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Topic: What was your most uncomfortable gig?. |
Lyle Clary
From:
Decatur, Illinois, KC9VCB
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Posted 31 Oct 2005 9:53 am |
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We played a three hour gig last saturday night in an unheated 50 by 80 equipment shed with the outside temperature hovering around 40 degrees. My hands were so cold that when the guitar player took the lead I would sit on my hands. The drummer dropped three sticks on one song. I had two steel bars and kept one in my pocket to keep it warm then would switch about every three songs. The only thing good about the gig was that it payed well.
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1969 ZB Custom D10, BMI S10, 1981 Peavy Musician Mark III, 15 Inch Black Widow, custom enclosure
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Smokey Fennell
From:
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
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Posted 31 Oct 2005 10:55 am
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| Two years ago we played outdoors on a flatbed truck in a parking lot in Jasper Park, Alberta. They had covered the trailer with plastic but that did little to keep the SNOW from blowing in onto the stage. I had on three layers of clothing and wore gloves with the fingers cut off. It took me an hour in a hot bath to warm up after that one. |
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Joe Naylor
From:
Avondale, Arizona, USA
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Posted 31 Oct 2005 11:37 am
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Several years ago I moved South ---- we do not shovel sun shine and sweating for 3 mos ain't bad. I think it's 82 for a high here today --- yep getting cold in the desert.
9 months the valley of the sun and 3 months the surface of the sun.
Just kiddin' guys
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Joe Naylor, Avondale, AZ (Phoenix)Desert Rose Guitar, Life Member of the Arizona Carport Pickers Association
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Bobby Lee
From:
Cloverdale, California, USA
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Posted 31 Oct 2005 12:14 pm
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Backing up a stripper. Sorry, it's just not my cup of tea. I felt very uncomfortable.
As for temporature, we are blessed here in North California's wine country. Now and then we get a cool evening job or a real hot afternoon, but for the most part the outdoor gigs are just lovely.
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 Bobby Lee (a.k.a. b0b) - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs, Open Hearts
Williams D-12 E9, C6add9, Sierra Olympic S-12 (F Diatonic)
Sierra Laptop S-8 (E6add9), Fender Stringmaster D-8 (E13, C6 or A6) My Blog |
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Ben Slaughter
From:
Madera, California
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Posted 31 Oct 2005 12:32 pm
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| 115 degrees with abnormally high humidity at an outside wedding last July, outside of Chico, CA. Was difficult to keep picks on and the bar from slipping out of my hand. Sweat dripping off my nose onto the fretboard... Just miserable. |
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Webb Kline
From:
Orangeville, PA
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Posted 31 Oct 2005 1:47 pm
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| A hot, muggy 4th of July at a carnival with recurring thunderstorms. Everything was wet. I had ahold of the neck on my mandolin and when I touched my lips to the microphone, it blew me clean back into the drum kit! Never got shocked like that before and hopefully not again. |
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Dick Wood
From:
Springtown Texas, USA
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Posted 31 Oct 2005 1:50 pm
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Texas 108 in July and Alaska 42 in Sept. The heat is uncomfortable but the cold just plain flat hurts.
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Cops aren't paid much so I steel at night. |
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Ray Minich
From:
Bradford, Pa. Frozen Tundra
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Posted 31 Oct 2005 2:12 pm
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| My night in a bar on a bandstand that should have had chicken wire but didn't... |
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Rick McDuffie
From:
Benson, North Carolina, USA
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Posted 31 Oct 2005 2:13 pm
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Webb, I must've played a gig that same day. It was about 98 degrees w/ 100% humidity. It rained off and on throughout the gig. I was playing six-string and my latigo leather strap was soaked clear through w/ sweat. I left that gig and headed to another one, with a different band. I climbed in the back of the van and changed clothes while my dear, loving wife drove. I had to peel those clothes off.
I have played a bunch of gigs that were, shall I say, "culturally" uncomfortable, but I won't go there. |
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Dan Galysh
From:
Hendersonville, Tennessee, USA
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Posted 31 Oct 2005 2:45 pm
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Just played an uncomfortable one in eastern Kentucky this weekend. We played at night and it dropped quickly into the low 30's. Dew is bad enough, but we had frost forming on all of our equipment. The audience huddled around bonfires while we shivered on stage.
Dan |
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Charles Davidson
From:
Phenix City Alabama, USA
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Posted 31 Oct 2005 2:46 pm
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| In a bar in Savannah Ga.a few months back that DID have chicken wire.Can't name all of them,would clog up this forum for a month. |
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Stephen Gambrell
From:
Over there
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Posted 31 Oct 2005 2:55 pm
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"Backing up a stripper."
What kind of stripper needs a steel guitar???? |
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Gene Jones
From:
Oklahoma City, OK USA, (deceased)
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Posted 31 Oct 2005 2:59 pm
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| * [This message was edited by Gene Jones on 13 November 2005 at 11:44 AM.] |
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chas smith R.I.P.
From:
Encino, CA, USA
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Posted 31 Oct 2005 3:15 pm
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"Backing up a stripper. Sorry, it's just not my cup of tea. I felt very uncomfortable."
I played at the 37th annual Strip Tease Convention out in Victorville, about 10 years ago. Got to meet Tempest Storm. All in all, it was a little distracting....
A few years back, I played at the Burning Man Festival, up in Blackrock, Nev. The conditions were challenging, but the gig was fabulous.
Oh yes, uncomfortable. The King King, below freezing, no heat in the club, no patrons either....
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Chris Bauer
From:
Nashville, TN USA
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Posted 31 Oct 2005 3:44 pm
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I once played outside in the snow (on a slightly raised platform) for a private party. The guests listened to us while huddled inside a glassed in patio with heat and even then they were warming their hands with hot drinks. When we asked to move inside we were told that "if that was our attitude" we might as well just pack up and go home.
To this day I'm glad the bandleader said that "that was absolutely our attitude!" |
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Les Anderson
From:
The Great White North
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Posted 31 Oct 2005 4:48 pm
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Chris, how in blazes did you keep that thing in tune while playing outside where it was cold enough to not melt snow?
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(I am not right all of the time but I sure like to think I am!)
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Michael Johnstone
From:
Sylmar,Ca. USA
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Posted 31 Oct 2005 5:02 pm
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| Once in the mid 70s I was playing at some roadhouse in Calabasas where there was really no bandstand per se but just an area in a corner near a couple of pool tables. After I set up my Sho-Bud I went to get a beer and when I came back,there was some guy sitting on my 'Bud like it was a barstool. I came up and shoved him off it from behind and he came around swinging the fat end of a pool stick and caught me under the eye.The guy was thrown out but I played the gig - face throbbing to the bone and with a butterfly bandage closing the gash while the bar owner apoligized all over himself and force-fed me beer straight out of a pitcher all night while I was tring to play. That was an uncomfortable evening...... -MJ- |
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Ken Williams
From:
Arkansas
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Posted 31 Oct 2005 6:16 pm
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Wow, I could write a book on this. But a couple of gigs come to mind. Several years back, we did a 4th of July gig in Hot Springs,AR at a place called Brady mountain. The stage was placed down in ravine between two humongous hills. Had to lug all that eqiupment down the hill, probably about 70-80 yards down about a 45 degree grade. We started about noon and didn't get finished till about 8 pm. The stage had no cover and temperature was near 100 F. There was no breeze, due to the hills. I thought they were going have to medivac the piano player. When we finally finished, we were all red as lobsters. But, we had to lug all that heavy equipment back up the hill to the parking lot. I made a vow that day that I've would never play on the outside again. Well, since then I have broken my vow. I played a fall festival in Gurdon,AR a few years back. When we started at about 7 pm it was about 65-70 degrees. By about 10 pm it had dropped down to 39 degrees. I was down to trying to just play a single string note or two with my thumb, because I could not move my fingers. I can't say that I've completely ruled out outside gigs, but I'm much more selective than I used to be. As a matter of fact, I played this last Saturday on an outside gig, and it was very pleasant.
Ken
http://home.ipa.net/~kenwill
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Chris Bauer
From:
Nashville, TN USA
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Posted 31 Oct 2005 6:29 pm
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Les - Who said we were in tune????
The tougher part was dealing with a bar that seemed to keep getting frozen to my hand! (And I should have said earlier, the whole fiasco didn't last too long, thank goodness.) |
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Bruce Meyer
From:
Thompson's Station, TN
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Posted 31 Oct 2005 8:30 pm
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| A Saturday night dance (two years in a row) at a "sun club". The answer to the most-asked quesion... Yes, the band members kept their clothes on. |
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Charles Davidson
From:
Phenix City Alabama, USA
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Posted 31 Oct 2005 8:53 pm
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| In the late 50's played a club about 2 years in Phenix City Ala[my home town]that had floor shows 3 times a night,6 nights a week.Did'nt feel a bit uncomfortable,maybe it's because I was 45 years younger than I am today.ummmmmm bet thats it. |
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Mike Perlowin
From:
Los Angeles CA
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Posted 31 Oct 2005 9:21 pm
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First time I ever played in a gay bar.....
I eventually got used to it. |
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David L. Donald
From:
Koh Samui Island, Thailand
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Posted 31 Oct 2005 9:58 pm
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The day after I had a mylogram / spinaltap, and the radioactive fluid was still in my spine.
I played a wedding party lieing flat on my back,
with the bass neck tied to a mic stand,
and the boom lowered over my mouth.
Ya can't walk out on a wedding gig unless you're dead...
But if I got more than 15 degrees from prone I got BLINDING headaches,
but felt fine lieing down.
So I did, but getting to and from the gig and playing position was no fun. |
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John Lacey
From:
Black Diamond, Alberta, Canada
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Posted 1 Nov 2005 5:31 am
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| Playing (miming) outdoors in Mar. all nite on a movie shoot on the prairie near High River Alberta, about 0 degrees to -7 below Celsius. Oh yes, and it snowed too. We didn't have to really play, but had to perform in our shirt sleeves as the shoot was supposed to be Kansas in the summer. By the 6th. or 7th. hr. we started to get core hypothermia with uncontrollable shaking. That's when I told the director, "You'd better grab this soon, we're starting to lose it". We were immediately surrounded by young women with blankets and were snuggled for awhile. It helped, but that was the most uncomfortable "gig" I ever did. |
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Roger Rettig
From:
Naples, FL
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Posted 1 Nov 2005 8:37 am
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I did the Medora gig in 2002 in the Badlands of ND. I have happy memories of the whole experience, but the first week (it's three months, ending on Labor Day weekend) is in late-May, and, while the bandstand is covered, it's open to the elements. I'll never forget trying to play as the sleet was blowing sideways across the stage, as the temperature plunged into the 30s.....
Later in the run, we played in one hundred degree heat, with dust storms, lightning, and every other peversity known to Nature; North Dakota put me in mind of one of those 'dawn of time' animation programmes you see on Public TV.....
RR |
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