Show some courtesy

I think the punk and thrash metal scenes had good manners in that respect, because those bands played so many multi-bill shows. Having 8-10 bands on a show was the norm, not the exception. It's ironic that those are considered 'scary people" bands, but the people were pretty damned cool. 95% good memories of those scenes.

 

Greasing the wheels along the way never hurts, there's your proof right there.

 

So now we know. If you need help with stage clearing, call Zamboni the drummer. Reasonable rates, and always on time.

 

This is the unfortunate norm in many amateur musician circles...

We rehearse at a studio where we rent a block of time every week and have a bevy of bands in the room before us. The manager is great, but not exactly good at telling these bands that their time is up and they have to get out, so, as the first one there from our band, I've taken it upon myself to open the door and walk in as soon as the clock hits our time. Mostly, they are just standing around talking about band business with stuff mostly packed up and ready to go, but there have been a few times where I've interrupted a song...

The thing that I've learned is that you've got to be proactive when someone is taking advantage of your time, patience, and laid back good nature. If I had a 10 minute changeover and no one was moving their gear out of my way, I would be moving it myself (likely in a somewhat careful manner... more or less)

 

This is something that isn’t learned until it is taught. Young acts are usually clueless about courtesies like this, until a more experienced musician clues them in.

Also, I blame the organizers. Rules for clearing and soundchecks should be spelled out in writing for every act. Then there is no question, and it’s easy to enforce (see Zamboni response).

 

Oh... Nice story.

I played a gig couple months ago where the band left their gear on the stage from their gig THE PREVIOUS F'IN DAY!!

I felt like grabbing all that stuff and throwing it out of the window. Goddamn locals.

P.S.: Our scheduled sound check was at 7PM, we showed up at 6PM to set all our gear and instead ended up waiting for the guys from the other day to slowly show up at 7:30PM and watching them clear up the stage till cca. 8:10PM. Finally did a soundcheck and started our gig without even having a break. Still pisses me off when I think about it.

 

At my last gig, the notes smashed away - 2 times, i didn't know the songs at my memory, so all were on my desktop. Finally, i disgreed with the band and break up.

 

In that scenario it's on the house engineer to keep the schedule moving, and to keep the gear coming and going/ off the deck. Sounds like they weren't doing their job.

 

Totally agree with the OP and everyone's similar comments. The one unfortunate aspect of the situation for bar band bassists like me is that "breaking down" my gear basically means unplugging and walking off the stage, bass in one hand and amp in the other. (If I play outdoors or a huge room, it might take an extra minute to roll my cab off stage, then go back for the bass and the head.) That means I have to spend the next 14.5 minutes carrying drums, monitors, pedal boards and everyone else's crap!

 

Life is unfair, it's true. So make something good out of it: Help the drummer. He always needs it most. Think of yourself as building Rhythm Section Solidarity. Works for me.

 

Well, that's one way of clearing the stage!

 

Agreed. I'll have my rig packed away in 5 minutes. Most drummers IveI played with have their own system, and don't want help until everything is in cases. So I start on the PA.

 

I've played punk shows my whole life. Sometimes a pile of local bands and plenty of times with international touring acts. I don't think we ever even left the stage before clean up. Bass and guitar cases behind the amps. Immediately in the cases close em move em. Everyone grab a drum. Drummer stays with gear and starts his break down rituals. We return an grab more stuff. Repeat until done. Usually 3 quick trips. Then before we packed our stuff up we always helped the next band of needed. This way the drummer can worry about placement rather than getting it up on stage.

 

Yeah, played plenty of those punk gigs back in the day, always very friendly vibes with the other local acts ("Hey can i borrow your 2x15 for a gig Saturday? Sure, just be sure to deliver it back home Sunday...") Getting off the stage quickly with your gear (intact) was almost an art form ...and required everyone to pitch in.

Local festivals with 20+ acts were always a challenge, but the same ethos made things work.

Had a few issues with bigger acts getting stroppy [email protected]

 

The only big act that ever gave us too much grief was A Global Threat. Everyone else was always awesome to us. My poor carving 210 was blown I don't know how many times. Even blew my sm400 once. Foghat on the other hand....those bastards broke a pedal to an amp and didn't say a word. Figured it out when we got home

 

I'm thinking the OP will get likes from everyone that reads the post.

 

Oooh Jscriv, you named names...

I recall one night when being 'roadie' for a rock band which some friends of mine were members of, I had to be physically restrained from trading blows with a certain Scottish ex-Thin Lizzy guitarist who was playing with the headliners...obnoxious [email protected]

Also, a certain member of a band called The Pack (who later became Theater of Hate) almost felt my wrath on one occasion, I can't actually remember exactly why, [email protected]

Both of these would have been late '70's, different world...

 

You would think there would be a class on stage manners at Berkeley...

 

I learned early on that if my stuff wasn’t off the stage in three minutes, it would be thrown from the second story window. If you’ve ever been to Poughkeepsie, to the lovely place I speak of, you’ll already know that the remains of your gear will have been scavenged and transformed into crack money before you made it to the parking lot to pick up the pieces. I don’t know if it was his hulking frame, the scar that ran down his cheek, or the lack of pupils, but what that moonlighting-as-security Poughkeepsie police officer said that night always stuck with me and it doesn’t matter if I’m playing in an open field or 10,000 leagues under the sea...to this day, my stuff is out of the way of the other bands steadfast. I somehow still feel his creepy eyes watching me at every tear down...

 

Wow, I feel for you. I have never played on a multi-billed show with other bands that weren’t professional and cleared their gear in a quick time frame.

Most of the shows I’ve done have had big enough stages to quickly move gear off stage into a holding area. Stage hands are generally pretty quick about getting mics off the drums, but that is one thing I would never touch, out of respect of the sound company. Plus, some of those plastic clips for drums easily break and I done want to spend my cash replacing them.

I can strike my gear after a show in 5-7 minutes, in less than ten I can get everything sorted and loaded in their respective storage cases, but that’s moving and not messing around.

I open for a lot of national acts, and sloppy stage etiquette like that would make sure we (I) would never get a callback.

I can’t imagine what I would have done with all of those amateurs your friend had the misfortune of co-billing with.