trying to convey. Either way, he should have made it more clear and I agree that the classic cut across the neck would have been more effective.
I used to play in a locally known punk/hardcore band that had built up a pretty good following within a 300 mile radius. We had done a few "reunion" shows just for fun and they drew a lot of people that wanted to come get nostalgic for their high school punk days. A friend asked us to do one of these shows opening up for some pretty big pop/punk/hardcore bands that were coming through town (not sure on etiquette so if anyone is curious who let me know if we can name drop or not). We agreed to open up for them as long as we had a guarantee that our set wouldn't be cut short (as the venue is notorious for) and, as usual, brought out a pretty good chunk of people (probably 1/3 of the crowd). A few days before the show there were 2 more bands added to the show. We double checked that we had the same amount of time to play and were assured that we were fine. During a line check the headlining bands asked where to buy beer and when we told them, they gave us kind of a weird look and then asked if we could just go pick them up a case. I told them we were playing that night and that we don't have time to make a beer run for them. After this first red flag we sat through two very long opening sets and finally went on. We had saved our most popular song from back in the day to close the set and right before launching into it the headlining bands tour manager scrambles up to the side of the stage and starts yelling "your done" at us. I gave him a goofy look and nodded at the drummer to start anyways. Crowd was happy, bands were mad. I heard they were badmouthing us quite a bit after the show but they were probably just sour that a big chunk of the crowd left after our set.
best revenge for that kind of stuff is to put on a good show and take the high road by hanging at the merch booth, shaking hands and taking pics with people.
The worst I've ever experienced is headliners and other bands taking too long for sound check, so by the time we setup we have to settle for a quick line check.
Yeah. so back in '76 the band I was in was doing a show at the Winterland in San Francisco. Opening for a fairly big time Blues-Rock player (Who should go un-named but still is a pretty big time Blues-Rock player).
We were doing soundcheck and playing what we thought was our very best original song.
Big time Blues-Rock guy sends one of his guys over to tell us that we can't play that particular song.
We figure we're going to play it anyway... it's our best song right.
So show time we start the song and Mr Big Time has the sound guy kill the PA. No more vocals, or sound support. Just drums and stage amps.
We start a different song and everything comes back on.
After the show Mr Big Time's guy says to us, "We told you not to play that".
Every now and then I hear one of Mr Big Times songs on the radio and I hate him to this day.
We were doing soundcheck and playing what we thought was our very best original song.
Big time Blues-Rock guy sends one of his guys over to tell us that we can't play that particular song.
We figure we're going to play it anyway... it's our best song right.
So show time we start the song and Mr Big Time has the sound guy kill the PA. No more vocals, or sound support. Just drums and stage amps.
We start a different song and everything comes back on.
After the show Mr Big Time's guy says to us, "We told you not to play that".
Every now and then I hear one of Mr Big Times songs on the radio and I hate him to this day.
Never had a gig sabotaged, but had a practice sabotaged.
Back in 2011 the band I was in practiced in a venue that doubled as a practice space for a few local bands. We had booked the space, owned by a good friend of ours from 4-7pm on a saturday. Things are going good, then the band that was playing at 9pm showed up around 5pm. They were from Hamilton or something and had big time rock star attitudes. Harassed us, and the owner. Eventually the owner asked us to if we could pack up early so we all wouldn't have to deal with them, he gave us our time we had used no charge.
We show up the next weekend and the owner apologizes. Explaining they were not supposed to show up till 8pm. They were a big headache for him that night. They decided they didn't like his PA setup so they ended up bringing their own oversize PA and totally tore apart the stage and wiring to get it set-up, like holes in the wall and such)
So Headliner essentially sabotaged our practice and their own show.
Back in 2011 the band I was in practiced in a venue that doubled as a practice space for a few local bands. We had booked the space, owned by a good friend of ours from 4-7pm on a saturday. Things are going good, then the band that was playing at 9pm showed up around 5pm. They were from Hamilton or something and had big time rock star attitudes. Harassed us, and the owner. Eventually the owner asked us to if we could pack up early so we all wouldn't have to deal with them, he gave us our time we had used no charge.
We show up the next weekend and the owner apologizes. Explaining they were not supposed to show up till 8pm. They were a big headache for him that night. They decided they didn't like his PA setup so they ended up bringing their own oversize PA and totally tore apart the stage and wiring to get it set-up, like holes in the wall and such)
So Headliner essentially sabotaged our practice and their own show.
edmidlifecrisis
Registered mediocre bass player
Great stories (probably not at the time). I have one not about sabotage but a great story just the same. One of the guys in my weekend band brings his dad to our practices occasionally when his dad is in town visiting. Great older guy with lots of health problems but he is a trooper. He plays and sings old folk and blues stuff, and has forever. We enjoy when he joins our practices.
He told us that he used to be in a folk duo (or trio) back in the very early 60's in NYC. They went to an open mic at one of the famous folk clubs in the Village one night at the very beginning of the folk era. They waited their turn, and had one act to go before they went on. The act in front of them, unknowns at the time, was Peter Paul and Mary. After PPM's short set they looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders, and left without playing. Couldn't follow PPM, they were just too good!!
He told us that he used to be in a folk duo (or trio) back in the very early 60's in NYC. They went to an open mic at one of the famous folk clubs in the Village one night at the very beginning of the folk era. They waited their turn, and had one act to go before they went on. The act in front of them, unknowns at the time, was Peter Paul and Mary. After PPM's short set they looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders, and left without playing. Couldn't follow PPM, they were just too good!!
