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The Oddest gig EVER! (short)

#21
The fact the person was less then a year old was the really weird part. This was a lesson learned that you ASK!!!!! THe real odd thing was that no one felt the need to tell us that is was a Baby funeral. Another plus was the sound system in the church we where playin was pretty epic!
 
#27
Reaper Man said:
playing at a family member's funeral is one thing. This was a bit off, ok- more than a bit
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I'm not getting any distinction between his band and my "bro band" playing at loved ones funerals. Funerals are sad but they are also a celebration of the deceased. Music was a big part of my Dad's life even though he didn't play or sing a note.

I have no faith that he was "watching over" the proceedings but others have that kind of belief so I think it's entirely appropriate, if the family wants music, to have whatever music they want. Music that was enjoyed by the departed is naturally high on the list.

Rock band at infant's funeral? I give that full on weird rating for sure. End of the day it's what the family wanted. Anyone else's opinion doesn't count at a funeral.
 
#28
Years AgoTM​ the Louisville Musicians Union (11-637) had what they called Union Trust Shows. That's where the Union would pay you to go and perform someplace where they couldn't afford to hire musicians.

Well every year they had a Trust Show, on Christmas Eve at the Kentucky State Women's Correctional Facility at Peewee Valley and the Men's Correctional Facility at LaGrange. A country band that I worked with either full time or semi-regularily played both gigs, alternating one year Peewee Valley and the next year at LaGrange. Since I always tried to be back home for Christmas, from about 1977 until about 1985 I played those shows.

Going in they searched the vans and corrections officers unloaded every single piece of gear and supervised the setup and helped us tear down and loadout.
They again searched the van including underneath with mirrors when we left.
But they never search us personally. ???

All I can say was that it was certainly a captive audience. But they were very responsive. They only had live music 2 or 3 times a year.

The problems was that at the Women's prison half of the audience looked like they wanted to kill us and the other half looked like they wanted to rape us.
of course we got the same looks at the men's prison too.

Scary times.
 
#30
My story is kinda of tame but we played at a friends' father's funeral, open casket, and just jammed becasue we jammed at his house all the time and it's what he would of wanted. Coming from a jewish back ground I had never seen an open casket before, a couple of us were in the same boat, it was weird but in the end I felt good about it. It helped that the funeral home was with us on this. I can imagine the OP's situation was stange not knowing the family and having a baby to play for in memorium. I'm sure it will sit well wit hyou that the family wanted it in the first place.
 
#35
Mid 70's we played an outside gig at a college in central Ohio. We played on a flatbed truck in a field at the end of a residential neighborhood. We normally played one hour sets but after thirty minutes we were told to stop cause the generator had to be switched over to the beer truck refrigeration. So 1/2 hour on / 1/2 hour off; no big deal. Then the police came and shut the whole thing down. The crowd left and we packed up. The sound man, the equipment man and I always drove/rode the band truck; the rest of the band went home in a car. As we were leaving I had to use the toilet and we pulled into a parking lot on campus and parked next to the beer truck that had been at the concert site. I went into a dorm, saw about six guys sitting around watching TV in the lounge; located a toilet and as I was entering it heard some guy make a smart ass remark about the length of my hair which all his buddies thought was funny. Went back outside and got my friends, re-entered the dorm and asked if anyone still had a problem with the length of my hair. The guy apologized and they gave us a keg from the truck. Next morning (Sunday) we searched for hours to find a tap for this keg. Finally found one and discovered that at that time a WV tap would not fit an OH keg. We shot it with a 44 magnum and poured the beer into every container we had available. No one died in the making of this story...

edit: there was a band back in the late sixties called "the west coast pop art experimental band"; had a song on one album called "a child of a few hours is burning to death" if my memory serves me right...somehow the mentioning of that fact seems appropriate...weird...also had a song called "requiem for the third world war" which was 2m 43s of silence....
 
#36
Played for an Annual picnic in one of the local parks. Big park, lots of people and food.
Great stage outside and they provided a decent PA. We were an original band doing simple but straight forward rock with some tasty hooks and melodies. Our lead singer wrote most of the music and lyrics. And to be honest I never really paid much attention to the words. Just spent my time locked in with the drummer and trying not to mess up on the changes.
So, we start our first set and the the song lyrics are, "I'm gonna' buy me a shotgun and a 22" then goes on to talk about taking out his cheatin' girlfriend....The crowd while appreciative of our talent is nonetheless uncomfortable with our song topic and starts shuffling around and talking amongst themselves. Next we play a song about a girl who wants and does every drug she can get her hands on. The chorus has all of us singing, "Give me drugs!, give me drugs!, give me drugs!"...suddenly we get rushed on by a bunch of biker looking dudes and irate moms with babies in their arms, screaming at us. Calling it disgraceful, inappropriate and how we should have all of our asses kicked.
I'm thinking what the heck, never had this kind of reaction to our songs?
As it turns out, our drummer got us the gig and made all the arrangements. He neglected to tell us one important fact;
It is for the Annual Narcotics Anonymous Picnic. I guess that explains why I didn't see anyone drinkin' a beer and why there were bikers standing around drinking soda.
After we got everyone calmed down, and assured them we would personally kick the drummers ass when we got home, we continued with our revised set while a few of the moms glared and monitored our songs. We had to quickly figure out which songs we absolutely could not do and with the remaining, alter some lyrics. Needless to say, we got no referral gigs out of this event and I think the drummer ended up paying us out of his own pocket because he was afraid to ask the committee for our money.
 
#37
follow up to this story. This band that played the child's funeral is breaking up. We got a card in the mail from the mother thanking us for doing this and saying she will miss seeing us play and that our music helped her in a time she describes as (hell on earth)


I would play this show again if it helped her cope with this tragic situation.
 
#39
robbotbass said:
My band have been playing shows together now for over 5 years. We have played some weird shows, I cancer Relay, A gazebo in the middle of small town Wyoming. But by far the oddest was a few months ago.
We where approached by a Pastor to play a furnal. Now we have played some weird stuff but nothing like this we thought sure. Our sound is very much Rock and I guess the family had heard us play many times before.
Not wanting to turn down gigs we said Sure thats cool no prob. Well, turns out it was for a baby who choked to death in his sleep. WOWWOWOWOWOW wait one second we are playing what? yeah. So we played the songs requested with a little more somber stage precence, packed our gear and headed for the door.
I think that wins first prize for the oddest gig I'll ever play EVER!
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Man, I hear ya. I was asked to play solo acoustic guitar for a funeral. It was for a young guy who was killed in a bar fight unexpectedly. I think he may have been around 21, or so, not sure. I didn't know him or the family, but a friend did, and she asked me to play. Have mercy, I didn't know what to play. They told me to just play something easy to listen to, calm stuff, ya know. I had to sit behind a row of tall plants beside the organ (in the funeral home)---and thank goodness I was to myself. But, I could hear them moving around and talking out there, especially when the boy's mother fell apart! Oh my dear god, that was awful. I'm so glad I couldn't see her. I just kept picking away back there, making up stuff that sounded nice. They said the young man loved acoustic guitar. I was glad to oblige, but man, that was the weirdest gig I ever had. It sure didn't make me want to start up advertising for forming a "funeral band." Nope.

But, a few years later I played for my best friend's funeral, this time on keyboard, and I SANG (that coulda killed any of them out there, lol). I did stuff he liked, nothing religious. I even sneaked in a few bars of Free Bird on the keys, subtly, of course. But, that occasion wasn't weird like that other one.
 
#40
What Alice Cooper song is this thread making me think of?

The strangest gig I ever played was at a club for the deaf in DC. They wanted the bass really loud so they could feel it. During our breaks you could hear a pin drop with everyone using sign language. We played there a couple of times a year in the early 80's. Deaf girls rock!
 

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