Your last gig

I'm pretty sure that while you're playing your last gig, you have no idea it's going to be your last gig...unless your psychic and/or you have an evil plan. Why would you want to think about that anyway?
 
The last gig we played was Friday night January 8th at a faily new "family owned" Sports Bar. It was one of these places where the kids and aunts and uncles help out. Mom and older sister work the bar (by the way, the older sister was hot, hot, hot), younger sister waits tables, cleans up, ect. Dad and Uncle play in the house band every Saturday. They actually sound pretty good if you like electronic Pacific Rim pop music. The cousins work the sound system, work the kitchen, etc. They have a tall, lanky kid as bouncer.

They have a killer PA system. The stage was sorta small, but we made it work. The deal was 15% of bar receipts from 9 pm to 1 am or whenever we decided to quit. We had 3 hours of material worked up. We sorta cheated and got another band to open for us and play for about 1 hour. They were a great, layed-back solid blues band just getting started so they decided to open for us and as a favor to our bass player as it was his birthday.

It was a mixed bag of regulars and our people from both bands. We used some of the same equipment. I let the drummer use my kit and he was very respectful and didn't chance much around. I had a chance to watch him and learned some things, so it was good.

We played all three sets which involved mostly Texas rock and Texas Boogie - Country, plus some originals.

At the end of the night, the band made some good money, so it was good! The weather sucked and it was on a Friday, but it was a good gig. We'll get to play there again.
 
My last gig was about 3 months ago. It was a biker coffee shop called Full Throttle and we had to play outside from 7-9 in 45 degree weather. There were about 50 biker dudes there ... real ones, not those yuppie doctors and lawyers that ride overpriced custom bikes on the weekends. Hard to tell if the enjoyed the show or not because all they did was stand there with their arms crossed with sunglasses on at night. Our A-hole bass player set this one up. He's a marketing salesman for Comcast and he was just kissing butt for the coffee shop owners to try and get a contract on some radio and commercial advertising. Whatever ... lesson learned. Bass player is out of the band. Good riddens to that Axl Rose SOB high maintenance pretty boy vegetarian freak. We just got a new bass player on board and writting some good original stuff now. Rule #1 ... no more coffee shop gigs.

Look at me ... I'm so cool !! I have no sense of rythem or timing but I sure look hot with my bass guitar ah ha ha ... buh bye sucker!
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Mine was a jazz trio recording last week for a local market chain that needed original music for an upcoming video marketing campaign.
 
Our band played a show Saturday at our favorite little dive bar that caters to mostly garage/hillbilly-punk/metal bands and the people who love them.

You can't smoke inside at any establishment in Washington anymore, so they've set up an enclosed area for the drinking smokers outside and there's a basketball hoop out there, too.

It was really fun shooting hoops through most of the first band's set. Then we played our set, and it was pretty fun; no body was too trashed to play (it's been an issue). Then it was back to shooting hoops for the rest of the night. Actually, we watched most of the last band's set because they're friends of ours and play some pretty insane stuff.

It was a good time. Not sure if we got paid or not...
 
Our last gig was in fact our last gig together.We had a pretty good band while it lasted The lead guitar player just got tired of it after a lot of years of playing. We are all good friends.
We couldn't have picked a better gig. It was for "special needs" folks.
They danced from song #1 right to the last one. They have no hang ups about getting up and having a good time. It was great. I won't forget it.
 
One of the worst gigs in recent memory last night.

We were playing for the grand re-opening of a venue inside a casino. The room was awesome looking, and they had top of the line sound gear BUT NO SOUND MAN! A guy who we decided must've been a janitor said he was doing sound, but had no clue what he was doing. Normally at casino gigs we get there, set up our gear and let the sound man do his thing, sound check, then hit.

Well we had to request mics, cords AND a sound check. I started to mic my own kit, but then I just decided "screw-em" and went to the bar and waited for the guy to figure out that he was supposed to do this for me. Nothing worked like it was supposed to and at one point all the vocal mics cut out. I told the guys we should just take a set break. I went up to the guy and asked what happened to the vocals. He said "yeah it sounded a lot better". I told him there was nothing coming out of the monitors at all. Sigh... These are just a few of the "highlights" of the night. We ended early and told them not to book us again unless they had some idea of what was going on. It was seriously horrible and it was supposed to be their big "re-opening". At least I won an extra $200 at the blackjack table during set break.
 
Last saturday...Club Relevant, Virginia Beach, VA. Our local bounce house for us. It's small...but at least it isn't a coffee bar...lol. We usually get tagged to be in there for tour package support. This time, Between the Trees and Rookie of the Year rolling through with Action Item. For having played the same place like 7 times in the last 14 months, our draw was good (200+).

Its become like our testing ground for new songs in a live setting. That and we can mess around with the short-set song lists to see how they unfold.

Everyone playted well, sold some merch, made some fans, notched another couple adds to the online friends...
 
In the last week, I played 4 gigs with 4 bands:

Good Life Band, Red Car Brewery, Torrance. Ecclectic pop (a term I had to come up with when a confused patron asked exactly what kind of music we were playing!) Rhumbas, rock, calaypso, bossa novas, ska, straight ballads... ecclectic indeed!

Rip Masters, Joe's Great American Bar & Grill, Burbank. Roots rock, country, rockabilly. I've worked with him since 1981.

Karling Abbeygate, the Pike Bar & Grill, Long Beach (owned by the ex-Social Distortion drummer who apparently kept his money!) A Brit with a penchant for old country and Americana. Lots of uptempo country swing and shuffles. I started working with her in early 2009.

Thursday I hosted at the Crest Jam, Torrance, with Brian Sisson, a jazzy/rock guitarist who may play Zappa, Miles Davis, Caravan (without the drum solo,) I Got You Babe, Mr. Soul inna ska style, You Gotta Fight For Your Right To Party as a swingy, sneaky-blues shuffle, Harlem Nocturne... I absolutely never know what to expect. But there's also no pressure to get everything/anything exactly the way he wants it, because he's having the most fun of all. As a result, it turns out sounding great... mostly.

Also rehearsed with Idle Hands, an electric blues & rock band I joined in 2005.

It's nice to be busy and have some variety, too.

I also work with:

Rough Cut, a tribute to Neil Diamond. Don't laugh, this is actually great fun and the band - 10 members in all - is quite great. The singer sings like Neil and bears a strong resemblance. We also perform the studio versions of Diamond's hits, which makes us somewhat unique among the other acts out there. We're still in the forming stages with only 2 gigs under our belt, and shooting for the showrooms at the local casinos and maybe Vegas.

Rolling Clones/Silver Beat, sixties/seventies cover band. It's fun playing Animals, Herman's Hermits, Three Dog Night, Monkees, Beatles, Stones, etc. I love getting paid to play music I love!

And I get calls to play with a handful of other bands playing classic rock & pop, instrumentals with a bit of Hawaiian, blues, etc. And of course my primary gig with Al involves playing a lot of styles at the theater-shed level.

Bermuda
 
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Thanks everyone for contrubuting. This is the kind of thread that can live indefinitely, because it's really illuminating to hear what kind of gigs are being played from all over the world. Fascinating.

Last night I had a (very miniature, 75 people) concert type gig played in a great room of a big old victorian house that is used as school that furthers the arts. All eyes were on us. Totally different feeling from playing bars. I liked it, yea.
 
In the last week, I played 4 gigs with 4 bands:

Good Life Band, Red Car Brewery, Torrance. Ecclectic pop (a term I had to come up with when a confused patron asked exactly what kind of music we were playing!) Rhumbas, rock, calaypso, bossa novas, ska, straight ballads... ecclectic indeed!

Rip Masters, Joe's Great American Bar & Grill, Burbank. Roots rock, country, rockabilly. I've worked with him since 1981.

Karling Abbeygate, the Pike Bar & Grill (owned by the ex-Social Distortion drummer who apparently kept his money!) A Brit with a penchant for old country and Americana. Lots of uptempo country swing and shuffles. I started working with her in early 2009.

Thursday I hosted at the Crest Jam, Torance, with Brian Sisson, a jazzy/rock guitarist who may play Zappa, Miles Davis, Caravan (without the drum solo,) I Got You Babe, Mr. Soul inna ska style, You Gotta Fight For Your Right To Party as a swingy, sneaky-blues shuffle. I absolutely never know what to expect, but there's also no pressure to get everything/anything exactly the way he wants it, because he's having the most fun of all. As a result, it turns out sounding great... mostly.

Also rehearsed with Idle Hands, an electric blues & rock band I joined in 2005.

It's nice to be busy and have some variety, too.

I also work with:

Rough Cut, a tribute to Neil Diamond. Don't laugh, this is actually great fun and the band - 10 members in all - is quite great. The singer sings like Neil and bears a strong resemblance. We also perform the studio versions of Diamond's hits, which makes us somewhat unique among the other acts out there. We're still in the forming stages with only 2 gigs under our belt, and shooting for the showrooms at the local casinos and maybe Vegas.

Rolling Clones/Silver Beat, sixties/seventies cover band. It's fun playing Animals, Herman's Hermits, Three Dog Night, Monkees, Beatles, Stones, etc. I love getting paid to play music I love!

And I get calls to play with a handful of other bands playing classic rock & pop, instrumentals with a bit of Hawaiian, blues, etc. And of course my primary gig with Al involves playing a lot of styles at the theater-shed level.

Bermuda

Wow man. That is enviable. You deserve to make great money, I hope you're getting it.
 
Last night we played a private gathering, and made 8 bills for what turned out to be one 1 1/2 hour set (split 5 ways, old school R&B, funky soul, and originals) I love private parties! There might have been twenty people left midwy through, but to me, what happens off the stage is irrelevant. As long as you are giving it your all, everything else will sort itself out. Sure, it's easier when you are getting a lot of energy back from the crowd, but if you need that to play well, you'll be hurtin.' More importantly it was my first night w/my Audix 5 piece mic kit and my Soundcraft board, which I use to submix the drums. I actually use iso headphones. I can now hear my playing; it is so liberating! Once my two channel headphone amp comes, I can run a line from the main board (vox only), and my board, mixed any way I want! That will be heaven! Hopefully this will continue to protect my hearing. Say what?
 
Our last gig was at a place the size of a postage stamp. We usually play in bigger bars and clubs in Northern California, and we were told that this place was always packed and had a great sound system.

We got there and the place was small and the sound system had a whopping 4 channel mixer, 2 mains and 1 monitor. We ended up getting our own PA and bringing it in.

The place was full, which consisted of about 70 people, and we had a good time once we got past how small the place was. We made $500 for the night and played a 3 hour show, so all in all not too bad.

Next weekend we are playing in a 5 band fund raiser for Haiti. We will play for an hour and a half to what we hope will be a good crowd. Should be fun.
 
Last gig was with a guitarist friend at a coffeeshop. The gig was his, and I texted him an hour before anked if he wanted me to play cajon, he said sure. I've played with him a few times, so I know some of his originals but never on cajon. We played about half originals half covers, including "Over My Head" by the Fray, "Breakfast at Tiffany's" by Deep Blue Something, "Walking in Memphis" by Marc Cohn, and even "Sweet Dreams are Made of These" by the Eurythmics. About 2 and a half hours. He made $87 dollars in tips/merch sales, and I had a great time jamming and hanging out.
 
My last gig was two weeks ago tonight. My band played, but it was acoustic only open-mic, so I needed to play guitar instead of drums.
It went well, but our singer/bassist kind of scammed us (most likely, knowing him, unintentionally) as he was the "featured artist" (they play 6 songs rather than 3 like everyone else) for his solo material. Originally, he was gonna ask me and our guitarist up to accompany him on his last three songs, but then he found out that we could be separate sets, so he would get his 6 songs PLUS the three as a band. Well, he didn't tell us that the featured artist actually got paid, so he made out with $110 and me and our guitarist got nothin' :p

Still a good gig, and the people who run the open mic night posted the vids for two of our songs on YouTube, though I won't spam the links here as it's nothing special. Next time I'm gonna make sure that our singer doesn't do this again though.
 
Last gig was @ The Melting Point here in Athens, GA. The band Lionz opened for us, and it was a packed house! Also this was the first time I tried the stick grip product, Gorilla Snot. That stuff rocks! Ok I am starting to sound like a commercial, time to end here!
 
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