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Post by rickyguitar on Apr 9, 2022 15:37:11 GMT -5
Years back a band I was in in was offered a one nighter at a deaf school. No joke. They said it was important to be able to play really loud, they couldn't hear but really liked to feel it. As I recall we ended up taking something else with more nights. Kinda funny though. We had a PA running about 1000 watts into 4 15's plus horns. Not huge but really audible.. Pretty efficient EV speakers, triamped. They did ask if we could bring additional PA gear.
For quite a while after we would always tell our audiences we had a big gig at the deaf school coming up. Before PC of course.
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Post by ninworks on Apr 9, 2022 20:33:47 GMT -5
I played at a Bar Mitzvah all by myself doing a Slash impersonation. I had a top hat with the black curly hair, a black leather trench coat, and a cigarette, and played Sweet Child Of Mine on a 5150 set at 8. Loud as can be but it sounded good. Got paid very well and only played for about 5 minutes. The kid was a big Slash fan so his parents wanted to do that for him. I did a metal-solo version of Hava Nagila as well. The Slash part was actually video taped. It was a pretty weird gig.
I video taped a rehearsal where I was running through Hava Nagila at my parent's house while they were away for the summer. I thought that would be a good place to crank up the amp and let it rip. Nobody was home.
This is the Slash video.
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Davywhizz
Wholenote
"Still Alive and Well"
Posts: 443
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Post by Davywhizz on Apr 10, 2022 5:00:04 GMT -5
The one we were offered which I most regret didn't happen was on a Dutch warship on a visit to the UK. It was all set up, but they asked to put the gig back by a day due to a change of plan and we couldn't do it. Otherwise nothing really unusual, various other armed forces gigs (always enjoyable), casinos, a medieval castle you might recognise from the Harry Potter films...
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Post by Laker on Apr 13, 2022 13:06:55 GMT -5
In ‘84/‘85 my band played a prom at a parochial school that didn’t allow dancing. We set up on the stage in the auditorium with the curtains closed and, at the contracted time, we started playing as the curtains slowly opened and we have the prom attendees sitting in front of us like we’re playing a show/concert for them. When we played “Footloose” (popular around that time) kids on the aisle would pop up and start dancing only to have the chaperones come and tell them to sit.
It was one of the strangest gigs I ever played. Right up there with it was the night the snake dancer we worked with was attacked by her nine foot python during her show. It emptied the club pretty quickly.
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Post by Auf Kiltre on Apr 14, 2022 15:39:52 GMT -5
One that comes to mind was late 70s, pseudo punk band. A friend with a brother who was mentally disabled got us a gig to play at his brother's school. As we took the stage one of the administrators came up and cautioned us that many attending had seizures from loud noises. We played as quietly as possible but I saw a number of people with their hands cupped to their ears.
That's when smoke filled the room and we were evacuated. Something about a kitchen fire.
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mikem
Wholenote
Musician soundman musician soundman
Posts: 231
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Post by mikem on Apr 14, 2022 16:36:43 GMT -5
Back when President Bill Clinton was running for a second term (in the 90's) his campaign tour visited my city.
A week before his visit the president of my local AFM (American Federation of Musicians) called me and asked: "Do you want to play for the President?"
Clinton played tenor sax and I was to be the tenor sax player in the band.
(The local AFM was tasked to put together a band to play at the campaign gathering.)
The details:
- arrive at 7:00am
- feds search the instruments / dogs sniff, etc.
- musicians to be directed to a "staging area" under guard and will remain under guard until the hit
- perform from 11-11:30
- then back to staging area
- release from staging area after the prez leaves
I refused the gig. (I already had a previously-scheduled festival gig in NH that I could have gotten out of......but.... it seemed to be way-more of a hassle than what it was worth.)
My nickname thereafter at union meetings was: The kid that refused to play for the president.
Yup, that's me!
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Post by Peegoo 🏁 on Apr 23, 2022 0:55:20 GMT -5
We were playing a gig in Virginia, and one of the club patrons was the owner of a strip club just across the state line in West Virginia. He approached us when we were on a break and said he liked us. He offered us a weekly gig as the house band. We thought about it during the next set and came back and politely declined.
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Post by Pinetree on Apr 25, 2022 8:33:35 GMT -5
House band at the Annabella Haus in Einsiedlerhof, Germany in the late 80's.
It would have been an EPIC gig, but everyone in the band was active duty military at the time, and we just didn't think that our careers would be able to handle it.
Even though Prostitution is legal in Germany, it "would have reflected poorly"... not to mention that we were a 5-piece Rock band who played rather loud.
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Post by jazzguy on Apr 29, 2022 0:18:40 GMT -5
Will Smith (yeah, that Will Smith) flew us down to Miami for his father's birthday.
First class all the way including putting us up @ the Ritz-Carlton, renting a museum on the waterfront and serving a huge Thanksgiving dinner.
They had us playing on a little island just off the shoreline, very cool gig.
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Post by rickyguitar on Apr 29, 2022 22:10:48 GMT -5
^ green with envy.
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twangmeister
Wholenote
Posts: 349
Formerly Known As: Twangmeister
Age: 72 and fading fast.....
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Post by twangmeister on May 16, 2022 16:34:58 GMT -5
Back in 1974 when I was a full-time musician my three-piece band received an offer for an outdoor gig. $1000 cash for four hours. At the time we were making $35 a night each which was twice union scale. So being offered nearly 10 times as much was intriguing. That was 3 to 4 times our rate for a wedding gig. The job location was going to be a three hour trip to the backwoods of Maine.
OK. Bring the mosquito repellant.
We were told it was going to be a gay party.
Uh---OK.....
Then we were told that the contract was going to specify that we had to play in the nude.
PASS!
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Post by oldfartbassplayrwalt on May 17, 2022 17:29:25 GMT -5
old story- We (duo of old fart bass and ridiculously talented guitarist) doing Piano Rags, old folk,
Hot Tuna, Kotke-Jansch-Watson finger picking) playing a dinner party at a Trenton Italian Peoples Club.
We told the promoter 'no dance music', just jazzy/folky background stuff. Apparently the diners didn't get
the news, and got more and more hostile and drunk, shouting play something we can dance to. (this 93 year
old Italian grandmother really scared me).
Near the end of the gig Frank got surly and said "lets give them something to dance to", and we
launched into 'Take Five'. All the tables emptied onto the dance floor. Great music, and it was
hilarious watching them trying to dance to a 5/4 rhythm. 'Ragman's' revenge!
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twangmeister
Wholenote
Posts: 349
Formerly Known As: Twangmeister
Age: 72 and fading fast.....
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Post by twangmeister on May 30, 2022 14:36:36 GMT -5
An additional unusual gig was as sideman/backup singer in a hospital.
My former medical group staffed a long term acute care (LTAC) hospital. The administration and other staff were local people from rural areas nearby. One weekly event was Bishop Apelles Hart leading a non-denomination prayer and worship in the space in front of the nurses' station. Apelles was a great vocalist and keyboardist and I often stopped my patient rounds to listen in. One day I asked Apeles if I could sit in on guitar. He agreed and for the next few years I took out an hour to sing and play with Apelles. During the time I played I would get occasional inpatient admissions in the regional hospital across town plus pages from the regional hospital's floor nurses. Sometimes I had to drop out in the middle of a song.
I developed a reputation as a guitarist around town and was often running into patients and their family members that knew me from LifeCare Hospital as "Guitarman" and "Doc John". Word got out and sometimes nurses and staff from the regional medical center came over on their days off to hear us play..
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Post by 6l6 on Jul 12, 2022 22:16:33 GMT -5
Our band got an invite to play on The Johnny Carson Show.
We were really stoked but then got a call to say we’d been cancelled. No reason was given other than the producer telling us, “you’ll know why shortly.”
The reason: Johnny decided to retire and the new producer (for Jay Leno) had no interest in us.
Would have been a real hoot!
6
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mikem
Wholenote
Musician soundman musician soundman
Posts: 231
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Post by mikem on Jul 22, 2022 7:22:49 GMT -5
25(?) years ago I took a gig with a German band playing an Octoberfest at a nudist camp in central MA.
We played the gig - it was interesting.
The organizer told us that we could drop-trow if we wanted but we kept our lederhosen on:)
Nudies dancing to polkas.....
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Post by Auf Kiltre on Jul 26, 2022 16:07:23 GMT -5
In 1994 our band got a gig on the Star of Detroit river boat, warming up Huey Lewis and the News. It was a "For Women Only" cruise, 2 shows rotating the upper and lower decks. The upper deck had male dancers for the wimmens. Huey was doing the a capella thing but then commandeered our gear and played an electric set. Those guys were pros, my stuff never sounded so good. I'm the scruffy schmuck behind Huey's right shoulder. I had to rush back from the Canadian wilderness to do the show. The boat had a mechanical malfunction and had to be tugged back to shore where we continued the 2nd show.  |
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