My open mike post from a few years ago...From the "Farting During A Show" Thread...Part II...I think it applies here....Cheers!
Here we go...Years ago my band played one of those the "Our company made lots of money this year" parties.I know that many of you all have played corporate gigs and are well aware of the set up.
This gig was at a Holiday Inn conference center.The kind of room that can be partitioned off with sliding panels.I think that the main hall could have been split six ways,but at this event thay used the whole room.They had a stage against one wall where we set up that was also to be shared with CEO during presentations.
These gigs are a starving players dream...Our first set was to be one and a half hours,followed by presentations of bonuses,happy talk..."We did great this year..wait till next year"..followed by another one and a half hour set to close out.Anyway you get the picture.
The owners of the company were very cool.They set us up with a band table in the very back of the hall and we were invited to partake in the open bar.They had four different bars setup in each corner.We also got to hit the buffet table after everyone else went through.
The first set went great.folks were dancing right off the bat.I'm sure that the open bar played a big part in that.When we stopped playing they opened the buffet.Everyone had plenty to eat when a somewhat drunken CEO took to the stage.Not Foster Brooks drunk but tipsey...but hey it's his company.They set up a podium that was tied into the house P.A. system with overhead speakers.I don't know what gave me the idea but when we stashed all of our drum boxes an guitar cases behind a wall curtain I noticed a wall jack with several mike inputs.They were placed at several locations in the room.As the presentation went on things got looser and the boss was actually very funny.It was almost like one of those Dean Martin roasts from back in the day.
Call me a bad person,but something made me go behind the curtain,back where we were sitting and get a spare mike out of the gear box.I pluged it into the remote jack....guess what....Hot mike!!!On the house system.Only two other guys in the band knew what I was up to.I couldn't trust the others to keep a straight face.Carefully I placed the 57 on the back of my chair, with the chair against the wall curtain.At just the right time..as the speaker paused between breaths I let go what I thought was going to be a small fart.Well those plastic fold up chairs are like a bass drum head.I must say..The mike mix was perfect,so was the timing.From my vantage point you see people look up right at the stage and start to laugh.Even the speaker looked behind himself as if to say "where the hell did that come from?It may have taken a full 60 seconds for him to regain composure"In my shock at producing a not so small poot,I carefully removed the the mike from the jack and stashed the offending tool.
Thinking I had just pulled off one of the best band fart capers to date...A hand touched my shoulder from behind...Excuse me...My blood turned cold.
A man in a black tux holding a tray of five beers and some shots.He still had leftover tears in his eyes.I had forgotten that one of the satellite bars in the back of the room had a direct sight line past us ..to the stage.The bartender watched the caper from begining to end.He claimed to have worked at this place for fifteen years and had never seen anything like that and had never laughed so hard.He had to bring a round to the table.As far as I knew he and the band were the only ones in on the truth.
The second set went better than the first and the "speaker fart" was a topic until our last piece of equiptment was loaded.
With much respect to the man who started this thread,Thank you Jive1 for helping to bring back some fond band memories.
Cheers.
Here we go...Years ago my band played one of those the "Our company made lots of money this year" parties.I know that many of you all have played corporate gigs and are well aware of the set up.
This gig was at a Holiday Inn conference center.The kind of room that can be partitioned off with sliding panels.I think that the main hall could have been split six ways,but at this event thay used the whole room.They had a stage against one wall where we set up that was also to be shared with CEO during presentations.
These gigs are a starving players dream...Our first set was to be one and a half hours,followed by presentations of bonuses,happy talk..."We did great this year..wait till next year"..followed by another one and a half hour set to close out.Anyway you get the picture.
The owners of the company were very cool.They set us up with a band table in the very back of the hall and we were invited to partake in the open bar.They had four different bars setup in each corner.We also got to hit the buffet table after everyone else went through.
The first set went great.folks were dancing right off the bat.I'm sure that the open bar played a big part in that.When we stopped playing they opened the buffet.Everyone had plenty to eat when a somewhat drunken CEO took to the stage.Not Foster Brooks drunk but tipsey...but hey it's his company.They set up a podium that was tied into the house P.A. system with overhead speakers.I don't know what gave me the idea but when we stashed all of our drum boxes an guitar cases behind a wall curtain I noticed a wall jack with several mike inputs.They were placed at several locations in the room.As the presentation went on things got looser and the boss was actually very funny.It was almost like one of those Dean Martin roasts from back in the day.
Call me a bad person,but something made me go behind the curtain,back where we were sitting and get a spare mike out of the gear box.I pluged it into the remote jack....guess what....Hot mike!!!On the house system.Only two other guys in the band knew what I was up to.I couldn't trust the others to keep a straight face.Carefully I placed the 57 on the back of my chair, with the chair against the wall curtain.At just the right time..as the speaker paused between breaths I let go what I thought was going to be a small fart.Well those plastic fold up chairs are like a bass drum head.I must say..The mike mix was perfect,so was the timing.From my vantage point you see people look up right at the stage and start to laugh.Even the speaker looked behind himself as if to say "where the hell did that come from?It may have taken a full 60 seconds for him to regain composure"In my shock at producing a not so small poot,I carefully removed the the mike from the jack and stashed the offending tool.
Thinking I had just pulled off one of the best band fart capers to date...A hand touched my shoulder from behind...Excuse me...My blood turned cold.
A man in a black tux holding a tray of five beers and some shots.He still had leftover tears in his eyes.I had forgotten that one of the satellite bars in the back of the room had a direct sight line past us ..to the stage.The bartender watched the caper from begining to end.He claimed to have worked at this place for fifteen years and had never seen anything like that and had never laughed so hard.He had to bring a round to the table.As far as I knew he and the band were the only ones in on the truth.
The second set went better than the first and the "speaker fart" was a topic until our last piece of equiptment was loaded.
With much respect to the man who started this thread,Thank you Jive1 for helping to bring back some fond band memories.
Cheers.
