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Strangest gigs?

#63
I was playing in an alternative-metal band in the early 90's when my drummer (think Bonham & Copeland) and myself were offered 3 gigs in Myrtle Beach, SC & Augusta, GA backing up a Rolling Stones cover act (only the singer "Mick" was on this trip) along with an alchoholic country guitarist on lead(great player, but a 6-pack for breakfast) and a Grateful-Deadly jam guitarist on rhythm. "Mick" was a psychotic ex-military helicopter pilot who REALLY got into character, and came equipped with a slavish gofer/toady that he abused regularly. Scariest sight - toady was driving the van w/"Mick & our equipment when he missed a turn and a drunk "Mick" started punching him in the face at 50mph (we were following in a car). The van was swerving so much we thought our gear would end up in a ditch. Thursday was at a sparsely attended club gig for which we did not get paid that evening, leading to a violent hotel confrontation. Friday was a day off (bad, bad news in a boring tourist town) and our lead guitarist got to be a mean drunk by 6:00. Eventually there was a fight (I tackled him when he pushed my drummer) and we locked him in the car for the night. But Saturday nights show was great - a packed shack somewhere, but the people were having so much fun, we forgot our own misery. Sunday in Augusta was an O.K club, but after the show some freak kept trying to arrange a large drug sale & we figured it was some kind of entrapment or rip-off, so we high-tailed it out of there with no sleep and drove 20 hours straight back to NYC.
 
#64
While playing in a pop-rock (think Green Day, Goo Goo Dolls, etc...) band in the late 90's and we were asked to play a 40th birthday party for a club owners daughter. Little did we know that the daughter's hubby was a member of the local Hells Angels chapter. Needless to say we showed up to a bar full of bikers, and we were all thinking we were going to die if we didn't whip out some classis rock kind of stuff.

Two things that saved our a$$es that night were-

1)We managed to put together a set of classic stuff like VH, Judas Priest, Hendrix and Sabbath. For the modern stuff we were doing, we tried to stick to the heavier stuff like Alice in Chains, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam. Crowd response was good, so we must have done something right.

2)A few of the bikers recognized me from the racetrack, and came over to talk with me before we hit the stage. They told me they weren't anticipating any problems that night, but they would make sure the band was safe.
 
#65
ahh after 30 years a gigs, I have quite a few oddest.
1.Played a wedding in the middle of summer. When we started loading in we were informed we couldn't enter the hall until we were properly dressed. We loaded equipment in 90+ temperatures in a full tux
2. A ground breaking ceremony for a new mall
3. A New Year's eve gig at a homeowners association. By midnight only two couples were left. They were dancing, saw everyone was gone, shrugged their shoulders and left.
4. Plenty of weddings with inappropriate bands
5. A strip club. The owner wanted to play blues at his club.So he hired me and a drummer to show up and jam with him. Sounds great doesn't it? The problem was the women only danced privately. So we would play while the girls sat a watched TV. Every now and then a guy would show up and go into the back room. The owner told us he just got out of federal prison "you know, the girls"
However my favorite was being flown from Boston to Phoenix to play a corporate party. We get there and spend the day swimming with a bunch of Madonna's dancers (hired to entertain the stockholders) while a sound crew set up the equipment. Ate a great dinner. Played a half an hour, then fireworks, then played another 15 minutes. And that was it. Partied all night and flew back to Boston the next morning with a pocket full of money. Probably the closest to an actual rock star gig.
That's just a few that stand out. Lots of bars with no one there, lots of bad parties. Lots of weird pick up gigs.

Andy
 
#67
Brad Johnson said:
Booked at a bar in a summer resort area in southern VA IIRC. Dead of winter. Didn't actually have room for the band so some gear was set up on a pool table. The audience consisted of the bartender and a waitress... both of whom clapped after every song. I never got around to asking the manager why we were there.

Ahh, show business.
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Are you by any chance Murph and the Magic Tones?
 
#68
Me and guitarist played a gig in miami without a drummer, we just looped some sampled drum kits through his MPC, and we just jammed some dub-reggae for 4 hrs cause no other bands show'd up.

it was a hole in the wall bar called Laundry bar, a 24/7 laundry mat witha full bar and live music. it was pretty cool, but very strange, and unique it was my first gig ever too. lotta queers down there and wierd people, but once we got going people were really digging it so we just kept playing for hours. playing for free beer is cool . Except when my low sound slowly vibrated my beer to knock off the table, spilling beer all over my GK 4x10 and bl600 head, but hey it had no effect! lol i wiped it off real quick, some lady came up replaced my beer and cleaned up the broken glass at my feet :) not bad for a 19 yr olds first gig !!!
 
#71
need4mospd said:
We had a nice gig at the Balinese Room in Galveston that started off pretty good. Then a group of drunk lesbians showed up and started to dance nasty and sing along to our music. The singing along was kinda odd considering that was maybe the 3rd time we played any of that music.
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I find this old post of mine quite hilarious considering I played a couple weeks ago at Houston's #1 Lesbian bar. If I had only known what I had in store... It's quite the fun (and interesting) crowd!
 
#74
I've done a few gigs where there was just two or three folks in the audience. It's sort of fun in a weird way.

The one that really confused me was playing to a crowd of deaf people at a local medical centre. The fact that they really seemed to dig the beat blew my mind - they were definitely feeling or hearing something, despite their sensory impairments.
 
#75
I've played a hundred meters underground in a salt mine with a children's choir. Then a few months later did it again.

Nothing interesting happened either time but still, it's something not many musicians have done.
 
#76
we were booked to play in the cafeteria of the local university, we play fusion/free jazz so we were really out of place. Also fully improvisational jazz with drums, bass and percussion opening for a classic rock band. Oh lawd
 
#77
My progressive-rock band did a gig at a local Hells Angels
Club opening up for a southern-rock band who were friends
of ours...

We played our set, we got a decent reception - it wasn't
really their type of music but they were respectful anyway.
They really liked the southern-rock band.

They were all nice - offered us some beer which
was cool, but it was a little freaky. the really tense
part came when we were leaving (after htey were setting
off M80s) - our van was close to the clubhouse and we
had to back it up about 50ft, and on either side was a
line of harleys. The scene from "Pee Wee's Big Adventure"
kept on running thru my head - the drummer drove, and
the guitarist & i each had a hand on the van as it slooowly
backed up...

-carl
 
#78
bassman1185 said:
What's the weirdest situation your band has ever played?

Mine was this weekend. My band played a bat mitzvah. Now, you might think "well, that's not terribly out of the ordainary, lots of bands play bar/bat mitzhahs." The thing about that is that we're a hardcore/metal band and we're all professing Christians. Can you say out of place? It was actually a really fun show, though.
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when i was a guitard player the band i was with got a gig in a real **** hole.there was no room and we had to set up part of the gear on a pool table.the idjit bass player has us all DI-ed up to the pa and our amps facing us and his mrs recorded the gig as well.my amp was facing her so she thought i was to loud in the mix and turned me down on the recording.i was against the set up from the begining couldn't hear my self at all.the singer quit after hearing the recording.strange and surreal night and i got it on cd.its all a learning curve.
 
#80
Many years ago I was in a cover band and we were hired by the local Mormon church to play a 'dance'. The boys filed in and danced with each other for set. They filed out and then the girls filed in and danced with each other for the next set, and then we all went home.

Given this was the 'free love' 70's, it was like traveling to a different world. Very strange.
 

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