What was the worst gig you've ever played?
Best?
Weirdest?
>be 17 or 18, senior in high school
>have a gig with my band to play at a local restaurant event room
>What I got is on the playlist
>show up and it's literally all children and old people
>wasnotawareofthis.jpg
>get to "motherfuckin riot"
>try to censor myself
>don't
>see sister laughing in the background while negativity creeps onto the faces of all the old people
>organizer comes up behind my lead guitarist
>"swear again and you're out of here
>finish show
>leave and never return
>still cringe about it
>playing live
>>64214765
>/mu/
>actual musicians
that can't be a thing
>>64214870
>being such a social retard that this is a negative thing to you
Wait OP are you asking me?
>>64214896
I'm the top post guy, I'm only here to wade through shit and find the occasional great new band.
>>64214765
Thanks doc
tfw moved to the suburbs and there is no music scene and no musicians and nothing to live for.
I used to be part of the hip music scene guys. My days of glory are over
>>64214915
Yes.
>>64214861
that actually sounds painful
>>64215350
Yeah, it was awkward as fuck.
>>64214765
I used to play in a grindcore band and we hopped on a show with a few shoegaze bands, but the headliner dropped at the last minute so we ended up playing to an empty venue. It was terrible.
>>64214765
>>64214861
Alright since no one else is contributing I'll give my best gig story
>play in rock band in my college town
>we're tight as fuck
>play gig at a bar
>get hot bitches dancing on the floor to one of my own songs
>throw in Ramble on by Led Zeppelin at the end and our other vocalist kills it
>cheering
>beers offered
>girls flirt with us
>stuck with my crazy bitch girlfriend
>50 bucks each for an hour set
9/10 experience would do again
I'm just gonna keep going until someone else contributes I guess.
>end of high school senior year
>talent show, 1000 or so people there in the auditorium if not more
>I'm up to play an acoustic version of Simple Man by Lynyrd Skynyrd by myself
>get 2/3 through the song and doing pretty good
>tapping my foot to the beat unplugs my amp which I'm running both my mic and guitar through
>sit there in dumbfounded silence for what felt like a whole minute, probably only 8-10 seconds
>panic and can't figure out why everything cut out
>look and see my sister say "keep going"
>play unplugged for the rest of the song
>belt the shit out of that chorus
>BABY BE A SIMPOOOOO
>finish
>crowd goes fucking nuts
>family is near me at the end
>little girl says
>"when are you gonna be on American Idol"
>filled with pride
>everyone tells me I was the best
>lost to some annoying bitch with aspergers because pity points
Good show, would do again.
>get a chance to do a small 5-song set in a tiny venue
>spoiler alert: it's literally a basement
>4 people show up
>play first two songs
>3 people left
>the one guy who stayed was drunk and kept yelling out "PLAY FREEBIRD WOOO"
>he had to be escorted out
>we play our last song to nobody
>paid $50 for that show
and that, ladies and gentlemen, was our only show ever
>>64215888
Trips since it was best worst and weirdest
![[UsaBit.com]_Pirates of Silicon Valley 1999 DVDRip x264-REQU3ST.mkv_snapshot_01.10.31_[2016.04.04_22.29.02].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/zmhHcdi.jpg "[UsaBit.com]_Pirates of Silicon Valley 1999 DVDRip x264-REQU3ST.mkv_snapshot_01.10.31_[2016.04.04_22.29.02].jpg")
terrible experience, which was also my first paid gig
> friend's dad needs people to play at this company social thing at his big fucking mansion
> pays both my friend and I $30, which isn't much, but hey we're just messing around and it's a favour for my friend anyway
> play in a living room to basically no one for 2 hours
> somebody's daughter gets into an argument with their dad which interrupts things and makes it incredibly awkward
> 2 hours later, everyone is drunk
> a couple older guys go home, get their instruments and start trying to "join in"
> they just start (badly and drunkenly) playing country songs over me and my friend
> my guitar strings break
> motherfucking spaghetti everywhere, definitely never doing something like that again in my life.
>>64214765
>worst
Played in Dekalb, IL at a hick/biker bar. Had glass beer mugs thrown at us and our drummer got threatened with a switchblade in the parkling lot.
>best
In Milwaulkee, WI. Played a cover of Surrender and had the whole place singing along.
>weirdest
My girlfriend's sisters wedding. We played all Beatles and Big Star covers. People wanted us to slow down and play something less abraisive.
>>64214765
>be 21
>play in a concert downtown as an opener for a bigger band
>hardcore lighting going on.
>right in the middle of song
>rhythm guitarist starts twitching and stops playing
>is driven to the hospital
>turns out to have had a seizure
>4 years of knowing him he tells none of us he's epileptic
>beat
Doom and black metal band, we played a friends birthday party, loads of people show up, great mosh pits, we played super tight, people told us we were the best band in our local metal/punk scene.
>weirdest
High school jazz band asked to play Mardi Gras party for local church, everything going great, people dancing, great solos. Church lady tells us we can take a break and have some food, piano player drops a plate and it breaks, everyone suddenly becomes super passive aggressive. Return to playing, still kicking ass but no one's dancing anymore, get asked to leave early. It was just a fucking plate.
Haven't had a gig go horribly wrong yet fortunately.
>>64218409
Are you from Louisiana matey? I'm nola
Pianist in a jazz combo in high school, here goes
>best
Played fundraiser that Marshall Faulk put on. He was there along with Jon Batiste, the music guy on Colbert's Late Show, and Jon sat in on a few songs. He is one of the best piano players alive. Of course stole the show from me but he was nice and chill as fuck. This was about 2 years before the Late Show. We heard Snoop Dogg came at like 2 AM but we'd left unfortunately
>weirdest
Played in the middle of the woods at this hipster art studio shit. I kid you not there was no one there besides the owners but we still got $100 each. While we were on break our drummer abruptly pulled out his phone and without warning showed us a video he took of him getting his dick sucked
>worst
Duo gig with our guitarist on the second story of a Mellow Mushroom pizza place. No one payed attention to us and it was awkward as hell, we threw in pop songs but no one acknowledged us then even. We switched instruments at one point just because it was such shit and we were bored. Payment was one large pizza
Those were amazing fucking times, we've all moved away from new orleans now though. I played at least 50 gigs in the span of 2 years
>open mic alt rock/ post rock
>singer/guitarist forgot cable and guitar isn't tuned
>i get my extra cable and tune the guitar for him but this embarasses him and from then on he seems real nervous and jittery.
> full on stage fright.
>he deviates from our song list, forgets words, and plays with his back to the crowd, looking angrily at me (bassist) and drummer.
>he apologizes to the crowd for us not being prepared and just rambling. He's about to call it quits when i convince him to give me the mic.
>he focuses on guitar and we start killing it.
>i scream through some ad libbed black flag, stooges, and an early Nirvana cover
>crowd is confused but into it
>Ask for encore. We play Fang - money will roll right in, the rest of the band learning on the spot.
>crowd sings along to "i'll get to fuck brooke shields!!"
in equal parts the most embarrassing/fun night of my life.
>be me, 25
>baritone saxophonist
> play sax with a couple friends who play drums and double bass
>we play for private parties, mainly, but we've played at improv fests before, as well
>be at drummer's friend's party, saturday night
>drummer's friend asks us to do a short improvisation around halfway through the party for some entertainment(promises extra pay too)
>we agree happily, since we mostly have to play the same classic songs over again when we go to the next gig
>mid-party comes, around 9:30 PM
>my mates and I group together to discuss how we want to take the improvisation(we always do a vague plan on escalating sound, changing tone, etc at a certain point)
>we agree to take it slow and minimal at first, but speed up and add drums later
>crowd of about 40 in friend's apartment eagerly watching us (rather large apartment, actually)
>no big deal, played in front of hundreds before
>bass player and I start it off as planned, some sparse avant-garde doots and strums
>we pick up the tempo and the drummer comes in with some snare
>drummer brings it in FAST
>ohhh ornette HELP ME
>play vigorously to keep up with the tempo drummer sets
>he doesn't back off
>see bassist
>he looked briefly over at me and continued playing so hard the veins popped out of his head
>can't last much longer
>what can I do?
>exhaustion from playing makes my thinking notsoclear
>start yelling WHIP IT ON ME JIM repeatedly to the drummer(yes, WL/WH, don't even remember listening to that in recent years)
>drummer hears me, stops playing and looks at me
>bassist just stopped playing to give his arms a break from the tempo
>my mouth, of course, was off the reed because I was yelling at the drummer
>no more music
>just "WHIP IT ON ME JIM! WHIP IT ON ME JIM!"
>people stare
>I stop
>my mates and I acknowledge each other and walk off the platform
>Do live sound for a few years
>~500 person audience show
>Autistic guy gets on stage
>Brace for impact, hope he just does what we've done in rehearsals
>Takes another guitarists patch cable
>Loses all the pedals he's supposed to be going through
>Starts playing a clean version of Welcome To The Jungle
>Autistic Rage begins to brew
>Starts stomping on the stage
>Stomps can be heard over vocalist trying to keep the group together
>Audience begins pulling out their phones to record
>Autist walks off stage
>I get blamed since it was a sound issue
Autistic guy if you're out there, I told you how many times that you were the patch cable with the red tape.
>>64219431
Another one
>500 person show (it was the max size of our venue)
>2014
>Using a 32 channel board
>It's from the eighties
>10 channels work
>Too worried about channels cutting out than actually doing my job
>Lights come on
>Silhouette of dancers with backs turned
>Press play on my laptop
>Spice Girls: laptop speakers edition, fills the auditorium
>Forgot to plug in my laptop
>Crowd starts to laugh
>Get on headset and tell the producer that another channel busted and that I'm working on it
>Plug in my laptop
>Cheers from the crowd
>Lighting guy is aware of my lie
>Looks at me with disdain
>Pack up with him after the show in complete silence
I wanted to kill myself
Best:
>First show with a metal band I made with my little brother
>They shine black and white kung fu movies on us with a projector
>The audience is literally piling on top of it's self in front of the stage, crazy moshing
>Guy we know breaks his arm in the mosh pit, it was sweet
Weirdest
>Playing in another metal band after an emo/pop-punk kind of band
>A fan of said band is arguing with one of our fans about which band sucks
>They get physical, pulling many other audience members into a brawl
>Some of my friends take shelter on stage with us
>We decide to start furiously jamming/soloing
>The bar keeper brandishes a bat
>Mob fight spills out into the street where cops show up and break it up
Worst
>Outdoor gig
>Can't hear each other
>Everyone in the band gets lost, but keeps trying to play
>Audience looks confused
>Shame
>>64219559
i've been in the audience when this has happened.
I barely noticed at all, I'm sure no one cared dude.
>>64219794
I know no one cared but the excuse was so petty and the look from the lighting guy was so soulless. It was better than the captain autismo incident, I got in shit for that and they threatened to not pay me.
I've always been scared of playing in front of people, especially because I'd scare most of them away.
What's it like?
>>64219931
I do open mics to help fight my anxiety.
It's hard as fuck at first and embarrassing. But it gets easier. Eventually you learn to have fun and when the crowd has fun too it gets easier.
When it's over, the rush is pretty great.
Worst: Gig organised by the pub our bassist works at, had a band play before us that played alternative rock with everything set to 11 (no matter how many times management asked them to turn it down) for well over an hour when they were just meant to play 45 mins max ( they kept telling us "we're nearly done don't worry" before each of their last 5 songs). By the time we got on most people had left and we barely had time to do even half our setlist, as well as my band deciding to skip soundcheck to just get straight into it leading to me and our bassist sounding way too quite compared our rhythm guitarist and drummer and everything going to shit in general.
Weirdest: Went to a local open mic night in a bar that's usually quite busy with my old band, hoping to get a bit more exposure while we were starting out. Turned out the only people in the room were us, another band of drunk af dad rockers, a solo singer/guitarist and the bartender. After realising no one else was coming, we all just had a jam for a couple hours while exchanging band members. Turned out to be quite a good experience.
Best: Open mic in another local pub, none of us had had time to meet up and practice at all in the lead up to it but decided to give it a go anyway since we could just stick to a few songs we knew well and leave it at that. Ended up being the tightest we'd ever played together, even when we got lost in our own buzz and decided to play a new song we'd barely even finished writing the day before.
>>64219931
desu I still hate playing in front of people to this day, but aside from all the involuntary shaking and sweating from nervousness, it's a nice feeling when you do a good gig and get nice feedback from people. Protip though, try to have a drink before your first couple of gigs (assuming you're of the relative legal drinking age), it can at least help to chill you out a bit if you're as bad as me when it comes to public attention.
17 years old
> playing classic 80's rock
>at the last minute drummer tells me thescoffee shop is too small for all our equipment
>were signed up 7th on the line up all the musicians before us are acoustic folk
>we get on stage to play but the drummer could only fit his snare and ride on stage
>I give a really lousy introduction
>naturally my amp is loud and my guitar is ripping and the people sitting infront begin to cringe especially this asian girl in her 20s
>We do okay on the first 2 songs then the keyoard player accidentially ends up in the corniest synth patch one could ever imagine and begins to play a blues shuffle.
>the rest of the band drowns his sound out and we all fall out of sync and thats how the set ends.
>once again naturally a girl appreciated my guitar playing but my social awkwardness cut the convo short
That was a funny fucking day.
>>64221816
Weirdest- I was playing at a local college and we had last minute got a singer when it came time for him to sing he couldnt do it. I mean this guy barely tried. So me being the band leader felt i should try to sing my voice goes mute and my mouth is moving but no words are coming out like sleep paralysis. We had a got instrumental set but the singing awkwardly happened.
Best- fullerton california club/bar kill it playng some new retro wave. I sang great and out did the house band as one man show.
>>64214765
thanks doc
>>64222088
Good instrumental set
A one man show
Fail at typing much. Ha
