Pet Peeve - loading in/loading out

[lermgalieu]

I don't play bands/gigs where I have to do anything other than show up and carry my own rig. Selfish? Maybe. Fair? Definitely. I'm too old for that shizz. I will say I have played in bands where there was PA gear and Hammonds, etc, and I always pulled my weight.

 

[gumbynotpokey]

 

[Deleted member 165050]

Females are useless. Most do not own a Mic or stand or cable. Really? I hate movin gear & setting up in the feffin corner.

Wow. Our female lead singer created the band, owns the rehearsal PA which she brings herself and sets up, books rehearsals, organises the set list, has booked the venue for our first (showcase) gig (April 28th Pilton Town Hall if you're free except she promoted it so well it sold out), does all the band admin including the website, has got us two high-paying gigs booked before we've even performed, and makes us tea while we are trying to work our parts out. Useless?

 

[bolophonic]

packing all my drums into the venue's "gear cupboard" (no green rooms here) – then going to get them later and finding various hipsters snorting rowdy powder off the floor tom.

I was tempted to give the drumskin a good hard hit and watch £20-worth of Colombia's finest go up into their hair and eyebrows.

I think that letting them finish up was definitely the more rock-and-roll way to handle it.

 

[petrus61]

I won’t tolerate any band member acting as if their load in/out takes precedence over common sense and general courtesy to the customers of the client. Leaving their hand truck full of gear or guitar cases in the middle of a busy restaurant amongst tables full of patrons and in the way of the waitresses trying to do their job is one thing that pisses me off immensely. Talking to the client staff as if they are under the employ of the band also pisses me off. I once nearly lost it when a guitarist started mounting the PA mains directly over a seated infant in a high chair. I told him these people are eating and you can set up that stand and move it when they’re done...relax! He totally couldn’t understand why I was ticked off and was one of those guys that took setup way too seriously (I think he enjoyed it more than playing, actually). I didn’t last long in that band and left before anyone had a chance to squish a baby or trip over an old lady with ther mic stand. Idiots.

 

[Alfonso Alba]

I'm the drummer. That's my pet peeve.

 

[bombpop14]

"That" band that goes 10 minutes over and then lounges around talking to their Ho's rather than loading out.
I believe Hell would be following "that" band every night for eternity. Uncanny how many of "those" bands are out there.

The second I see the drummer in a preceding band reach for the wing nut on his cymbal stand instead of taking the whole stand off stage I step in to educate.....

 

[Bunk McNulty]

Wow. Our female lead singer created the band, owns the rehearsal PA which she brings herself and sets up, books rehearsals, organises the set list, has booked the venue for our first (showcase) gig (April 28th Pilton Town Hall if you're free except she promoted it so well it sold out), does all the band admin including the website, has got us two high-paying gigs booked before we've even performed, and makes us tea while we are trying to work our parts out. Useless?

Same thing here. Jane is Redhead's BL, and she is the straw that stirs the drink. While we're loading out, she's making quality time with the club owner, adding gigs to the calendar.

 

[HauntedDave]

Most shows I play are headline or direct support for national acts. #1. I cannot stand a venue that has no pre-stage area for equipment. #2. Bands that play before us that fiddle fart around when they're done with their set, putting the next band past set time. #3. Any member that can't police their own gear and slows others down. Be a team, a band. Don't bring 5 guitars and a full stack for a 45 min set. Don't bring a 18 piece drum kit when the riser is only for the headliner. Simply put, don't bring more than you need.

 

[JeezyMcNuggles]

Load in: when the guitarist lays his honking pedal board down before everyone else has brought their equipment on stage.

Load out: when said guitarist LEAVES pedal board on the floor while people are trying to get off the stage.

How about your pet peeves?

When everybody spends the 10 minutes setting up the drum set, and carrying the two guitar cabs, then I haul my 100+lb set up in by myself, wire up, check tuning, and play. While everyone else has been sitting on stage silently warming up and waiting on me. Lame.

 

[2F/2F]

Other bands being slow to set up and tear down...especially tear down. You finish your act, you move your ass as quickly as you can off the stage...THEN you start milling about and bullshitting with people.

Bands bringing a complicated rig to a shithole venue for a free gig.

Bands bringing amplifiers that outdo the P.A. OK...so you actually WANT your band to sound like crap?

Noodling, excessive testing, taking forever to set up your pedals, etc. Get that stuff squared away OFF the stage, so all you do is pipe a cable in and a cable out of your board.

Playing along with the house music...especially when you don't know how to pay the damned song.

Drummers who won't share their kit...yet also take their sweet-ass time setting up and tearing down.

Bands who pack up *completely* while still on the stage. NO! You shuttle everything off the stage as quickly as possible, then you wrap up the details off to the side. You don't stand on stage wrapping up your cables, pedals, putting your amps into cases, removing and packing your cymbals, etc. No cases on the stage, and no assembly or disassembly of your rig/kit on the stage.

Set lists left on the stage.

Drinks left on the stage.

Spills left on the stage.

Load-in times that are idiotically early.

Bands that play encores without sufficient demand for them.

Bands that push the start time because "nobody's here yet." Too bad! Go on on time!

 

[ToneMonkey]

Being asked to move after all my cables are run.

Other guys leaving cases all over the place that I have to step around.

 

[jamro217]

Bandmates who try to pilfer your cables because they look similar (black with metal plugs at both ends ) to the crappy, shorted out job lot ones they have at home. I use one turn of initialed colored tape on the inside of all of my cable ends. Got any questions? Unscrew them and examine the evidence. Case closed.

 

[[skyraider]]

Venue owners who won't let the band soundcheck because they have a staff meeting or because they slotted the band to start setting up right as the dinner crowd rolls-in and they don't want the band disturbing the patrons. Venue owners who want to micromanage the band. Venue owners who do a kick-ass business when your band plays but at the end of the night are acting as if the crowd you brought is normal, so they don't kick in any extra.

Band members who want to argue politics or religion. Band members who want to move the rehearsal space to their home, thereby increasing the bass player's commute by at least an hour, then arguing vehemently and incessantly about why it's a better deal for the bass player. Then pouting about it when BP refuses.

 

[gjbassist]

Folks wanting to strike up a deep conversation with you or your band mates while you’re trying to set up or tear down.

Folks who stand in the doorway chatting, blocking the only way in or out while we’re trying to move gear.

These are probably my two biggest pet peeves as well! Especially at the end of the night when I am tired and wanting to get the heck out of there!

 

[Bullitt5135]

Venue owners who won't let the band soundcheck because they have a staff meeting or because they slotted the band to start setting up right as the dinner crowd rolls-in and they don't want the band disturbing the patrons.

I've gotten this from the last two bars we played at. Owner specifically said he did not want us to do soundcheck... "I don't want to hear any of that 'check 1-2, check 1-2' crap."

 

[avalancheMM]

I regularly play with band that the PA owner wraps his cables over/under, and then wraps them with electricians tape, yup, the black sticky crap. Then I have to find the crappy bathroom, and try get the residue off of my hands with steel wool. Now, I wear gloves to help set up and tear down. Seriously, velcro wraps are like $0.20 each, and work well for YEARS. Rant over.

Regards

 

[jchrisk1]

At a place I played frequently, people park their cars up close to the stairs at the entrance. Pisses all of us off. I can't tell you how many vehicles I've dragged my cabs down the side of, or just set them on their hoods. And then dragged them off...

 

[gypsyfelon]

Well-meaning bandmates who don't know how to over-under cables.

This. Plus the fact that they have decided that they can't and won't be able to learn!
REALLY?!

 

[BigBasserino]

Load in: when the guitarist lays his honking pedal board down before everyone else has brought their equipment on stage.

Load out: when said guitarist LEAVES pedal board on the floor while people are trying to get off the stage.

How about your pet peeves?

People that are unfamiliar with cable direction. As in not crossing the streams.

The guitarists that take up a quarter of the stage with their half stacks that end up playing on top of you to "share the stage".

Drummers and bands that find it hilarious to play bars of hard rock (GG Allin,anybody?) songs for jokes at gigs rather than actually be bothered to cover anything people might actually be interested in (because the new insightful lyrics just go so fresh over the rotten four chord progressions that have been played to death).