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[RANT] Worst Gig Ever

altarsofmadness

altarsofmadness

Guest
Jul 21, 2014
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#1
Well, I just needed a place to vent myself.

We were invited to this pretty neat show at a big bar that houses some great local musicians. It was a festival, 8 bands on the bill. My band was opening. So, everything looked fine, we arrived and did the soundcheck, still everything was cool. However, I noticed no one was checking the amp's values, but I though, well, they must know what they are doing.

Our set started. Right into the first song (Chop Suey, our only cover) the power supply shut down, right before the first verse. No big deal. We jumped straight into our own songs, even though the guitars sounded as weak as they could possibly sound. Second song, no problem. Third song, again, in the middle of the intro the power supply failed.

I don't want to waste your time, so I will tell you, the power went down 7 times. In a 30-minute set. How can that happen?

We continued through the set, and we were headed to our last song, Son Of Asterion. The staff told us we had one more song, and suddenly they changed their mind and made us leave the stage. We played 4 and a half songs.
 
#7
That sure will take the fun out of it! Several years back my old band was competing in the semi finals of the IBC (Internatioal Blues Challenge) in Memphis, and the bass rig went down! Took sound guy a couple of songs to get me loud enough in the mains, but nothing in the monitors or amp (stage sound). At least the whole band didn't go down. Still sucked though.
 
#14
My worst gig ever ...

I was subbing for a bass player in a not so good blues band. We were booked at a dive bar. The dive bar changed management, and the new management was driving away customers. So we show up and they tell us that we are not booked. So we show them our flyer on the wall. The drummer and I wanted to just leave at that point, but the guitar insisted we play. So we set up and play a few tunes. Well usually there are a lot of people there on a Friday night, but there was one bar tender and one customer, and they wanted to listen to the juke box. So we split. I could not get out of that place fast enough.
 
#15
HolmeBass said:
That's really unfortunate. I hope you guys took it in stride and kept a positive attitude. While difficult, keeping your cool in a situation like that will be remembered favorably by the venue and the production company staff.
Click to expand...
Lets say we tried. Either way, the guys on the band that came after us were quite supportive.
Ric5 said:
My worst gig ever ...

I was subbing for a bass player in a not so good blues band. We were booked at a dive bar. The dive bar changed management, and the new management was driving away customers. So we show up and they tell us that we are not booked. So we show them our flyer on the wall. The drummer and I wanted to just leave at that point, but the guitar insisted we play. So we set up and play a few tunes. Well usually there are a lot of people there on a Friday night, but there was one bar tender and one customer, and they wanted to listen to the juke box. So we split. I could not get out of that place fast enough.
Click to expand...

Well, that definitely sucks. Did you even got paid for that?
 
#16
Hey at least you got to keep playing...
Had a gig on a festival 2 weeks ago, beforehand we got an email that there would be a complete backline with amps, complete drumkit, everything.
We got there and yes everything was there, the band that played before us (we were 2nd on that stage) cleared the stage and they took the heads from the cabinets and walked away. So we asked the soundcrew where the heads were, and literally 5 people did not know where the amp heads were stored, they ended up taking the heads from the big stage.
What happened is that the first band wanted to play with their own heads and some sound guys took off the venues heads and placed them behind the cabinets (which sounds logical right), after that some idiot took away the venues heads during the first band thinking that they were extra or something :S
We ended up waiting on heads for the first 10 minutes of our 30 minute set, then still had to do a sound check so we started playing 15 minutes late, and no we didn't end 15 minutes later...

HolmeBass said:
That's really unfortunate. I hope you guys took it in stride and kept a positive attitude. While difficult, keeping your cool in a situation like that will be remembered favorably by the venue and the production company staff.
Click to expand...

Funny you say that, we didn't bitch against the crew or anything (you could see they were really running and searching for heads) and they did ask us back for next year. This time to do a 1.5 to 2 hour set :D
 
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#17
Egbert89 said:
Hey at least you got to keep playing...
Had a gig on a festival 2 weeks ago, beforehand we got an email that there would be a complete backline with amps, complete drumkit, everything.
We got there and yes everything was there, the band that played before us (we were 2nd on that stage) cleared the stage and they took the heads from the cabinets and walked away. So we asked the soundcrew where the heads were, and literally 5 people did not know where the amp heads were stored, they ended up taking the heads from the big stage.
What happened is that the first band wanted to play with their own heads and some sound guys took off the venues heads and placed them behind the cabinets (which sounds logical right), after that some idiot took away the venues heads during the first band thinking that they were extra or something :S
We ended up waiting on heads for the first 10 minutes of our 30 minute set, then still had to do a sound check so we started playing 15 minutes late, and no we didn't end 15 minutes later...



Funny you say that, we didn't bitch against the crew or anything (you could see they were really running and searching for heads) and they did ask us back for next year. This time to do a 1.5 to 2 hour set :D
Click to expand...

It's experiences like this why I bring everything, every time, no matter what. If and when I get there and there's a house rig, I put mine in front of it and take their DI line to my rig. I've been screwed in exactly the same way as Egbert89 ONCE. Never again.

In fact, it drives my band crazy when they ask "will there be a back line? What should we bring?" and I respond "Bring everything, every time, no matter what."
 
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