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Playing while sick

IanStephenson

IanStephenson

UnRegistered User
Apr 8, 2006
2,532
1,673
#1
Just got back from a gig...

The singer had an inner ear infection (kept falling over!). The drummer and I both had stomach bugs. I was really rough for the first set, pulled back a bit during the second.

Trouble was (!!!!) it should have been one of our best gigs. It's a venue we always pull a good crowd, and then at around 8:30 the bar down the street, were we also do well, called us and asked us if we could play there - their band had canceled on them (second time in two weeks - maybe cause the dropped the pay, but thats another story), so we had all of the wanderers from their who were looking for a band.

The place was PACKED - the audience was totally up for it, and loved every minute - no slinking off without encores! They totally rocked. We played OK considering, and pretty much pulled it off - couldn't have done better. I just wish we'd been able to enjoy it more. I just wanted to curl up and go to sleep.

If we'd been on full power it would have been a night to remember in a much better way...

Ian
 
#2
I remember playing so sick one time my band mates propped my up with bar stools and a table so I could still play. I don't remember much of the gig but some how woke up later in the bath tub at the band house with some drunk girl banging on the door.
 
#4
I did some recordings with some other guys back in college. There was a certain Saturday where we were playing, and I had an awful headcold and was a bit out of it on medicine. We recorded anyways, and later on I honestly had no idea what I played until I listened back on it. Not my best playing :hmm:
 
#6
I've done several gigs while I've had a bad cold or mild flu, heaps when I was recovering from RSI (I quit the drafting job responsible for that) and during all my early gigs I suffered from bad nerves & an amazingly upset stomach.

Not fun, I will say. But it can always be worse:

in one band, the singer went to the bathroom more than 10 times between soundcheck (7 pm) and us taking the stage (8 pm). Major stomach bug.

I usually find that after a cuppla beers I perk right up - alcohol + non-prescription meds can be fun if you're not driving home :)
 
#7
once I played with bronchitis. I was the drummer then and it was actually the gig to remember!! During a break, I bought a pack of cigarettes and lit one up. Thought I was going to die and knew this was the chance for me to quit smoking. Threw the new pack into the garbage can and never smoked again. Gave up a 14 year habit and glad of it!!!!
 
#8
I think it is on Zappa's YCDOSA Vol 1 where he goes "Welcome! Now let me tell you some of the members of the band are sick today and we're going to introduce them and tell you what they have". 4 of them had the stomache bug, couple had other issues, etc. heh. They still played well.
 
#11
I had to play a concert in Detroit back in the seventies with a fever of 103. I made it through ok and my band said that I sounded fine but the only thing I remember about the show was that it was snowing outside and very cold. I also remember a doctor coming to my room back at the hotel with some meds and then it was lights out till about noon the next day. Ah, the things we do for love and Rock 'n Roll.

George
 
#13
Suffering from a chest infection once, and on some serious anti-biotics, I played a gig once. I managed to get a burger sent to the stage during the "acoustic" part of the set (at my request, I asked the singer and guitarist if their sick bassist could take a few mins half way through the set, and our acoustic set was born!!), and popped my few pills of antibiotics while eating my burger sitting in the corner of the stage...... not quite the sex, drugs and rock and roll lifestyle associated with musicians, but hey, it was close enough!
 
#14
I've played sick lots of times, and had to run for the bathroom a few times! You just gotta suck it up and get through it. Take the appropriate remedies, lay off the alcohol, and pray you don't lose your lunch where the folks can see you! With a little luck, you'll live to boogie another day.
 
#15
Once played a gig in downtown Boston just before Christmas of 1999 and that day I contracted the WORST stomach flu I've ever had (which only happens once every decade for me). Well, somehow I got through it though I had to play sitting down the whole time. My bandmates were totally cool though (the drummer even drove me home right afterwards). I VIOLENTLY lost my cookies just before showtime (just barly made it to the porcelain altar), so much I pulled a muscle in my sternum that took a while to heal. Got through the first set OK, then went to lay down in an adjoining unused room between sets (it was in a large Chinese restaurant in the Downtown Crossing part of Boston). The second set went a little better (even forced myself to eat some food which miraculously stayed down). That paycheck at the end fo the night was very worth it. Got home and didn't get out of bed for the next day and ahalf, after which I was back to my old feisty self again.
 
#16
Here's a story from a different thread.

jive1 said:
We were playing once in Breckenridge Colorado, during their pub crawl on Saint Patty's day. The bar we were playing in was the last bar on the pub crawl, so needless to say, we had a bunch of blitzed people.
We got a free meal that day, and i got some nasty nachos that disagreed with me. During the middle of a set, I felt a rumbling in my bowels. I tried to hold, but couldn't. I was getting sick. I looked at the guitar player, put my bass down and went toward the bathroom. The men's room was occupied, so I went into the ladies room and dropped a load like nobody's business. I was in there for a while, and I heard some girls pounding on the door saying "This is the ladies room!" I didn't care - I had important business to do. However, I did feel sorry for the gal that came in after me (the bathroom had no windows or ventilation ).
After I was done, I walked out and got back on stage midsong. I was wiped and I had to sit on a stool to finish the tune. The crowd cheered me as a got back on stage. I guess the guitar player told them I was partying to hard (much nicer thing to say, than I got sick on the food and had to take a dump). The crowd tought I was puking in the bathroom and they were cheering me on for getting back on stage and playing.
Click to expand...
 
#18
It's funny that this subject came up. Last Saturday one of the female singers was too sick to come to the gig. Her husband, our guitar player/singer was coming down with the same thing. We haven't been together that long, so I was a little nervous about being short-handed. Both set were totally revised, and we still had to cut both sets short.

We get on stage, just about to start, and I have to run to the bathroom. I'm stuck in there with the runs, and I can hear the whole bar chanting my name. Boy, talk about pressure.
 
#19
I went straight from a hospital to a show once... it was pretty terrible and I was on a lot of pain meds with 103 fever.... I was either In Nebraska or Oklahoma, i don't remember which... somehow I made it through the show.. and the other shows throughout the week through the midwest
 

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