Strangest gig I have ever done or seen

[bassmanrocke]

Seemed weird at the time, Late 80's I'm playing and singing in an all original alternative band. My guitarist books a gig in this new club that is looking for all original acts in its back room. Seemed like a great idea, til we get there and find out its a former strip club that had lost it's liscense, but had apparently forgot to tell two very unattractive and very pregnant former dancers. And there really wasn't any divider between the front room and the back room. It was difficult getting through the night when you couldn't make up your mind whether to be repulsed, or just laugh your butt off. I really have no idea how well we played.

 

[kesslari]

Playing percussion in a middle eastern band. We played for a lot of very good (and some not so good) bellydancers. More good than not. It was generally a good gig, lots of fun and we had a good following.

New Years gig in Santa Barbara at a coffehouse. Big storm, big winds. The storm blew the power out all over town.

We were an acoustic band - we used a PA, but could function without it. When the power quit, we just kept playing.
So we played to a huge crowd (because all the other clubs were SOL without power) by candlelight, with people using flashlights as spotlights for the dancers, and the club making coffee and espresso on coleman stoves.

It was, actually, very cool.

 

[MatticusMania]

Playing percussion in a middle eastern band. We played for a lot of very good (and some not so good) bellydancers. More good than not. It was generally a good gig, lots of fun and we had a good following.

New Years gig in Santa Barbara at a coffehouse. Big storm, big winds. The storm blew the power out all over town.

We were an acoustic band - we used a PA, but could function without it. When the power quit, we just kept playing.
So we played to a huge crowd (because all the other clubs were SOL without power) by candlelight, with people using flashlights as spotlights for the dancers, and the club making coffee and espresso on coleman stoves.

It was, actually, very cool.

That sounds like a sweet gig!

 

[JmJ]

I played with a band that had a belly dancer, opera singer, contortion/bed of nails act, a fire breather, trapeze act, topless dancers & a spoken word guy. but I would not call it strange.

 

[caspa..]

ive done the cancer walk a couple of times ,
first time was with the school jazz band , basically i was only fourteen at the time and had been giging sice i was 13 so getting into the experimental sides of things decided that i would drink four litres of $10 fortified wine over the course of two hours , i got banned for life from that event in my home town , security , police , me hiding amongst tents , hundreds of drunk teen agers , kind of bad now that i look at the circumstances of the gig but the kids still talk about that night.

second time, im 16 now and played the same event in a smaller country town last year , in a 6 piece TRADITIONAL irish folk band (really awesom band been togethor 35 yrs) anyways were all smokers of herbals and as we pack out and head off with the trailer of gear were all pretty wacked , now the events people were doing a very emotional ceremony , our driver the original member of the band is 70 smokes everyday gets lost and drives straight across the oval and through the ceremony making a b-line for the gate whilsy we hang out the window waving goodbye not knowing what everyone was doing , with some irish jig blaring whilst everyone looks at us in shock , the band is very well known in the region for doing things like this , so no one cared but wo............wild band for a bunch of senior citiznes,

an even stranger gig was one the folk band got contracted for out of state in a sleepy river town , it was our understanding it was a folk festival open air type thing , when we got there we found ut it was in a retired service mens club for a croud of over 60's , im only 16 man , anyways , i basically lived in this club , absolutley wasted on drugs for four days , and when we werent there we were trying to find the smoke alarms we kept setting off in our accomodation , so by the end of it id been in this atrificial world almost with no one under the age of 60 in site , it was four day gig that took me about two weeks to comedown from basically , really really sureal. one highlight of that gig was pat drummond a well known australian artist snuck me into the second venue located in a casino section dressed in a cowboys hat and large trench coat , i wasnt alowed in to play because you had to be 18 and they staff were real nazi's anyways that caused some real problems with us and him but it was cool since he was the headliner.

im only 16 , makes me wonder what the hell else is in store

o dear god i think im in love with this thing called music

myles away.

 

[caspa..]

i felt it only right to apologise if anyone finds that stuff inapropriate , what with this site not being about those subjects and all.....sorry

but then i almost forgot the one we played at our home hall downside , myself and two friends decided to sleep on the stage after the gig which was in the main hall , adjacent was along dinner hall , the whistle player in the band , quite an old fellow , real odd ball , real odd ball , the female fiddle player in the band is afraid of him , anyways , he preceded to make love to his rather old female counter part , now im not trying to be immature about this , but you know state of mind at that time , 16 yr old kids , we heard sounds..........o god how do i put this , the sounds man , the freakin sounds , my friend tryed to close a window connecting the stage and the supper hall , it made this huge groan sound , the couple ceased momentarily , only to continue with increaes vigour , that was more of a mind warping gig then anything , i stil shudder , i still shudder.............