Rev Jules Veteran Member Posts:1041  
| 8/27/2004 10:25 AM |
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Here is one for the musicians amoungst us.
What is the worst gig you ever played ?
Please describe in bone shuddering detail.  |
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El Duderino Basic Member Posts:179
| 8/27/2004 10:32 AM |
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Dunno if I'd call it a gig but the first time I played infront of a big audience was a school variety show. The pickup in my guitar was well s**t but I started playing anyway. I thought it sounded very quiet but being the consumate professional I am I kept on playing. Half way through my first song the amp and mic came on. It completely threw me and I basically ended up making a complete balls of my set. Still, at least it wasn't my fault....much. Come to think of it, all my early experiences of playing to audiences were cringe worthy. What was yours Jules?
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Dromed Advanced Member Posts:900
| 8/27/2004 2:34 PM |
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Was playing a gig in Eamonn Dorans once with my old band and our keybord player knocked the promo button on his keybord on by accident - you know the in-built sample of s**tty music that keybords come with, like yankee Doodle or something crap...well it came on full blast over what we were doing, in the middle of a really quiet part of the song and he couldn't get the thing off for about 20 seconds, so in a panic just pulled the lead out the back of the keybord while the rest of us just stopped playing in shock....i feel sick just thinking about it, the funny thing is we were filming the gig and have it on video, it was hilarious to watch but painfully embarrassing.
Played Witnness last year on an open stage and we couldn't hear a thing - I mean nothing - so we all fell out of time with each other and had to just guess what was going on, such a horrible feeling, came off stage in the horrors. Suffice to say it was one of the last gigs we did together.
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Nick The Greek New Member Posts:21
| 8/27/2004 2:58 PM |
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I was playing with a band about 10 years ago in an old venue in Waterford called the Roxy which has since been knocked down, when one of the bouncers came on stage in the middle of our first song. He walked straight up to our bass player, grabbed the bass from him and proceeded to throw him out. Luckily we were only doing a 20 minute support slot, and managed to struggle on without him. We discovered afterwards that he had been thrown out a week earlier for taking speed in the toilets and was no longer welcome to frequent the establishment. We absolutely sh*t ourselves at the time, being only about 18, but its bloody hilarious now.
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BinokularVeteran Member Posts:1665
| 8/27/2004 2:59 PM |
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Dromed, If its any consolation, New Order were infamous for those kind of technical hitches.
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Rev JulesVeteran Member Posts:1041
| 8/27/2004 3:15 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by El Duderino
What was yours Jules?
Don't worry Dude. When the votes are in, I'll tell you a story of such unremitting horror it will bend the plectrums in your wallets.
Back over to y'all. |
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kierryBasic Member Posts:244
| 8/29/2004 9:58 PM |
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our ex guitarist got pissed, turned up to the gig in a league of ireland jersey, took it off mid set to reveal his flabby belly and threw his guitar in the air mid song, breaking it.
dear jesus.
nice chap though...
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BinokularVeteran Member Posts:1665
| 9/17/2004 11:53 AM |
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Jules, you never did tell us that story of unremitting horror, no backing out of it now.. |
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mutchBasic Member Posts:392
| 9/17/2004 12:19 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by Nick The Greek
I was playing with a band about 10 years ago in an old venue in Waterford called the Roxy ....
ah the memories of that place, the bock putting whiskey under his arms to get it into his system quicker, the becks for 1.50, the flies coming out of said bottles, the pool tablem the p0rn on tv...then someone took down the the load bearing poster in the hallway and it collapsed, burying that smell with it. temporarily. |
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| 9/17/2004 1:09 PM |
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One of the worst definitely was HWCH2.Lots of reasons which I won't go in to now. No excuses. I am playing in The Spiegel tent on the 26th. Hopefully , it will be better.Nina Hynes.
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ArchieBasic Member Posts:458
| 9/18/2004 12:38 PM |
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Come on Rev, we all wanna know now...
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OptimusBasic Member Posts:312
| 9/18/2004 2:53 PM |
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I remember playing a gig at the Temple Bar Music Centre once and this one bloke stood in front of me for ages just screaming other bands names at me like MotherLoveBone and Husker Du.
I didnt quite understand what he was getting at and every time we finished a song we'd try to talk the audience, like you do. This guy would scream even louder. I asked him what he wanted. He was making a request for a song. What in the hell was he on?
Anyway, halfway through a song my bass cut out and when I looked down I saw that he'd reached out and pulled the lead from the jack. Needless to say I was not impressed.
Got another one. A friend of mine once played a gig in the west of Ireland to 2 people, a bar person and a blind dog. Beat that.
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| 9/19/2004 12:18 AM |
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Used to be in a band years ago when I was younger and in the middle of one of our songs this crazy fight broke out on the floor between two girls. Hair pulling and bloody noses and tears and everything......
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| 9/19/2004 12:20 AM |
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...... oh yeah, forgot to mention, one of the scrappers was my girlfriend at the time. And that I was egging them on until I realised. Couldn't see with the lights!
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Rev JulesVeteran Member Posts:1041
| 9/20/2004 7:09 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by Binokular
Jules, you never did tell us that story of unremitting horror, no backing out of it now..
Come gather round friends and I'll tell ye a tale (with names changed and certain details removed to protect the innocent)...
A while back I got a call, from a guy who I owed a favour to, asking me whether I would be part of a line up for a charity gig he was organising for a well known Irish charity. Without asking what was involved, since this was payback time, I said, "Sure. Name the time and the place".
Well, the time turned out to be during the middle of the day and the place turned out to be a shopping centre in a less than well off part of this country.
I arrived on the day in question to find a band of unrefined sonic vigour thrashing out a brand of punk rock which was akin to listening to a gun battle in Faluja. They were standing on a makeshift stage at the front of which stood a crowd of kids in hoodies who were getting great fun from altering the height of the lead singer/guitarists microphone with the result that he kept on having to adjust his position, through stooping down or streching up in order to keep singing within earshot of the mike. All the while, hundreds of adults and kids were walking backwards and forwards on the tiled floor of the shopping centre and many of them were talking at a very high volume. The sound they produced was also amplified by the concrete walls and tiled pavement of the building. The result was that the punk band were finding it hard to be heard despite the powerful PA which they had cranked up to the limit.
I stood there watching this with my acoustic guitar in hand and I realised that I should have asked a few questions before signing my life away.
Anyway, there was a break for lunch then yours truly was in the firing line.
I got back to the stage only to discover that their sound desk didn't have a cable or a cable link to connect in the DI on my guitar nor did the desk have a plug to accept my standard jack lead.
Kids were also jumping on and off the stage asking if they could sing into the mike or have a go at playing my guitar or whatever. There was no monitor speakers, there were no cans to hear myself through. Nothing. They miked my guitar by putting a directional in front of it and before I kicked off I paused to listen to the 'room ambience' (like it mattered) and what I did hear was a roar of noise coming from the people milling around etc. When I started to play, I couldn't hear myself at all and this did not change for my four song set. I was literally unable to hear myself sing or play at all. The kids were also getting stroppy with the sound guy and were still jumping on the stage to wave at their mates. When one of them tried to go for my mike, the shopping centre's security guard came out of nowhere, pushed the fella away and stood at the front of the stage between me and the audience. It was like just that scene in the redneck bar in the Blues Brothers where the boys play on a stage which is protected by chicken wire. All I could see for my entire set was the back of this massive security guard.
They say the path to hell is paved with good intentions.
They are right. 
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BinokularVeteran Member Posts:1665
| 9/21/2004 11:00 AM |
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hahaha, woo! That was pure class Jules, well worth the wait, a gruesome tale of epic B-Movie horror! Rock and Roll tales from Suburban Shopping Hell! You must have felt like you were in George Romeros "Dawn of the Dead" |
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GarVeteran Member Posts:1676
| 9/21/2004 11:10 AM |
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Quality stuff Jules.
Who is to blame though in this case? The fella who set up the gig? The security guard for waiting so long before sorting the hyper kids out? The terrible sound guy?
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