# What a horrible gig!!



## james on bass (Feb 4, 2006)

My band was hired to play a wedding in the Windsor area last night.

All night long, we were loose & sloppy; lots of little mistakes and all around miserable. Last weekend's gig we absolutely slayed!! 

On the plus side, we played 4 new tunes and got through them reasonably well considering the band learned them earlier in the week and I couldn't make it to rehearsal. On another plus side, it was a good paying gig and the bride & groom loved us!

Gigs like that really bring you down.


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## dwagar (Mar 6, 2006)

don't sweat it. Every gig can't be 100%, you guys are only human.

If the Bride and Groom liked it, that's all that really matters.

One thing, try to remember the mistakes (it can help to make a little note on the list at the end of the song when it happens), so you can clean them up at the next rehearsal.


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## Gene Machine (Sep 22, 2007)

*been there, done that*

It's a really sucky feeling, ain't it. I had a few of those with my last (now defunct) band.

We started playing Takin care of bidness, the Bass player came in with the wrong key, but "plays" a fretless (badly) and so I was looking at him with the WTF? look on my face, he's just staring off into space like a moron. So I try one fret up, nope, one fret down, nope. I was all over the place looking for the guy's key, but couldn't find it. I think he was a step and 1/7th off because of the fretless, I ended up stopping the song and starting over again. 

PAIN-FUL

I feel your pain, brother. I feel your pain.


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## Tarl (Feb 4, 2006)

It happens to everyone now and then. The main thing is that the audience liked it.


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## buckaroobanzai (Feb 2, 2006)

Been there...

some gigs are magic, some are work.

Just before our Halloween gig, we had the worst rehearsal ever. We considered cancelling the gig. However, we went and killed the place. Dance floor full all night, even a couple of " we're not worthy"s. 2 more bookings and several good leads.

Ya just never know.


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## mrmatt1972 (Apr 3, 2008)

I can relate. The last band I was in was a country band in which I was conscripted to play bass. When we played our first gig at a local hall (small town thing...) I swear the "lead" guitarist was playing some other tunes than the rest of us. It was painful, but we got better.


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## Geek (Jun 5, 2007)

Ah, nuts :frown:

Sorry to hear about the disaster gig. They pop up at the most incovenient times.

Blame the vocalist


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## stratman89 (Oct 13, 2008)

We're musicians................we can be very critical of our own playing when the non-musicians usually (thank goodness) don't pickup on the errors.

Good luck on future gigs.


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## shoretyus (Jan 6, 2007)

What's worse is when the bands on and the audience isn't. Had those too. 

_You guys know any country_


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## devnulljp (Mar 18, 2008)

mrmatt1972 said:


> When we played our first gig at a local hall (small town thing...) I swear the "lead" guitarist was playing some other tunes than the rest of us.


Then you say you're a jazz band and leave it at that 

I played in a band with a really textural guitarist in the 80s who did what he did very well but was the single least technically minded player, in any sense (not just theory but nuts n bolts stuff...the singer would change his strings for him, that bad), I have ever met. We played one gig where he tuned up in the dressing room before going onstage and had to be prompted after two songs to maybe try tuning up again because as soon as he got out under the lights those strings just stretched and the tuning just right out the window. He was quite happily playing away, and it was a trainwreck.

My worst playing moment was at my own wedding. Didn't think I was the least bit nervous until I realised I couldn't remember how to play the guitar_ at all_. it was a completely foreign feeling. Like someone had handed me a bassoon or something. Weird. That and a word of advice: _never_ play classical guitar in a kilt.


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## devnulljp (Mar 18, 2008)

shoretyus said:


> What's worse is when the bands on and the audience isn't. Had those too.
> 
> _You guys know any country_


[youtube=Option]2LEY9E_W5sw[/youtube]

Played for the bingo crowd one night in the Gorbals in Glasgow. 
It was ugly.


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## shoretyus (Jan 6, 2007)

devnulljp said:


> .
> 
> My worst playing moment was at my own wedding........ _never_ play classical guitar in a kilt.


Ah ... that's just too graphic of a picture ...... I suppose you played a movement too ?


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## fingers (Sep 4, 2007)

Bad gig's happen,not to worry.
Here's a bad one.
In '96 my old band was playing a high school dance,the night before we where out drinking .Our drummer never knew when to quit(they never do),and was VERY hungover the night of the dance.we where into our second song when the drums quit,I looked behind me to see my drummer running off stage tripping over his moniter and holding hid butt.
YUP,he had crapped his pants!The show was over.
That was the last time that band played together.


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## WEEZY (May 23, 2008)

Bad gigs are inevitable, I've had plenty. I like to record every gig and listen back to hear what was so bad ... or good about each performance. After listening back, it's never as bad as I thought... except in a few select cases when I was really drunk and had no business being on stage in the first place...

There was one show a few years ago for a fund-raiser. They were serving us Storm Beer (if you are from Vancouver then you might know this beer) which is famous for being very high in alcohol. I had about 5 or 6 before our performance and don't even remember getting on stage. When I heard the recording, it was like the Twilight Zone, I had no memory of telling everyone to get naked and pour beer on their breasts...among other inappropriate comments.. Did I mention this was a fund-raiser for a multiciultural society? Ugh.

The guitar playing that night was inexcusable too. Needless to say, I don't drink more than one drink before gigs nowadays.


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## puckhead (Sep 8, 2008)

Gene Machine said:


> so I was looking at him with the WTF? look on my face, he's just staring off into space like a moron.



a while ago I had to walk over to my rythm guitarist while he was "lost in a moment" and kick him in the shins. the drummer almost fell off of his stool laughing. good times, good times.


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## Fajah (Jun 28, 2006)

Our last gig went well as far as the audience was concerned, but we blew so many endings. Usually it's our lead guitar player who goes off into never never land and forgets how we end the tunes in rehearsal. We're used it though.

At the end of night, he came up to me and asked how I thought we played. My answer......"the audience thought we were tight.......and it was a nice jam session."


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## Gene Machine (Sep 22, 2007)

WEEZY said:


> There was one show a few years ago for a fund-raiser. They were serving us Storm Beer (if you are from Vancouver then you might know this beer) which is famous for being very high in alcohol. I had about 5 or 6 before our performance and don't even remember getting on stage. When I heard the recording, it was like the Twilight Zone, I had no memory of telling everyone to get naked and pour beer on their breasts...among other inappropriate comments.. Did I mention this was a fund-raiser for a multiciultural society? Ugh.




:rockon:

AWESOME!!


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## mrmatt1972 (Apr 3, 2008)

devnulljp said:


> TThat and a word of advice: _never_ play classical guitar in a kilt.


LOL :tongue:

thanks, I needed THAT visual...


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

Oh man, last night stank. Allow me to vent a little.

1) Long narrow tall big boxy concrete conference style room with no surfaces which would absorb sound, just hard reflective surfaces, furniture, floor, ceiling, and walls. 
2) Stage was 1/3 of the way along one long side of the room. 
3) Stage was one of those 4' high temporary stages, long and narrow and bouncy and hollow. 
4) P.a. was an unfamiliar rental mixed with some of the band members' gear. 
5) Mysterious boomy feedback came and went without provocation.
6) The management would not turn any house lights on, and there were no stage lights, ie *WE PLAYED IN THE F***ING DARK!* I never played so positionally in all my career. The tables had candles.
7) Open bar, but as a non drinker all they could give me was a bottle of water, warm.
8) Weather was blowing snow and slippery on the one hour commute home at 1:30 am.
9) Two band members were scrapping about space and communication. 
10) There was a dinner preceding the dance and it looked like there was a lot of food left over in spite of a full house, but the band wasn't offered anything. Usually we're offered something, though we don't expect it.
11) The crowd stayed okay until the last set when it thinned out considerably and we played to maybe 1/4 of the house at the end. 
12) Requests? AC/DC, Boney M, Neil Young, Happy Birthday...we did the last two.
13) Lots of monitors but we still couldn't hear each other clearly.

Tonight's in a better hall. I hope.

Peace, Mooh.


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

Oh yeah, and since the gig was a Christmas party for several businesses in that locale, our otherwise decent reputation has been damaged. Thank goodness it wasn't close to home.

Fwiw, the following night's gig was terrific. Huge turkey dinner, fantastic room acoustics, happy generous crowd, great stage lighting, free bar, and some unidentified girl hopped on stage and sang I Fall To Pieces like she was born to do it. I even played keys on stage for the first time in 30 years. What a blast!

Peace, Mooh.


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## ed2000 (Feb 16, 2007)

Even great gigs can have their moments. We played at the Oshawa Curling Club for their annual awards show. Ten seconds into our first tune ( Old Time R&R) the dance floor was packed...good start. A couple of songs later the band played Can't Buy Me Love in 'C' but the singer sang it in 'E'. Later we played Wonderful Tonight..band played in 4/4, drummer played in 6/8. It was hillarious listening to the guitar trying to fit 4/4 into 6/8. The House Is a Rockin' was started in 'B' while the rest of the band followed in 'C'...2 bars of dissonance...ha haa. This sounds like it was out first show but we've had 4 previous gigs that went just as well. The audience wanted us back next year. The band is now history.


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## marcos (Jan 13, 2009)

*Horrible gig*

NO sweat,you got paid good money and the customer liked it.Gigs cant always go perfectly.In over 40 years of playing i feel your pain but like the wife says;move on.Next gig will be o.k.:rockon2:


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