Ah, where to begin. But my latest really deserves a prize. I played a gig as a sideman for a singer who was doing a mini-concert at a huge (1000+ seat) church. Everything went fine until a guest pianist (pre-planned and rehearsed) joined us for one song. The piano was exquistely maintained and perfectly tuned (we knew this from a rehearsal at the church three days pryor), however as soon as we started to play, I knew something was wrong, as my C1 was just enough out of tune with the piano as to be throughly annoying and ruined the one 'highlight' tune. Sometime during the last few days (at home in my studio), I had accidently changed the micro-tuning from A440 to A437 without realizing it. I didn't catch it because it wasn't something I'd normally do and I rarely play the C1 with anything other than drums at home. Played the rest of the set without changing anything because it didn't occur to me what the problem was (not that it made any difference after the pianist left). When I got home, I played it with the G7 and Triton and discovered it was still out of tune. I was just about to call tech support when I suddenly had a 'duh' moment.

I'm still embarrassed by this and just wondered in any of you had done anything equally stupid on a gig. It might make me feel better. BTW, as much as I like my Nord C1, their menu system sucks. Way too easy to accidently change some 'permanent' parameter (usually at the most inappropriate time).



chas

Thanks, Chas!

Embarrassing moments usually make great laughs later on.

Taike

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Bo pen nyang.

I got to an out-of-town job once and set up to play and couldn't find the power cord to Tyros.
I rushed to the local Radio Shack and they had one.
I started maybe five minutes late.
Oh yes, as I was loading after the job, I found the power cord right where it was supposed to be in the kb case.
The worst was getting to a NH job about an hour from home and realizing I forgot the keyboard.
I set up my laptop and sang to midi files while my partner Dean played fiddle. It's the only time I ever tried to do a job with midi files, but the residents and staff never even noticed.
DonM

Don,

So after all it is true the real live drums don't make a dam bit of diffence, I thought the truth would eventually come out. Hope you KB is still OK, keep on gigging Don.

Cheers Don.

I delivered a Hammond Aurora to a house many years ago, it was a posh house they had dogs. The chap I was with love to demo and after we had put it in position the lady made us a cup of tea and she listened to use playing for about 60 minutes. After about the fist ten minute we could smell dog sh*t, we both looked at each other and it appeared to get worse the more we played. We just ignored it, we packed up and ready to go and looked down, my friend had it on his foot and by now it was on over bass peddles and up into the swell, the Leslie fan was circulating the smell around the room, we just left it there and went!

Rushed to a second job, where I was already set-up. I had loaded rapidly. On a break from the 2nd job, I went out to check on my equipment in the car. My keyboard was gone!

After I calmed down, I went back to the first club. It was pitch dark. My MS-60, in a black case, was sitting out in the yard, leaned up against a fence. It had been there for 4 hours. Probably 450 people went by it.

Doesn't say much for my taste in keyboards, does it?

On another job, the wife of the owner kept calling for country tunes night after night.

I'd had enough, so I used my best Johnny Cash
voice and said, "Hello there...I'm George Wallace and I'm going to be president of the United States"...followed by my worst mocking version of "Hear that train a commin..."

I don't see well without glasses, but I looked over at my partner, who looked worried. I slipped on my glasses and saw that Kentucky State College, a historically African American Institution, was having its annual alumni dinner.


Luckily, I knew one of the Admission people who knew what I was doing. He got up an started a "clog". In a few minutes, there were 50 or so alumns clogging away, laughing (this was in the early 70's).

Thank goodness for a good sense of humor!


Russ

Played a gig at an old mansion style home in one of the historic sections of Providence. The old home use to be a funeral parlor converted to a restaurant. It was a rainy night and I was there in plenty of time to set up. ( was going to play from 6 to 10 PM). One of the waiters said they had a problem on with power on the left wall of the room I played. So, I ran an extension to the other side of the room, plugged in the Bose L1 and it blew a fuse. No problem change the fuse ( what I thought). The housing for the fuse is made of plastic, short story I broke the housing. Still no problem I live a 15 minute drive from the location, so I drove home, picked up the Barbetta 31c. Returned, even though it's now after 6 and the hosts of the party were understanding. But instead of the Barbetta turning on it promptly blew another fuse. OUCH!! Now I have no extra fuses, but that's OK there's a Radio Shack a short drive away, it's raining like crazy and I still have to get back to this former funeral parlor now turned restaurant to start the gig! I get to Radio Shack just before it closes.........the clock is ticking and now it's getting closer to 7 PM. Dam!! Now I can't find where the fuse goes. I'm about to pack it in and tell the hosts, it's not my fault there's faulty power in the building and I've just blown out 2 AMPS and I'm not going to try a 3rd. Meanwhile, the hosts ( a builders association group) has an electrician as a guest. He has trouble finding the fuse receptical on the Barbetta too. But eventually we find it, pop the fuse in take the extension and plug into another outlet on another side of the room and I can start the gig, but by this time it's close to 8 PM. What a disaster. I won't take another gig in that building. Can you say ghost?

The only mistake I made was not being a piano player. This was in the early eighties and I had begun a big New Years party. I got half way through my first set and the electricity went out. I was screwed because the only thing available was a God awful broken down upright piano with half the keys missing. I did the best I could, but never was a piano player and had to rely on left hand block chords. I never felt so much pressure in my life. The juice was off for 30 minutes, but felt like hours.

Gosh Tony, I can't believe you just left that poor woman with the poop-filled organ. Probably took her weeks to figure out what was smelling. I thought you were better than that .

chas

Just the other week I showed up early for a 3 pm gig only to find Bingo going on. Now, we all know that we and Bingo are the interchangeable entertainment of choice. But anyway, I set up and started playing... to a sparse crowd. This just wasn't right. When I got home there was a phone message for me from another AD. It said, 'Cass, I hope you get this before you leave. I somehow double-booked the date. Could I ask you to stay home and we'll work something out?'

How amazing - the gig I played was at the wrong facility, yet I wasn't needed at the one I should have played. Stupid is as stupid does, but the first place got a freebie.

Back in the early 80s I was playing bass in a synth pop band http://www.synthzone.com/ubbs/Forum35/HTML/001385.html

We were carrying so much gear, concert PA, 24 PAR 64 lights and stage gear that somehow I overlooked putting in my bass guitar. I didn't realize until 30 minutes before we were about to play and didn't have time to race home to get it. A friend that lived nearby had a fretless bass .... well I can tell you playing a fretless instrument for the first time live at a gig is not exactly the way to learn. I made it through but I was sweating the whole time. Fortunately it wasn't recorded because I'm sure my intonation wasn't at all perfect.

It's always a good idea to call and verify. Things do get mixed up.

Joe

I accidentally caused a panic at a fancy country club by showing up to play a wedding reception they didn't have on the books. By the time I realized I was at the wrong country club the management was frantically making calls to their clerical employees to get information on the wedding they thought THEY forgot. I slipped out and made it to the right club in the nick of time.

Another time, over anxious busboys, at a hotel gig, anxious to call it a night insisted on helping me get my gear from the 4th floor ballroom to an underground garage. Among the items they carted down was an empty keyboard case. I went back up to get the keyboard and found they had turned the lights off in the room. Not knowing where any of the light switches were, I had to feel my way to the keyboard to retrieve it. Since then, NO ONE helps me pack up.

Eddie

Most stupid thing I've done was play sax on a 104 degree day for a town's centennial celebration. I'd been running sound all morning for other events, and my show was during the hottest part of the day in the early afternoon. I'm not used to 104 degrees. And I'd been singing and playing a few different instruments. I probably wasn't drinking enough water, though to me it seemed like I was drinking a lot. Anyway, the sax and the heat just didn't mix. I got through one song, was feeling a bit spent, so I decided to do the second number sitting down. But I was more spent than I thought. Partway through the song I started getting really dizzy. It was entirely embarrassing to have to stop the song. But, not nearly as embarrassing as when I bent over to put the horn in the stand and kept right on bending until I sprawled out on stage, temporarily passed out for maybe 20 seconds. Ya just don't want to do that with hundreds of people watching. Next thing I know people are helping me from the stage and putting ice packs on my neck and pouring water on me.