Ha ha yeah, the naked drummer. That's how I spent every weekend from 1992 through to 1998! As for it looking cramped that gig wasn't too bad. Mind you, that cage system I had pretty much made any stage cramped. Ha ha. But once I was thrown into it, it was like my own little realm. And going back to the naked drummer label, I think that did actally happen once!

Whoooooa! You got me beat. Nice follicles! Rocking the Kingdom, but those aren't vintage tubs. Ha, haaa. Nice pic, bro.

B

Drum naked!

John

Thanks John!...I just tried to shoot a mouthful of black beans out my nose!Eye Ball

Dan

Hey, just be grateful it wasn't a mouthful of Walnuts! lol

John

Yeah bill, I liked that hair. And yes, they're not exactly vintage tubs, I still have them actually. I'm thinking of selling them on soon, so that I can get me a pack of wuhan cymbals that i've seen on ebay. From a company called vintage logos in the u.s -anyone heard of them? There's a lot of sentiment attached to those drums, so it'll be hard to part with them.

That was a good one, Tom! I hope you took the time to read through the entire thread, some of the 'gig horror stories' are hilarious. It's good to be able to look back and get a laugh out of it, but it wouldn't be as funny now, if it wasn't so painful then, when it happened.

Thanks for sharing that. Clapping Happy2

John

no one shows up at bar all night thats when i called it quits on the bar scene on a fri. on top of it those where the days

playing at a biker bash the bikers were shooting bottle rockets at us our first set sound was off ,we were set up outside after the break and some libation and pa adjustments we came back and did animals we gotta get out of this place they went nuts had a great time after that

"In this very old heart of the city and the sun refuse to shine"

Gigs don't get much rougher than biker-bar gigs! Glad you're still here to tell the tale. :D

I don't know how many of the young guys know the story about how, Wilson Pickett once pulled a gun on a drummer for keeping bad time! I'll bet right after the drummer pooped himself, he ran out and bought a metronome!

John

I know I posted once in this, but we just had a gig that topped the first one...

We were approached by an Internet radio station to play a fairly large benefit show, which touched kind of close to me, due to the nature of the benefit. Anyways, we were one of 15 performers/bands slated to play the show. We were scheduled to set up and start our set at 1145am, which yes is kind of early, but the show started at 10, and we had 2 performers in front of us. Well, 1105 rolls around, I am still driving to the "venue" and my lead singer calls wondering where I am. Supposedly, the opening 2 bands never showed up. Ok, I was about 5 mins away, I will be there soon.

I get there, and the "venue" is an old biker bar. Ok, I think, thats quite a twist from what we were told, but we can make it work. I park, and get out and go inside. The bartender stops me, and says all bands and equipment go out back...

I drive around back, and I see the rest of my bad gathered and talking in the corner. I get out, and see a flatbed tow truck. This turns out to be our stage. A 28 foot long, 8 foot wide, flatbed tow truck.

I walk up to the rest of the band, they look at me and go, its youre call. We havent even unpacked yet. You want to play it? The promoter comes up to us and basically begs us to go on, saying that he got screwed because the first 2 bands backed out, and so far we have been the only band to show up. Basically laying the guilt trip on us. We step off to the side and agree to play, just because were there, its a benefit for cancer research, and we want to rock the people that showed up.

So we set up, start sound check, and everything seems to be going along well. We start our first song when both of the guitars cut out. Power conditioners are saying that were only getting about 113-116 volts, and we have 2 half stacks, one 120 watts, the other 450 watts, and a 400w bass head pushing an 8x10 cab, along with the pa rack setup, all on the same circuit. So after taking about 15 mins to rerout lead cords, were all set to go again. We start playing our first song again, and get into the first verse, and we lose power. All 3 amps are gone. We blew the breaker. So another 20 minutes pass, and another rerout of the lead cords, and we have good power through the conditioners. So we move onto the 2nd song, and get about 15 seconds from the end of the song, and ALL power goes. All 3 amps, and the pa rack. Turns out we popped the whole bars power, as well. So we get a nice half hour break while the bar owners, the sound guys and the bartender rerout lead cords, and run new ones from the neighbors house. The whole time, the promoter is on his skype cam, broadcasting the troubles all over the internet radio station.

So we get set back up, alls well so far, and we get through 2 more songs. We lose power AGAIN. So I just throw my sticks down and walk off the stage, rest of the band follows. We go to the promoter, and give him an ultimatum. 5 minutes to have good solid power, or were done. Since we were the only band to show up so far, he was more than willing to bend over backwards for us. So after about 10 more minutes and another rerout, we had power again, and finished our set. That was horrible. We packed up and took off. Turns out all but 4 of the bands and performers backed out when they found out about the "stage" or lack there of. Which is a shame, because the sound was amazing. Oh, except for the part where we burned up 2 of the main pa speakers hehehehe.

That tops off my worst gig ever so far. Hopefully this thread will keep going, or begin again. Im sure there will be plenty more members out there with more bad/weird experiences. they are all unique in their own way, and very entertaining to read. Thanks to everyone for sharing so far!