Worst gig ever!
Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2012 11:18 am
Friday evening was the first time I've actually felt like retiring from ever playing again. We've had this gig booked for a year in advance. We were really looking forward to it because we kept getting periodic up beat emails and phone calls from them lining everything up and confirming all the particulars. This was a big event, Model A Club Jamboree, it's for all the central and southern California chapters of the Model A car clubs all converging on Bakersfield. For Bakersfield, this is an event that only happens here ever 7-8 years, as they rotate hosting it each year. The local club hosting the event apparently is the 'top dog' when putting on a jamboree, so everyone was coming. They ended up with around four hundred members and two hundred cars, The venue was held at a Vet's hall which is huge with a fantastic stage. We were ready, raring and really pumped as the local Model A club members are big fans of our band. Not only do we play instrumental surf music, but we have a lot of vocals singing old time rock and roll as well as country music. This keeps most everyone happy. Only thing they asked was that we not play too loud or as loud as we do at the outdoor car shows. No problem!
I didn't use my Bandmaster, I used my Vibroverb. Daren used his smaller Carvin bass rig and Kevin the drummer used only his brushes. I set my guitars volume on 6.5 and my amp volume on 3.5, and we Kicked off as usual with Pipeline using the glissando and a prolong intro to introduce the band before getting into the actual song. The place was wall to wall people, many in their 40s and 50s but mostly in their late 60s, 70s and a few in their 80s. Right off the bat before we got into the song some old hag came up and asked us to turn down. Well, my friend, that just sucked the life right out of our energy. At first we ignored her, then others came forward to ask us to turn down. Finally we were down so low that we could hardly hear each other and things really started to sound like crap as the audience was louder than we were. Each one of us were getting lost playing only by muscle memory. That was the worst experience I've ever had in all my years playing live music.
All in all, apparently we did pretty good job at giving them what they wanted. They didn't know when we made a mistake but for us knowing how tight we are as a group and how much we emphasize playing with dynamics, we couldn't get off the ground with any mojo. Fortunately we didn't have to play the full two and a half hours that we were booked for as those old farts started leaving right after their meal was finish. There was suppose to be dancing after the BBQ but the place emptied out. So, we got paid in full for only playing an hour and twenty minutes (with a 15 minute break) of pure torture. The hauling of equipment, set up, tear down and putting everything away was exhausting as we not only had our individual gear but PA, mains, monitors and lighting.
When we were ready to take our first set break, a club member came up to the stage and ask if he could make an announcement via our microphone. When he got up on the stage and started talking the audience yelled back 'we can't hear you' so he turns to us and he asked, can you turn this darn thing up they can't hear what I'm saying.
What's really strange is, we probably had forty of those geriatrics come by the stage as they were leaving telling us how much they enjoyed our music. Go figure!
I didn't use my Bandmaster, I used my Vibroverb. Daren used his smaller Carvin bass rig and Kevin the drummer used only his brushes. I set my guitars volume on 6.5 and my amp volume on 3.5, and we Kicked off as usual with Pipeline using the glissando and a prolong intro to introduce the band before getting into the actual song. The place was wall to wall people, many in their 40s and 50s but mostly in their late 60s, 70s and a few in their 80s. Right off the bat before we got into the song some old hag came up and asked us to turn down. Well, my friend, that just sucked the life right out of our energy. At first we ignored her, then others came forward to ask us to turn down. Finally we were down so low that we could hardly hear each other and things really started to sound like crap as the audience was louder than we were. Each one of us were getting lost playing only by muscle memory. That was the worst experience I've ever had in all my years playing live music.
All in all, apparently we did pretty good job at giving them what they wanted. They didn't know when we made a mistake but for us knowing how tight we are as a group and how much we emphasize playing with dynamics, we couldn't get off the ground with any mojo. Fortunately we didn't have to play the full two and a half hours that we were booked for as those old farts started leaving right after their meal was finish. There was suppose to be dancing after the BBQ but the place emptied out. So, we got paid in full for only playing an hour and twenty minutes (with a 15 minute break) of pure torture. The hauling of equipment, set up, tear down and putting everything away was exhausting as we not only had our individual gear but PA, mains, monitors and lighting.
When we were ready to take our first set break, a club member came up to the stage and ask if he could make an announcement via our microphone. When he got up on the stage and started talking the audience yelled back 'we can't hear you' so he turns to us and he asked, can you turn this darn thing up they can't hear what I'm saying.
What's really strange is, we probably had forty of those geriatrics come by the stage as they were leaving telling us how much they enjoyed our music. Go figure!
