My worst gig so far for 2009--state fair

[catmandu2]

Have we cited our "worst gigs" here lately? Seems like we could do this seasonally. I had one last week..

One of my bands had two performances at the state fair. Upon arrival, we found that the stage was set up adjacent to the livestock venue. Apparently, we were to be a diversion on the first day while the animals were being corralled. And, for some strange reason...directly in front of the HOG STIE. For the next two hours we persevered between (literally) the squealing hogs (which does nothing for the music, btw) and the carney rides and cacophonic loudspeaker music. It was so loud at times I couldn't hear my bandmates between songs unless they faced me. At one point, I laid down my upright thinking we were taking a break only to see the band kicking-in with the next number. Occasionally, I would be unnerved by the sound of fierce pig squealing and turned around to see some intense physical interactions between man/woman/child and pig. Apparently, the swine were not happy. Between the hog pens and the back of the stage were the animal's owners; just behind us happened to be the most rambunctious family in the state, apparently, with half a dozen kids running amok apparently needing some food or medication--one of them set about beating a stick on the tubular-metal gate separating us, which imparted some nice gong-tones to our song. At one point I felt moisture on the back of my legs but couldn't figure out where it originated: the awning, sky, errant snow cone? Finally, I looked down behind me to see my harmonicas, fiddle, water bottles...partially covered with some kind of moisture. I pannicked and immediately thought pig saliva, #####, excrement and swine flu. Finally, I realized the kids were engaging in a water fight and was both relieved and frustrated as my concern was then for the amps and electrical gear--I played the second verse with my head turned 180-degrees while employing my best parenting skills. Finally after about an hour, the caretakers of these children materialized and a Jerry Springer-esque drama ensued while they chased the crying and screaming children about, swatting them on their butts "old school" style. Yee haw.

There is an upside to playng at the fair, though...I got to wear my straw cowboy hat, and probably looked authentic :mandosmiley: ... (except for my shorts and sandals)

Our second performance on Saturday was much better. It was rained-out.

[RobP]

Yeah when we played the local county fair for a couple of years, we played in late afternoon/early evening of opening day and had pretty sparce attendance for the music. A lot of tired-looking moms with kids looking for a shady spot to rest for a bit :) On one occasion the music act on the main stage started up while we were still performing - hard to ignore the boom from the big speakers. The idea of playing at the fair sounds really cool, but it was never one of my favorite gigs.

Cheers,

rob

[catmandu2]

This was the main stage! Attendance was not bad, and the money was good. And I guess the folks enjoyed it. I'll chalk it up to community service..

If not for the chaos behind us, it's a pretty fun gig; lots to look at while playing.

[Keith Wallen]

:-) Playing shows is always an adventure. We got lost Friday night going to a gig and luckily we didn't play until Saturday so we had plenty of time to figure it out. I used the same line on the guys when it looked like we weren't going to find it. "Always an adventure"

[Mark Walker]

Wow - that's a trip - competing with hogs! Our group (For Heaven’s Sake) was honored to be chosen as the only ‘real’ Gospel/Bluegrass act at the 2009 Beaver Island Music Festival last month. The music of most of the other groups who performed was truly 'eclectic' and bordered on some hybrid mixture of jazz, folk and reggae. While most were entertaining, we felt very out of place with our four-part harmonies and mostly Gospel-based message. (We did throw in some old favorites like Pure Prairie League’s ‘Amie’ and Bonnie & Delaney’s ‘Never Ending Song of Love.’) We played the first time slot (right after ‘open mic’ sessions) on a rainy Saturday afternoon to about 25 people. (The festival – in the evening hours – usually has 1200+ milling around in front of the stage.) We all kind of felt like a penny waiting for change! :disbelief:
We found out later most of those who made it a point to attend our performance had heard us do a short ‘unplugged’ set on the ferry ride over to the island and wanted to hear our full show. We also took a measure of consolation while we were awaiting transport back to Michigan’s mainland at the end of the weekend, when a lot of people recognized us on the boat docks and said, “You guys had the BEST harmonies of all the groups and should have had a better time slot!” :mandosmiley:

[catmandu2]

oops

[catmandu2]

:-) Playing shows is always an adventure.

Sure, I always take it in stride. But...the smell! ~:>~o)

[Dave Schimming]

Last year at the Kansas State Fair our band played in a gazebo on the fairgrounds, nice evening but it was tough competing for a crowd with a live alligator act going on just east of us.

[acousticphd]

I strongly recommend County Fairs (over State). Everything is a bit more subdued, including the livestock. I've actually taken part in a number of pretty enjoyable fair "gigs". And by gigs, I mean our OT picking group setting up our own sound and gear and playing for dozens of people, for free parking.

Worst gigs from my perspective have been poor mics and poor sound, coupled with weather/temperature playing havoc with the mandolin staying in tune.

[Rich]

We played for a parade about two weeks ago in Wyoming-- all acoustic on a flatbed trailer. Problem was we were next to the ambulance and fire trucks with their sirens on. We played Foggy Mt. Breakdown for 35 minutes... I couldn't hear the banjo next to me!

Kicker was we won first place for the best float thingy. Weird. Must have been our cowboy hats that did it, cuz I know for sure no one heard the music!

[catmandu2]

We played Foggy Mt. Breakdown for 35 minutes...

One of Dante's hell realms! :crying:

And I thought my gig was bad.. :)

[Darren Bailey]

Thanks for the vivid description, I'm off to bed chuckling to myself knowing I won't be able to explain to the wife why.

[journeybear]

Have we cited our "worst gigs" here lately?

There is this thread, Weirdest Bluegrass Gig (http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?p=654222), full of many a good yarn about many a bad gig.

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 our weirdest gig, because we were in so many odd situations, but your gig reminded me we once 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. I guess there was only one set of bleachers, so we were doubled up. As a matter of fact, if we didn't have the jug/washtub player's wife and my girlfriend there, no one would have been watching the first half of our set. Worst thing was, our fearless leader blew off an invitation to play at the Mariposa Festival that weekend (airfare, hotel, and good pay playing for thousands in a beautiful setting) because we were already booked to this. :mad:


Our second performance on Saturday was much better. It was rained-out.

Great last line! :))

[catmandu2]

Definitely was weird...a bit surreal, Orwellian even. I'm not accustomed to seeing folks rasslin hogs (my wife tells me I didn't even spell stye correctly)...much less while I'm trying to play something mellow. I mean, I don't like to see any animals unhappy.

One time, I was playing guitar on a lawn and a kid passed out and slammed his head into my guitar. I didn't see it coming and was quite startled. But I am proud to say, I didn't miss a beat.

[Matt DeBlass]

Go for the 4-H fair if you can, those folks run a tight ship!

Some of my worst gigs have been coffee shop shows where I play for tips. Some nights I'll take in 3 digits, but other times, and a couple recent ones, I've barely covered the cost of my iced coffee and gas.

[catmandu2]

oops-delete

[Stephen Cagle]

Catmandu2 I promise I'm not laughing at you just at the fiasco you had to go thru. That's one of the funniest things I've ever heard.:)) {I panicked and immediately thought pig saliva, #####, excrement and swine flu}. I do love fairs but dang you are gonna always remember that for sure. I'm sure next time will be better.:grin:

[catmandu2]

Thanks for the encouragement, Stephen. I'm going to need it to get back onto that horse..

[allenhopkins]

Remind me to tell you about the time we played for the guinea pig race...

[banjoboy]

I was sitting in with a band once that played a street fair. The stage was set right next to about 30 porta-potties. When we went on, a truck showed up and started sucking out all of the potties. It was incredibly loud and smelly!

[RSomers]

No ones brought up having to play next to a tractor pull!..Kinda takes the sensitivity out of a ballad.
Its a funny life at the fairs and how you have to qualify each level to move to the next..local, regional, and finally the big time state fairs. My fave was the Lodi State fair, the garlic olives were dynamite, and we all became friends of the raisen farmers of the California valley. If you ever ate a golden raisen, it came from near Lodi. They gave me a "gold" pin to prove it.
You gotta love it. I liked how the stage door led right to the...your car parked in the field next to the stage. Now you know why the big boys use tour buses...But they paid well and the checks didn't bounce. Its the kinda circuit that really tests your drive to make a living as a musician. Them and casino's.

[catmandu2]

Banjoboy, RSomers...I'm feeling better already.

Allen, guineas couldn't be worse than swine, could they?

[Ivan Kelsall]

I hope you began your first set with "Pig In a Pen" ! - i couldn't have resisted that one. Personally,not having played with a band for a long,long time,i'd have invited the pigs on stage
if i'd been lucky enough to be playing. Back when i did have a band,the worst gigs were those where the audience just didn't care about the music,they just needed some background noise in order to provide 'atmosphere' - that's a real put-down,especially when you're really trying to play well,
Ivan:(

[Mark Walker]

I strongly recommend County Fairs (over State). Everything is a bit more subdued, including the livestock. I've actually taken part in a number of pretty enjoyable fair "gigs". And by gigs, I mean our OT picking group setting up our own sound and gear and playing for dozens of people, for free parking.

Worst gigs from my perspective have been poor mics and poor sound, coupled with weather/temperature playing havoc with the mandolin staying in tune.

The Beaver Island Festival is like 10 miles from the 'town' on the island, and the site has no electricity other than what they provide with some big generator for the event. We were told we 'might be late' going on stage because the generators weren't working, so - no electricity, no sound. Turns out a salamander or some lizard-type creature had gotten into the fuel tank on the generator and plugged up the fuel line. Once that was cleared, it fired up and the microphones and speakers were 'live' again! ~:>

Our WMBMA (West Michigan Bluegrass Music Association) Spring and Fall events are at a couny fairground - with a fire station right next door to the edge of the fairgrounds where the stage is located. Fortunately, not too many calls have gone out while bands were performing. :)

I'll have to scope out the 'Weirdest Bluegrass Gig' link journeybear provided!

[journeybear]

I hope you began your first set with "Pig In a Pen" ! - i couldn't have resisted that one. Personally,not having played with a band for a long,long time,i'd have invited the pigs on stage ...

I've been in bands where that would have been redundant. :))

Best to leave the pigs in the audience! :whistling:

[Randi Gormley]

My band plays the cultural tents at the irish festivals and we play acoustic. It's amazing how often they give us a time right before the main, electric, stage fires up and put us within spitting distance of them. The only time we can hear ourselves is when they're between sets! They draw off all the audience, too, so we've just taken to sitting in a circle in the center of the room (stage? who needs a stage in an empty room?) and playing a session and let people drift by who have nothing else better to do!

[GTG]

Remind me to tell you about the time we played for the guinea pig race...

The guinea pig race, and other fine tales are told in this classic thread:
Bad gig (http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=32691&highlight=guinea)

[catmandu2]

Well...Allen may have felt that the guinea pig race was an ignominious event for the band. But it sounds like it was destined from the start: semi-deserted mall, French restaurant, bluegrass. To me, the guinea pigs might have been the best part!

Not only that, he didn't mention...do guinea pig race gigs pay well? ;)

I do find those kind of gigs frustrating, if not humiliating. I haul several instruments around to gigs, but sometimes don't bother to get anything out. My bandmates can always tell when I'm less than enthused when I only bother to play bass.

[allenhopkins]

Not only that, he didn't mention...do guinea pig race gigs pay well?

Well, relying on increasingly unreliable memory, it seems to me that the three of us got $25 each for playing the guinea pig race. Of course, that went a lot farther in 1973-4 than it does now...

[catmandu2]

$25.00...not bad for an ignominious guinea pig gig. :)

[mrmando]

We had a mandolin orchestra gig at a church lasagna supper/silent auction. Acoustics in the room were terrible; we were not properly miked; no one could really hear us. On top of that, they were pretty much done with their lasagna by the time we started, so they didn't really have a reason to stick around. All this would have been tolerable ... until some kid decided to start banging on the piano in the middle of our set! I put down my mandocello and was on my way over there to patiently explain that if he didn't quit I would rip his arm out of its socket, but think his parents beat me to it. At least I think that's what happened ... my memory's a little fuzzy on that point.

On top of that, they saved us some lasagna ... and it was awful.

[Steve Ostrander]

I was playing a gig once when they started demolishing a building near us.

Then there was the time we played at a nearly vacant VFW hall, and an old lady came in and sat at the table closest to the right main, then complained that we were too loud...

[catmandu2]

Another I recollect on the "easiest gigs" list: down in Ft. Collins with a "classic country" band (I hated this music at the time but loved to play pedal steel). We were accidentally booked for a Christmas party for HP. Only had to play for an hour for full pay! :grin: ; the only ones who disliked the music more than me were the audience..

[Phillip Tigue]

Last year at the Kansas State Fair our band played in a gazebo on the fairgrounds, nice evening but it was tough competing for a crowd with a live alligator act going on just east of us.

Ours was "Roger the Boxing Kangaroo!"

[Ivan Kelsall]

Quote :- ''I've been in bands where that would have been redundant''.
Hey JB - That sounds interesting.Cleanse your inner self & tell us all about it. I've seen one or two bands like it (NOT Bluegrass bands i might add) but have never been part of one,maybe i've missed out on something !,
Ivan:grin:

[TEE]

Not the worst but the saddest.....We played at a birthday party for a cancer patient last Saturday. Her nurses decided to go in together and throw the lady a birthday bash as she was poor and they wanted to do something special for her. She took a turn for the worse as we arrived and was not able to make it to the party, but they went ahead with the party (cook out) and we played for the nurses (free of course). The lady died while we were playing for her birthday.

[journeybear]

Quote :- ''I've been in bands where that would have been redundant''.
Hey JB - That sounds interesting.Cleanse your inner self & tell us all about it. I've seen one or two bands like it (NOT Bluegrass bands i might add) but have never been part of one,maybe i've missed out on something !,
Ivan:grin:

Nah, better not. This is really between me and my bartender - I mean, between me and my therapist. ;) Besides, youse guys are a tough audience! :)) Believe me, you haven't missed out on anything. I'll just say - sometimes you'll run into hellish situations, sometimes you bring the hell with you. :disbelief: :crying:

[GRW3]

... The lady died while we were playing for her birthday.

Maybe not so sad... Humans are known for self-selected natural leave taking. Perhaps this was her way of seeing that she had a wake for people who actually cared about her.

[300win]

Don't remember where or when exactly , but one time we played for a bunch of people that were having some kind of buisness party, and they only knew one Bluegrass song, and of course it was "Rocky Top", but besides getting a request for it every 15 minutes, NONE, and I mean NONE of them ever listened one iota to what we were doing, and if not for the fact that it paid but barely we would have packed up and left. "I hate rude behaviour in a man, I wont tolerate it "; Capt. Woodrow F. Call, Texas Rangers.

Writing this also reminded me of playing with a bunch of guys early in the morning 8:30 on Hilton Head Island, South Crolina. I was playing with my regular band in Savannah, Georgia and these guys who had guitar, banjo, bass in their band were without their mando player for some reason. Anyway they came and got me at my motel room at 7:30 am, after I had a long restful sleep of:30 am} two hours, and here we went. All I can say it was a large group of rich, drunk { yes already at 8:30 am} in swim suits having a pool party. Now me being the young single man that I was at the time did get awakened by the sights and sounds, mostly the sights, as there were several scantily clad young ladies there with these mostly old rich, drunk dudes, so amid the spashing and whatnot our music helped the overall ambeince of the gala festivities. I'll have to say that that music making experience was one of my favorites at that time in my life. The music was pretty good as the other guys could play pretty well, and the vistas sometimes were outstanding.

[re simmers]

I received a call from a friend who has semi-pro band, very good. I was flattered to be asked to fill in for his mando picker for this job at a pig roast. Finding the place was like a visit to the movie, "Deliverance." As it turned out, it was just my friend (guitar player), not the rest of the band. The 'gig' was at a salvage/junk yard with plenty of pit-bulls and german shepherds. It was raining, but they covered the "stage' area with a big army tent that looked like it was from MASH. The sound system was 50+ years old and was big enough for Yankee stadium. It was "covered dish" and pig. I'm not a picky eater, but it was the worst food I've ever eaten. They passed the hat for our pay. I got $15.

Bob