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Base theme by DesignModo & ported to Powered by Vanilla by Chris Ireland, modified by the "theFB" team.
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I'd set everything up, pedal board, multiple guitar stands, amp etc. Came to sound check, took the amp off standby, no sound. Checked volume on the guitar, checked the amp volume, checked the pedalboard had power and so on. Nothing. Had a full on meltdown until I realised that I completely forgotten to get the cable that connected the board into the amp out of my bag...............
But yeah the rush of quick changeovers, arsey soundguys and so many things to plug in takes it toll.
Typically we played Friday, Saturday & Sunday nights with the odd afternoon wedding on Saturdays. The money was poor and to take a break we invited audience members up on stage to sing a song or two. Over time we got to know the regular guests and songs and keys they sang in. One elderly gentleman sang a waltz in C. I will never forget that as long as I live. As he got on stage and geared up to sing I was absently strumming chords to check tuning and somehow he took the chord I was strumming, F, as his starting note. Several notes too high for him but he manfully kept going while all I could see were the veins on his neck pumping. I actually believed at one stage that he was going to get a heart attack and die! Wisely we worked a way to cut the song short while he was still alive. We had a laugh about it with him after the pub closed - he understood how it happened and was none the worse for the experience.
Me? perhaps overcome with relief that he did not die, I could not stop laughing as we drove home. One of those things that made the entire gigging effort memorable.
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
There were no monitors either - but it wasn't going to be a problem because the bass player had a good loud amp so I would just take my cues from the bassline. The problem came when about five seconds into the first song, I realised that somehow despite its apparent volume when we were soundchecking, I couldn't hear the bass amp *at all* and not much of the vocals either - just the drums and my amp.
I was in time, at least...
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson
As we had to use the backline, we didn't know what was being supplied and so I brought along my Zoom 9002 (the first, mini one that started it all) and had a good bunch of presets that had been tried and tested at the rehearsals and the unit sounded great.
We were playing FM's rockier version of the motown classic 'I heard it through the Grapevine' and just before we got to the quiet breakdown/vocal in the middle, I went to hit my solo preset in preparation from when we came out of that to launch into a guitar solo. The lights were dim and I accidentally hit the metronome button which through the in-house, large PA rig, sounded like someone banging a dustbin lid. It was horrible, loud, thin and metallic-sounding. To add to it, it was totally out of time with the drummer and of course, being a metronome, everyone thought it was the drummer's, or he'd been using it or triggered it.
As the band looked on in disbelief, it seemed like an eternity before I actually realised what was going on and that alien sound was my doing, but in reality it wasn't, and I nonchalantly sauntered off to my Zoom and turned it off.
Many people commented on 'the interesting break' and I didn't own up to it with the drummer being seen as The C***T of The Night, but in truth, that title belonged to me.
Luckily, the drummer is still one of my besties and we're happy to still play in a band together, but he does mention it every so often - SORRY DAVE.
Here's a pic of the night where you can just make out a letter from the Marquee backdrop. The offending Zoom would've been sitting atop the Marshall head. As an aside, I miss my Tom Anderson shown here, which I now find myself trying to purchase one I can actually afford!
Or the time I was playing bass in jazz quartet sitting on top of my amp and almost fell backwards off it while playing, luckily being caught by the keyboard player.
Unluckily, and unknown to him, the keyboard player accidentally hit the transpose button on his keys, sending everything up a semitone.
Cue the next song and some irate ‘Bm’ ‘I am playing Bm’ etc conversations mid song before realising what had happened....
The drummer plays one continuous drum beat for the entire set... I mean.. it's a good beat, complete with fancy fills and with his spagetti octopus arms bit it's the first song..
Me and other guy are making the entire set fit on the fly to this beat. It was an experience..
I didn't even have the excuse of falling over first either.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
Turns out I was adjusting his amp all night not mine!
Many years ago I was asked to play in a band that was quickly put together for a friend's wedding. The singer wanted to do a cover of a Mike & the Mechanics song and insisted on using a drum machine despite having a perfectly adequate drummer in the band.
We rehearsed it and all went well.
Fast forward to the gig, the singer brings along his PA and sets up, as do the rest of the band with their gear, but I quickly notice that there're no monitors on stage, so when it comes to the Mike & the Mechanics number none of the band can hear the damn drum machine! The only reference we had was the FoH bouncing off the back wall of the venue.
Instead of abandoning the song after the first couple of bars we fumbled through giving each other 'wtf' looks and imagining what the singer would look like without any limbs!
That was just about the worst gig ever.
There is no 'H' in Aych, you know that don't you? ~ Wife
Turns out there is an H in Haych! ~ Sporky
Bit of trading feedback here.