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Whats the Easiest Gig You've Ever Played?

MatticusMania

MatticusMania

LANA! HE REMEMBERS ME!
Sep 10, 2008
9,565
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Pomona, SoCal
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#1
I have a friend who plays the steel pan. During the summer he's usually busy playing gigs, parties, etc. with his uncle and others. On occasion the company will get a call for a one man gig, and because my friend is "down on his luck" (read: homeless) his uncle will set him up with the one man gigs before he offers them to anyone else. And my friend will take those gigs, so long as he can work out arrangements to get there.

So, it came up last Saturday. A one man gig in Canoga Park, about an hour away. He asks me if I'd be down to accompany him, playing the rythym machine on a keyboard and jamming some bass. Of course I agreed, he said he'd pay me. We arrive at the gig and its some guy's 60th birthday party at a private residence. This one'll be easy he tells me. I never even took my bass out! I just played the chord changes on the keys with me left hand, did some leads with the right. We got fed, massive BBQ, were given libations. Chatted up a few people on break time (well actually they chatted us up) and got two more potential gigs out of it. They really loved it! Not only that, but I took home $150 for 4 hours "work". Sweet!
 
#3
Well my definition of an easy gig is, lots of money for not much time / labor invested.

In which case it would probably be a sub gig I played a few years ago at a private outdoor party. Since I was a sub I didn't have to do much more than show up, set up my rig and start playing. 4 or 5 songs into the show, a huge storm came up and the BL called it a night. But I still got paid my full rate. And I got to eat (Famous Dave's BBQ... yum).

A close second would be another sub gig I played (different band), where I had about the same amount of setup, got paid as much for one gig as I usually made in a weekend at the time, and was home by 11 PM.
 
#5
It was a biker rodeo. The thing was so terribly organized that the band played a total of about an hour. We still got $1,200.00, + free beer and food. (Not to mention a front row seat to the wet T-shirt contest.)
 
#6
I played solo bass for 20 minutes before my company's "Town Hall" meeting last March. My boss paid me by comping a nice dinner for me and my wife- $120 for 20 minutes of playing through my smallest, lightest rig. Probably my easiest gig ever, even though playing solo was certainly a mental challenge.
 
#7
Every month or so I do a sit down western swing gig, everything is charted lead sheet or Nashville, take a few solos, all I need to take is a bass and my zoom and make stuuuuuuuupid $$. The hardest part is gettin to the gigs at little obscure dance halls about central Texas.
 
#10
I played in a rock cover band for a while. The singer/guitar player hadn't been playing as long as the rest of us, so he chose particularly easy songs. No practices, show up to gigs and play songs that you have heard a million times on the radio. It was easy money but I grew tired of it after about 6 gigs. I decided it was time to quit when we were playing a bar gig and I realized that I knew the score of the hockey game that was on a tv in the bar. I am not a huge hockey fan and usually I really enjoy playing live.
 
#13
Originals band where I replaced a didgeridoo player. He could only play one note per song, so that was all I had to do. Also, he had two didgeridoos and both notes he could play happened to be open strings for me. It doesn't get much easier than that.

It got worse when they figured out I could do more than that, but the first few gigs were a breeze. I'd just ask before each song what key we're in and drone on that string.
 
#14
I used to sub pretty frequently for a band that played square dances. Played acoutic guitar.

Almost every song, just G-C-D, or capo up then play G-C-D chords.

Songs lasted 10 mins, then everyone was tired, and getting instructions for the next dance...so like 10 mins on, 15 mins off. Free drinks. A total of 2 hours usually (sometimes 3).

Then $1000 for a three-piece band. Easiest money I ever made playing music, and alot of fun, too.
 
#17
pklima said:
Originals band where I replaced a didgeridoo player. He could only play one note per song, so that was all I had to do. Also, he had two didgeridoos and both notes he could play happened to be open strings for me. It doesn't get much easier than that.

It got worse when they figured out I could do more than that, but the first few gigs were a breeze. I'd just ask before each song what key we're in and drone on that string.
Click to expand...

Awesome. This wins for easiness.
 
#20
I played a breakfast fundraiser with my high school musical cast. We did Those Magic Changes from Grease. Played that song (in front of 1200+ people) and got $50 and a good breakfrast. By the time we were off stage at least 10 people had approached me and the lead singer about performing other songs at their events. AND I missed half a day of school :)
 

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