We're playing... I'm sorry what now?

[St. Louis Scot]

" do you know Ocobahabie Serenade?" Uh, no, I say. "You'll love it! - one, two, one, two, three four--"

OMG! I laughed so hard I nearly pee'd!

 

[Nephilymbass]

lol we've literally played new songs on stage where I had yell fret positions out to my guitar player lol. Its all in good fun for me. if the musicians have chemistry being unorganized doesn't necessarily mean the show will suck

 

[gbrooding]

First worship band I played in never had a song list. The worship leader would simply put a 1 finger for 1 flat, 2 fingers for 2 flats, etc, to let us know what key the next song was in. His wife played piano, and would give him the key, he would start singing and we would basically just jump in and go. I played scared for the first several months, but finally found my comfort level. Looking back on it, it was some of the best church music memories I have.

 

[bound'n'blocked]

Played open mic at a bar last week. Power was out in the area due to ice storm but not in town, however, we couldnt get in touch with our drummer because he was one of those without power. The guy in charge of the open mic night was a friend who I knew as a guitar player, but we had never played together, and I didnt even know he played the drums. He said he would play drums for us. We played about 8 songs or so and the crowd loved us. Owner of the bar booked us for a gig so I guess all went well...

BnB

 

[Woofer]

Had a fun fill in gig like this last fall. My band was the opener on a 2 band bill. I get there to set up, and the headliner's singer approaches me. Their bassist's car broke down and can't make the gig, can I fill in? I say why not. He writes me out the changes during my band's set, passes it off to me during the break and away we go.

They were a celtic/roots band, really good. I'd never played that stuff before, basically flew by the seat of my pants all night and had a blast. Their bassist plays an upright and I was on a 5 string Jazz so they were stoked to hear their tunes with a different sound. Told me I rocked it and threw me some merchandise as a thank you ( I declined to let them pay me). Overall an awesome night.

 

[wilberthenry]

A few weeks back my americana/alt country band was playing a gig and the crowd was a little different/more affluent (and the bar nicer) than we are used to. The BL turned around and showed us some chords and we played "Timber" by some top 40/rap duo. It was pretty sloppy, but got our best response of the night.

 

[Old Fart]

Had a BLAST at a Blues Jam one night. Some plain ol' 1-4-5 songs. Some other songs I was at least slightly familiar with. But the funnest part was.......

If I had NO IDEA WHATSOEVER and had never heard the song before, the leader/guitarist would describe the song for me. He'd say something like "Okay, this one goes 1-3-1-4-7-5-1 on the verse, and 1-4-3-1...1-4-7-1. Bouncy beat. In G Minor. Ready? Ah One, Two Three....."

It was like driving a race track at speed that you've never driven before. Lots of fun.

 

[Gaolee]

I have had several of those gigs....I find them amusing and fun, but would not want them all of the time. We have also done live band karaoke (with no list to choose from) and that's also a blast! You never knew what decade or genre someone is going to pull out.

This happened at a wedding reception we played. The entire place, not counting the band, was getting pretty well lubricated, and by the end of the night, quite a few of the guests wanted to sing. So, we ended up winging our way through a bunch of random songs with wedding guests belting away. Some of them were pretty good. Our singer ended up doing a duet with one of them. It was a complete blast.

 

[QweziRider]

Anyone else? Stories? Stories?

Ohhhhhh yeah. Got hired for a "revival" gig with four other hired guns a couple months ago. The whole event was done with people from out of town coming in for their revival. the four of us were given a disc and told explicitly "learn this exactly as it is." A couple weeks with the disc, two rehearsals (one of which the event coordinator attended to see how we had progressed), and get to the gig early to go over things with the singers.

Lead singer didn't like anything we were doing (hey, we copied the disc pretty much note for note), it was all the wrong key ("hey, it's YOUR singing on the disc dude") and just hours before the gig, lead singer becomes a petulant child, closing in on himself, and whining to beat all.

In the end, we scrapped everything we had worked on and played "follow their keyboard player on unknown songs" for two nights.

Gotta love being able to adjust on a moment's notice. Next time I'll remember to not practice.

 

[Slevage]

Why?

Back when I was in Los Angeles, I got a call to come play a gig down in Fullerton. I never heard of the piano player who called me, and had no idea how he got my name, but he asked me a few questions about "the standards" and that was the "Audition". No rehearsal, just go play the gig. I show up and there he is on piano and vocals, and a drummer. It's basically a cabaret / piano bar thing, so off we go. He's calling tunes I know, and I am watching his hands - I see that he is playing a lot of roots with the pinky of his left hand, so I am feeling like I can make it through the night. Second set, he starts drinking, and he gets into working the crowd - playing a tune, stopping in the middle of it for a monologue, then back into the tune or maybe another tune, but without telling me what is going on. More drinks and he starts playing some really obscure stuff, a lot of it from Broadway, but I am hanging onto his left hand, and doing a decent job of following him. At least most of these show tunes have recognizable progressions.. Break time, and he goes around to the tables joking, shaking hands and drinking. Oh heck.. Last set, he's drunk as a skunk, and away we go - he starts playing some "standards" I have never heard of, ever. And he's drinking with one hand, his left, of course, and playing piano with the other, and he is way soused, to the point of stopping playing piano altogether and standing on the piano bench and singing with just me and the drummer, who is lost, too, holding the music together. He stops in the middle of some tune to do a really rambling booze soaked monologue, then turns to me and says, (I wish I could remember the actual name of the tune, but, for example) " do you know Ocobahabie Serenade?" Uh, no, I say. "You'll love it! - one, two, one, two, three four--" I did three nights a week for almost nine months, with this guy and it was the same thing every night.

 

[Dave44]

I have just finished auditioning with a new band playing mostly western swing tunes. All of the bands tunes were charted and a gig was due in 2 1/2 weeks from winning my position in the band. I haven't read from charts in a very long time let alone swing tunes from the 30's and 40's but I managed to woodshed enough that I was able to play through the gig with only one tune almost driving off the rails. I was intimidated at first but the band leader made me feel very comfortable and we had a few rehersals on our own to catch me up. All in all it was a very good experience and now I'm in a band I've always wanted to be in. There were a few tunes we didn't rehearse at all but I managed to get through them all right during the gig so nothing realy to be worried about just dig in and fly with the rest of the band. So I know what it feels like walking in and handed a number of charts then it's a 1 2 3 4. LOL! It felt like the first time I'd been on stage all over again.....it's a feeling that never gets old.

 

[Slough Feg Bass]

I used to do that all the time in college.

lots of older cats coming in from out of town doing one nighters with pickup bands.

I wasn't the 1st call guy, but I got calls, played with some interesting people.
Mostly singer songwriter types that played guitars or pianos, but it was usually fun and profitable, and a good way to keep up on my chops. Usually got free food, too.

Did my school work in the lounge areas on breaks.
Got a lot of support from local businesses that noticed me coming through with different acts on a regular basis and saw me studying and offered lots of cool stuff like quiet areas for my study groups and free coffee & sodas, sometimes food for us college kids.

 

[Hamlet7768]

Now from THAT clue I'm guessing New Wave Of British Heavy Metal.

Was either guess close?

I've never heard NWOBHM refer to anything other than the New Wave of British Heavy Metal.

Fun fact; there's also a New Wave of American Heavy Metal, which is actually still kind of new.