Got any (working band) war stories?

[johnallg]

would you all like to borrow my band diaries from 1974 to 2003 and sift thru them ???

Why not pick your best one and type it up right here?

Because this is a family-friendly forum.

[BAD RONBO, KiLLeR DWaRfS]

and bands are not a "family-for-the-moment" ???

[idealassets]

Because this is a family-friendly forum

Duh? Say on bro.

[sloop_john_b]

Because this is a family-friendly forum

Duh? Say on bro.

No, really - 'tis.

[cassius987]

There are plenty I can think of but to me, the funniest one is from my first gig when I was 16. I had been picked up by a local metal band (apparently I replaced a 30-year old, the other band members were 30-40, so I was a bit out of place) and our first show was opening up for the semi-famous hard rock band Saliva at a popular dive bar with a big stage. A camera crew from one of the TV stations (I think it was "the CW" or whatever UPN is called) came out to interview them and also took some time to talk to a couple of us. When I was asked "Are you excited to be opening for Saliva?" I replied, "What! Saliva sucks!!" I had not been told who we were playing with at that point, I was just excited to have my first gig. Their guitarist heard me but rightly ignored a dumb teenager (who was I to judge their success?). I highly doubt the TV station ever aired what I had to say. My bandmates were strangely forgiving of my blunder.

Also strangely enough those guys were actually sad to lose me when I quit to focus on college, my music scholarship, and keeping a part time job... Looking back I don't know why they wanted a teenager around.

[idealassets]

I was in a band that played Lou Reed, the Stones, and Rod Stewart; material I was not wild about. But steady money was coming in. After burning through a few lead singers, the other band members thought they had found "the one", but he had no prior experience in a working band.

For his debut engagement we had spotlights, flashing lights, sirens, and other effects for his debut with the band. As the evening progressed, his front man antics had worn thin; his Mic Jagger/ Rod Stewart antics had him missing the beat on a few leaps into the air, and dropping the mic stand whilst leaning into it.

I soon saw a flying object enter into a spotlight beam. It was a long-neck beer bottle- flying his way with an end to end spin on it. As he continued to dance about, he inadvertently dodged the beer bottle; only for it to then come heading directly at me.

Don't ask me how I managed, I must have looked liked George Bush, when he dodged that shoe that was hurled directly at him in Iraq (remember that?). Needless to say, that lead singer's "career" was short lived, as well as my tenure in that band.

With a mere few phone calls I was already into my next band, which possesed a higher caliber of musicianship. To this day I really can't find out what ever become of my prior bandmates. No great loss at that.

Craig

[drumbob]

Played a Christmas party gig for a US Navy ship in Leonardo, NJ. First, the stage in the officer's club was totally in adequate for band. Second, they wanted to feed us sandwiches, and not the buffet available to everyone else. That caused a showdown between the captain of the ship and us. We won, but with that, we were shunned by everyone. Nobody danced, nobody even responded. Dead silence after every song.

At the end of the night, I tried to get our check, but was told, "The Burser went back to the ship. He has your check and I don't know if he's coming back." Another hassle to deal with. I told the captain to get him back here with our money. Twenty minutes later, we had our check and we got out of there as fast as possible.

Twice, I played for the worst case patients in a local mental hospital. We were locked into a courtyard area with them. I was freaked and vowed I'd never do that gig again. I haven't.

[1a12]

Great topic: I have two that sorta qualify.

1. Played a a very short lived lesbian bar in Philly in the 90's called Catherines (I think) I was about 140lbs at the time and had a Fender Twin with the Orange JBL's...weighed a ton. I had to go up two flights of stairs with it. I must have made a noise like "ugh"... Suddenly an real live Amazon appeared and just grabbed it like pillow and just walked right up the stairs with it. I followed it with my guitar case. in disbelief.

2. Played a club called either Fireside or Fouf in Montreal. I went up some stairs and fell on top of that same Twin Reverb and broke one of the four 6L6 tubes around 10pm at night... Someone said there was a guitar shop that stayed open late about 3 blocks away...I ran there at full speed bought the last and only used tube for $5 in a wicker basket and sped back out of breath to have my gear waiting and the band standing there and went right on..panting.

[necrobacker]

I’ve played quite a few gigs in my time. One that stands out is one of the last gigs i played in my death metal band 2 years ago.
It was at a holiday camp in Cornwall, a music festival organised by the guitarist’s dad.
We were completely out of place there, but it was a free weekend in a caravan park so who’s to complain.
before the gig, I ended up drinking 3/4s a bottle of red wine, numerous bottles of Hobgolblin, a few pints of lager, smoked some weed as well as a bit of mdma (i think ).
the gig went well.....*probably*....although I started playing the bass with my teeth, and this was a BC rich bass with a thick b string, to this day I still get a slight "treek" in the tips of my front teeth. The crowd also started attacking each other with inflatable guitars in a sudo mosh pit/ battle ground.
End the gig, go up to the bar, for a shot of rum, bar lady must of miss heard me because she gave quadruple rum.......which I downed, unknowingly.
got back to the caravan, finished the bottle of red, then fell into a drunken stooper on the sofa. my band mates, being the caring lads they were, armed themselves with marker pens and started drawing crude, phallic symbols all over arms and legs.....I would have done the same.
Because we had to leave the campsite early the following day, none of us had time for a shower and I had to keep my jacket on till i got home. Thank god I bought it with me, as we visited Buckfast Abbey on the way back to stock up on Buckfast Tonic Wine haha.
The plus side, despite the large amount of alcohol, I never threw up, and i had no hang over! Result!

[jps]

The plus side, despite the large amount of alcohol, I never threw up, and i had no hang over! Result!

Chris +1
Graham -1

[idealassets]

OK, how about this one? 1970, before any paying gigs we had a wanna be 3 piece power trio, which always needed a bass player. So in my buddy's garage we set up to try out the new bass player. Now every decent rock band at the time had groupies so I told my sister to bring her girl friends and come pick me up for a ride home.

The plan was to play a few songs and get my sister's friends into the material, Cream, Hendrix, etc. Unfortunately the new bass player really got into it with those girls there and lurched into some sort of "super bass player" routine similar to Pete Townsend at Woodstock. He was the only one who couldn't quite see that it was somewhat contorted and also made his bass playing to be quite off.

Soon afterwards I was summoned by my sister that it was "time to get going". In the car the potential music groupies all stated about in unison "where did you find that bass player?" This of course indicated that the groupie thing wasn't quite going as planned, and they then asked me if we could maybe go and learn this song that was playing on the radio: "Dreams" by David Gates and Bread, which of course was the antithesis of what every self respecting power trio was shooting for.

All that I can say is that I refrained from repeating the same mistakes. To not be doomed with failure, and with different players we still did rehearse in another garage, never played anything by Bread, played lots of Hendrix, and the rest soon followed: gigs, vans, free drinks at all venues, 1/2 price on food, and no help needed from my sister and those particular "groupies"...

[doctorwho]

Here are a couple of mine from an earlier thread:

(Title of thread: "Ever had a bad show?")
Post by Gary Clauson (doctorwho) » 13 Feb 2007 06:22 am

Two gigs stand out as bad when I was in a band (Second Saturday) ages ago (early 1970s) back in Illinois. The worst: we played at a chili parlor/bar on the south side of Peoria. Throughout the gig, the only acknowledgement (applause or whatever) we got was from family/friends who came with us. For the rest of the patrons, it was as if we were not there. We got paid $5 and all the chili we could eat - and that wasn't very much, as it wasn't that good!

Second worst was at a teen center in a small town. Unfortunately for us, a street fair was going on at the same time down the street; everyone was attending it and not our gig. There were maybe eight to ten people total in the audience (two or three were our friends!) during the whole thing; at least they enjoyed us playing!

Oddly enough, the wedding reception gig where the band got thrown out of the town of Dunfermline wasn't overall a bad gig!

viewtopic.php?f=23&t=306575&hilit=dunfermline

[s4001]

Played on live TV before. We did a song that started a capella with just keyboards. The cue in guy said "live in 3... 2... 1...." and pointed at the keyboard player. The cable from the keys to the D box was dead. The keyboaradist had dead air. Quickly the guitarist and I covered the part and started a capella. Slightly nervy, to say the least....