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Playing in lightning.....venting rant....

N

nsmar4211

Nov 11, 2007
1,016
8
#1
So my band goes to a gig last night. Outdoor, on a raised wooden stage that had a roof and a back (no sides or front). We set up, it starts to drizzle. We decide to cover the speakers and monitor with garbage bags and play. Get through three sets, by fourth set crowd was gone (7 people in the place).
One song into fourth set, it starts lighting. Big light up the horizon types, no thunder but then the temp drops 10 degrees out of nowhere. I"ve lived in the south my whole life and I know that isn't a good sign...... so I'm nervous....
Three songs in the lighting is getting more and more frequent so we grab the owner and tell her we don't want to play anymore in the lightning. She says, Oh, we have a lightning rod, you'll be fine.

:eyebrow::eyebrow::rollno:

How about nooooo? We point out to her that we've been playing in the rain, and most bands would've packed up already (the band at a festival down the street packed up first set!). We also point out the lack of crowd, and that half the crowd was musicians and would understand. She asks if we'll take what boiled down to 4/5 pay since we played 3/4 the set..... ok fine.

Then she continued arguing with us! Hey look, it's lightning, the rain drops are getting bigger, there's no crowd here anymore, even the places around us had no crowds.... and you're paying HALF of going rate at this point. We brought you in a large crowd (for that place), what's there to argue with? I finally got her to stop arguing when I asked her if her insurance would cover our equipment from power surges and any health issues that may arise. Course by then I had half the cables rolled up and was quickly finishing the rest of the packing....obvious we weren't going to be playing any more...

She then went over and was asking another persons opinion.....happened to be a drummer in a band that plays her place.... drummer also happened to be my friend :). He told her if we didn't feel safe, we were right to stop. He also told her he a)wouldn't have even played in the rain and b)would've stopped in the middle of the song when the first flash happened. yeaaaaaa for support!

OK, rant over. Just was annoyed that we're telling the (already low paying) venue we're no longer feeling safe and they get mad at us. Course, we find out they had double booked us another date on top of this...so we told em let the other band have it. And I think our rate just doubled if they call again...

Would any of you kept playing in the lighting? On a wet outdoor stage? (oh by the way, the stage roof was tin.....and the power was off metal poles in the ground....)
 
#4
Lightning is no joke. I played an outdoor show in Denver on an all metal stage that got hit. For some reason the only gear that got toasted was the lighting board and the LD got a nasty shock. It came out of nowhere and that was the end of the show. It never even really rained but everyone knew that it was the right thing to do. Insurance is one thing, but no matter how much insurance she had, it doesn't change the fact that lightning can be deadly.

Rain itself is another thing. I've played in complete downpours and snowstorms where the crowd just keeps on rockin'. I've seen some great shows at Red Rocks accompanied by fierce weather. Last summer, Phish finished a great set while rain and winds whipped through the area, causing the crew to freak out as the lighting trusses started swinging wildly. Standing on the side of stage, I thought for sure they cut it short, but it just brought up their energy level.

OTOH, this completely wiped us out:

It started out as a drizzle, so we postponed our set 10 minutes. At the end of that 10 minutes, the winds were 70 mph (which switched directions every 10 minutes, so we got it from the front and back) and there was huge rain and hail. It went on for 90 minutes and we did not know if we would survive. The main stage partially collapsed, hundreds of campsites got wiped out and trees got hit by lightning throughout the fairgrounds. I later heard that there were tornados on the other side of the ridge. Amazingly, no one got seriously injured. The festival got moved indoors to the late night stage and by midnight, the mainstage was up and running again. The only band that didn't play at all was us. Our singer played the last set and then we had to drive all night from Maryland to Illinois to play another festival. When we got there, we stopped at the hotel to take our gear out of the trailer and assess the damage (it had been put away during the rainstorm as soon as the winds died down). Each case we opened released at least a cup of water. Incredibly, the only piece of gear that suffered long term damage was a Mesa Boogie that limped on for a few gigs, shooting sparks when the standby was flipped, until it went out with a two foot tower of flame.

I have a lot more weather horror stories, but this is the only one that comes with a video. It comes with the territory of being on the road.
 
#6
Wow Ed, that video was brutal.You were lucky to escape that one alive, much less only losing 1 head. Here in South Florida we have our fair share of sudden storms. I am done with the first sign of lightning. Oh and FYI insurance will NOT pay for gear damaged by a storm. They claim it's an act of GOD. I learned that the hard way.
 
#7
wow.......that video reminded me of the hurricanes! Definetly a microburst. That would scare the crap out of me, bad enough watching it out the backdoor of a house much less outside under a frickin tent......

xgator......yea I'm in South Florida. This year the weather has been really mean. Used to be, every summer day the clouds would build up, by 3pm it'd start raining, clear up by 430-5pm, sun back out in time to be a pretty sunset. Now its clouds build up in 20 minutes and you get nailed, clears up, then again build up and nailed. It's getting to the point where any outdoor gigs are starting to freak me out because you can't "read" the weather anymore. It just frickin poured nasty here, and now the suns out and the skies are blue.

I don't feel so bad about calling it off....talked to a few more local guys and every one of em would've done the same thing (and has). I did hear that the venue is having severe financial troubles, may be why the owner reacted the way they did. Got another outdoor gig today.....were promised food, huge tents, raised wooden stage, and guaranteed pay even if it gets rained out. Think the first thing we're gonna tell em is that we shut down first sign of lightning :)

Think all my future purchases will be based on how fast I can cover em..speaker won't fit in a trash bag or I can't make a cover for it? No buy :) :)

Now I gotta go find my other tarps, rope, and box of garbage bags.....that video made me nervous....:D:hiding:
 
#9
I'd be worried about the gear to the point where I'd be packing up as soon as I saw a flash.

My first amp got toasted when my old house got hit, so I don't dare mess with that stuff anymore.
 
#13
We played a rainstorm with lightning once. After it rains, I look over and see an exposed extension cord that was providing power to us. We immediately packed up, and left. The organizer was looking at us kinda stunned, and my reply was "I love this gig, but not enough to die over it. I can't imagine anything ruining your event more than that."
 
#16
nsmar4211 said:
wow.......that video reminded me of the hurricanes! Definetly a microburst. That would scare the crap out of me, bad enough watching it out the backdoor of a house much less outside under a frickin tent......
Click to expand...

The worst part was that it went on for almost 90 minutes. After half an hour I think we all got to a point of "It's like this. It's always been like this. It will always be like this." Episodes like that do funny things to your brain. I wish that I had had the presence of mind to take some videos myself.

It went from 85 degrees (I had just changed into shorts and a t-shirt) to about 60 degrees in no time flat and we were stuck clinging to gear for dear life. Our singer was behind the stage, standing in what became a frigid stream up past his knees, both trying to keep out of the blast and also keep our gear from flying off the back of the stage. I thought for sure he had suffered hypothermia, but he's pretty resilient! I felt really bad for the guy who sought shelter on our stage with his standup bass! Tim Carbone was also up there with his gear which, now that I think about it, also suffered some damage. Meanwhile on the main stage, a mint vintage Gretsch drum kit was ruined and David Grisman lost one of his vintage mandolins. There were a bunch of bluegrass musicians who decided that day to get replaceable instruments for the road. I had my '67 Starfire, but it went into the Calton case as soon as the wind kicked up. Even so, the cherry red finish was almost white when I opened up the case the next day. However, the discoloration disappeared after it dried out.

Putting this stuff into a contract is a good idea. That way there is no question about what to do. We did get paid, even though we didn't play a note. Most of the festival kinds of events have insurance to cover their asses in case of this kind of freak storm.

As far as instrument insurance goes, if your company doesn't cover this kind of stuff, you need a new one. AFAIK, my policy with Heritage fully covers this kind of thing. They work with musicians and know that this is one of the dangers that they face on the road.
 
#18
xgator4u said:
HMMMM Heritage you say? I'll be lookin into that. My insurance covers theft, fire, vandalism, damage in transport, stuff like that but NOT lightning. Like I said I found out the hard way.
Click to expand...

Make sure that your insurance is specifically for musical instruments used in a professional context (even if you only gig for fun). I found out the hard way that most insurance companies (like State Farm) will be happy to take your money as a rider to a homeowner's policy, but when it comes to coverage when you take your gear out of the house, all bets are off. My gear is even covered in the car. The only two companies I know of that cover adequately are Heritage (although I've never had to make a claim, but that's how I like it!) and Clarion, which I only know of through word of mouth.

http://www.musicins.com/
http://www.clarionins.com/

Clarion does have some cool features listed on their website. YMMV, etc. etc.
 
#19
Lightning rods typically protect only the 60 degree cone beneath it. And do less if the earthing is not significant. A direct lightning strike down to the street to AC utility wires is a direct lightning strike to your electronics. No lightning rods protect from the more typical direct strike.

Why does lightning strike wooden church steeples? Because wood is an electrical conductor. So are concrete and linoleum tiles. Because lightning will travel on conductors that make a connection to earth.

Lightning struck a nearby tree. A cow 20 feet away was killed. Nearby strike? Those never cause damage or kill. Lightning seeks earthborne charges. A shortest path to charges was down the tree, through earth, up a cow's hind legs, down its fore legs, and then miles through earth to those charges. Direct lightning strikes do the damage. Cow died because it was struck directly. Others assumed dead due to a nearby strike. That directly struck cow is a same reason why humans are advised to keep feet together during lightning.
 

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