I would love to here about everyone's best and worst performances!! All the juicy details PLEASE!!

Thanks again -charley

I was playing my new PSR740 for the Xmas party at the local skating rink. Ionly had it for 2 weeks and was still finding my way around it. The lighting was bad and I while I could play the tunes OK, I couldn't see all the buttons for selecting voices, styles etc. Also the cables I had were too short and I had difficulty in hooking it up to the PA system. If that wasn't bad enough, half a dozen keyboard players came out of the woodwork to talk to me. Funnily enough I was able to keep playing while having a half dozen conversations.

Another time I played the piano at a concert and in shifting the piano on to the stage they managed to disconnect the pedals. That was a dry performance!

Bryan

Just thought of a mega low point!

I went busking a few years ago at a shopping centre.

I thought it was going quite well and eventually, this rich looking guy with a suit turned up and stood right in front of me, apprarently giving me his full and undivided attention.

Sure enough, after there was a gap in the songs the smart dressed guy walked up to me and just as I was prepairing to sign the record contract of my dreams he said to me;

"I work in the bank across the road and if you don't stop playing I'm calling the police!".

[This message has been edited by Equalizer (edited 04-25-2003).]

hehe i like the busking one eq

i havent gigged that much but starting to up the load so I guess the worst is yet to come.

Best: High school battle of the bands. Me in a skanky prom dress and spider web stockings, my bass player at the time in a bunny suit, our poet/singer punked the **** out. Sword fighting with crutches, junk percussion, audience participation... plus the Lynyrd Skynyrd/Led Zepplin loving judges HATED us.

Worst: number 1: last summer we played a show in an American Legion Hall. The guy before us was a skinny white nerd rapper who plugged a discman into the PA system for his beats. For his grand finale he threw a cream pie ****ing everywhere and it got all over my synth (Ensoniq Fizmo - discontinued) and my computer. I eventually had to just throw out the floppy drive, but that only cost $5. Still, everytime I see him I start a fight with him over that.

number 2: A Punk-nic picnic where the bands played in the basement of someone's house. Our set went okay, but the PA amp would just die when things got too loud. Only cut out on us once, but later on there was a shitty punk band called Death and Taxes. After the amp cut out on them a few times, the singer starting banging MY microphone, which I had lent to the cause, on the cement floor. Then he stuck it down his pants and it still smells like crotch.

Later found out from a friend that the guy is an ex-heroin addict, still does a lot of other lesser drugs, who is known for being a crazy ****.

Best and worst huh...
Well the worst for sure was when a bunch of us local musicians played the Irvine Bowl and the house wiring was screwed up somewhere in the lighting system and was tripping a 100 amp breaker on the main panel. They called an electrician who fixed it quickly. Too quickly. Our first song the playing was horrible because everybody was "half faking it" while we were all looking around because we could smell something electrical burning very prominent. 30 seconds into the song all the power dimmed and then this really LOUD "-POOF-", the stage was pitch black and you could see the flames coming out of the vents of the stages subpanel. The staff there opened the panel door and was hitting the panel with fire exinguishers like a firing squad while these sparks are flying. I told this huge security guy to check and make sure the main panel is shut down or the place could burn up. That it turned out was my entertainment! He made his way through people like a human plow. You could tell the moment he cut the power because the emergency lights went on and the sparks stopped. That night truly stunk.
Best ever was the summer before last, but youall would never believe it if I told you, so forget it.

Is it anything like the old Onion story, "Bass Player Fellated?"

PLEASE!!!!!!!

Do tell..............................

We went to this gig to scope a percussionist for our group and after he played on came some metal band and bagged this other band (the one with our future drummer in it) over the mic.

Our drummer's sister jumped on stage and threw a jug of beer all over the guitarist and screwed his les paul.

OK rattley,

You said the majic word so I will. I know that it has been a while but still to protect myself I am not doing any name dropping of people sensitive to the issue but you will know by how I will describe the main performer
A good friend of mine was once discovered by George Lynch (Lynch Mob). He is...oh man! Let's just say the guy has completely mastered the electric bass guitar. Anyway since we are friends, I got to know his material so when he was not on tour, we would rehearse after I finished my work for the day. He came back from a tour and told me that he's scheduled for a "try out" with a very popular Latino vocalist in a month. I pulled her history from the sound library, burned a CD and we began drilling. At the interview, he slam-dunked it and by a ¼ way through the second song, he was the new bassist the arranger/composer was very happy. We continued to do rehearsals every week or so. He went on tour twice. One night I got a call from him telling me the keyboardist was in the hosp. with hepetitus and alcohol poisoning. I expressed my condolences and then said, "So, you coming home?" and he said, Well I was hoping that maybe you would come here. He only needs the one night in Nassau off the day after tommorow and if we don't play it CBS might cancel the rest of the tour. There was a long pause...wait, you mean me? sub? He said, Pete you can ripp thru this easy, please! I guess it didn't take too much thought,"yeah well alright, you got me bro.". I flew that night and saw him about 7 hours later. while I was on the plane I thought about every possible thing I would need to know from the guy I was filling for. I spoke with him the next day. Thank god he had a "neat freak" setup and all the patches were setup in exact sequence as the show was to be done. All that was open was a two min solo at the near end. I went to a music store the next day and played the same Kurz, and figured out what I was going to do, played till the guy told me to take off the headphones, the store is closed.
A lot more that happened but the bottom line is we rocked that house hard and everyone said it was incredible,the best. It had the Superbowl energy they once experienced. That solo man, I dunno. I still dont think it was me. I think God took over for me those two minutes. There were people on peoples shoulders that were on peoples shoulders and the crowd was wild. Afterwards all were saying about the incredible solo I played. I didn't know what to say. I could only think the truth of it, I don't know what happened but I think God took over for me.
She looked very suprised too and asked, "How long have you been playing?" I looked at my watch and said, "Oh at least 'bout a couple hours now." To this day, I still cannot keep up and do that incredible solo work I did that night. Thank You Lord Jesus. God gave me a night to remember for a lifetime.
That's it rattley, sorry if it was a little long.

[This message has been edited by Morphamatik (edited 04-30-2003).]

Jiddu,

You mean she short circuited the Les Paul right?

[This message has been edited by Morphamatik (edited 04-30-2003).]

Our old band "Fear of Success" was Playing one night in "Steamers" in Victoria. Normally we would mix our own sound on stage and pain-stakingly get it just right for the room. Well this place insisted on us using their soundman, I think his nickname was "Mr. Reverb", or at least it should have been. This clown couldn't mix drinks...let alone sound, if his life depended on it. Full reverb coming through the monitors, we're hearing the same lyric line 4 or 5 times, the room had all the acoustics of a garden shed. We complained to the management at the first break, to no avail. Never went back there again, never would, never will. As far as I know, Mr. Reverb is still there messin' up everyones sound.

Thanks for sharing that wonderful story Morphamatik.............Everyone deserves a moment in the spotlight to shine. I'm glad you got yours and shared it here. Stories like that provide inspiration for me. Thanks to everyone who responded to this post. No doubt Morphamatik gets the prize for the "Best".................who gets the booby prize for "worst"?

Leon..

You said you could hear the same lyric in the monitors 4 times, well that ain't reverb pal, that's delay.
Some vocalist do like a tad of reverb in the monitors. The guy should have asked.

Did you get a 'soundcheck'? - I'm guess no..

What are 'acoustics of a garden shed'?

As you might have guessed I do a bit of FOH sound, what you hear on stage ain't what the people hear....

Does sound as if it's a place to avoid!



------------------
The Sonic Energy Authority - a sound investment

..Sonic... poor choice of words, when I said reverb. Did we run a sound check..Duh..No we just guessed what the room would sound like when we drove up....Whatta yoo think...pal!!
These little "surprises" were fed to us after we started playing.

What are the acoustics of a garden shed?? Sh***y.

Also, 3 of us were wireless, so we did get down onto the floor at times and believe me...it was horrible. But it's all water under the bridge now as the band has since folded, we've all gotten into other endeavours. Thanx for your critique no matter how uninformed it might be. Ouch...did I hit a nerve??.....pal!!

tsk...rookies

Nigel...sorry about the *** but sometimes that's the only way you can descibe these joints.

[This message has been edited by Leon (edited 05-01-2003).]

[This message has been edited by Leon (edited 05-01-2003).]

Did we run a sound check..Duh..No we just guessed what the room would sound like when we drove up....Whatta yoo think...pal!!

Hey - I just asked, as you know, you don't always get the chance.

These little "surprises" were fed to us after we started playing.

Well, in that case, I can understand your feelings to the guy.

What are the acoustics of a garden shed?? Sh***y.

Ok, I was thinking more on the lines of "The accoustics of a garden shed" = tight, no reverb.
Then you've got your toliets of course.
Not forgetting your typical aircraft hangers - boy they're really fun to play


Also, 3 of us were wireless, so we did get down onto the floor at times and believe me...it was horrible.

We do, we do!

Thanx for your critique no matter how uninformed it might be. Ouch...did I hit a nerve??.....pal!!

Should I be putting on a fire proof suit?

tsk...rookies

I guess so....


Loen, accept me humblest appoglies for showing an interest on your grief, it was something you have carried with you for some time, and it looks as if getting it off your chest hasn't helpped.

I will go back under the rock from where I came, and bother you, and the others that might be reading this, no more about this subject.

I'm so, so, sorry.

No apologies necessary Sonic....just the term "pal" has always been a sore spot with me. Please accept my apologies for raggin' on ya. And as a matter of fact, yes I have done a gig in a hanger. The best thing about the gig was that we were set up on the wings of a Mars water bomber. They had rubber matting laid down so we weren't slip sliding all over the place. It was a little hairy to say the least, and as you can well imagine...the sound....literally "In Your Face". I may have some pics somewhere, if I can find them. I'll have to scan them if I do find them as it was back before the days of digital imagery.
...peace..

hmmm worst moment is a tie between
a)playin a song with a long keyboard intro and the band all comes in at once except the bass player who had tuned down for the last number 'forgot' to tune up ahhh a semitone out ... not pretty had to actually stop playing :-( I can laugh about it now and
b)filling in for our vocalist cause he was late at a corporate function pacing round the stage trying to be 'dynamic' ,tripping over a mic cable and landing head first into the drum kit ,every single person (including the guys in the band) stopped and laughed (except me)

...Ouch...!!

rattley,

Not meaning to dampen that sprite of inspiration, but I did not mention the money it cost me on the bottom line. No notice flights & hotels, car, food, I still drank then (although I've never really been much of a drinker)so add on a few bar tabs...concl.: it was expensive

Hey here's a good one:

Ann Landers says in her columb that:
If you have sex three or more times a day, you're sick and should seek professional help.
Well I got news for Ann Landers, There's no way I could even get sex three times a day unless I do seek professional help!

hahahah



heh no morph she didnt *screw* his les paul.

Morph...I saw the same comedian do that routine.
You forgot the last line:
"Why Ann...you frisky biscuit yoooo!!"

[This message has been edited by Leon (edited 05-08-2003).]

Well, I've spent the musician part of my life primarily as a general business (weddings, dances,etc.) band member, same guys, 26 years....most of it was great, ..so that's my point of reference .....
The WORST gig was a mid-day wedding we were playing in the month of July ... Inside the catering hall a cool 70F, outside, 98F in the shade... All of a sudden there is a power shortage in the area... no lights, no ac, no sound from our 'electric' instruments... We make some frantic calls and about 45 minutes later, I'm playing accordion, the bass player's playing stand up acoustic, the vocalist is singing through a bullhorn ... Since a lot of the crowd went outside, we did also, and played as best we could ... We busted our backs and 4 hours later, drenched with sweat, hoarse throats from singing with no mics, totally wiped out, we go to the groom to get paid and he tells us "you didn't provide the music I expected, so you're not getting paid!!!" ...
About an hour later after talking with the parents, the bride and the groom again, cooler heads prevailed and we left, cash in hand.
The best - I would have to say it was a few years ago when, having moved to Rhode Island, I eventually hooked up with a group that played classic RnR ... Creedance, Steppenwolf, Beatles, Stones, even 50's doowop ... We were invited to play at the Providence Waterfront Festival held on Labor Day weekend .... What a set-up ... on the waterfront, street blocked off to traffic except for motorcycles, under a huge tent that covered what was the parking lot of a couple of bars... big stage, lights, huge speakers, sound man, the works ... G.E.Smith was the headliner for the day....The months of rehearsals paid off in a flawless performance and as we were breaking down our gear I heard one of the members of the next group say "We have to follow THEM?!?" ...
It was quite a thrill for a 55 yrs young kb player ...
t.