im from pa/md, so we used to always practice in basements. nothing too crazy. but since ive moved to fl. i realize how spoiled we were, because there are NO basements here. tried playing in living rooms, but the cops will be called within an hour. so we resorted to renting out monthly storage spaces. our first one was awesome, 25x25 at uhaul. we framed out walls inside of the entire unit. so when you rolled up the door, there was immediately another wall behind it with another locked door. also had a window a/c unit right beside it. the floor was carpeted, the walls were carpet/carpet padding covered in black fabric. the same black fabric covered the entire ceiling. and we had a 25x10 stage. with a couple light pots. it was probably one of the most professional/impressive practice spaces ive seen, only thing was it was in a uhaul...worked great till the city passed a "no live music in mini storage" ordinance...f'in pigs.
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Weirdest place your band has practiced...
- Thread starter bound'n'blocked
- Start date
First band I was in in college, we literally went up and down Main Street asking every shop owner if we could rent the space above them. We finally found this one place and they gave us the entire 2nd floor which at one point had been this really swanky ballroom. It was definitely in decay but it still had the wood floors, the ornate crown molding, I think one of the rooms still had a chandelier. There was electricity (of course) but hardly any of the lights worked so we had to be finished before dark. And there was no heat or A/C. It was creepy and cool at the same time. And the natural reverb was just epic... we made some recordings up there with a crappy little boom box and they sounded like freakin Led Zeppelin.
-In a Barn's hayloft w/ a generator.
-In a rented storage space w/ a generator.
-In a gazeebo w/ a generator.
Generators = wacky practice spaces.
Speaking of, anyone else a fan of 'Practice Space' on VBS.TV? (www.vbs.tv/watch/practice-space)
-In a rented storage space w/ a generator.
-In a gazeebo w/ a generator.
Generators = wacky practice spaces.
Speaking of, anyone else a fan of 'Practice Space' on VBS.TV? (www.vbs.tv/watch/practice-space)
I played in a band that rehearsed in a storage facility locker (about the size of a single car garage). People would wander by carrying their household items. 
Muzak was blaring over the house sound system non stop. 
Actually was a pretty good band and we didnt have to worry about annoying the neighbors.
Muzak was blaring over the house sound system non stop. Actually was a pretty good band and we didnt have to worry about annoying the neighbors.
The very first band I played in when I was a wee lad, we used to rehearse in the basement of a church. St. Anthony's in Trenton, to be exact
Sounds fairly ordinary at first, but this was no ordinary basement. The main room was a large theater that could comfortably seat at least 300 people. Complete with a ~ 80' wide stage, 5' above the audience floor level, oak flooring, two rows of stage curtains, the whole nine yards. By the looks of it, the place hadn't been used for anything other than storage for decades. IIRC our guitard (and he Really fit the description....) talked the church into letting us play down there, in order to "keep us off the street and safe from Sin", or some such pile of poo
Had some good times in that room, but we were young and stupid. We used to leave our gear down there, feeling safe because the entry doors locked. After about 6 months of serious fun, romping across that stage with our extra-long cords
playing BadCo and Deep Purple covers, somebody stole my first bass and bass amp
Losing the bass was bad enough, but in the Greater Scheme of things the sting of losing a cheesy Epi short-scale eventually faded. The amp was another matter: a pristine Blackfront Fender Bassman 50 with the matching cabinet
Sounds fairly ordinary at first, but this was no ordinary basement. The main room was a large theater that could comfortably seat at least 300 people. Complete with a ~ 80' wide stage, 5' above the audience floor level, oak flooring, two rows of stage curtains, the whole nine yards. By the looks of it, the place hadn't been used for anything other than storage for decades. IIRC our guitard (and he Really fit the description....) talked the church into letting us play down there, in order to "keep us off the street and safe from Sin", or some such pile of poo
Had some good times in that room, but we were young and stupid. We used to leave our gear down there, feeling safe because the entry doors locked. After about 6 months of serious fun, romping across that stage with our extra-long cords
playing BadCo and Deep Purple covers, somebody stole my first bass and bass ampLosing the bass was bad enough, but in the Greater Scheme of things the sting of losing a cheesy Epi short-scale eventually faded. The amp was another matter: a pristine Blackfront Fender Bassman 50 with the matching cabinet
While I would have loved to rehearse in that theater of Jefenator's or the place AnchorHoy had, I kinda prefer rehearsing in a dinky garage or a little room in a rathole warehouse. It gets you motivated to get out and get gigs on real stages. OTOH when the venue you practice in is nicer than the stages you play for real, seems like it would be kind of a comedown!
I've done my share of suburban basement rehearsals. (Working up rude punk sets in the "family room" w/ ma & pa cringing upstairs - hey, at least it's not drugs. 
)
My other favorite: garage in the dead of Canadian winter. Could never get nearly enough heat w/o tripping circuit breakers - especially while trying to use our amps!
)My other favorite: garage in the dead of Canadian winter. Could never get nearly enough heat w/o tripping circuit breakers - especially while trying to use our amps!
A loooooong time ago (early 70s) I was with a band that rehearsed in what had been the fur storage vault of a (defunct) department store a few blocks away.
Pretty much it was like that walk-in cooler! The good part was that it was soundproof (thick, insulated walls) and wouldn't have been easy to burglarize.
Okay, this is pretty mundane in comparison: attic over a butcher shop. Though we did later discover a worrying amount of gay-porn in a cupboard of his when we were after an extra power point 
I played in an old warehouse above an Italian restaurant, there we NO lights, NO windows, and the room was HUGE. VERY HUGE. It was more wide, and longer than my entire house. We set up in the middle, in a circle, drummer in the middle, two guitars, me, and the vocalist in a circle around the drums. It was a pretty neat set-up. However, we had to find our instruments, turn the power switches and all with a flashlight. We used Christmas lights to 'light' the place, but you could barely see anything still. Very fitting for a black metal band. Also, the reverb was killer, and definitely made us sound better.
The one place that I'd LOVE to have as a jam space is an old theater. I'd hold jam sessions, our own shows, all that jazz. It would be soooooo cool.
The one place that I'd LOVE to have as a jam space is an old theater. I'd hold jam sessions, our own shows, all that jazz. It would be soooooo cool.
jive1
Commercial User
My other favorite: garage in the dead of Canadian winter. Could never get nearly enough heat w/o tripping circuit breakers - especially while trying to use our amps!
I grew up in Chicago, and did the rehearsals in the garage in the dead of winter. No heater for us though.
My hands feel numb just thinking about those days.
One person's garage I practiced in had racks and racks of drums EVERYWHERE. Lining the walls from floor to ceiling, stacked up as a makeshift keyboard stand, guitar amp stand, etc... Some were pretty high quality vintage stuff, others hand made, some crappy stuff. Out of the 20x20 space, there was maybe an 8x8 space mixed around the room for the bass player, keyboardist and two guitarists to stand. Funny part is, it was the guitarist's house. The room surprisingly sounded fantastic, the band however...not so much.
We only used it a few months, in the middle of summer and the room had a lot of windows. So we could usually get in a good 2-3 hour night before it got too dark and that was long enough for any of us.
In a barn that was used for washing, sorting and packaging carrots. All the farm hands would pitch up on Saturdays to watch us.
Back in the day....in my misguided youth as a drummer...our bass player's parent's owned a store. Underneath the store was a basement, and I use that term generously. More of a crawl space.....dirt on the floor and barely 5 feet of headroom. We used to have to climb down a ladder to get into the place and in the winter it was cold and damp....cool in the summers though. I think if we had a buck for everytime we smashed our head on the wooden crossbeams above us, we all could have retired. We often had friends come over to the jams. Our doorbell consisted of the visitor having to knock on an old oil delivery pipe outside and then someone who have to go and let them in. Ahhhhh....those were the days!
Way, WAY back in the mists of time, when Neil Young's "Harvest" album had just come out, my band thought it would be great to play in a barn, just like the guys on the album cover. In the picture, Neil's barn had a stage. And electricity. And it looked almost... clean. Around here there a lots of old barns, many that haven't seen any use for decades. So my guitarist and I ask a buddy if he would mind if we jam in his barn. No problem: bring extension cords. We haul his Twin Reverb and my Acoustic stack all the way out there, up the barn ramp, set everything up, string the extension cords, let the tubes warm...
WHANGGG! He hits the first chord, I whack an open "E" and the entire barn fills up with about a zillion bats. (I guess they were simply trying to harmonize with "Old Man," but we kinda freaked out.) There's guano raining down on us, on our amps, everywhere. But we kept at it, practicing and eventually even staging shows in barns. Now, two lifetimes later, I own a barn and have my studio upstairs. TONS of outlets. Heated, air conditioned, carpeting, more gear than any twelve bands should own, beer fridge. But to have THOSE days again? Shoot.
WHANGGG! He hits the first chord, I whack an open "E" and the entire barn fills up with about a zillion bats. (I guess they were simply trying to harmonize with "Old Man," but we kinda freaked out.) There's guano raining down on us, on our amps, everywhere. But we kept at it, practicing and eventually even staging shows in barns. Now, two lifetimes later, I own a barn and have my studio upstairs. TONS of outlets. Heated, air conditioned, carpeting, more gear than any twelve bands should own, beer fridge. But to have THOSE days again? Shoot.
Barn stories seem to be a common theme.
Here's mine: the first was in the loft of a very large horse barn in February. Part of the loft was partitioned off with heavy plastic sheeting and heated (?) with a kerosene heater (and a bottle of gin).
We'd take our turn in front of the heater when the opportunity presented itself, and take gin breaks frequently.
Yuck!
Next barn was a very decrepit old thing close to 100 years old, no heat, and barely any power.
Very rickety outside steps and an old ladder to get into the loft, tin roof, full of holes, sweltering in the summer, but it gave a pretty good opportunity to broadcast our practices to the surrounding neighborhood with the door open.
Totally unusable in winter, however.
We also had a practice space in a storage warehouse, and kept the gear stored there between gigs.
Not a bad room, but in winter the breaker would constantly trip because another renter was using a huge industrial heater on the same circuit.
He said it kept you warm by the heat generated by the spinning dial of the electricity meter!
Here's mine: the first was in the loft of a very large horse barn in February. Part of the loft was partitioned off with heavy plastic sheeting and heated (?) with a kerosene heater (and a bottle of gin).
We'd take our turn in front of the heater when the opportunity presented itself, and take gin breaks frequently.
Yuck!
Next barn was a very decrepit old thing close to 100 years old, no heat, and barely any power.
Very rickety outside steps and an old ladder to get into the loft, tin roof, full of holes, sweltering in the summer, but it gave a pretty good opportunity to broadcast our practices to the surrounding neighborhood with the door open.
Totally unusable in winter, however.
We also had a practice space in a storage warehouse, and kept the gear stored there between gigs.
Not a bad room, but in winter the breaker would constantly trip because another renter was using a huge industrial heater on the same circuit.
He said it kept you warm by the heat generated by the spinning dial of the electricity meter!
