Ever had a bad show?

captsandwich · Post by **captsandwich** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 4:01 am

Gordon,
your story reminded me of this: we won a local radio station contest, so we got to play their big Canada Day show. Many bands on the list, including The Violent Femmes as headliners. We go on first, at 11 am, no soundcheck, huge stage (180 ft, side to side, me with my little JC-55 perched on a folding chair

), playing to 25,000 people. Main monitors go out, all we have is side wash. To compensate, the monitor tech boosts the levels of the wash, but the only thing in them is the horn section and lead vocals. Our keyboard player (who was practically being punched in the head by the side wash) had to watch the drummer to make sure he was in time. Our singer was concentrating so hard with her eyes closed, that she did not see the line of DJ's from the station who danced across the front of the stage, twice. I just about wet my pants from the stress, but the audience seemed to enjoy it, dancing, cheering and even singing along a little bit.

jaybic · Post by **jaybic** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 4:49 am

I'm still trying to wrap my head around what happened. I know I was thrown off my game when a patron walked up to me, while playing, and said in my hear, "Why don't you guys play something people want to dance to?" and walked away. I thought pretty much all of our stuff was dance-related. And another thing, I think our lead guitarist was pysched-out. Members from another local band, who are much better known than us, were in the bar. At the break, they came up and introduced themselves and said they thought we sounded pretty good. From that point on, our guitarist was clearly not "feeling it."

lyle_from_minneapolis · Thu Feb 15, 2007 5:54 am

The ones in the audience who would rather hear something/someone different are often the loudest and most obnoxious, and their comments can be devastating if you're unprepared for their lack of courtesy. As Hunter Thompson used to say, don't take any guff from those swine. Instead, think of them as necessary tests of your concentration, and blithely acknowledge them with a wink and a smile, then continue to focus on the show as you intend it to be. Sounds like that other band was pretty cool and they could relate...I'll bet they've been there too. They stuck with it and became better known. Hope your next show feels great and washes away all the uncertainty you are feeling. But there will be nights like this, and its best to spend as little energy as possible dwelling on them. I'd focus on blowing away the next crowd. Good Luck!

jaybic · Post by **jaybic** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 6:07 am

Thank you all for sharing and the words of encouragement. Mark, you are correct. No need to dwell on the past, what's done is done, etc.

doctorwho · Post by **doctorwho** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 2:25 pm

That's the spirit, Jason! Go knock 'em dead!

charlyg · Post by **charlyg** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 3:45 pm

Having had a few bouts with bands and dances, let me say this. Most of the musicians in the country bands have no idea what a proper tempo for the two step is. I decided they spent too much time playing and none dancing, thus the glazed eyes when asking for a tune for a specific dance.
What we found as dancers, you need to know the names of two or three songs that work well with the particular dance you would like to do. Typically, they knew one of them. We just requested the specific song, and didn't depend on them to know the proper tempo for a particular dance.

wayang · Post by **wayang** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 10:19 pm

I've had too many 'bad shows' to list here, but many, many more good ones.

Don't take it so hard, Jason...focus on the 7/8ths of your show that were great.

(I must admit that after playing a lot of shows for 500 very 'enthused' drunken sailors and construction workers at the a**hole of the world, the conventional North American bar audience sometimes makes one feel that one is playing before an oil painting...)

jaybic · Post by **jaybic** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 4:04 am

Dane - you nailed it on the head. Playing before an oil painting is exactly what it felt like. Lol. Great use of words as always.

admin · Post by **admin** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 4:10 am

Dane: Are you practicing up for the July 7, 2007 gig in Antartica that I heard about on CNN today?

wayang · Post by **wayang** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 6:38 am

I'd have to parachute in at that time of year, and my knees aren't what they used to be...

Bah, that scene's a younger man's game, in my opinion...and I've gotten plenty of windshield scraping and sidewalk 'D-1' duty this winter right here at home. It generally takes me the length of one cigarette on the front porch when it's around 10 degrees out to assuage my pangs of nostalgia for that "awful place". Great God, etc...

I do miss the gigs, however, on "The Island Of Lost Boys"....(and I have the billiard skills, smoking habit and donkey ears to prove it)...

stubby · Post by **stubby** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 6:38 pm

I've had a few clunkers too. The worst though was probably in 1993 at a club in Guelph (about 1 hour west of Toronto) and it was the worst through no fault of mine or my bandmates. We played great. We really didn't want to play that night at all but the club owner insisted. It had all the makings of a great show - the place was packed, you could almost feel the electricity in the air, the mix was hot, and we had been playing a lot that week so we were "on." The only problem was that the last game of the World Series was also "on" and even though the owner insisted we play through it, people were much more interested in the Blue Jays than us! Go figure. For some time after that, I used to bill us at gigs as the only band that ever played the Toronto Blue Jays and lost.

bitzerguy · Post by **bitzerguy** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 6:30 am

"the only band that ever played the Toronto Blue Jays and lost."

LOL Bill! You should have just played "Shout" over and over. THey would have been singing along!

...Dean

stephena · Post by **stephena** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 7:52 am

This wasn't my band, but I feel guilty about how my part in this turned out for them.

I went to see the Textones once back in the mid-80s or so. Now they put on a great show, but unfortunately there were not many people there. I was there with a bandmate of mine and his girlfriend. He wanted to spend the evening taking pictures, but she wanted to dance, so she ended up pulling me onto the dance floor (a little to his relief, I think). I had never done the two-step before, so since we had the dance floor to ourselves with some great music, she taught me. Or tried to; I'm not a very good dancer.

The newspaper review got it all wrong. The critic didn't like the show, and reported that the lone couple attempting to dance couldn't even find a rhythm in the band's chaos. My clumsiness gave that jerk ammunition to use against a band I really liked.

I really hope that no one in the band ever saw that review.

studiotwosession · Post by **studiotwosession** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 8:05 am

bad monitor mixes...band members drinking before we went on and/or cranking up their amps to absurd levels (there may be a relation here)...hired guns dropping the ball completely on stage...

kcole4001 · Post by **kcole4001** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 2:36 pm

Here's a good (bad) one:
Benefit gig, putting together a set with my current band's guitar player & drummer, and singer from a previous band including all three of them.
I just learned the songs two days ago, they have played them for years, off & on.

First song starts with a short vocal & guitar intro, then we all kick in, only in concentrating on remembering my part, I don't notice that the singer's struggling to sing in that key (I've never heard her sing it before, no actual band practice involved).

The guitar player has put his capo on the first fret instead of the third.
My first note (BOOM) is followed by my first thought..."WHAT THE...?"
A couple moments to figure out what key we're in, then a struggle to transpose a song I barely know.

OUCH!
Pretty awkward.