Worst Gig Experiences?

I played my first gig outside of school on Saturday.

//sigh

I stood in a shady back alley in the worst part of Edmonton surrounded by empty beer bottles, used syringes, porno magazines, a whole lot of kids smoking weed, and a guy threatening to arbitrarily pull a gun on us. I stayed in the van xD.

The kit I was playing on had its floor tom set lower than my knee, and I was given nearly no time to fix it. During the performance, my splash detached from its arm and fell on my toms. Nerves from all that made me miss an entire part of a song. Talk about dissapointment.

But its all a learning experience, that's for sure.

What are the worst places you've played?
Worst venue kits you've played?
Worst mistake you've made?
 
I have a couple.

1. Small dingy bar, sometime during the week. Two crackheads, some guy getting high with his two daughters, a guy in the corner, staring, and the bartenders.
I'm playing on an untuned japanese import set, all I had at the time, un-mic'ed. It's an old singer - eh - and the P.A. cuts out every minute. There are ten minute long delays between songs. It just end up sucking.

2. We play at a high school for "Earth Day". We have to lug all our stuff in through hallways and corridors, and set it all up on the stage in the caf. We had spent a couple hours the night before making cd's, and we had t's to sell to make coin. Our name was all over the school, people apparently were pumped, and it was going to be all good.
The school's only mic crapped out instantly and fed back like a mofo, and people started leaving. The sound guys couldn't do anything and it stayed shitty, even though we were playing 100% on and tight, focusing so hard. Eventually all but ten or so people were gone, we gave up and sulked out. I'm supposed to go to that school next year.. dang.
 
Man there's so many!!!
Remember one night being soooo late that in the panic my tech put my cymbals on the wrong stands.... you should've heard the state it got me in!!!!!
 
Worst venue was an uneven floor where my bass-drum pedal got stuck; the beater was against the head and would not move. Of course, this happened in the song where i needed it most.

Worst gig overall was at a wedding in church. The gig went alright but the band was put together for the occasion, and in these bands you never know what you're gonna get. Most were inexperienced musicians who were completely new to playing in a band and did not bring hearing protection. That always pisses me off. the only one with a bunch of experience was the bass player, but he was more experienced as a drummer. He is a good drummer but kept on criticising my playing style, imposing his style on me.
I took it during rehearsals but at the gig I just did whatever I felt was best. Not very professional, I know, but it felt good :D
I remember we had dinner before the gig started. Most people were slightly nervous and didn't eat much. I was completely indifferent and ate all I could (french fries and hamburgers). At that point I realized I was not the least bit excited about playing there that day.
I have been in more bands like this, people who just don't seem to understand that a band is loud and you need hearing protection.

It's not a gig, but I have one pupil that consistently cancels lessons, I generally have to call him in advance to make sure the lesson is still on. I am no longer planning his lessons in advance, he'll call me when he wants a lesson and we'll make up a time and place on the spot. I think.
 
I don't know if I'd say it was my worst experience but... when I was playing with a band, during the first song my first crash flew off of the stand and landed flat on the floor in front of the guitar player. He just turned around and looked at me like I threw it him or something and just kept on playing. After throwing a few sticks at one of our helpers he came up and put it back on. Turns out the T bolt was stripped. Luckily I had some spares. No damage to the cymbal BTW..
 
We were playing a wedding gig back in the 80s and some drunk chick got up to sing, half way through the song she puked all over my kit
 
Not many bad experiences but I had a gig at a church once last October. The Minister of Music put this jazz quartet together to play one song. English composer John Rutter's arrangement of "When the Saints Go Marching In". I did it as a favor for a good friend at work who is a piano player and organist. All around great musician, so I thought "why not." I got the music and CD and began to practice. We rehearsed with a full 40 member choir and it sounded great. (There were some really nice looking chicks in that choir, so I thought I may be able to get a few phone numbers....) That Sunday of the service I got my drums half way set up and had to wait until a good time to set the rest up. I was told I'd have 5 to 10 minutes to finish. Nope! Turns out I barely had time to set up my ride cymbal and 1 crash. And we started. It came off great and I got all kinds of compliments and was invited to join their jazz band but I had prior commitments, but talk about RUSH, RUSH, RUSH. I barely had time to sit my butt on the throne before the number began! But I got taken out to a nice restaurant for lunch and all kinds of compliemts, so it was all good. I never got any chick's phone number though....
 
Wow that does sound sucky Mike lol. I've had a few. I think i've had about 2 instances where i have put my foot through the bass drum. I remember one gig i did, the band before us had played their set and i got all set up to go on. First song, the crash fell off the stand onto my snare drum so i quickly threw it off and managed not to miss a beat i think. On the third song i realised that my other crash wasn't moving when i hit it (oh dear) it had gotten wedged onto the stand as there was no rubber or foam underneath it to stop it so my cymbal ended up splitting at the edge. The drum kit turned out to be the singers not the drummers and they had no idea how to set it up. All of the cymbal stands were loose and not tightened and the bass drum spurs weren't set properly so when i was hitting the bass drum with my double pedal, it was moving across the floor. I just wanted to quit and run for it. I ended up setting up the kit properly mid set lol and i could swear that was the same gig that i put my stick through my snare drum and had to ask embarrassingly to use the singers snare drum. It was disastrous to say the least. I hope i don't have any more as bad as that.
 
My worst experiance must be when i was doinga gig at the local jazz club and i had a big headach before the gig so i drunk lots of water....... so half way during the second set i really needed a wee ! it was in front of loads of people so i tryed to act kool but it came to the point were i was going out of time because i was soo uncomfortable.
So infront of a big crowd of family, friends, paying punters etc i had to stop the set and go to the toilet!
So i will never ever drink water before a gig again !!

At least i learnt a lesson haha
 
these are hilarious. the puking-on-kit is especially comical, and I imagine would have been funny yet very not funny at all when it happened.

I'm reminded of other bad times at shows...

another high school, no drum carpet, and my Slingerland bass drums spurs had no rubber tips. My entire kit was litterally sliding away from me in all directions. my hi-hat stand would grow increasingly distant, and the cymbal stands moved when my bass kikck drum. when my kick was completely beyond reach I'd attempt to grab it and slide it back 3 feet or so to start the whole process over again. at one point I put my medium sized monitor in front of the kick, which did nothing. I then had to sing half the next song with no monitor. after flailing signals to my grinning and unaware bassist and the 14 year old soundguys, they came out and jammed a mat under the front, which basically held solid for the last 2 songs we played. the set was actually ok, just seemed like chaotic shizz from my end.

my current post-punk/experimental/pop band The Estatics played a youth group hall with 9 metal/hardcore bands and about 60 people in the audience billed as "The Elastics".
right before our set our bassist said "we are not metal."
8 people watched our set.
 
my current post-punk/experimental/pop band The Estatics played a youth group hall with 9 metal/hardcore bands and about 60 people in the audience billed as "The Elastics".
right before our set our bassist said "we are not metal."
8 people watched our set.
That is hilarious because i have seen it happen in which a thrash metal band was playing and get a good response lots of people up watching them and rocking out and the next band came on and said "Are you ready for a bit of indie now??" Floor Emptys!!

My worst experiance must be when i was doinga gig at the local jazz club and i had a big headach before the gig so i drunk lots of water....... so half way during the second set i really needed a wee ! it was in front of loads of people so i tryed to act kool but it came to the point were i was going out of time because i was soo uncomfortable.
So infront of a big crowd of family, friends, paying punters etc i had to stop the set and go to the toilet!
So i will never ever drink water before a gig again !!

At least i learnt a lesson haha
I remember reading in Rhythym (spelling) magazine Gene hoglan asked about his worst gig experience and he told of a time when he had a stomach bug and went through the set trying not to vomit or poo. along come some big fill and he poos himself mid way through it
 
I remember my school went to preform at the ronald mcdonald house. Ya sounds like fun right? But we didnt even pack our drumset and alot of other percussion toys. I even told our conductor that they had a drum set in the next room for the kids to play on but he said we weren't going to use it. All of our songs sounded horrible because we didnt have the proper equipment. Plus we were cramped way in the back with like 2 feet between us and the wall.
 
Too many to mention........

One springs to mind though. In a covers band, guitarist was so drunk he was reading set two and we were on set one!!!

He'd do Sweet Child of Mine guitar to Where The Streets have no name for example.

One song the singer was like what the flip was that? We were playing Weather With You by Crowded House, guitarist said Oh I thought you said were doing Smoke On the water

Looking back now I can laugh but man were we awful............wasn't all bad, after the gig he had a huge row and threw his guitar across the bar, people thought it was part of the show............best cheer we got all night!!!

Another I had a smoke from a kiwi guy during our break............big mistake, I had no definition of time, not rhythm, actual time..........30 seconds felt like 30 minutes

We started 'Vertigo' the singer just came into sing when I did some insane Kiss song ending drum fill and ended the song........everyone looked at me like what the hell.......25 seconds version of Vertigo!!!

Kids don't do drugs.........it's not big and it's not clever........

I'll be here all night, now

One other.......bass player had a hook stand under his ampeg head, so he could hang his bass from it, looked pretty cool........

One gig he turned up plastered drunk, he'd been at a wake all day........he was so drunk he couldn't stand up, let alone play.........

he fell back into his ampeg, being a big rig it didn't budge.......he'd hit the odd note now and then with his head down........

we ended the set walked off.........all got together at the bar to go beast at the bass player

he was still up on stage, hanging like a rag doll against his ampeg. His guitar stand on his ampeg head hooked under the collar of his jacket. During the gig he'd passed out and the hook was holding him up.......

gospel all true stories.........I should write a book

one quick one to finish.........the same bass player we were playing in Germany.......against he was blind drunk, I wont name him for legal reasons. We stopped for something to eat at a Kebab house.

We got back in the van, he was in the kebab place having a fight with a local.......he gets back in the van with his Kebab........he's looking like the hunchback of Notre Dame with his black eye swelling up, and a huge hunch sticking from his shoulder.......

we turned the light on he had a huge knife sticking out of his shoulder, he'd been stabbed in the fight and didn't even realise......he casually put his jacket back on and got in the van..........man how drunk was he ha ha.......

I should copyright this stuff........
 
I suppose I've never really had a horrible gig. I've had only one "paid practice" in 7 years, and the two gigs I thought were going to be horrible ended up being decent. The "paid practice" was at an on-campus venue on a Thursday night. The opening band drove off nearly the entire crowd. But hey, the sound crew loved us!

The bassist booked a show without ever seeing the venue. We showed up and it was in a small house's unfinished basement. There weren't even lights down there. We immediately huddled up and had pretty much decided we did NOT want to play this place...but we did drive out there, so we ended up deciding to play. Well, I had to hastily convert an 18" floor tom to a bass drum, because a 22x18" bass drum would not fit down the stairs. We got set up, and people started just pouring in. There was hardly space to move your arms from your sides in the crowd. I can only describe the atmosphere during our set as....complete chaos. The exposed pipes were dripping with condensation. We left with an empty merch bin. It went much better than any of us expected.
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We had stopped playing because I had no drums for about a year. Once I got hold of some, we practiced a ton for 4 months and then played a show. We had invited everyone we knew to this show at a little bar, and we had a very good band opening for us....so again, the place was packed. The other band's drummer was nice enough to offer the use of his Pearl Masters MCX...much better than the beat up tama's I was borrowing. (there was a hole in the bass drum shell, patched with tape.)

Now, the problem here came when we started playing our set. Free shots came our way frequently, and I drank without thinking about it. Between the heat, the physical exertion, and the constant mystery drinks coming my way...I suddenly felt not so great. I thought my playing was suffering horribly. Everything felt 1000 times harder to play. Then the guitarist broke a string...which is when I play some filler. Usually some pretty complex DnB grooves and a bit of flashy stuff. Well, the drummer of the other band hops on stage, and we bust out a completely improvised duet type thing with me handling the right side of the kit and the footwork, and him on the left side. It was right then that it hit me:

"Oh no. I'm drunk. This is going to be horrible. I probably sounded horrible already. [insert long chain of inner monologue expletives here]"

It seemed like the string change took ages, and the entire time I felt like the other band's drummer was just carrying me and my unresponsive limbs.

But, I played on and kept hammering it out. Afterward, I thought I played horrible, and didn't even want to watch the video of it the next weekend. Turns out my timing was just fine, and though my dynamics were limited to ff and "my ears are bleeding" the video sounded pretty good.

I suppose for that night and following week, I thought that was my worst gig experience. Turns out it went great, but the feeling I had while playing it kind of ruined it for me.
 
Here's another one that happened just today...

(Mind you, actually, its not the "worst gig" experience, per se, but worth mentioning...

So, our keyboardist had his $3000 Roland set up on the stage at the Shaw Conference Center, which is a very big and reputable venue (it was for a high school graduation.) It was set on one of those portable stages that are made up of a number of risers. One of them was uneven, and the guys there said they would fix it. However, not thinking whatsoever, they started lifting that riser with the keyboard fully set up on top of it. It tipped over, went CRASHING down on the stage, pieces flying everywhere, and thanks to the momentum was sent hurtling one more fall off the stage to the hard floor.

Completely busted, I'd say irreparable.

The manager tried weaseling his way out of compensating us. It went from "paying for a rental and buying a new one," to just "paying for the rental." Well, fortunately, through some persuasion and a threatening call to his parents, my keyboardist managed to get the same model, nearly brand new (he kept the rental), with a 3 month warranty as well.

R.I.P. Roland Phantom..
 
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