Worst playing conditions

[keymandoguy]

What is the worst conditions you have played in ? We were to play at a hayride at night at Ottercreek park outside Louisville. We get there the electric box is padlocked. Never could find anyone with a key. It was a cloudy night No electric no light except from a campfire. Other than that it was pitch black. We were playing on bank of Ohio river. what with heat from fire and dampness from fog and river couldnt keep instruments in tune. Tottaled out banjo player. he had to buy new one after that night. Thats my story whats yours ? http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

[lgc]

Other than not being able to keepem in tune, it sounds like pretty good conditions to me.

[gnelson651]

Other than not being able to keepem in tune, it sounds like pretty good conditions to me.
Yeah, sounds like most of the jam sessions at festivals. Camp fire, few lights and no electricity. Can't get much better than that #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Ted Eschliman]

Before picking up mandolin ten years ago, I used to do a one-man MIDI band show, keyboard strapped on with drum machine, modules, and vocals. I was scheduled for a Christmas Parade (stationary) pre-show & the windchill was 17 degrees F. After about 5 minutes, I couldn't feel my fingers. Not much of a performance out of me after that...

[hoffmannia2k7]

I am sorry to harp on your story, but those conditions do sound just right. Playing in New England we used to play at a sawmill around a bonfire in chilly fall and spring temperatures. Between the wind and the heat everything was so disjointed, but interesting. In the colder months we would play in a shed with no light, but a woodstove keeping us warm. We would start before dark, but once it was dark the only light was a lighter being used between songs. Amazing times. Playing in dark is very beneficial to listening to others and learning how to feel certain changes, I feel.

[Frank Russell]

When I was a boy, we used to walk ten miles in the snow just to play in pitch black and fog on the banks of a river. You young people today.

[Jack Roberts]

July 4th, 2005. Our stage was set up in direct sunlight next to an open, over-filled, and quite ripe dumpster. And the sound system didn't work.

[Gutbucket]

keymandoguy wrote [QUOTE] Totaled out the banjo player. He had to buy a new one after that night.

Is that what he told his wife? Now that's using his head.

[David Lloyd]

I schedule all my vacation days to play in those conditions. And that is what Keeps me going to work between the vacation days! Long live the campfire sessions!
Dave
My pop up camper does have a battery http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Andrew Faltesek]

Recently camped two days at Bear Head Lake State Park up in northern Minnesota, light rain all day and night both days, and it was COLD!. Had a tarp set up over the picnic table and a gas lantern. Pretty tough to get the fingers going, but the mando seemed to be no worse for the exposure. Only two other campers in the whole park; when they finally did come out of their trailers, they were suprised we were tenting it and playing mandolin and guitar in the rain.

[mnosretep]

When I was a boy, we used to walk ten miles in the snow just to play in pitch black and fog on the banks of a river. You young people today.
Let's not forget, that was uphill, both directions and without snowshoes.

[blacksmith]

.........and carrying his brother on his back.........

[Michael H Geimer]

Barcelona.

I was upstairs in the dressing room eating dinner when the tour manager busts in yelling, "Get on stage in five minutes!". Wha?

The singer for the opening act lost his temper, picked up a monitor wedge and THEW IT INTO THE AUDIENCE! (the single most unprofessional thing I have ever been around). No one was hurt, thank goodness.

Guess what ... that was the monitor I was supposed to use. I had no personal amp, and so I had no monitor. I could sorta hear myself through the mains, but mostly it was "Gig by Braille".


- MG

[PaulD]

Before picking up mandolin ten years ago, I used to do a one-man MIDI band show, keyboard strapped on with drum machine, modules, and vocals. I was scheduled for a Christmas Parade (stationary) pre-show & the windchill was 17 degrees F. After about 5 minutes, I couldn't feel my fingers. Not much of a performance out of me after that...
Last Christmas Eve I was asked to help kick off some Christmas Caroles at Snowbird Ski resort here in Utah in exchange for ski passes. I assumed the requester meant that we would be playing in one of the bars or conferences spaces, not outside near a fire bowl... in the dark... air temperature about 10º or 15º F. The person that asked us to play was playing guitar and singing too, so I can't believe she thought we could play and keep instruments in tune in these conditions.

I can relate to what Ted's talking about: my fingers got so numb I couldn't feel whether I was on the strings or not so my normally mediocre playing turned to ####. It was too dark to see the music but luckily I had a small book light that I carry in my music bag. To make matters worse, my son hurt his arm snowboarding shortly after that and we didn't get a chance to use the ski passes! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mad.gif

She e-mailed me last week and asked if my wife and I wanted to do it again this year! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif I tried to politely tell her that we would do it but not outside on the patio... that was a really dumb idea! I haven't heard back... hmmm.

pd

[CollingsPicker]

I haven't too many bad playing conditions yet.:blues:

[jeff_75]

There was this one time when a banjo player sat in with my group. *shiver*

[Philip Halcomb]

What is the worst conditions you have played in ? #We were to play at a hayride at night at Ottercreek park outside Louisville. #We get there the electric box is padlocked. Never could find anyone with a key. It was a cloudy night #No electric no light except from a campfire. Other than that it was pitch black. #We were playing on bank of #Ohio river. what with heat from fire and dampness from fog and river couldnt keep instruments in tune. Tottaled out banjo player. he had to buy new one after that night. Thats my story whats yours ? http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif
I can relate, those conditions sound pretty dismal. I do like playing around the campfire but not when I start to see water bead up on my instrument from humidity. Can't keep it in tune, the strings go bad after one song, just miserable if you ask me. But if the humidity isn't bad then it's fine.

I've played around many fires and outdoors when the conditions were just right. But I've also had my fair share of being out there when the atmospheric pressures of the earth were just working against me in every way, and it's just miserable.

[Dan Cole]

I got drafted once to play mando with a couple of buddies at a summer church picnic. The organizers had a mic set up under a big shady tree. Quite nice actually. The problem was right next to us, maybe 20 feet away the local Harley club was giving rides to the youngsters at the same time. Well needless to say, my Weber is loud, but not that loud.

It was aweful. I could have been totally out of tune and no one would have heard otherwise.

[lgc]

Having the weather throw your instruments out of tune is only a problem if you are worried about sounding good and if that is the case then you're in trouble from the start.

[John Flynn]

I have told this story here before, but here goes again. Setting: An early evening contra dance in the heat of summer, in the multi-purpose building at the Shaw Nature Reserve about an hour from St. Louis. No A/C, so windows and doors open, no screens. As we were playing "Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss" (really) and the dancers were dancing away to the caller's instructions, in through the doors and windows comes a swarm of really big, black, biting, horse flies. The dancers kept dancing, but they were adding "moves" to swat away the flies. We in the band played on, but were unable to do as much to defend ourselves. I managed to swat two dead, barely missing a beat playing the mando, but one got me in my right bicep. I continued to play, with a steam of blood running down my arm to the elbow. After the tune, the caller called an intermission. I headed out to my car for a trusted can of spray Deet repellant I kept in the trunk. The flies, bent on revenge for thier fallen comrades I suppose, pursued me to the car in what looked like a living black cloud. It seemed every bit as surreal as I am making it sound. But we hosed ourselves down with Deet and had no more problems.

[hoffmannia2k7]

in the original post what actually happened to the banjo?

[Gutbucket]

Deet is great stuff, just don't get it on instrument finish. It'll melt right thru it.

[keymandoguy]

to Hoffmania I think the head got so saturated it just got completely out of Kelter So I guess he weighed cost of replacing the head with another banjo ?

[Gutbucket]

Kept the old head and built a new banjo around it? #I know banjo players who might do this.

[allenhopkins]

Outdoors in the winter -- union rally in a downtown park in February, playing Union Maid and Soldidarity Forever on banjo and guitar with fingerless gloves on. Couple years later, holiday program in suburban town (Fairport) on the Town Hall steps (jeez, I should have written "steppes," it felt like winter in Russia) with Innisfree. We all took turns going inside to warm up, so our quartet became a series of trios. The hammered dulcimer suffered the most, I think; at least there was a canopy over us so we didn't get snowed on.

Rain -- just this year I got drenched playing at the Genesee Country Village restoration -- I believed the forecast rather than the evidence of my senses when a black cloud sidled up from the west and the wind suddenly changed direction. No damage to the bowl-backs, luckily.

But I'll take all the vagaries of Nature over the "bad playing conditions" caused by rude, unappreciative, unsupportive audiences. After all, you and the people for whom you're playing, are both putting up with the cold/wet/dark/whatever. Instills a certain camaraderie. So, suck it up and pick that mando, I guess.

[Rick Banuelos]

I played an end-of-school-year bash with my brother's band. I have never seen so much shaving cream and silly string meld together in a hot, sticky mess. Truly disgusting. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Alex Fields]

I had to play a wedding outside at night at the beginning of winter last year. I was playing with a cellist and we definitely took everything at like half speed because our fingers were frozen stiff. Instruments sounded bad too and wouldn't stay in tune.

[sailaway]

let us say that the worst gig was playing good mando in a really cheap bar. one of the infatuated, enthusiastic and inebriated female patrons took a liking to a certain mando player (not me thank god.) he unwisely permitted her to sit upon his lap during an intermission. he unwisely had failed to foresee the extensive degree of her inebriation. much to his consternation, she was so inebriated that she had little control over her functions. and so it ended unhappily that he needed a change of clothing FAST , which of course he had not thought to pack with him.... http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mad.gif

[pager]

I sat in with a country band in Wyoming, during my college days. The stage was surrounded in chicken wire, just like the Blues Brothers movie! If you played something they liked, they tossed bottles at you. If you played a song they disliked, they tossed bottles at you. That was a long night. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif

[squirrelabama]

sometimes i play the mando while sitting on the toilot. My wife thinks the conditions might be the worst......varnish is still on, so it cant be that bad.:p

[Andrew Faltesek]

Here is a vintage memory from about 1974...
Our band finally managed to talk a Wisconsin bar(w/horse riding stable) to let us play 2 nights(little pay, free beer). First music in the bar but good deal for the bar as large group of friends would show up to party hearty. Set up at the end of a long narrow bar, terrible acoustics. Woefully inadequate electrical service; underrated extension cords feeding from all over. Somewhat skeptical/hostile local regulars.

Various amps and the PA system would unexpectedly trip breakers in a seemingly random fashion, and of course during inopportune moments like solos. The crowd was uninhibited and having a wild time; lot's of screaming and dancing and drinking. Constant circulation of patrons outside to smoke herb or try to ride horses, eventually dropping the pretense and just smoking inside. These people were so wild I'm suprised one of them didn't bring a horse in.

We were blessed with two great guitar players, and launched into some Allman Brothers...good 20 min versions with lot's of jammin' and solos, which we knew would go over well. The dancing was crazy and widespread. Soon many people up front were pouring beer on the floor for "slippin and slidin" which of course was finding its way onto our cords. One guy "Chumley" had an artificial leg below one knee, which he would swap out to his "pegleg" for dancing. He was pulling all night on a gallon plastic jug of "moonjuice" which was everclear and grape coolaid, liberally passed around. Lest you feel sorry for Chumley, he danced enthusiasticaly with every babe on the floor.

When we started having more electrical problems and mild shocks, a mixture of sawdust and straw was applied to the floor beneath us. I went to get a free beer and got one mild compliment on my harmonica playing and mean, glowering stares from several of the regulars. Near the end of the night, we suffered the inevitable "let me play with the band" guys, who were so intoxicated it was useless.

We were; however, invited back several times...as recipts were way up; even after cleanup and pissing off the locals was considered. I've never seen wild dancing like that to this day.

[Greg H.]

A band I used to be with was hired to play a tractor pull. . . .do I need to say more?


A different band back in the '70s was playing a biker bar in Tulsa. A girl came up and asked us to "Play 'Will the Circle be Unbroken' for 'Loser', he just got buried". I passed the word along to our bass player who, with a big smile on his face, walked up to the mike and said "We'd like to play "Play 'Will the Circle be Unbroken' for 'Loser' who just got married, contratualations loser!

Well, I'm still here to tell it. . . .

[brendon b]

- String quartet I used to play in inappropriately booked for a function where the client wanted us to play "something we can dance to".
- On a recent tour with a rock band playing in small town. Power kept tripping. We kept going, playing one song with the power tripping every few seconds, then coming on for a few etc through the whole song. By the end of that my preamp (Boss AD5) was gibbering and drooling, never to recover.

Oh and never play a 21st birthday party.

[KanMando]

Back in the 60's, when I was still in high school, my band used to routinely play gigs at after-hours clubs in Kansas City, Kansas and Leavenworth. We'd start at 10:00 p.m. and finish at 2:00 a.m. These were some rough places. One night a guy came up to the bandstand, pointed a handgun at our singer and said, "Play Mickey's Monkey or I'll shoot your ###." We were happy to oblige.

Another night, our rhythm guitar/keyboard player was punched in the mouth and abducted while we were loading up the gear. We had to recruit the bouncer to rescue him.

If our parents only knew...

[Steve Ostrander]

Hmmm...killed the banjo, eh? That's a shame...:)