What's the SMALLEST "crowd" you ever played to?

[LedBelli Bass]

Sept. 19th -- 3 people, and they were wives or SO's of bandmates.

Even after 3 sets, the solo artist we were supporting wanted to keep playing into the wee hours.

The drummer finally faked a broken pedal so we could quit early.

Sept. 20th -- I quit the band!

 

[millsbass5]

There has been many a night where my band and I played to huge crowds of 3 or 4 people.Why??Snowstorms.Shootings.
You know,the regular stuff.
We would take advantage of it and play anyway.You can never practice too much as a band.

 

[hentor]

The bartender and the waitress.

Midway through the evening, the cook came out to join us too...

 

[T-Bird]

Hi.

Zero, most of the time.

I'm not kidding either.

We were hired to do a gig. An amplified acoustic gig. Quite far away.

I told numerous times that we weren't exactly a folk dance kind of a band, but the guy insisted. We played mostly CCR, Neil Young, that sort of thing and he knew that.

When we arrived, the sign said: "THE APEMEN" ; WE'RE DANCING TONIGHT.

We knew immediately that we were in trouble.

We played three sets to an empty tent (they insisted that we stayed in there). Exept for one song .

Granted, people were there outside of the tent eating barbecued pig and boozing, applauding at the end of each song, but save the dog (really) and an occasional curious kid, we were left virtually alone. The only song that got the people dancing was the "Sultans Of Swing" by Dire Straits. We played that one quite a few times .

We got paid what was agreed beforehand, and the people seemed to be quite happy, but it was extremely hard to play when no-one was listening. A paid rehearsal would be a fitting description.

Regards
Sam

 

[GoatGruff]

"Do you know what it's like to be on the bill and to play for 15 minutes and the only people there to see you are the other bands and their girlfriends? Don't talk to me about Rock 'n' Roll! I'm out there in the clubs and on the streets and I'm living it! I am Rock 'n' Roll!"

 

[southernrocker]

10 people, and that was the last gig of that band.
The drummer stopped in the middle of "Down on the Corner" to look at his pouty girlfriend and mouth "Whats wrong?".

I looked at him (I'm still playing) and say quietly "Play the F****** Drums!"

I was pissed.

 

[gweimer]

The bartender and the waitress.

Midway through the evening, the cook came out to join us too...

Been there, done that. No cook, but there were two servers. We asked the club owner if he wanted us to wait a few minutes. He pulled a .38 from under the bar, and told us to play for his staff. By the end of the first set, people started coming in.

 

[Jonyak]

not the smallest crowd I have played to, but.

my band opened a HUGE festival, we're talking 10's of thousands of people and we ended up playing to about oh... 100 people because we were first on of the day.

oh well, I spent the rest of the day lurking around backstage drinking the free beer and hanging out with other bands.

but other than that I have played shows that we drove 6 hours to get to, to play to the bartender.

 

[SteveC]

We played to 2 moms and a dad this weekend at a women's show - well there was some event center staff running around, but basically 3 people. Lame gig. Long story. Basically a paid rehearsal.

 

[73jbass]

A band I was in years ago played at a meeting of the Georgia Music association,and we were going to close the show.Supposed to go on at 11pm,finally we get on the stage at 1:30 am,2 bartenders are left,and the janitor has already started mopping the floor. No patrons at all.We did a quick sound check,then decided to just go home.

 

[MusicBokonon]

Every other Sunday night, I play at the local church with campus ministry for about 10-15 people. It's fine by me though, I know everyone in the church and I'm good friends with the band.

 

[Thor]

10 people, and that was the last gig of that band.
The drummer stopped in the middle of "Down on the Corner" to look at his pouty girlfriend and mouth "Whats wrong?".

I looked at him (I'm still playing) and say quietly "Play the F****** Drums!"

I was pissed.

Good one.

 

[Phalex]

The bartender and the waitress.

Midway through the evening, the cook came out to join us too...

I've played there too. They kept hiring us back for some reason.

I really don't miss that place at all!!!

 

[LedBelli Bass]

I left something out of my OP: We were mostly playing 3 chord, 3 1/2 minute Country tunes . . . for 6-8 mins each!

I finally looked at the artist and said, "Dude, we're not playing 'Seek Up' here!"

Mighta had an effect on why nobody stuck around!

 

[Bocete]

Once my band was invited to do a gig in a club with an other band. They went first and played from ~10pm to about ~2am. I was asleep when they finished and the only ones left were the frends of that band and our friends. Their friends left with them, so there were 2 or 3 people left. We played for about 10 minutes, jamming some silly stuff on request and left.

 

[Bass Pleasures]

Back in the day, when I played in original bands, we went to London and played to the headline act.

Then, they played to us.

We had a bigger crowd than them 'cos they were a four-piece and there was only three of us.





Another band played in Nottingham.

The venue was a pub which was heaving with people downstairs, all they had to do was climb the stairs and pay their 50 pence and watch us.


One girl watched us.

As soon as we played the last note, she legged it back downstairs.

 

[netbot]

1

 

[EricF]

2 friends of the guitar player + 1 bartender + 3 locals who were rooted to their barstools all night - 1 of those locals who was passed out with his head on the bar = 6.

Our lead guitar player had a broken ankle, but still managed to man-up and get through the show. We all played like crap.

 

[MNAirHead]

Set up a stadium gear to a VERY large auditorium to one geeky nerd... the night before we were playing to 13,000

Timmy

 

[jaywa]

I played acoustic guitar (poorly) for my wife in our living room last weekend. She loved it.