Well, I will start by saying mine was Horrible!!!
I got booked to play two parties in one in Bellville, NJ on new year eve and the other in Philidelphia on the following Sunday. I fly with my keyboards from Atlanta on Tuesday, reherse with the singer all night, go to the Hall to setup the next evening. Party was suppose to start at 8:30pm. I was there around 7pm, there was no sound system, the guy who is throwing the party is not there, the singer is not there no one is there, I don't know anyone in NJ (it was my first time), am calling these people to show up cause its getting close to 8:30 by now! The guy throwing the party shows up with the sound system around 8:20pm!. I help him unload it to stage. He unloaded two subs and two monitors, so I go where are the speakers? He points to the subs!!! I go these are subs not speakers (mind you this guy is supposedly a singer as well). Next thing he looks at me and goes, do u know how to set it up?!!!!
I never worked with crossovers or compressors, I have a simple setup of mixer/amp/and speakers here in Atlanta. I was looking at the cabinet, and thinking OH GREAT! I think I wired things the right way, but could not get any sound! I asked him if he tested the system? he goes no, my friend is lending it to me since two weeks but i was too busy to open it!!! I am thinking
...by now one table of 10 people shows up to the party....the singer is there, and the Tabla player is there! I use the monitors as front house, yet no stands so I put them on top of the subs.
I finally decided to forget crossovers and everything else, went directly from mixer to amp to speakers....well still no sound, no matter what i did....guess what it was? The channel I was using was NOT WORKINGGGGG , I used another channel and all was fine.
Well here is were it gets ugly....by the time we got sound...it was around 10:15pm, and guess what...the 10 people that showed up! LEFT CAUSE NO ONE ELSE SHOWED UP AFTER THAT!!!....by 10:30pm the singer is gone and the tabla player is gone....The guy who booked me tells me to pack up party is cancelled. I am stuck in NJ with the guy who booked me, now saying he can't pay me more than 50% of what we agreed on....and by the time we were done arguing...we agreed to 75%, even though iwas not happy about it, I still felt bad for him in the situation he was in. Apparently he relied on selling tickets at the door and had organized the whole thing very wrong, and his original Hall booked a wedding cause he failed togive them deposit, so he books another Hall two days before new year eve! More boring details to be ignored.
The worse part was me standing there at 11:30pm on new year eve in the middle of a small town in which I know NO one, not playing, not singing, Alone, not hearing music, not with my family...that moment was one of the worse I felt for a while.
Luckily, I had met a guy the night of the rehersal who happened to call me around that time and he ended up being in a night club close by, so thats where I ended up going for that night.
Wanna hear more?
I had another party that he booked me for in Phildelphia for last Sunday remember? On Friday, I find out he is not the host of that phili party, there is another person throwing it...he already booked his own band, and does not need me, and he never knew about me coming!!! I had already skipped work on my regular daily job for a week, booked a return flight on Monday, and paid my own ticket and expenses. The guy in phili, after negotiation, agrees for me to perform with the other guys, for 80% of what we had agreed on.
So, my experience as you can tell was one I won't forget up in the northern states. I have been performing professionally for the last 10-12 years and have been booked on new year eve gigs straight for the last 8-9 years, and this is a first for me!
I have never gone anywhere and was so happy to be back lol.
So what about u guys?