The Steel Guitar Forum

I played at the Wassaic State School where it was hard to tell the staff from the inmates. I also played at
the Oxford Federal Prison that was like the Blues Brothers without the boogie party. How about it?

1968 or so I played bass in “Misty Daze,” a high school garage power trio: Cream, Hendrix, etc. out of Franklin, MA. The guitarist’s mother was our booking agent and we were excited when she told us she had booked us into the Holiday Inn in Pawtucket, RI, a fading mill town. Holiday Inn? This is the big time!

Turns out it was a local gay bar, not the national hotel chain. It was quite an eye-opener for a 16 year-old suburban kid to see guys slow-dancing with other guys (we had a couple of ballads). Especially when one of the dancers crashed into the bandstand and fell on our black light. Good times!

Playing in the country of Malta. It was the only time in history a pedal steel guitar was played there.
Year 1999.
Ricky

A union trust fund gig at the county prison. The union gave the gig to a fiddle player that was next on their list. He had no band, so he called one of our guitar players he knew and we took the gig. The guitar player was a truck driver and couldn't make the gig, so our rhythm guitar player had to cover lead guitar duty. None of us knew this guy. After going through the sheriff department searches, we made it to the stage. 3 cops along the back of the stage, 4 along the front, and one on each side of the stage. Gig was a 2 hour gig. Time to start, no sign of the fiddle dude. We start off the first song, he comes strolling in, plugs his amp in and starts buthchering his out of tune fiddle in the middle of the song,in the wrong key. The crowd was mainly African American and Latino, not wanting country music. They were exiting quickly in groups. Second song, this moron breaks into Orange Blossom Special. Now about half the inmates have run to their cell (escorted by guards of course). The cop on the bass player's side of the stage approached the bass player after our 4th song and asks him if we know any Tower of Power or Cold Blood. The bass player replies no, and the next song is our last. After 5 songs we were out of there. Next day we and the prison filed grievances against the fiddle player. The prison did ask the union for a soul band. We still got paid, and he was removed from any future trust fund gigs. The only good thing about that gig was, the guards at the front of the stage let me talk to an inmate that I went to high school with.

Played in a tiny redneck bar. Actually a lot of fun, but our 5 piece band was set up on a Pool table..

Frank Freniere wrote:...Turns out it was a local gay bar, not the national hotel chain. It was quite an eye-opener for a 16 year-old suburban kid to see guys slow-dancing with other guys (we had a couple of ballads).

We had one with our 1980s-style straight country band in a place on University Avenue in St. Paul where girls in lumberjack shirts danced with other girls in lumberjack shirts.

There was also the one on the Minnesota North Stars float in the Minneapolis Aquatennial Torchlight Parade with North Stars Jack Carlson, Steve Christoff (with his 1980 Olympic Hockey gold medal draped around his neck), and Miss Minnesota North Star. Hearing the cheers upon entering Parade Stadium was a thrill. Then we realized the buzz was for Christoff...

I am sure I could think up a few in time. But we played a few times at a facility for the mentally challenged. I guess that’s the correct term. It did pay well, a Corporate booking. Once, while on break, I got into a detailed discussion, actually an education, on hammered dulcimer with one of the residents. He was a big fan of John McCutcheon. Fascinating.

I played a chili cook-off one time in a large, windowless concrete room. When we walked in with our gear, everyone was standing in a big circle, behind their chili pots, chanting something unintelligible over and over again. It went on for a little too long and ended in whooping and cheering. I never found out what that was about, but I'm assuming it was some sort of ancient Massachusetts chili ritual.

Similar situation to Frank F. and Jack. Our agent booked us into a female gay bar in Richmond (unbeknown to us) a few years back. A bit of a change of pace to play a job where EVERY dance is a "lady's choice"!

The Rustic Bar, North Fork, Idaho. It was Halloween 1983. I was in a band called the Lounge Primates. We were a rock and blues band with two drummers. The United States had just invaded Grenada. We booked ourselves as “Grenada’s Revenge”. It was on the marquee out front. Our second drummer was studying jazz and music in Missoula at U of M. He had to drive three hours from school to make the gig and would be late. We told him simply, “wear some funny costume” with no other instructions.

Before the gig, the rest of us bought yarn mop heads and died them with black Rit dye: dreadlocks.
Then we smeared on black face (we were not racists, and meant no racists overtures, we were young and dumb and thought we were funny): Grenada’s Revenge.

We played, people jammed the place, dancing commenced. Someone spiked *everyone’s * drinks with acid.

Eventually the second drummer showed up….wearing dreadlocks and a lighter shade of ‘black face’.
The crowd screamed with hilarity, we played loud and long and well and I’ve never felt the floorboards of a bar flex under the dancers like I did in the Rustic that night—packed with crazy tripping screaming happy young halloween revelers.

And that night I would learn I was going to be a father. Whoa……….

Many Lounge Primate gigs were nutty—but that one stands out above all the others.

San Francisco Band, Zero, played here in Vermont and asked me to play.
The had me set up facing the back wall on stage.

My FB friends have seen this.. No explanation needed, a picture is worth a 1000 words. Maybe not THE strangest gig I've ever played, but definitely in the top 5.

A band I was in played for prisoners in a prison in Alabama. We could not take any tools of any kind with us, and were warned not to give out any personnel information about ourselves. We were told the men were called convicts because they were experts at conning people. I do remember it was a Federal Prison. That was in the early 1980s.

Got a call to play bass (around 1960) at a grand opening at a drive in. Was under the impression that we’d be playing inside since it was around mid April. Canal park is next to the Areal Bridge which is right on Lake Superior. When I got there I was told we would be playing outside. Wind off the lake and colder than a well diggers heels... I was lucky enough to be able to wear gloves, not so for the other guys. I still get chills when I think about that.
Geo

Played for the Blind Bowlers League in St.Louis.

We played for an apartment complex party. As we were tearing down, a young lady (?) came up and asked me to join her in the swimming pool. I told her that I didn’t have a swimsuit with me. She said “that’s OK, no one else has one either”!

Did quite a few weird ones but one that stands out was playing a bar near Rochester NY the night that the owner was found dead in his house from suicide by hanging. They wanted us to play anyway. A mistake.

A couple that come to mind:
Played for the Turkey calling contest in Yellville, Arkansas. One of their events was a fly-over dropping live tagged turkeys. You had to tackle a turkey as it made it to the ground and get the prize that was on the tag. Plus, you take the turkey home with you.

Another one, we played in a tiny club that had an L shaped bar. The stage was two pieces of 3/4 ply spanning one end of the L and bridged to the back bar. No dance floor. Needless to say, we only played there one time.

1970s, we were hired to play at a State Hospital for the Insane. We set up in a large room and the staff escorted about 80 patients into the room, all wearing white hospital gowns. It was like a scene out of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest!

A strange gig that a friend of mine played in the 80s... a dance at a Nudest Camp. Playing to dozens of naked people dancing in front of the band. And of course, the nudists kept encouraging the band to take their clothes off, so they did!

Playing at the Hell's Angels' house in San Bernardino about 1967. Fortunately they liked our music.

Playing at Cook County jail in the mid 70s.

Tiny Tim.

Played “Kansas City” for a stripper once.

The time Richard Sterban of the Oak Ridge Boys came up and sang Elvira with us.

When our keyboard player went under hypnosis at a county fair and couldn’t remember the words to any of his songs until the hypnotist cued him out of it.

A high school graduation party that started at midnight. In the school gymnasium. After we had already done two other gigs that day. In two other counties. Yes, hauling our own PA.

Spy Hill, Saskatchewan, 1985. The club owner took us out fishing and then got us drunk - the afternoon before the gig...A great time had by all.

Warmup act for Riverdance at some rich Silicon Valley guy’s birthday party.

Many, many others have all been weird in some way.

Bill Terry wrote:My FB friends have seen this.. No explanation needed, a picture is worth a 1000 words. Maybe not THE strangest gig I've ever played, but definitely in the top 5.

What was his request - "Cheeseburger In Paradise"?

Don R Brown wrote:What was his request - "Cheeseburger In Paradise"?

Old McDonald

We were hired to do a rodeo party at a disco rented for the night by an off broadway producer. We played on a stage with a back drop of old rodeo films. They also had a mechanical bull ran by two of my friends. The night started off slow even though we played well, but, nobody was dancing. They were just milling around in groups. My friend with the bull said get up on this bull and show them what fun it would be. So... up I went and did my thing. Well, after that they all wanted to ride and had a gay old time. We were the only straight people there! It was really rather funny because they became the show and we were the spectators.