Tell your worst gig ever

[jollymosher]

i had the worst gig of my life. The people kept telling us that we were to loud.. and complaining until we turned down. Im a REALLY REALLY hard hitter. so i broke out my pair of 7 As and tried to play quietly so i ended up playing the entire set by counting it measure by measure and that is something that i have not had to do sense the 8th grade. (2 years ago) i didnt mess up but it was still the worst gig and day of my life.

Tell some of your horror stories.. stupid gigs and bad days...

[rendezvous_drummer]

I have 2:

1) At a Battle of the Bands, I smacked my finger on the rim of the snare and dislocated, so I played the rest of the gig with my stick being held only by my thumb and middle finger on my left hand.

2) At another Battle of the Bands, the place didn't have a floor tom stand and they lost the legs, so I had to put it on a snare stand. Well it wasn't very sturdy, so it fell over and took my ride and crash cymbal down with it.....and on top of that, my drum stick smashed into about 3 or 4 pieces.

[cwignall]

finale to my first gig in school was basket case by greenday -

i forgot the entire drum beat so just sat there tapping the bass drum on occasions...

[remnantdrummer]

One time at Battle of the Bands, we had to set up the light show and then do our sound check... we finished setting up the lights, we are about to start our sound check, and everyone starts running in the doors, no soundcheck + bad equipment team (mics were moved from where they needed to be) + people still coming in while we were playing ( we were 1st) = worst gig (so far)

[da cheese walks]

one of the worst gigs i did was there on friday last....

My band were headlining a "pred-paddys day gig" in Newry close to our hometown...we drive up to be there for 6.30....me with my whole kit,2 guitars for our guitarist and a bass for our bassist....

we arrive late at 7 and the place isnt even open...even tho we were told the soundchecks were starting at 6.30....good thing we werent early eh?so we wait till about 7.15 and the place opens....i go in set up the kit...and because i didnt have enough room i had asked one of the other bands to bring a stool....

then the organiser,at 8.00,since the other 2 bands havent turned up yet,callls them....note the other bands were supposed to bring 2 amps,a stool and mics....the 2 other bands pull out on the phone...they werent even gonna tell the organisers or us...(one had a reason as their drummer broke his leg)..

So the doors open at 8.30 an we actually have to spill into the crowd asking them who plays guitar or bass as we need amps...eventually 2 amps arrive from somewhere...teh crowd are gettin impatient...and then the organiser is frantically calling all the bands in the area...we cant get any to fill in!!

then a band of drunk guys come up an go: "aw man well support you,but we have no equiptemnt"....so my bassist decides:"screw it my bass is worth €1500 im not lettin these drunk dudes touch it...."(but i totally agreed with him an still do....Do not hand your spector 6 string bass to a wasted guy....)and so we get onstage...me in an office chair with huge arm rests which seriously screw up your playing...

we have to play for an hour and a half without any support and no monitiors....most of the crowd are 12 year old kids anywya an they dont even bother...so we werent on our top form....and then we had to drive all the way back to my hometown...

And we didnt get paid....

[karmadharma]

A long time ago I was in this great, great, great blues band (singer, harmonica, lead guitar, rythm guitar, bass, myself) and we were definitely rocking, moving to better and better gigs over a space of a year until finally one day we were accepted by one of the best local blues/jazz venues (which also paid like 5x what we usually made) for a Saturday night gig.

Of course we practiced like crazy, then the big evening came and the first half of the set went fairly well, not as great as usual but decent: at this point let me digress by saying that the band had the absolute best bass player bar none I've ever played with, unfortunately he also had a bit of a drinking problem (that's why he had to quit playing the pro circuit) and the guitar player usually 'babysat' him during the break to make sure he stayed sober enough to finish the evening.

You can see where this is going, we restarted playing and it was kinda obvious that the bass player wasn't all there, he was playing random notes and swaying on his feet until halfway through the first song he passed out and fell to the ground, bass and all, right in front of everybody (arrrrrrrrgh).

We take a 10 minute break and heated discussions start happening, recriminations towards the lead guitarist (who was busy chatting with his g/f and didn't babysit) and plans on how to 'fix' this: given that we had two guitarists most people were saying that the lead should've played bass because 'the show must go on' and he used to play bass after all years back, unfortunately the lead guitarist didn't feel like it since 'it would be compromising his artistic integrity' and so we had to stop playing (forfeiting the cash too): of course everybody picked up their stuff and ran out as fast as possible, leaving me taking apart my drumkit alone on the stage with all the audience looking on (talk about embarassing!)

Needless to say after this the band broke up, definitely could've become something had it continued as there was some major chemistry going on.

[rendezvous_drummer]

Da_Cheese_Walks, that's brutal man! Did the other band say why they didn't show up? And yea I played once with armrests on my chair. Needless to say I had a couple bruises.

[rockinrider]

Sometime in the early 80s, I was playing in a country band. We were playing in a country dive in northern Maryland.

Sometime during the third set a group of bikers showed up and start making noise. They apparently liked the band. They blocked all of the doors and unplugged the phone. They refused to let us leave until they had their fill of beer and music. Needless to say, we played our butts off.

About 2 hours after closing time, a state policeman noticed that the place was still open and stopped in to see what the problem was. (All public drinking places had to close by 2am according to a Maryland state law as I was told). The cop quickly threw the bikers out and saved the band.

We did get paid!

[hawk9290]

minor resurrection of this thread here, but mine last night topped my list of worst gigs I've played. A few months back we played for a fundraiser auction, and to help out, we put ourselves up for auction, and someone bought us (don't remember the winning bid). So they call us up a couple weeks ago and ask us to play for their fundraiser at a very swank local hotel ballroom for 500 or so people. It sounded good, we had to make some minor adjustments because of the comparatively short notice, but nothing huge. Even before the show, I was feeling good about it- I had put some work into my Tama Swingstars and they sounded easily comparable to any drums 3x the cost (and I put on a new snare and some borrowed Zildjian A's for cymbals since I don't have my new ones yet).
But of course, the same two hours we are slotted to play are the same as the OSU vs Georgetown basketball game. So we start playing, and they have the game projected on the wall, which seemed rude to me at first, but later I came to favor it. For the first 5 or six songs, which we played great on, not one person out of the 500 clapped or even acknowledged us. Then, a few people got a bit of liquor and them, and by the end of the first set, we had an amazing crowd of 2 people clapping for us. And of course, in the middle of our songs, the half-drunken mob would cheer at the basketball game and all the obscenities related to that ;p . So we break for 20 minutes, and all of us are pissed off and thinking about just leaving, but we cant, so we come back in, and they tell us to keep it down during the second set, which was our louder set with the high energy songs and drum solos! So now I'm about ready to kill someone, but then it occurs to all of us, why play our best since no one is listening- and from my vantage point I could watch the game, so the second set we just played, I watched the game while playing, we sounded fair as a whole, but weren't putting any effort into it, and we got a bit more attention since people were sitting down now, but still very little. By the end my muscles hurt like hell from holding back so much on my playing, all of us were infuriated with the people- but 3 hours at Chipotle quickly remedied all harsh feelings ;p It made me understand why Nickelback left the stage at their show in Portugal or wherever it was a few years back with the bad crowd.

[DreamTheater4life]

At my last show, i broke a stick in half. so i tried to lightly toss it over my set so i could get it after the song. but instead i LAUNCHED it into the audience and nailed some dude in the chest.

[DogBreath]

You know, it's kind of funny but as a Moderator you get to a point where you can tell which threads are going to be trouble just by the subject. I see "Tell your worst gig ever" and the bells go off, and sure enough people prove again that they can't tell a story without using inappropriate language. Eight posts deleted for language and quoting posts that were deleted. And to those of you who always ask why a Moderator can't just edit out the "naughty" stuff, I say be responsible for what you post.

Now play nice.

[glynes]

Okay Mods, I'll try to keep this clean. 8-)
My worst gig yet was the one and only gig with my current so-called band. Suffice it to say that out of a bunch that has years' experience playing, the drummer with only 3 years behind the kit and very little stage experience, was not the weakest link.
The guitars were out-of-tune, the vocalist forgot the words to many of the songs, the other vocalist apparently got hit with stage fright, and pretty much whispered his parts, the guitars and vocals came in at all the wrong times on half the intros, and one of the bass players stopped us half-a-dozen times to ask, "What key are we doing this in?" Same bass player laid down his bass and did vocals on one song ... whole thing with his hands in his pockets (and more than a little out of tune).
Fortunately this was a "new band showcase" on a Thursday night and only about 2 dozen of our friends and families were there, but it was beyond embarrassing.
And the "expert sound guy" who did the "professional CD" for us, had the mix so bad that my musician friends almost came to blows with him, trying to get him to sort it out right. The drums came across really well, though. And since this is the only sample I have of my playing, I've had to share with a few people ... the overall consensus is: "Girl, you gotta get better musicians to play with!"
I hope it only gets better from here!!

[rendezvous_drummer]

Alright alright, I'll reword my post.

Hawk...
Even though your gig DID NOT GO WELL and although you thought that the people were being rude for watching the game instead of the band...to be totally honest, I probably would've focused on the game myself since that is what I came to see. Some recognition of your playing would've been nice though, I agree with you on that one, but do you really expect to be the main hit during march madness? I still would have played my best even though the people there were morons. Better luck next time you have a gig, and ask if there will be any sort of distractions haha.

[hawk9290]

Alright alright, I'll reword my post.

Hawk...
Even though your gig DID NOT GO WELL and although you thought that the people were being rude for watching the game instead of the band...to be totally honest, I probably would've focused on the game myself since that is what I came to see. Some recognition of your playing would've been nice though, I agree with you on that one, but do you really expect to be the main hit during march madness? I still would have played my best even though the people there were morons. Better luck next time you have a gig, and ask if there will be any sort of distractions haha.

lol, I was there to watch the game as well, and did a good job of multitasking (even our guest conductor was watching the game in between cues), so yes, watching the game is understandable, but at least give some subconscious applause! Thats the first time I didn't play my best, and given the circumstances, i felt no need to do so. If I was getting paid or had been invited there, of course, or if the audience clapped or anything, but none of that was the case, I had been out working in the rain all morning, i was tired, i was mad, we were there out of the goodness of our band to auction itself for a fundraiser. The kicker though is that the swank hotel didn't provide us any decent refreshments during the break ;p - coca cola and cheese and crackers don't hold well for a band playing during a dinner lol. but we've got three more gigs coming up where the people in attendance are there by choice, andwe get money for two of them and the third is a jazz festival, so its all good. I am however now rooting of UF in the final four because OSU gave me a bad gig ;p

[lstardrums]

i havent had too many gigs, but my last one was the worst so far.

my metal band had a spot in a local band showcase called "socal rock revolution" in long beach. from the moment we signed up for this show i knew it was sketchy. the guy in charge made us sign a contract, but the terms were unclear. then he gave us our tickets to sell. the tickets had the wrong date on them and when we asked him about it he said "just cross out the date and write in the correct date". now, would you buy that ticket? didnt think so. we had to send in our bassist (tall, thin, but scary lookin dude) to get the right tickets.

the day before the show the guy in charge calls up my guitarist and tells him that our set time had been extended 20 minutes and he expected that time to be filled. we didnt have an extra 20 minutes of music already learned, so the next day (the show day) i had to learn 2 new covers in an hour. needless to say those songs didnt turn out too great.

finally the day of the show arrives. it takes me over an hour to get to the location due to traffic. i get there and ask the guy in charge how i can bring my stuff in. he leads me around the back and tells me i have to haul all my stuff in through the kitchen. normally that would be understandable, but at the time the restraunt wasnt even open and it would have been a lot easier to go through the front door, but i do what he says.

my band mates arrive and we go into the head guys office to give him our ticket money. he counts it up and tries to tell us we are 100 bucks short. we call him on it and he tries to play it off like he miscalculated. keep in mind that throughout all the days ordeals this guy is trying to buddy up with us and make us think he's our friend.

so now its showtime. everything is set up, sound check is done, we are ready to play. but theres one problem; theres no one there to watch us besides the 6 relatives that bought tickets. the guy in charge guaranteed that there would be hundreds of people there to see all the bands. he lied. there wasnt anyone.

we take the hit and play our set. when we finished the guys in charge comes up to us and tells us that the two bands lined up to play after us bailed and he wants us to fill their time. we tell him we dont have anymore songs but he said he didnt care. so we jammed for a good 20 minutes then gave up. again, no one was there to see it so we didnt care.

after we got all our stuff packed back into our cars we went to the head guys office to voice our frustration and ask for an explanation. he tells us that its our own fault no one was there to see us play because we didnt sell a lot of tickets (we really didnt sell many tickets, but he guaranteed an audience) and that he shouldnt be responsible for the two other bands bailing. we knew the 2 bands werent his fault but he refused to give any sort of apology or provide any kind of solace. then when we argued that he should be upset because we were the ones who brought him the money he said "i honestly dont need you guys to play. i have a bunch of other bands that sell hundreds of tickets and bring in thousands of dollars. you guys only brought in what, 300 dollars? im glad to have you guys play, but i dont need you to." the funny thing about this was that the two bands that were supposed to play after us were 2 out of that bunch of bands that brought in a thousand or so dollars, but since they didnt show the head guy wasnt going to see any of that money.

now i dont have a whole lot of management experience, but in business doesnt every dollar count? just because one sale is bigger than another doesnt mean the smaller sale doesnt count. anyways, that was my worst gig ever. the only good part of this experience was the sound check. we had a seasoned sound engineer who was very good, and each of us got our own monitor mix. i had never had my own custom monitor mix, so it was cool to be able to ask the guy to crank up the bass guitar in my monitor.

[rendezvous_drummer]

lol, I was there to watch the game as well, and did a good job of multitasking (even our guest conductor was watching the game in between cues), so yes, watching the game is understandable, but at least give some subconscious applause! Thats the first time I didn't play my best, and given the circumstances, i felt no need to do so. If I was getting paid or had been invited there, of course, or if the audience clapped or anything, but none of that was the case, I had been out working in the rain all morning, i was tired, i was mad, we were there out of the goodness of our band to auction itself for a fundraiser. The kicker though is that the swank hotel didn't provide us any decent refreshments during the break ;p - coca cola and cheese and crackers don't hold well for a band playing during a dinner lol. but we've got three more gigs coming up where the people in attendance are there by choice, andwe get money for two of them and the third is a jazz festival, so its all good. I am however now rooting of UF in the final four because OSU gave me a bad gig ;p

Yeah true man, but ye never know who will be in the audience. You'd be surprised man hahaha I've seen it.

[da cheese walks]

Da_Cheese_Walks, that's brutal man! Did the other band say why they didn't show up? And yea I played once with armrests on my chair. Needless to say I had a couple bruises.

I think they were gettin drunk in a field knowing those guys......!

[mikec]

A few years ago the band I was in scored to open for Los Lobos at the Casino Hollywood in San Felipe,NM. Early the morning of the gig we leave around 9am so that we can have some time to relax before the show which starts at 6:00pm. Well we are traveling in a van pulling a small trailor with all our gear. Well not even 20 minutes on the road and still in town the axel on the trailer breaks!!!!! So we are stuck in the middle of a four way stop with no where to go. Finally the police show up and ask whats up. Then the cop asks me well can we move the trailer off the road. So we unpack the trailer, and move all the equipment into the van, so now we have to go get our guitarist truck and split up the load. So by now its around 11:00am and we are only 4 hours from Albuquerque so we are still good...so we think... So now we have the truck and the van loaded up....we decide to split up so I go with our lead guitarist in his truck and a little less than half of our stuff. So we take off like bats out of you know where and are on the raod...finally you think.....Well about an hour into the trip my cell rings and its our singer/guitarist and he said that the vans light and I mean all lights were not working....Argggggg!!!! So he borrows a truck from a relative and they reload all the stuff into the truck then get on the road.....Meanwhile the lead guy and I are doing good on time so we stop to grab some burgers ....well then the phone rings again...its the singer/guitarist and he tell me that the truck which he borrowed was idleing really really hard...well then the engine just quit. So the truck is now dead, luckily then were near a small town which had to tow them to another town....Then our bassist who was married to the singer/guitarist calls her father and he goes to pick them up and drive them to the gig. Finally the lead guy and I get into Albuquerque and we are headed to the casino....Once at the casino I tell the guy who runs the place of all the trouble we had, he said' No prblem you still have some time' It was now around 4:30pm and time was starting to become a factor. I call the singer and his bass player wife and ask where they are and he said we are still 2 hours out.......Arghhhh...well luckily Los Lobos and their road manager were really cool and decided that they could delay the start of the show...I was blown away how cool everyone was.I even told the road mgr and the owner that they could just bypass us and start the show on time. Well they didnt...so finally around 7:00pm.....the rest of the band shows up and jumped from the vehical and righ onto the stage.....the place was packed and people were getting restless. Well we were able to do about 6 of the planned 12 tunes from our cd....The other cool thing was that I got to play the Los Lobos drummers DW kit....which made me forget about the whole horrible experience.


Mike

[Big_Philly]

A year or two ago I did a one-off gig in a band with just a piano, a bass, a singer and a drummer (duhh). The first half of it was extremely frustrating: we didn;t get enough practise so we weren't sure how often to repeat the chorus, which ended up in me stopping earlyer than the rest. That was embarassing.
In another song, I had the intro, I just started playing the groove I had in mind for the song, as we practised, but unfortunately slightly slower than we had practised it (not too slow though). The standard procedure is to either keep playing in that tempo, or slowly work up to the right one. The pianist, however, started playing in the original tempo, completely confusing the singer. Dude... horrible!
The second half went alright.

A few months ago i did a similar thing with another band. It was composed of: rhythm guitar, lead guitar, bass guitar, piano, trumpet, two flutes, two singers. I still need to find out who put that band together and punch them in the face, we could only rehearse about 4 times so we really didn't have the capacity to come up with something really cool in which all of the instruments could play an equal part.
The first two practise sessions were with my Roland being amped, so no problems there.
The last two rehearsals were with an acoustic drum kit on a stage. The kit was behind plexiglass, and I played at modest volume, but everyone kept blaming me for playing too loud, while using maybe 10 or 15% of their monitoring capacity. Of course I need to adjust to the situation in terms of volume, but that's a two-way lane: so do the others. Along with one of the singers, I was the only one with some considerable experience, so it was very frustrating. I got so frustrated at a point I just "forgot" to bring hot rods out of spite.
But the actual performance was awesome, we pretty much worked out the volume issue and gave a good show. The only criticism we got was about the singers: one of them just simply wasn't a good singer, and the other is great for a back-up vocal, but not as a lead singer due to the characteristics of her voice.

[rendezvous_drummer]

I think they were gettin drunk in a field knowing those guys......!

As wrong as it was, that's always fun. Getting drunk in a field of all places eh haha.

[fijjibo]

Well....

Seems like some of you guys have had a whale of a time....

lol.


I am prone to stick dropping at gigs, and I was once playing an outdoor festival, and I dropped about 30 sticks in a few hours. Ive got stick holders, so I can recover, so Its all good.

If I break a stick I can just chuck it up in the air of out into the crowd and get another....

*showmanship*

[Batera945]

this was doing the soundcheck before a gig... it was last sunday night and i was playing when my left drum stick bounced up after a rim shot and i grabbed it but at the same time moved my head foward with the beat and jabbed it in my eye! yeah not cooL! blood and tears everywhere! i had to wear an eye patch but now my eye is better! i can SEE! =) btw iT HURT!

[Muckster]

That's easy...

Our lead singer booked us to play a private party in a local hotel club. We played classic rock and opened for another band. Trouble was the band we opened for played hard core death metal and along with the crowd, was comprised of teen-agers (we were in our late 20's early 30's).

We were booed off stage.

I have also played my share of "chicken wire" gigs across the country, but with those gigs, i knew what i was getting into.

[thebrza]

1) At a Battle of the Bands, I smacked my finger on the rim of the snare and dislocated, so I played the rest of the gig with my stick being held only by my thumb and middle finger on my left hand.Gotta love how resilient we are... haven't done that, but I've certainly busted open a minor cut and conitnued to play as blood flies all over my snare head and jeans. Also played while forming a big blister (about the diameter of a dime, and at least the same thickness) on the inside of my left hand's index knuckle.

I played in a mediocre punk-inspired band that had technical problems at probably half the gigs, the worst of which was probably either the show in which the distortion pedal started to die, and that same guitar player (of 2) had been drinking and dropped his pick. He had a lot of trouble picking it up... Then, during the same show, the ride stand hadn't been tightly fastened and collapsed mid-song.

I've also played a show where my friend had to sit in front of the kick to keep it from moving around.

[BellsOfRhymney]

I've had at least a hundred worst gigs.

[dale w miller]

my metal band had a spot in a local band showcase called "socal rock revolution" in long beach. from the moment we signed up for this show i knew it was sketchy. the guy in charge made us sign a contract, but the terms were unclear. then he gave us our tickets to sell. the tickets had the wrong date on them and when we asked him about it he said "just cross out the date and write in the correct date". now, would you buy that ticket? didnt think so. we had to send in our bassist (tall, thin, but scary lookin dude) to get the right tickets.

whenever you are asked to sell tickets in the first place it usually is a shady situation. i walked into a situation like that when i first started out. my band and a friend's band walked in to a promoter's office to play this show at the Tower Theatre in Philly. it's a kid's dream to play that venue but it was way too big for any local band to be at. the promoter asked both bands to sell tickets. he had 8 bands with 100 tickets each and even if all of us sold everyone the place still wouldn't be half full.

my band walked from that situation but my friend's band did it. needless to say there were a few bands such as yourself that sold 6 tickets or so and the place was a ghost town. you would have been better off playing the dumpy Lion's Club or a friend's basement to a paced house then go through all that.

to top it off the promoter then didn't pay any of the bands because he didn't reach the minimum sold as via the contract.

[irish_steve]

Last Saturday I had a gig at Ladbroke Grove in London. I had been in the venue the night before, to see a few bands, and see exactly what I needed to bring. I was there until 1AM.

They had a new Sonor 505 kit with 2 cymbal stands, pedal, crappy cymbals.
I decided to bring my own snare, cymbals and pedal, as well as my usual spare parts set, hihat clutch, loads of felts, spare snare head. I don't drive, and this is about the max that I can carry.

I arrived at 7PM the next day to soundcheck. There was only 1 cymbal stand. One of the bands from the previous night that I watched had stolen the boom cymbal.

I did the gig with just 1 crash on my left, a little tighter than usual, so I could ride it easily as well. It was a real pain, and felt awkward in soundcheck, but I resolved to chill out and just see it as a lesson in minimalism. The gig went fine, nobody hardly noticed, shows how clued into the drummer audiences are!

Steve

[fourstringdrums]

I haven't played a gig since high school, and when I did, most of those shows were equally lousy, as we were :) I have two which I think tie each other:

1) Played a gig where my floor tom collapsed and the guys who fixed it put it back up about 6" higher than it needed to be. It was in the middle of a song where my main groove was on the floor tom. Needless to say even after they put it back up I still couldn't use it. My cheapo clutch kept slipping so for alot of songs I didn't have use of my hi-hat foot. Also my el cheapo bass drum pedal came disconnected from the bass drum mid song. The guitarist counted off the next tune despite my pleads of "stop! wait!" so I still couldn't fix it. I believe my crash stand may have fallen over as well, but that might have been another gig.

People telling you that the audience doesn't notice your mistakes doesn't apply when your kit is falling apart! *lol*

2) Played another gig with the same band in a local teen dive hangout. The area we had to play was so small that the singer kept backing into my drums. I had a really bad habit of dropping sticks at that time so I decided to wrap medical tape around the sticks. The friction from the tape on the inside of my index fingers gave me blisters and eventually they got worn off. So for the second half of the gig I was playing with raw bleeding index fingers against sandpaper like medical tape. Ouch.

Also the fact that at the time we didn't have alot of songs and we couldn't write songs that were longer than a minute and a half so within 15 minutes we were out of stuff to play. We had friends there who made us play this even more lousy old material. We only got tips on that gig. I got enough to buy a coke. *lol*

Oh...and there was another time we played the local CURLING CLUB! Woo...it actually wasn't a bad gig, just really lame.

[tezzerii]

Great stories!! How we suffer for our art - - -
I've had a few bad gigs, I think the best one to tell is years back when my band had a "roadie" - that is, a friend with a van. He was quite happy to load up for us, and I was quite happy to let him. We learn by our mistakes, hmmm??
"Everythin in mate?" - "Yep, all packed."
We get to the venue and I'm setting up - hey, where's the cymbal case?
No cymbals.
This is the best bit - the guitarist says to me, "You can manage without can't you?"
Whilst I am groping for a suitable reply through the double shock of no cymbals and no brain guitarist, the bassist shoots him down in flames.
Luckily, we're only about 35mins from home and we're early. We get back with the cymbals in time.
To play to five people.
And they're another band checking us out.
Happy days!! :oD

Tez

[Deathmetalconga]

i havent had too many gigs, but my last one was the worst so far.

my metal band had a spot in a local band showcase called "socal rock revolution" in long beach. from the moment we signed up for this show i knew it was sketchy. the guy in charge made us sign a contract, but the terms were unclear. then he gave us our tickets to sell. the tickets had the wrong date on them and when we asked him about it he said "just cross out the date and write in the correct date". now, would you buy that ticket? didnt think so. we had to send in our bassist (tall, thin, but scary lookin dude) to get the right tickets.

...

What a jerk. That sounds like it was some sort of scam.

My worst gigs were always played for charities. The organizers were always so captivated by the idea they could get bands to play for free that they would line up as many bands as possible in the shortest amount of time. The organizers had no concept of setup, takedown, sound checks, etc. So we'd be expected to play for 20 minutes or a half hour, then take our stuff off stage and go home. They wouldn't even feed us or thank us.

The best gigs are when I was getting paid $500 per person. You're treated like a king, thanked profusely and appreciated.

Go figure.

[aceman]

While playing in a Madi Gras parade in New orleans La. a few years ago tops my list of worst gigs. We were on a big float riding in the parade playing when the float drops off into a pot hole sending our bass player off the side and into the street. Right behind him went my ride cymbal and stand and my 16" floor tom! The cymbal stand ended up giving our bass player a minor concussion and my 16" ludwig vistalite floor tom was never seen again.

[Antman]

We played at a Peace Festival about 5-6 weeks back. We'd been informed it was a 20 min set, with drums supplied.

I used my own cymbals and snare, on this old busted Export. There were no felts or sleeves on any stands, the drums were tuned with masking tape and heavy blankets. Which was depressing because I offered the use of my kit to the organiser for the day, if he wished. (I know the organiser, and he's a very handy bloke to have owing you a favour).

When we got there it was cold, rainy and about 20 people were there. We saw the line-up board, and we were down for 45 min. Righto, we had enough material. The stage sound was terrible, nobody could hear the drums, and all of the amps/stacks were positioned about 3 foot in front of the kit facing forward. I had a wedge beside me, but the supposed mix, was useless to me.

After 45min they asked if we could stay for about 20 more minutes, we thought cool because all these people were turning up. We invited the band before us to join us on stage and have a jam. By this point there's easily over 100 people there. We started having fun and getting into it.

When we finished we got a very mild applause and left stage. The MC got up and announced that the schoolchildrens choir and percussion section will be on the stage in about 10 minutes. The crowd went nuts. We had a closer look, and they were all parents and grandparents, waiting for us to get off.

Not a tragic gig, but dissapointing no less.

[dale w miller]

While playing in a Madi Gras parade in New orleans La. a few years ago tops my list of worst gigs. We were on a big float riding in the parade playing when the float drops off into a pot hole sending our bass player off the side and into the street. Right behind him went my ride cymbal and stand and my 16" floor tom! The cymbal stand ended up giving our bass player a minor concussion and my 16" ludwig vistalite floor tom was never seen again.
wow, now that is bad.

[Bobr]

well, gotta feeling every gig is the worst. :-)

[mysweetnothing]

1 time a play a gig to the only the bands that a playing that night,

the other gig was terible some dj brings a 200watt pa and some sound engineer brings a 48 channel desk with a whole loud of crummy mics the sound egineer doesn't start doing anythin till about 10mins before doors open and its in this little place and he wants to double mic every thing crazy the bands told him where to stck and ended up vocal mics drum over heads cab miced and a bass drum miced we needed two guitar amps and a bass amp all we a had was 1 of our own a 15 watt marshall from some band and a 1x12 with a stero amp attached to it from someother band worst of all we had a cb kit and no monitors and about 25 people trurned up. and we had to put a pile of carpet tiles we found in front of the kit to stop it moving.

[Deathmetalconga]

We played at a Peace Festival about 5-6 weeks back. We'd been informed it was a 20 min set, with drums supplied.

I used my own cymbals and snare, on this old busted Export. There were no felts or sleeves on any stands, the drums were tuned with masking tape and heavy blankets. Which was depressing because I offered the use of my kit to the organiser for the day, if he wished. (I know the organiser, and he's a very handy bloke to have owing you a favour).

When we got there it was cold, rainy and about 20 people were there. We saw the line-up board, and we were down for 45 min. Righto, we had enough material. The stage sound was terrible, nobody could hear the drums, and all of the amps/stacks were positioned about 3 foot in front of the kit facing forward. I had a wedge beside me, but the supposed mix, was useless to me.

After 45min they asked if we could stay for about 20 more minutes, we thought cool because all these people were turning up. We invited the band before us to join us on stage and have a jam. By this point there's easily over 100 people there. We started having fun and getting into it.

When we finished we got a very mild applause and left stage. The MC got up and announced that the schoolchildrens choir and percussion section will be on the stage in about 10 minutes. The crowd went nuts. We had a closer look, and they were all parents and grandparents, waiting for us to get off.

Not a tragic gig, but dissapointing no less.


Let me guess. This was a charity gig and you did it for free.

[sandman]

Well, that would have to be at the local coffee shop, the guitars were not loud enough to where the audience could hear them. The drums over powered everything that was on the set..and I was happy though ;) for that is all they need to hear. ...Ahh..I wish, but anyway, we started and one of the guitar players looks over and goes "Can you hear that?" I scream no, and he tries to fix it..but to no avail..hah..at least the solo started after that..

[retroville]

wow..... theres been a few...

First was my first road gig ever. 5 days in Prince Albert Saskatchewan and the grand hotel. not a pretty place.. The stage was gig enough for 2 people, and we were a three place. it was fenced in like a corral, with wood, not chicken wire.. During the gig over the course of the week there was two stabbings in the bar, and we had to keep playing. And the owner was this little chinese guy who stood out front with a db meter, if we went over 90, he complained.. I talk louder than ninety..

the next.. 7000 people opening for Blue rodeo at the Calgary stampede a few years back. All the gear was provided by a solid backline company. we are first up and show up in the provided limo.. sweet treatment.. show up early. I help the techs set up the kit.. a nice tama starclassic. nice snare.. so i build the kit.. then open the cymbal pack.. pull out a ride... a splash... a set of hi hats.. I look.. thats it. no crashes.. my cymbal bag is 40 kilometers and 10000 people away.. no crashes.. the tech suggests taking crashes off of blue rodeos kit.. I say um no.. and play through the hour long set making things work.. it was kind of fun. and a learning experience..

oh yeah and one that involved 3 extra days at a hotel, running out of gas twice, showing up a day late. watching sparks fly from a trailer hitch hitting the ground, playing bluegrass in a rock bar.. being pulled over by the cops.. twice... ooh yeah.. classy.

[Johnny from the block]

We were told to play for some sort of fest of a store. Our spirit being any gig is an opportunity and the fact that we could open up for a famous local rockband made us do it. As we came in to store were stunned... for it was a winestore packed with expensive bottles of wine... The headline was going to play an acoustic set. There where no monitors or drumamps but our music still was way from appropriate for this event. The owner of the store kept telling us we had to play less loud, but just doesn't fit our music...(being some sort of combo of stonerrock and experimental). we were totally on the wrong place. On top of the max of people who entered the store during the whole event where about 100 people (including our friends and family). And they weren't intreseted the least bit in our music and didn't do the trouble to pretend either.

[kung_f00]

Well.. it wasn't necessarily a bad gig.. but a mighty embarrassing moment.

Right as I got up to my kit, I sat down and one of the legs to my throne gave out, sending me flat onto my back. I survived, and recovered within seconds but EVERYONE saw it happen. Luckily, one of the other bands' drummers helped me out by letting me trade out my broken Stagestar throne for his Pacific throne. The rest of the set went well, but in the middle of it, the guitarist for our band reminded the crowd about it, which was just as embarrassing.

[cjl71178]

The rest of the set went well, but in the middle of it, the guitarist for our band reminded the crowd about it, which was just as embarrassing.

I would've "accidentally" sent a stick flying to the guitarist's head for reminding the crowd about your mishap. LOL!

[That Guy]

First time every playing infront of people on an open mic night. This (father and son) team were at the bar and said they needed a drummer that could keep a steady rock beat. So, I offered my services.

The dad looked just like Alice Cooper and the son looked like something from the Suicidal Tendencies days. The whole time I was thinking... man, this is gonna be fun. I'm playing with Alice Cooper and Mike Muir... (look alikes).. lol. I was really excited, and they looked like they could jam.

1/2 hour later.. its our turn. We get up there and I open up with a standard easy rock beat to set the timing. The next thing I know... I'm nearly blown away becuase I hear and see what reminds me of Bill and Ted (yes, from the movies) playing and jumping around on stage. It sounded just as horrible. It was a mixture of Bill and Ted meets I don't know what. Right away I tried giving them hints that we need to stop, but they just kept going. It was a friggin nightmare. I eventually just stopped playing and got off the stage.

I have never been to an open-mic night since.