Pet Peeve - loading in/loading out

[juancaminos]

If you place a couple of big speakers next to them, pointing right at them, they tend to move pretty fast.

Yeah we played a place every Friday where we had to get the patrons to move then move the tables.

 

[Rompin Roddy]

Load out: Wrapping up cables that are soaked in beer and god knows what else due to drunken animals with little sense of awareness who think the stage is their coaster.

 

[juancaminos]

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 bullpoopieting with people.

Bands bringing a complicated rig to a poopiehole 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!

Yes playing to the juke box is bad, bad, bad

 

[fourteenstrings]

Well-meaning people who want to help move my gear before/after the gig, and before I can stop them, are bouncing my stuff 100mph across gravel parking lots and cracked, uneven sidewalks, loosening every solder joint in it. I intentionally don't put casters on my heavy items anymore because of this. It's less convenient, but I prefer to take my own stuff in and out on a dolly with pneumatic tires.

 

[trevcda]

Horn players, Speakon connectors and vice grips... Ugh!

 

[Flamingo21]

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

Actually, I don't know this either. Can someone please explain? Because I don't want to be that well-meaning bandmate.

Edit: someone already explained, post#90.

 

[Flamingo21]

But the house gear at one in particular is in terrible shape.
(...)
The 410 Marshall guitar cab has a signal issue, the Hartke 410 bass cab has a missing driver, and the wood ring on their kick drum is cracked clean through.

That bass cab is out of balance, and could blow up any time. And they'll probably blame the innocent fool who happens to be playing through it at that moment.

 

[Flamingo21]

Murphy's law-
If you bring the van, the only load-in is a loading dock.
If you bring the straight truck, there is no loading dock.

And if you phone to ask, you get someone who doesn't know the difference.

 

[Gerben]

Actually, I don't know this either. Can someone please explain? Because I don't want to be that well-meaning bandmate.

You're not alone... but google was my friend! And it seems that even TB has a nice respond to that.. Over-under cables

 

[Wisebass]

The missing key question!

Who has the key that opens....


Wise(b)ass

 

[Flamingo21]

The guitar player decided to hook up the lights. When they didn't work I investigated. He had the extension cord plugged back into it's own power strip. OMG!

Goes to prove that most jokes, good or bad, are true stories.

 

[DirtDog]

Another one - usually in the critter clubs and legion type places. Loading in the drums, a patron or manager states the obvious: “oh, your band has drums. Hope it doesn’t get too loud”. At that moment I realize it’s going to be a long night.

And regardless of how well we keep control of the volume, there’s always that one person who’s sitting there with his hands over his ears. Meanwhile, the dance floor is full!

 

[LowActionHero]

When the snake or 47 other cables are run right through my stage real estate. I’ve actually had folks run cables on top of my instrument cable. I guess in summary poor cable management......and yellow or orange extension cords.

YES! !
I went wireless cuz I HATE standing on my cables. But I always seems to end up standing on someone else's cables. Mostly on small stages.

Oh yeah, I HATE small stages.

 

[Paulabass]

The hundred year old lady with a walker will sit with her head in the subs, when all the seats 100 feet away are empty.

 

[Deleted member 165050]

The guitar player decided to hook up the lights. When they didn't work I investigated. He had the extension cord plugged back into it's own power strip. OMG!

I've been after one of those self-powered strips for ages.

 

[MobileHolmes]

My last two gigs have ended with either ice storms or blizzards during load out (last weekend was thunder snow)

 

[Fredrik E. Nilsen]

My last two gigs have ended with either ice storms or blizzards during load out (last weekend was thunder snow)

I'm from Norway. Stop complaining about snow, thank you.

 

[MobileHolmes]

I'm from Norway. Stop complaining about snow, thank you.

Fair enough, though a lot of the Norwegian diaspora ended up here in the 19th century. I think they must have found it similar to home

 

[Fredrik E. Nilsen]

Fair enough, though a lot of the Norwegian diaspora ended up here in the 19th century. I think they must have found it similar to home

Yes. Lots of them ended up in Montana. Just like home.

 

[MobileHolmes]

Yes. Lots of them ended up in Montana. Just like home.

I don't think lots of anybody ended up in Montana . But here in Iowa, and Particularly MN, there were lots. I was in Oslo a while back, and elements of it kind of reminded me of Minneapolis