Weirdest Bluegrass Gig

[mandozilla]

It's been a while since I was in a band but I was thinking about some of the weird, maybe 'Unusual is a better word, gigs we played.

The most unusual was at a nudist colony, I was young and very embarrased and would rather not discuss it. :redface:

The weirdest was performing at a banquet for a German-American club of some sort on the 'Queen Mary' in Long Beach, Cal. of all places. Kind of like playing on a floating Ratskeller. Lots of German only and/or heavy German accents. Why they hired us I don't know but they did have a good time. That would be like having a German Oom-Pah band at the Station Inn or something.

I'll bet some of the folks here have some interesting (weird) gig experiences...How about it?

:mandosmiley:

[allenhopkins]

Playing for a guinea pig race, East Rochester Village Mall, about 1974 or so, with my old band, Flower City Ramblers.

[MikeEdgerton]

Playing a wedding in a Diner in Middletown, NJ.

[mandopete]

Playing in the produce section of the local supermarket.

[auteq]

Playing for a guinea pig race...[/I]

I can't top that!

[farmerjones]

We've been the opener for a pie judging.

We've been the wayside entertainment for an annual cross-state bicyle ride.

We've played fundraisers to funerals. Played for barn full off empty seats. It still seems like the same bubble of music, just placed in different settings.

I heard Rhonda & the Rage did one in the corner of a gas station convience shop. Knowing that bunch, i bet they didn't bat an eye. And i'll bet it was just as good as ever.

Spose anybody's ever got paid to play blind folded, like in the movies?

:popcorn:

[auteq]

Until the Guinea Pig thing in Jersey was mentioned, I was going to I put played the Fannie Mae "help the homeless" walk-a-thon this winter. I don't know if this qualifies for wierd, but considering Fannie is the reason many people are homeless this year, it was definately Ironic....don't ya think?

[journeybear]

Mid-80s - mid-90s I was playing in a jug band in CT. We had a corner on the market. That is, if you wanted a jug band, you had to call us - not just in CT but pretty much New England. Hard to say which was weirdest, because we were in so many odd situations, but we also did play in a grocery store. The local groovy health food/natural foods store turned its upstairs into a cafe/bookstore for a while and we played an opening gig there for Geoff Muldaur and Fritz Richmond.

Played in a pumpkin patch for a blueberry festival, while people went on hayrides and such. Even got a T-shirt (deep blue of course.) This sounds weird, but it seemed actually kind of appropriate. Maybe that's weird. ;)

Played at a local state fair, first thing Sunday morning - that's right, playing our sinful blues and ragtime music while people were still in church - and more people were interested in the pig races than us. :disbelief:

Played a wedding. Who wants a jug band at their wedding? :confused:

Then there was my last day job, as a storyteller at the local Shipwreck Museum, portraying a wrecker wearing 1800s clothing and playing along with the oldtimey/Irish/sea chantey music we had playing over the PA. My boss' theory was that any way we could attract attention and lure tourists over to us and get them interested enough to fork over ten bucks to come in, was just fine. This was a daily occurrence, not a single gig (well, different sense of the word), but actually getting paid to play mandolin at a day job? Wonderful - and weird!!! :mandosmiley:


The most unusual was at a nudist colony, I was young and very embarrased and would rather not discuss it.

Shouldn't have mentioned it, because now we can't stop wondering about it ... :grin:

[woodwizard]

Let's see... how bout a grand opening for a Wal-Mart or most recently our bass players Mom's 100 year old birthday party.

[mrmando]

Spose anybody's ever got paid to play blind folded, like in the movies?

Might've helped at the nudist colony gig.

[mandopete]

We also played at a dog show called "Mutt Strut" which resulted in this famous photo here... (http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=44053)

[Fred Keller]

Played at a biker wedding. There were live peacocks wandering around a people were getting their pictures taken with a real Tommy gun (loaded? who knows).

Played a drug company convention at a cavernous Hilton Hotel ball room. We were stuck on hay bales (naturally) while across the room they set up a DJ with a pair of roughly 20-foot high stacks of amplifiers. I couldn't hear the bass or the banjo and they were on my right and left.

[Austin Koerner]

I've never actually played a bluegrass gig, but my band a few years ago played at a welding shop. We had a nice group of people though.

[Tom Mylet]

In my misspent youth I once played a debutante's comimg out party...It was in an immaculate barn that had been decked out for a square dance. The each band member helped themselves to a bottle of high dollar wine and headed to the stage only to have the party planner confiscate the wine until after we played. It was great fun watching folks in formal gowns and tuxes do si doing...

More recently I ducked out of a Bar Mitzvah early to go play a wake for a biker/tattoo artist who had overdosed.

It was quite a scene...we just sat on a porch of an outbuilding of the deseaced's farm playing tunes watching wide eyed while some of the most tattooed, piereced people imaginable strolled back and forth. We were only drowned out by passing motorcyles a time or two. Interestingly enough, this function was alcohol free.

Tom Mylet

[Chris Keth]

The most unusual was at a nudist colony, I was young and very embarrased and would rather not discuss it. :redface:

Did everyone wear their instruments extra low punk-style that day?:))

[stratman62]

Played electric music for a party, we were set up in an old chicken house. There was plenty
of chicken litter still on the floor. The host layed out plywood for us to stand on. Oh, and there
were still 3 or 4 chickens walking around.

[Mike Bunting]

Once played for the opening of a PMSG barn. That's where they collect the ##### of pregnant mares to make estrogen. A local farmer was going into that business (raising the mares) and was celebrating the construction of his new facility.

[Pen]

We played a Chinese Restaurant a few years back (a nice one). We walked in there was no stage, no space for a band - nadda. With broken English, the owner told us we had to wait until a few of the tables finished in the main dining room before we could setup.

It was the oddest thing. The high dollar patrons left around 8p, we set up, and then the place turned into low brow bar. One of my more fun gigs. Although clothed, a few of the girls did have a "nudist moment" at our guitarists prodding.

[journeybear]

The high dollar patrons left around 8p, we set up, and then the place turned into low brow bar ...

Too bad the high rollers had already left before you started. Must have really cut into your tips ... :(

[Mike Snyder]

Played an outdoor spring-fling kinda event featuring a car show and kraft work. Turned VERY cold and windy. The only place we could get out of the wind was the entryway to the toilets. I told the band leader that I'd known all along we'd end up there, eventually. We played for the car guys. The trophys weren't handed out 'til after the music. Captive audience.

[Steve Ostrander]

Aren't ALL Bluegrass gigs weird? :)

Not BG, but I played a blues gig at a Halloween party in a barn where all the attendees were in costume.

[Jonathan Reinhardt]

did a wedding where we did the late afternoon ceremony and the first (long) set for drinks and dinner. came time for us to eat (next band up) -- no food, no drink left. yours truly got aggressive and went table to table harvesting. far from ideal, but a meal.
as a sidenote - came back next morning at 6 a.m to collect misc. gear before it disappeared, to find the other band collapsed, asleep in the mud (under a tent, as so many often are) and found the bride still there, still spinning discs and ready for a dance. groom had long since faded. weird, but sweet.
rasa
jonathan reinhardt

[Chris Keth]

Played electric music for a party, we were set up in an old chicken house. There was plenty
of chicken litter still on the floor. The host layed out plywood for us to stand on. Oh, and there
were still 3 or 4 chickens walking around.

That's the bluegrass equivalent of a punk show I went to in an abandoned subway tunnel.

[Nighttrain]

I did a grand opening one time for a waterbed store. The owner wanted us to play up on the roof. He filled up waterbeds and placed them all around on the ground just in case we fell off.

[mandozilla]

Spose anybody's ever got paid to play blind folded, like in the movies


Might've helped at the nudist colony gig

The problem wasn't whether or not 'we' saw the audience, it was that the audience saw us.


Did everyone wear their instruments extra low punk-style that day?

Actually, yes. Well the banjo picker and I slung 'em (I was playing guitar) lower than usual. The only ones who picked in the nude were the bass player and the mandolin player.

The bass player mostly hid behind his bass and the mando picker was a nudist himself and a member of that club. Me and the Banjo picker wore swim trunks and the fiddler was fully clothed.

The audience was old and young and in between. Picture in your mind overweight, middle aged nudists squaredancing next to the stage while we played! OMG!

:mandosmiley:

[journeybear]

... I was young and very embarrased and would rather not discuss it. :redface:

There's all this to the story and you didn't want to talk about it? This is too much! Seems to me all you have to be embarrassed about is you weren't playing mandolin. :redface: At least you weren't playing banjo ... :)) ... :whistling:

[jim simpson]

Played a festival in Gap, Pa where at various times, the tractor pull in the distance could be heard. Seemed like poor planning by the festival but we got paid well.
I guess if you were nervous playing for nudists, you just close your eyes and imagine them all dressed!

[Steve Ostrander]

Come to think of it, we were also offered a gig at a nudist camp a few years back. It was called "Nudie Fest." We declined. I have enough trouble concentrating at gigs.

[mandozilla]

I guess if you were nervous playing for nudists, you just close your eyes and imagine them all dressed!

Sort of a twist on the old stage fright trick...HaHaHa he said as he wiped the coffee spots off his computer screen.

[Chris Keth]

The audience was old and young and in between. Picture in your mind overweight, middle aged nudists squaredancing next to the stage while we played! OMG!

:mandosmiley:

Well there went any concentration I had built up working on Fisher's Hornpipe.

I'd love to, just once, stumble onto a nudist camp full of beautiful young women. Not going to happen, I know.

[journeybear]

I'd love to, just once, stumble onto a nudist camp full of beautiful young women. Not going to happen, I know.

Yeah, you know that scene in "Stardust Memories" in which Woody Allen's character is on a train and looks across the tracks at another train full of partying beautiful people including Sharon Stone, who blows him a kiss? I guess you know which train most of us are on ... :( ... :crying: ... :whistling:

[Frank Johnson]

The problem wasn't whether or not 'we' saw the audience, it was that the audience saw us.



Actually, yes. Well the banjo picker and I slung 'em (I was playing guitar) lower than usual. The only ones who picked in the nude were the bass player and the mandolin player.

The bass player mostly hid behind his bass and the mando picker was a nudist himself and a member of that club. Me and the Banjo picker wore swim trunks and the fiddler was fully clothed.

The audience was old and young and in between. Picture in your mind overweight, middle aged nudists squaredancing next to the stage while we played! OMG!

:mandosmiley:

:)) :)) :)) :))

Methinks I'd have kept my face covered because that's the only way nobody would recognize me when we got dressed after the gig..............

[Chris Willingham]

We're playing a kidney foundation benefit Saturday with five hard rock/metal bands. We're the only acoustic act. No chicken wire in front of the stage, but I'm considering bringing some. :whistling:

[Jason Kindall]

The most unusual was at a nudist colony, I was young and very embarrased and would rather not discuss it. :redface:

Hahahaaaa... Sling that mando low, friend! :whistling:

[man dough nollij]

Hahahaaaa... Sling that mando low, friend! :whistling:



And watch out for that ToneGard! Ouch!

[56 Gibson Hoss]

Oh, boy...where do I start?
I will start with Aunt Dinah's Quilting Party in 1967. Without our knowledge of the venue, we got booked into a gay bar. I was 18 at the time, and all the others were much older than me. When we saw where we were playing, we did the group thing................we set up the PA together, went to the bar for a drink together. I was scared to death, as there were a bunch of guys in Nehru jackets (remember them?) dancing with each other on the dance floor. I had never seen such a thing, as I was still in high school at an all boys Catholic school. The others in the band re-assured me no one was going to bother me.

Another job was on top of a double decker bus driving around Long Beach CA advertising Fish-Face Sams' seafood restaurant. It was a fun gig, until we came to a very low bridge. We were in the middle of a song, and someone yelled "Look out!!! Duck!" We all hit the deck of the bus, and Jim Lanners' bass almost got the headstock decapitated, but did get the top of it nicked as he and it hit the deck......damn..........That band was the Town and Country Boys consisting of me, Pat Cloud, Randy Graham, Jim Lanners, and Byron Berline who was sitting in with us for fun. We we still talk about that job as the worst and most unusual job any of us have EVER done.

[mandozilla]

HaHa Tom I remember there was a gay bar almost right across the street from the House of the Rising Sun, called the "Lucky Lion' as I recollect...was that the one?

And geez Tom you're lucky you guys weren't hurt real bad...or killed even. Wow, Jim Lanners, that's a name I haven't heard in a long time.

I was gonna tell you that Byron will be performing in Santa Barbara in a few weeks then I remembered you live in OK now...Duh!...so you probably get to see him often? Ever do any gigs with him back there?

Oops, sorry, didn't mean to hijack my thread HaHaHa

:mandosmiley:

[mrmando]

Seems to me all you have to be embarrassed about is you weren't playing mandolin. :redface: At least you weren't playing banjo ... :)) ... :whistling:
Our banjo player has one of them see-through heads on his instrument! And he's a priest! Two reasons we probably wouldn't do a nudist colony gig -- although one of our guitarists has ridden in Seattle's annual nude bicycle rally...

[journeybear]

I thought we weren't going to see anything weirder than the nudist colony gig, but nearly getting killed while playing on top of a double decker bus - man, that's hard to top! :)) Facing down death or certain injury will make for a memorable gig, for sure, and throw in odd circumstances ... You're right - you'll always be able to have a chuckle about that one! :))

You realize, of course, if something more serious had happened, your band would have been enshrined in history, at least in the News Of The Weird Hall Of Fame (if there is such a thing), or the Darwin Awards. Someone should have made the sacrifice ... NOT! ;)

:whistling:

[Dan Johnson]

we played at a YMCA for a bunch of people on stationary bikes. we were surrounded by them. that was a weird gig!

[journeybear]

we played at a YMCA for a bunch of people on stationary bikes. we were surrounded by them. that was a weird gig!

That reminds me ... I did play a rock 'n' roll gig once for a "Jog-A-Thon" - back when "running" was still called "jogging" - a fund-raising benefit where the participants ran a course around New Haven and the longer they ran the more they raised from their pledgers. I'm not sure who were playing for, since the runners came and went. I suppose there were some people hanging around watching, but since it wasn't a race there was no finish line. Just another one of those "What are we doing here?" gigs. :confused:

This was a one-time ad hoc band, and the bass player enlisted some friends for this purpose. He wrote a song for this, "Jog Out," recorded in a studio and pressed into 45s. I got cut out of the A side, but I'm all over the B side, a nice bouncy love song called "I Need A Song" by the guitarist, Rick Castaldo. Tuba instead of bass, double-tracked wah-wah electric mandolin solo :mandosmiley: - and the only recording I was on for over 20 years until the Philadelphia Jug Band CD - a few formats later! :grin: :whistling:

[Stephen Lind]

was hired by Starbuck's corporate office to play 6 different shops one summer
while setting up at one of them i noticed someone have a discussion using sign language at one of the tables
well...
turns out that there's a HUGE group of deaf people that meet at a different coffee place once a month
and
THIS was their night and they were out in force
had to be well over fifty of 'em in this little Starbucks
totally surreal gig playing for a bunch of deaf people

thing is
they were all drinking coffee, DUH
and getting kind of
excited
and when they got excited they starting really getting into the signing
like really waving their arms around
and
kind of like
grunting
REALLY LOUD

did i say it was surreal?

oh
it was a jazz gig
not Bluegrass
but
i don't think they would have cared:))

[Bertram Henze]

The audience was old and young and in between. Picture in your mind overweight, middle aged nudists squaredancing next to the stage while we played! OMG!

:mandosmiley:

Hey, that must have been like this scene from Polanski's Macbeth movie (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnxQlYUDkjQ). Just imagine playing BG to that...

Bertram

[JEStanek]

That brew might have helped...

Jamie

[Rroyd]

We did one in conjunction with the community's annual lawn mower drag races; the track ran past the back of the stage. These were not your average riding lawn mowers, as they were hitting about 60MPH as they passed the stage, with their straight exhaust pipes amplifying the 10000 RPMs
of what were obviously not stock engines. It didn't take long for them to make their runs, but they were well organized, so they managed 5 or 6 competitors for each song.

[journeybear]

Hey, that must have been like this scene from Polanski's Macbeth movie (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnxQlYUDkjQ). Just imagine playing BG to that...


Bluegrass could only have livened up that scene! :grin:

But oh yes - overweight, middle aged nudists squaredancing gives rise to a new step - the do-si-doughy! :))

[man dough nollij]

well...
turns out that there's a HUGE group of deaf people that meet at a different coffee place once a month
and
THIS was their night and they were out in force
had to be well over fifty of 'em in this little Starbucks
totally surreal gig playing for a bunch of deaf people



That's EXACTLY the kind of gig I'm looking for! Getting paid real money to play for deaf people-- a perfect match for my playing...

[Jason Kessler]

My band (rock band, sorry; no mando content) was HIRED to play for the deaf, specifically for a dance at a deaf school. They just mikes the bass and the kick drum. It was actually oddly liberating...

[300win]

Playing at a surgeon's party. Man had the money! And also had a bunch of wild guests. The high point of the festivities was when the doc's wife climbed on top of their grand piano, and performed a dance, { I think we was picking maybe "Salt Creek"}, and of course she lost her balance, fell down, and thats when we all noticed that she was only wearing her party dress sans undergarments of any nature, of course she recieved a resounding applause. That was the wildest party I've ever played music at period.

[NickAlberty]

Well, this is not that weird but kind of cool........I guess !

Anyway, played at Muskogee Country Club in Muskogee, OK. It was a wedding reception for NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson and his wife. We played out on the porch whil there was also a 80's pop music band inside.

However, when it came time to "celebrate the wedding". We walked immediately behind Jimmie and his wife playing "Kentucky Waltz". Since we had to follow behind them while playing, the upright bass player had a hard time carrying a bass and playing it at the same time.

There were other NASCAR drivers there as well. We got paid pretty good and enjoyed the evening as well.

Jimmie sure is a small fellow!!

[Jon Hall]

I don't know if opening for Tiny Tim is wierd...I guess it was...even for 1970.