Wackiest "stage" you ever played on.....

[Grumry]

How about a semi trailer?

No, not a flat bed...

A 52 foot box trailer, cut open like a tuna can along the sides and bottom, and finally propped up with rickety stilts like a rooftop. Drums, keys, and steel inside, bass, guitar and lead on the deck in front they built the "roof" over.

 

[rocu]

 

[KeithPas]

I think that takes the crown - why on earth were you playing there?

Mine are a bit pale after that, but there's definitely been a few odd ones. 14 piece latin orchestra on the back of a flat-bed wide enough for one abreast, which meant that as I was on the far left the other end of the band was probably thirty feet away from my position and the entire line was swaying drunkely as we tried to establish eye contact around each other.

Done lots of squat shows which are universally fun but an awful environment - generally no running water and the doors get locked overnight so you have to wazz out of the mailbox. Solids are verboten but there's usually enough chemicals floating around that you couldn't even if you tried...

Last halloween we rented a giant gothic-style deconsecrated church in a town near us for a 'Black Mass' all-nighter. We set up the hall with tunnels herris fencing covered in drop-cloths to create a bit of a maze with hang out spaces in it, and then the band playing directly underneath the tower at the other end, and then spent a few hours filling most of the church with fake smoke lit by portable workers spotlights as the only illumination. Looked incredible but amazingly cold and the reverb was longer than some of the songs. I got to rearrange some of our tunes for pipe organ accompaniment though.

We were young and we didn't realize what our situation was until we got there to set up. It gave us all something to laugh about afterward. We figured there was no place to go but up from there.

 

[dlb1001]

Played in a modified delivery truck. One side had been modified with a roll-up canvas, which also acted as a canopy. The sound guy and the FOH sat outside of the truck, with a couple of monitors on the floor of the truck so that we could hear each other.
We played at a local blues festival so while the big acts were changing out on the main stage, they had us play during this time. It was fun but most of the crowd was at the main stage so very few people wandered over the truck.

 

[Paulabass]

We played at a local blues festival so while the big acts were changing out on the main stage, they had us play during this time. It was fun but most of the crowd was at the main stage so very few people wandered over the truck.

Yes, the legendary 'Also ran', or 'Leftovers' stage. Been there, played it.

 

[crossthestyx]

I played a pizza joint where we got paid in pizza and pitchers of beer. I hadn't showered in 2 days and smelled like a butt hole. We stole the spot because the other band was late, uhh.. they were pissed.. I was swarmed by beautiful women, just hanging all over me. 800 people ended up showing, they surrounded the place which was all glass store front. There was a riot, and the cops couldn't control it. Ahh.. those were the days.

 

[bound'n'blocked]

No stage, but we played the grand opening of a gym once that the drummer owned. Big place. We were set up in the middle of all the weight machines. Had to hear weights clacking all day...

Also, we play an annual party at a campground along a river. the "stage" is a gazebo that is out over the water. I am always some piece of gear is going to fall in...


BnB

 

[pablomago]

Played at a brewery one time. In the brewery. Concrete floors among the tanks. A lot of echo. It was before they built the visitors center and tasting room they have now.

 

[hbarcat]

There was a bar/restaurant in LaPointe, WI called "Tommy's" that burned down about 25 years ago. I took this picture the night it happened about 4am. You can see the firemen in their reflective suits.

There is a boat on stilts in the foreground. An employee was using it as makeshift housing and it was unknown at this time if he was asleep in the boat when the fire started. It turns out he was passed out at a party, elsewhere.

With no insurance, Tommy decided to "rebuild" by keeping the remaining extended porch and backing in some semi-trailers where the building used to be and then putting up a circus tent and some makeshift walls made of scrap materials. It's now called "Tom's Burned Down Cafe".

He parked a couple of old cars around the perimeter and then built some platforms on top of them and attached them to the porch. Some more scrap wood for walls and something resembling a roof and he had a stage for live music.

(This is not my band)

 

[alaskaleftybass]

Just like @alaskaleftybass I played at a strip club in short 20 minute sets between two stages with poles...
Also played for the opening ceremony for the dorms at my hometown college campus. We set up on the basketball court with the drummer under the backboard.

I also played some Animal House gigs on Fraternity Row. There was so much booze and the guys and girls were pouring us shots onstage (just a couple short tables). Whew. I don't even remember loading equipment but once we loaded the trailer we locked it and the car and cabbed it to the guitarist's house, where the parents let us crash in the basement. Boy oh boy we were glad to see the car and trailer intact the next day...

 

[Liam Wald]

View attachment 2914965

I've yet to play there. The place is owned by a close friend. It's a tiny hotdog restaurant, where a tiny stage was rigged above the counter. The pic shows nearly the entire thing, it's tiny.

A tiny hot dog restaurant? Did the musicians get a ration of tiny dogs? How many? How tiny were they? Did they throw them up to the stage? So intriguing. I prefer more kielbasa sized dogs. Did they squirt mustard at you? Frankly (no pun intended) I find this disturbing.

 

[grimjim]

Played on flatbeds, stages with posts or actual walkways right in the middle of them, but the worst was sheets of plywood on the pool tables. If you moved the wrong way, your amp would rock.

 

[Richland123]

This is not my group; but, it qualifies for the thread title.

 

[soundsupport1]

I've played in a 40-foot shipping container. That was kinda weird.
Also played on the car deck of a cross-channel ferry. That was pretty cool too.
Played in a church where the wooden floor was rotting and they carpeted over it. Whole thing was kinda wobbly.
Played in a field between two office buildings, with a ported cabinet I ended up with slapback delay from the wall behind me, followed by reflections off the building opposite a few seconds later. Actually sounded kinda cool!

 

[friskinator]

Played on flatbeds, stages with posts or actual walkways right in the middle of them, but the worst was sheets of plywood on the pool tables. If you moved the wrong way, your amp would rock.

My old band used to play a club in Clemson, SC that did the pool table stage. Not ideal, but we always had a good crowd there, so we didn't pay much attention to it.

 

[skwee]

Back of a pickup truck, singing opera arias through a portable speaker setup around the city of Berkeley for the "How Berkeley Can You Be" parade. While it did have a distinct "commedia dell'arte" feel (with spontaneous cheering from spectators at each high note), it also had a distinct skeeve factor, what with the nudist ten-speed bicycle guy right behind us for the entire parade route. UGH.

 

[seamus bass]

The old huntride here in Vegas, many a foot went through that stage.

 

[bassbully]

This past weekend I played a place south of me. It’s a new bar in an old building. They added an overhang roof and enclosed the back patio area since the place was so tiny. The concrete pad from the old patio ended 10’ from the wooden stage that was completely surrounded by gravel over dirt. It was interesting to say the least. The whole enclosed patio area was heated by a kerosene tube heater that was on by the stage all night.

 

[Richland123]

One of the most unusual places I played a couple gigs was in an Ashley Furniture store among the beds, dressers, etc. We played for store promotions and and got paid very well both times. Customers looked around the store while we played. It really gave meaning to the phrase "playing to the furniture".

 

[BrotherEarl]

Middle of about 5 acres where they'd laid down a bunch of sheets of plywood and used nails and 2x4's to link them together.

It was an end of Spring semester college party at a place that was being rented. I think they had visions of wanting to grow it to be a big festival event and had planned it out as such, but didn't really know how to attract the numbers for that. We were the first ones on at noon and there were maybe 20 people out there. They put our gear in a pickup truck in the parking lot and hauled it and us out there.

Memories are a bit hazy but I remember the only electrical service was two extension cords that came from the house. The part I do remember vividly was them touting that each cord was from a different floor of the house so it wouldn't blow a breaker.....which seemed optimistic.

Halfway through our set a thunderstorm rolled in. Pickup truck was nowhere to be found so I had to take my bass and amp and make a run for it.

That band didn't last very long.