Gordon Comstock Posted June 11, 2022 Share Posted June 11, 2022 6 hours ago, kruelty said: BUMP! Oh man, I got a fair share of these. A few years ago our band got booked to our biggest gig yet, a festival where we shared the stage with Weezer, Franz Ferdinand and so forth. Needless to say, we were pretty stoked to be on that bill. Some days before the show we had a disastrous warm-up gig at another festival, but we figured that we got the shittiness out of our systems for the big gig. The big day comes, we've done soundcheck, soaked the sights of the backstage in our minds and psyched to go play. We start the show, and about 40 seconds into the first song we realize that the lead singer's mic isn't working. An engineer comes onto the stage and replaces the mic, and just as our guy starts singing, the drummer immediatly counts into the next song. Cue confusion and disorientation from everybody else in the band. ''Of all the bands in the world, this is definitely one of them''. At some point we had played about 4-5 songs, and I'd been hopping around on stage like a mad man, without realizing that the guitar cable has been wrapped around some mic stands and my leg. I made a hilariously sad attempt at a high jump, only to suddenly fall on my ass, knocking down some microphones and other equipments in the process. It made for good entertainment, but the sound people's wrath post gig left me severely traumatized... About a year later we got booked to a small gig way out in nowhere-land, with good pay. We figured it'd be a cozy sweaty little afternoon with some drunken village idiots, so we packed our gear and brought some merchandise along. After a long drive we make it to the venue, which practically could house the whole village several times. We come to realize that this is no ordinary sweaty bar gig, no, we're playing in a tiny gym court filled with a bunch of 9-year olds. BIt of a surprise, but we figured that we could give the kids a proper show. Just before soundcheck it's brought to our attention that the venue had forgot to supply half of their backline, which was in a city about 65 miles out. Stress ensues, but we managed to scrape together some junk that sounded presentable. During this time there were severe personal tensions within the band, and there was a general bad feeling about this show. 15 minutes before showtime I got a call telling me that our family dog was just put down, which really downed me. We go on stage and start playing. Keep in mind this is a TINY gym court, with the most horrible echo imaginable, so unsurprisingly there were a few kids that ran out covering their ears. No dancing in the hallways. It was such a miserable affair for everyone involved that I couldn't help myself from laughing hysterically. At least we were paid to be there!! Next up is a song about necrophilia. Our singer, a guy with a manic disorder and whom I presume was going through some shit during that time, proceeds to explain the concept of necrophilia in an Axl Rose-esque rant to these children. Crickets. In the middle of the set he ran out and located this glass jar, which he attempted to smash way too many times without luck. It didn't matter if he hit his head with it, stomped on it or threw it against the wall, it just wouldn't break. Somewhat fitting, all things considered. We near the end of our set, and are about to jump into this really cool high tempo song, which we usually start playing immediatly after a spoken introduction. But our drummer just couldn't for the life of him remember the song. I had had enough and started howling at this poor dude. We exchanged horrible threats to each other during the song. Not long after that we finished our set, and the tension between everyone was horrible, not to mention the fact that we had to share ONE room with bunk beds. In hindsight I can see this show being somewhat of an absurd bonding moment between us, I guess you've never truly loved someone without ever have had the desire to kick their teeth in. Everyone has bad gigs, but this post is fantastic. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocknroll41 Posted June 11, 2022 Share Posted June 11, 2022 I’ve had more bad gigs than good gigs tbh. I enjoyed recording songs at home, but playing live is a whole different ball game. One of these days when I have more time I’ll detail all my bad gigs here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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