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Gig from Hell - LOL.

danarhea

danarhea

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If Gene Kelton were still alive, he would be proud to put this one in his book "Gigs From Hell". This gig at the Bud Light Barbecue Cookoff at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds started innocuously enough. Unloaded my equipment at 9 in morning. Since we weren't due to start playing until 8PM. I had beaucoup hours to kill. So I walked around the area...A LOT. During the day, I walked more than 25 miles, and still felt great. Had one incident at the Exotic Animal Petting Zoo. Got into a conversation with someone I never met, and it turned into which ones we would like to eat. Both of us were asked to leave the exhibit. LOL.

Due to equipment problems, we didn't start playing until 8:30PM. About 3 songs into our first set is when the storm hit. Where we played was at the bottom of a big hill. We were just finishing up a song when all the water from the entire length of the hill joined with the water at the bottom, and came into the tent we were playing in. Water was running down my side of the stage, and a huge river of water cut the whole area in half. I named it Cookoff River. We unplugged everything and waited for the storm to pass, which it finally did just before 11PM. When the water stopped flowing there were spots under the tent that were ankle deep in mud. We managed to play one more song before everything was shut off for the night. Charlie Parker's shoes are ruined. Chris the drummer's shoes are ruined. My shoes are ruined. I lost my gig bag, and Charlie lost a couple bags of his own. I just got home and have taken a very hot bath. Time for a shot of Bird Dog Maple Whiskey, and I am off to bed. Got 2 gigs next Saturday, the first during the day at Harley Davidson in Beaumont, and then one at night in Spring. After what happened tonight, I will be crossing my fingers. LOL.
 
danarhea said:
If Gene Kelton were still alive, he would be proud to put this one in his book "Gigs From Hell". This gig at the Bud Light Barbecue Cookoff at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds started innocuously enough. Unloaded my equipment at 9 in morning. Since we weren't due to start playing until 8PM. I had beaucoup hours to kill. So I walked around the area...A LOT. During the day, I walked more than 25 miles, and still felt great. Had one incident at the Exotic Animal Petting Zoo. Got into a conversation with someone I never met, and it turned into which ones we would like to eat. Both of us were asked to leave the exhibit. LOL.

Due to equipment problems, we didn't start playing until 8:30PM. About 3 songs into our first set is when the storm hit. Where we played was at the bottom of a big hill. We were just finishing up a song when all the water from the entire length of the hill joined with the water at the bottom, and came into the tent we were playing in. Water was running down my side of the stage, and a huge river of water cut the whole area in half. I named it Cookoff River. We unplugged everything and waited for the storm to pass, which it finally did just before 11PM. When the water stopped flowing there were spots under the tent that were ankle deep in mud. We managed to play one more song before everything was shut off for the night. Charlie Parker's shoes are ruined. Chris the drummer's shoes are ruined. My shoes are ruined. I lost my gig bag, and Charlie lost a couple bags of his own. I just got home and have taken a very hot bath. Time for a shot of Bird Dog Maple Whiskey, and I am off to bed. Got 2 gigs next Saturday, the first during the day at Harley Davidson in Beaumont, and then one at night in Spring. After what happened tonight, I will be crossing my fingers. LOL.
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Great story Dan, a night to remember. The gig at Cookoff River was more just a taste of hell, as hopefully it wont be happening evey night. :shock::lamo
 
danarhea said:
If Gene Kelton were still alive, he would be proud to put this one in his book "Gigs From Hell". This gig at the Bud Light Barbecue Cookoff at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds started innocuously enough. Unloaded my equipment at 9 in morning. Since we weren't due to start playing until 8PM. I had beaucoup hours to kill. So I walked around the area...A LOT. During the day, I walked more than 25 miles, and still felt great. Had one incident at the Exotic Animal Petting Zoo. Got into a conversation with someone I never met, and it turned into which ones we would like to eat. Both of us were asked to leave the exhibit. LOL.

Due to equipment problems, we didn't start playing until 8:30PM. About 3 songs into our first set is when the storm hit. Where we played was at the bottom of a big hill. We were just finishing up a song when all the water from the entire length of the hill joined with the water at the bottom, and came into the tent we were playing in. Water was running down my side of the stage, and a huge river of water cut the whole area in half. I named it Cookoff River. We unplugged everything and waited for the storm to pass, which it finally did just before 11PM. When the water stopped flowing there were spots under the tent that were ankle deep in mud. We managed to play one more song before everything was shut off for the night. Charlie Parker's shoes are ruined. Chris the drummer's shoes are ruined. My shoes are ruined. I lost my gig bag, and Charlie lost a couple bags of his own. I just got home and have taken a very hot bath. Time for a shot of Bird Dog Maple Whiskey, and I am off to bed. Got 2 gigs next Saturday, the first during the day at Harley Davidson in Beaumont, and then one at night in Spring. After what happened tonight, I will be crossing my fingers. LOL.
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You are lucky you didn't get shocked, or worse electrocuted. I have been shocked pretty good by a couple of old Fender tube amps, most memorable was from a Super Reverb.
Personally not a fan of outdoor gigs because of two issues: (1) potential for weather related issues (2) sound issues
Good luck on the next two gigs.
 
danarhea said:
If Gene Kelton were still alive, he would be proud to put this one in his book "Gigs From Hell". This gig at the Bud Light Barbecue Cookoff at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds started innocuously enough. Unloaded my equipment at 9 in morning. Since we weren't due to start playing until 8PM. I had beaucoup hours to kill. So I walked around the area...A LOT. During the day, I walked more than 25 miles, and still felt great. Had one incident at the Exotic Animal Petting Zoo. Got into a conversation with someone I never met, and it turned into which ones we would like to eat. Both of us were asked to leave the exhibit. LOL.

Due to equipment problems, we didn't start playing until 8:30PM. About 3 songs into our first set is when the storm hit. Where we played was at the bottom of a big hill. We were just finishing up a song when all the water from the entire length of the hill joined with the water at the bottom, and came into the tent we were playing in. Water was running down my side of the stage, and a huge river of water cut the whole area in half. I named it Cookoff River. We unplugged everything and waited for the storm to pass, which it finally did just before 11PM. When the water stopped flowing there were spots under the tent that were ankle deep in mud. We managed to play one more song before everything was shut off for the night. Charlie Parker's shoes are ruined. Chris the drummer's shoes are ruined. My shoes are ruined. I lost my gig bag, and Charlie lost a couple bags of his own. I just got home and have taken a very hot bath. Time for a shot of Bird Dog Maple Whiskey, and I am off to bed. Got 2 gigs next Saturday, the first during the day at Harley Davidson in Beaumont, and then one at night in Spring. After what happened tonight, I will be crossing my fingers. LOL.
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On the bright side, at least you didn't get electrocuted. :2razz:





PS Were there beavers in the exotic animal section? Just wondering...
 
Our worst gig was at a Catholic High School in 1979.

We had kind of an original "space metal" band, somewhat modeled after our local heroes there in So. Cal: Sky People.

So we had costumes and a pair of black "Spock" hands on either side of the stage our bass player cut out of plywood, it made our equipment look not so dinky compared to the big touring bands we were opening up for.

This school had a bunch of rich kids who came up with $1500 for Van Halen with Canned Heat the year before, this year it was our band opening, "Vixen," an all girl band that still plays, "Missouri Fox" a touring cover band that reminded me of REO Speedwagon and a little-known band from England, making their first southern California tour: The Jam...



Three nice English guys who helped us lug our equipment.

Anyway, we were a power trio and had our amps made into "stacks" by putting them up on empty cabinets, and ten seconds before we go on we lit a smoke bomb and tossed it under my amp.

A thick column of white smoke is rising around my amp, it looked kind of cool, and just as it looked like it was getting out of hand, we lit the second bomb and threw it under the bass players amp, two columns of smoke rapidly filling up the cafeteria.

We start up with our big opener "On The Run" when the class president comes up and stops us because everyone is suffocating and they open up the big doors in the back, letting in a breeze which knocked over one of our "Spock" hands that crashed into a mic producing piercing feedback.

We started up again and I noticed one of my strings had went out of tune, too late to do anything about it but feel funky...

Thx :)
 
Middleground said:
On the bright side, at least you didn't get electrocuted. :2razz:





PS Were there beavers in the exotic animal section? Just wondering...
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I can't get electrocuted. I play through a wireless. LOL.
 
danarhea said:
If Gene Kelton were still alive, he would be proud to put this one in his book "Gigs From Hell". This gig at the Bud Light Barbecue Cookoff at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds started innocuously enough. Unloaded my equipment at 9 in morning. Since we weren't due to start playing until 8PM. I had beaucoup hours to kill. So I walked around the area...A LOT. During the day, I walked more than 25 miles, and still felt great. Had one incident at the Exotic Animal Petting Zoo. Got into a conversation with someone I never met, and it turned into which ones we would like to eat. Both of us were asked to leave the exhibit. LOL.

Due to equipment problems, we didn't start playing until 8:30PM. About 3 songs into our first set is when the storm hit. Where we played was at the bottom of a big hill. We were just finishing up a song when all the water from the entire length of the hill joined with the water at the bottom, and came into the tent we were playing in. Water was running down my side of the stage, and a huge river of water cut the whole area in half. I named it Cookoff River. We unplugged everything and waited for the storm to pass, which it finally did just before 11PM. When the water stopped flowing there were spots under the tent that were ankle deep in mud. We managed to play one more song before everything was shut off for the night. Charlie Parker's shoes are ruined. Chris the drummer's shoes are ruined. My shoes are ruined. I lost my gig bag, and Charlie lost a couple bags of his own. I just got home and have taken a very hot bath. Time for a shot of Bird Dog Maple Whiskey, and I am off to bed. Got 2 gigs next Saturday, the first during the day at Harley Davidson in Beaumont, and then one at night in Spring. After what happened tonight, I will be crossing my fingers. LOL.
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I empathize but this was the real gig from hell:

 
OldFatGuy said:
I empathize but this was the real gig from hell:

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You've never been to a club in East Texas then. I've played at some clubs where a bar fight would start near the stage, and by the time it spilled out the front door, everybody was in on it. LOL.
 
cuban smokes said:
You are lucky you didn't get shocked, or worse electrocuted. I have been shocked pretty good by a couple of old Fender tube amps, most memorable was from a Super Reverb.
Personally not a fan of outdoor gigs because of two issues: (1) potential for weather related issues (2) sound issues
Good luck on the next two gigs.
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I live for outdoor gigs. Big stages. Big sound. Big crowds. Big money. What's not to love?

View attachment 67232055
 
danarhea said:
You've never been to a club in East Texas then. I've played at some clubs where a bar fight would start near the stage, and by the time it spilled out the front door, everybody was in on it. LOL.
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I have been to clubs in east Texas. You haven't been to some clubs here in NYC, where the bar fights start on stage. :)

Kidding aside, I do recall shifting to a ladies room, with a bottle of Jack in hand and a woman on each arm, in a bar in E. Texas to avoid a bar fight. That was the first time I saw a band playing in a cage. The three of us, the band and the two bartenders had the place to ourselves the rest of the evening, after the fight subsided outside and the Sheriff's office had responded. Not much furniture left whole in that bar. The bar never reopened after that evening. The owner moved to Austin where she opened another place with her future husband, one of the deputy sheriffs. I had been an MP then, in uniform, on leave, on crutches and waiting for my discharge papers to be formalized, and had I been arrested during or after a bar fight, I would have faced a court martial. I had been there to pay respects to the family of one of the men I served with, who didn't make it back. He had died in a truck accident, the kind of way we don't normally associate with war. Just as devastating for the family. That deputy was the older brother. He had recommended the bar. We kept in touch now and then till he passed a few years ago. Their place in Austin was down the block from a college friend's recording studio in Austin. I haven't visited him for about six years or so. We both got old, and use e-mail and the phone to keep in touch these days. His oldest son has pretty much taken over the studio. Ben's a damn good acoustic guitarist, dobro and piano player. Still in demand as a guest by local Texas bands.
 
OldFatGuy said:
I have been to clubs in east Texas. You haven't been to some clubs here in NYC, where the bar fights start on stage. :)

Kidding aside, I do recall shifting to a ladies room, with a bottle of Jack in hand and a woman on each arm, in a bar in E. Texas to avoid a bar fight. That was the first time I saw a band playing in a cage. The three of us, the band and the two bartenders had the place to ourselves the rest of the evening, after the fight subsided outside and the Sheriff's office had responded. Not much furniture left whole in that bar. The bar never reopened after that evening. The owner moved to Austin where she opened another place with her future husband, one of the deputy sheriffs. I had been an MP then, in uniform, on leave, on crutches and waiting for my discharge papers to be formalized, and had I been arrested during or after a bar fight, I would have faced a court martial. I had been there to pay respects to the family of one of the men I served with, who didn't make it back. He had died in a truck accident, the kind of way we don't normally associate with war. Just as devastating for the family. That deputy was the older brother. He had recommended the bar. We kept in touch now and then till he passed a few years ago. Their place in Austin was down the block from a college friend's recording studio in Austin. I haven't visited him for about six years or so. We both got old, and use e-mail and the phone to keep in touch these days. His oldest son has pretty much taken over the studio. Ben's a damn good acoustic guitarist, dobro and piano player. Still in demand as a guest by local Texas bands.
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Here's my most hilarious gig I ever played. A few years ago, I subbed on bass for the Curtis King Blues Band at The Spot, which is located on the Seawall in Galveston. This was a New Year's Eve gig, and the place was packed. There are 2 floors to the club, and the bandstand is on the second floor. There was a pretty bad storm before we started. About half an hour after it ended, people were back outside. There were thousands of people all up and down the Seawall, and the club was so packed it was hard to even walk around up there. It got stuffy in there, so all the windows were opened up, and the stiff breeze blowing through there felt great. This is where the fun begins. It is a Middle Eastern tradition to not put money in a tip jar, but to throw it on the stage. A group of Arabs had traded in 100 dollar bills for ONE dollar bills, and pretty much bought up just about all the ONE dollar bills from the club, as well as several other establishments along the Seawall. During one song that we were doing, a cover of several James Brown songs run together, several of those guys threw about 200 bucks worth of ONE dollar bills onto the stage. The stiff breeze picked them all up and blew almost all of them out the windows facing the Gulf of Mexico. After we finished the song, it was time for break. We saw people looking out the front windows and laughing their asses off. We got to one of the windows, and saw a full scale riot in progress, with hundreds of people fighting over those ONE dollar bills. They were going after those bills all along the seawall, and beating the hell out of each other for the money. More than 50 people ended up being arrested, and it made the news. LOL.
 
danarhea said:
Here's my most hilarious gig I ever played. A few years ago, I subbed on bass for the Curtis King Blues Band at The Spot, which is located on the Seawall in Galveston. This was a New Year's Eve gig, and the place was packed. There are 2 floors to the club, and the bandstand is on the second floor. There was a pretty bad storm before we started. About half an hour after it ended, people were back outside. There were thousands of people all up and down the Seawall, and the club was so packed it was hard to even walk around up there. It got stuffy in there, so all the windows were opened up, and the stiff breeze blowing through there felt great. This is where the fun begins. It is a Middle Eastern tradition to not put money in a tip jar, but to throw it on the stage. A group of Arabs had traded in 100 dollar bills for ONE dollar bills, and pretty much bought up just about all the ONE dollar bills from the club, as well as several other establishments along the Seawall. During one song that we were doing, a cover of several James Brown songs run together, several of those guys threw about 200 bucks worth of ONE dollar bills onto the stage. The stiff breeze picked them all up and blew almost all of them out the windows facing the Gulf of Mexico. After we finished the song, it was time for break. We saw people looking out the front windows and laughing their asses off. We got to one of the windows, and saw a full scale riot in progress, with hundreds of people fighting over those ONE dollar bills. They were going after those bills all along the seawall, and beating the hell out of each other for the money. More than 50 people ended up being arrested, and it made the news. LOL.
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Sounds like my living room when the grandkids are here and smell ice cream.
 
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