Bizarre Gig Sites...

[Windflite]

Well, Saturday was a new first for me. #Our band actually got paid to play for the grand opening of a newly remodeled Kroger grocery store! # We stood in the back corner next to the bread and seafood and played for 2 hrs to whomever meandered by. #Our guitar player (who is a heck of a picker and works at the store) has the knack of finding us gigs I guess. # #The best part... we were listed in the top right hand corner in very small print of the weekly Kroger flyer as second billing to 'JoJo the balloon animal clown'! #My daughter 'made me where a hat' so that her friends wouldn't recognize me! HA!

Oh well..just another weekend I guess.. #

http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/coffee.gif

[jim simpson]

I'm jealous! You were right in the tradition of Reno & Smiley. They had the Kroger sponsored TV show and they would sing the theme,"Let's go Krogering, Krogering, Krogering,....the happy way to save".
I miss Krogers, they had them in the Ohio Valley where I grew up. None to be found here in Philly. I was pleased to see them in Atlanta on a recent trip.
I even have a Krogers patch that one could sew onto a shirt.

[mandopete]

I know where you're coming from! I have played a gig in a supermarket too, right there in the produce section. #What was odd was that people who were shopping weren't phased at all by our performance. #In fact we had to move aside so one lady could get to the tomatoes!

[steve V. johnson]

My wife, Min Gates, has been friends with a couple of young guys who worked in a grocery butcher section. #When they opened their own shop, she did some promotions for them. #After our last trip to Ireland they asked about Irish meats and Min put them in touch with some distributors of Irish lamb, "bangers" sausages and black and white puddings (also sausages). #

So they got these in stock in mid-February and wanted to do an Irish promotion, so they hired us to play trad Irish in the shop. #Much like Andy and Pete's grocery gigs, we sat off to the side and played all afternoon. #We did occaisionally chat up some folks about Ireland and Irish food. #

No clowns, tho, thank God for that! We did sell a bunch of our CDs, too,#woohoo. And we took home a gift bag of great meats.

I'd do it again. I guess...

stv

[Windflite]

note to self... Get Gift bag of meat at next Grocery Gig. #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif # Cool!

[mrbook]

We did a couple grocery store grand openings, and it brought me back to a time right after I got my first guitar. A great local country band (they had a 15-minute local TV show) played the grand opening of the new supermarket near us, and as a 12 year old kid I watched them thinking how great it would be to do that. Forty years later, I got to do it with my own band - and for the same supermarket chain. A modest dream come true.

I would do more anytime, but after the second gig the company's legal department sent me a notice demanding proof that the band had $200,000.00 in liability insurance. I haven't heard from them since I ignored the third request.

[BlueMountain]

Well, this isn't as weird as a grocery store. On Thursday nights I play mandolin for what's supposed to be a bluegrass jam that meets in a Lion's Club hall in a tiny village sort of in the middle of nowhere. But we have a good audience, usually 150 people seated at long tables, nearly all of them retired (a bunch of them, up to 98 years old, do clog dancing when the spirit moves them). Did I say bluegrass? They FAR prefer patriotic songs like God Bless America. Better yet are yodels, such as I'm Gonna Yodel My Way to Heaven. Pennsylvania Dutch songs are very popular, such as Ja, Das IS Ein Schnitzelbank! What really brings down the house, though, is polkas. We do Beer Barrel Polka nearly every week. Once I had the temerity to attempt Too Fat Polka (you, know, I don't want her, you can have her, she's too fat for me), and I even rewrote the last verse to please the horizontally challenged, but it didn't quite work out. I guess I just don't seem authentically Lawrence Welk.

[straight-a]

Well I played (along with fellow cafe member Greg H.) at a tractor pull about a year ago. Tremedous amount of "fun" being directly in between the pit area and the main pull area. Our backs were to the pits and we had an ear monitor system with that particular band. About halfway through the show, the tractors start warming up in the pits. Big 500 horse engines with no mufflers coming right through the mics into the ear monitors. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif

[batman]

Played last saturday night at the Pollocksville,NC annual BIG BUCK CONTEST. Great fun but cold. Don

[Jim Hilburn]

Does this count? Last minute gig for Masons in tuxes. We expected to be background but we were introduced and all eyes and ears were on us.

[johnsmusic]

We have done about 35 gigs this summer at Marshside Mamas on Dafuskie Island, SC. http://southwindmusic.net/mamaslinks.html It's a 45 minute boat ride(no bridge). People tend to loose all control over there, maybe because it is so isolated. Think- Key West in the sixties. Anyway, dogs, and cats running through the building and even coming up on stage while we are playing. A 400 lb. pot belly pig named Ned that drinks beer. Mama makes the best gumbo on the planet. What a blast! wouldn't trade it for anything. John

[John Craton]

I think the strangest one I did was also my last. (A hand injury has put an end to my ability to subject innocent ears to my playing.) It was a 50th wedding anniversary celebration where I played harpsichord (actually, an electronic keyboard set to harpsichord). They had me in a separate room with a door open so the notes could waft their way. Half the attendees were mostly deaf, which means they had a better appreciation for my skills than was warranted. Afterward they invited me to sit with them and enjoy the perennial mints, nuts, and punch. I take it they either were extremely generous of just wanted me to be quiet http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif

[Windflite]

Well I played (along with fellow cafe member Greg H.) at a tractor pull about a year ago.

Ironically, Straight-A, we also played a similiar venue this year. #It was a small town USA kinda event...specifically "DeLand, IL Homecoming Days'

(you hafta prounouce it as the locals do..."DEEELand") http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

We were booked on the bandstand in the town square while a couple hundred folks in Seed Company and John Deere hats lined up for the fish fry, a guy on a unicyle juggled lit bowling pins in front of the stage and a tractor pull was going on in the adjacent block. #Needless to say, we experienced the same mike probs (condensors to boot)! #Despite the occasional ear rupturing feedback that the situation produced, the locals were very receptive and a real joy to play for.

Ah...the memories... # http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/coffee.gif

[SGraham]

We played a wedding on the set for two actors from the HBO show "Deadwood." The groom came riding in on a horse as we played "After the Battle of Aughrim." Real nice people, though.

[Jim Yates]

Hey straight-a,
Our bass player just sent me an email saying that he has us signed up to play the tractor pull at Rice Lake(Southern Ontario) next summer. That's a long time from now, maybe we should find out where stage is located.

[steve V. johnson]

Wow! Good stuff!!

Steve Wilke, I love that show, that must have been a fun gig. On the set, way cool.

Andy Hodge! I grew up in Paxton, in Ford Co., Illinois. I pronounced Deland right before you told us how! LOL!!! I'm not too far away now, over in Indiana, but I haven't been back to the Flatlands in a long time...

Johnsmusic! Thanks for reminding me about Dafuskie Is.!! What a great place. I love that whole of the Low Country, with the possible exception of Hilton Head itself, but just cuz I don't golf or tennis... <GG>

I just remembered another one... Some years ago, my wife, Min Gates, was recruited to play bodhran with The Rashers, a great Louiville-area Irish band, for a couple of gigs in northern Kentucky. She was the only female, with four other male players (and me tagging along).

One of the gigs was in a beautiful convent that held a retirement home for nuns. The sisters were led and escorted into their big, nice cafeteria to listen. Now, my dad was a nursing home admin. and I spent a lot of my youth in these places, but this was the first one I had seen that served drinks! The ladies got all happy while the Rashers tuned up and paid rapt attention while they played.

Afterwards we learned that almost a third of the retired sisters were first-generation Irish and knew the tunes by name! One old sister pulled Min's sleeve and said, "Child, I love your playing, you're really good, but how in the world did you ever come to be performing with all these _men_?" Some of the guys heard it too, and we had to work really hard to hold back our laughter til we got outside. It was wonderful.

I haven't played a tractor pull in years, they used to be great fun. Back then I played blues'n'booze... <GG>

stv

[Mike Bunting]

Hey, Blep, I know that country, I'll be in Peterborough to visit my mom over Xmas.
My weirdest gig... the opening of a PMSG barn near my farm in Alberta. That's where they collect pregnant mare #####, it has a high concentration of estrogen which is used for medicinal purposes among other things. We had a great time, as you can imagine they were real down to earth folks and good neighbors.:D

[Mike Bunting]

I see my post got censored, the word is a perfectly good Latin based word, not slang, for #1, not #2!

[John Rosett]

let's see....where to begin.....
*the redneck olympics in rudyard, montana. we played on a flatbed while events like the cowpie toss went on.
*the athena club in weiser, idaho. 2 nights at a biker bar during fiddle week at weiser.
*one night on the road, we were stranded in jordan, mt (anyone remember the freeman standoff?). we were playing for beer, just because we were stuck there overnight. i was the only male member of the band with long hair, and right in the middle of a song, a VERY drunk guy came up to me and said,"boy, i think you oughta know that you're in merle haggard country, if you know what i mean."
* my jazz trio played at the opening of a high-end audio store, where they listened to us, rather than the $10,000 stereo systems.
*when i lived in seattle, my little swing group got a king county parks contract. we played on the beach, in the sand, with our p.a. and a 200 foot extention cord. there were a couple of other really weird ones in this period, including one in auburn, wa, where this guy stood right in front of us screaming about how he was a lesbian cia agent, and so was the band, and playing in a concrete parking garage where there was also a kareoke set-up that was ear-splittingly loud.
there are so many that i just can't remember the stand-outs of weird. i guess that i'll have to post more when i remember them.

[oldwave maker]

The fusiliers played a benefit for the therapeutic horsemen of el paso. They maintain a stable of 20 or so old nags they use to take autistic and other special needs kids on trail rides. We played for an hour and a half and then took a break while they had an equine fashion show, elderly horses dressed up as floozies, chippendale dancers, brides, zorro, etc. With gigs like this, who needs drugs?

[glauber]

The most bizarre ever for me, with one of my old bands (Christian Rock) was when opened up for a Christian body builders show (I bet you didn't know such a thing existed... they all dress up like WWF wrestlers and perform "feats of strength": "aaand now! the man who can bench press a volkswagen! with arms as thick as mellons! the one-time Mr Louisiana!" and so on). After the festivities, we the musicians had to schlepp all the heavy equipment while the strongmen basked in the admiration of the teenage girls. Our drummer quipped: "we could use some feats of strength right now!"

[glauber]

Oh, also: me on flute and a fiddler friend, played for a Irish/Jewish wedding. They had a priest and a rabbi; it really sounded like the beginning of a bad joke. They asked us to play hornipes before the cerimony, and "Sunsine, Sunset" (from Fiddler on the Roof) during the part where in the Jewish cerimony, the couple signs the marriage contract. Everybody was verklampt, oy! We thought it was pretty funny they specifically asked for an all-hornpipe Irish music part, because they're not so common compared to jigs and reels; we had to scramble to find enough of them to do. And if it hadn't been bizarre enough, i met one of my managers from work there (who had no idea i played). This one paid good money, though. It was in Navy Pier, in Chicago.

[Jonathan Reinhardt]

Not the most bizzare, but the most recent "different" one - last week -
at a sauna pond (from the north bank sauna porch), in the early evening dark, as several dozen preschool youngsters came down to the pond (through a field) from their very nearby schoolhouse, along a luminere lighted pathway (with amazing childmade shrines along the way) to launch minature boats (each one with a candle lighted at the west bank shore by a staff member).
Great acoustics over the water, from this "Never Seen" musician! Gave 'em 'Angels Rock Me to Sleep', 'Sea of Heartbreak', 'Wynken,Blynken, & Nod', 'Troublesome Waters', etc.
Very beautiful event, although a bit unusual.

rasa

[John Rosett]

we played at a couple of bull sales where we set up in the pen where the bulls were brought out to be viewed. you never saw a band break down their gear so quickly as we did.

[jim simpson]

glauber,
I like your story. I was playing in a band that could have been thought of as Christian Rock as our other guitarist wrote spiritially inspired songs. We played all original stuff and were playing at a college band competition. Most of the bands were playing covers of Police, etc. The judges for the contest included members of The Dead Milkmen (anyone remember them?). I guess they caught some of our lyrics cause we saw a score card that had 6-6-6 on it. I don't think we were appreciated at that gig. At our very first gig (again at a college) we started out a tune I had come up with on dulcimer, then I switched to electric guitar playing the same melody - then our drummer came out from backstage playing the same melody on bagpipes before switching over to drums. I guess we were eclectic. I first started plinking on the mandolin in those days and was the acoustic influence on the band.

[mmukav]

Great stories all!

Here's mine. A month ago we played at a local metropark, outdoors of course, for the local county humane society. It was called "The Ramble", and was for dogs and their owners. Actually turned out to be a fun event, with local radio and TV personalities. But to look out in the audience and see about 120 people with their dogs walking around, sniffing, and doing their 'doggie things' was kind of strange.

This friday we do a show for an "Art Walk" to promote local artisans and shops and yep, you guessed it, we're playing in a near-by animal shelter. Two dog shows in a row! Wow, aren't we the lucky ones!

[Windflite]

Two dog shows in a row! Wow, aren't we the lucky ones!

OK, OK already...your mandolin DOES have a louder bark than mine. #
http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif

Sorry. #Carry on.

[aimee]

Horses dressed as floozies? That is too funny.

Can't say we've played at any real weird places, but the first place we played had a streaker. Didn't know if I should take my teenagers home right then & there or continue.

[mandopete]

Streaking, do they still do that? That's so 1970's!

[pdlstl]

On Dec. 4th., we're going to be playing a Christmas party down n Spring, TX (north of Houston).




It's for the employees of a funeral home. We'll be plaing in the chapel.

Also, back in the 80's, when I was still playing pedal steel, I played at a lesbian barn dance in DeSoto TX.

[Nolan]

We played an outside show once where it rained so hard everyone in the audience just came onstage with us to get out of the rain! #

[Jim Yates]

Sorry straight-a, I was mistaken. You can tell I grew up in the city - our gig is a Plowing Match, not a tractor pull(I don't know the difference)

Mike Bunting. The Plowing Match is near Keene, a community near the East end of the north shore of Rice Lake about 20 minutes from Peterborough.
Check out who's playing at the Montreal House when you're in Peterborough. I saw Corb Lund & The Hurtin' Albertans there a few weeks ago for a $5 cover charge. If Washboard Hank is playing check him out too. My son, Clayton, is his mandolin player.

[Dan Adams]

Done the outdoor dog gig ourselves. Dan

[mandowilli]

Did a holiday party at a manufacturing plant for electronic gates and security barriers. We were set up in the middle of an area that displayed all of their various devices, which were set to continually open and close.

[barry k]

we once played at a bar near Lancaster Pa., actually had chicken wire in front of the stage. Good thing they did...those beer bottles could have hurt? took years to get the stains and smells off the equipment...AND they wanted us back.

[Rroyd]

Speaking of the dog gigs, some years back the band Chesapeake was hired to play for a private housewarming. The owners were dog people, all medium to large dogs, 13 total, and none had obviously ever participated in any sort of obedience classes. (There were also two wolves in a large pen bordering the yard, and Mrs. owner would lure them over for the guests to see by throwing rib steaks over the 10-foot-high chain link pen fence. Maybe 15 or 20 steaks total, but in her words, "they're just rib steaks," but that's another story) Anyway, the band was getting set up to play, and Moondie Kline (Klein?) turned around from adjusting a mike just in time to see one of the larger dogs indicate that he was claiming Moondie's guitar as his own.

[MandoPup]

A few Saturdays ago my bluegrass band and I played three jobs at three different places in one day.

The first; starting at 11 a.m., was a benefit at a rural firehouse...two sets.
The second; a mass baptism and chicken stew at a river...one set all gospel music.
The third: a motorcycle club's annual beer bash and pig pickin'...three sets.

[Cetecea]

Played a real dump once.

Really, it was appreciation day at our transfer station (dump) and we played a set in between a DJ and a solo fiddle player.

Free hot dogs...(no thanks!) http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[BauerHaus]

In November, 2004, my bluegrass band, The Wayfarers (http://www.geocities.com/thewayfarersband) went on a mission trip to Paris France. While there, we went to one of the subway stations, and started playing down in one of the tunnels. Well, within 10 minutes, the Metro police ran us off from down there, so we went up to street level, and started playing. Man, it was wild. Most people were in so much of a hurry, they didn't even pay attention to us, but a few people stopped and listened for a bit.
After about a half hour of playing the Metro police came back and (through our interpretor), asked if we had a permit. Of course we didn't, so they politely asked us to leave...again. This time we did. It was quite an experience, but I think had we tried again, we may have ended up in jail in Paris France!!! Now THAT would be a story to tell.

Steve

[Greenmando]

Used to play on a steam train, traveled car to car. Great wine and cheese runs and some new years eve parties on the train.

[Chip Booth]

I have a mando playing friend (not me, really) who's band once played a nudist retreat. #The band (which included several pretty ladies) felt compelled to join in and played their set in the buff http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[jim simpson]

"Played a real dump once.

Really, it was appreciation day at our transfer station (dump) and we played a set in between a DJ and a solo fiddle player."

When I'm down in the dumps, I like to go shopping.
Oh, so that's where you do your shopping!

[reindoggy]

Straight-a,

I played a tractor pull in Wild Rose, WI just this summer. Fortunately, it was the souped up lawn tractors. :) Plenty loud, though. We were also way too close to the dunk tank. Softballs kept bouncing off the back of the guitar player's amp. It was 100 degrees in the shade, and when we were done, we discovered the stage had been built on top of a red ant nest. The little buggers were all inside the equipment, as well as the drummer's ear. :)

Reindog.

[Ken Berner]

Glad we got friend Steve Bauer and friends back from France; we won't let 'em go again!

A first for me was playing on the street, in the middle of our little town during lunch hour; just guitar, dobro and mandolin pickin' amongst working artists, shoppers and lunch-goers for a couple of hours. The weather was great, folks stopped to chat, a couple took pictures and we really enjoyed the experience. We are looking forward to doing this again, soon!

[garyblanchard]

In my electronic, avant-garde days I was playing Laurie Anderson like stuff in a multi-media format. I got asked to play at a wedding reception in the Baltimore Museum od Industry, set up next to some huge piece of machinery. I was doint this offbeat music on electronic keyboard while people schmoozed.

[tree]

Our last gig was a "barn party". #Our very first number provoked a wicked dogfight; I felt like that was an indication that we were playing bluegrass they way it was meant to be played.

[glauber]

LOL! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[mancmando]

In Manchester there is this thing called a folk train,

folk train (http://www.hvhptp.org.uk/folktran.htm)

(don't worry, I'm not in that photo), where a series of acoustic gigs are put on small trains leaving manchester on small branch lines to the Peak District. The party then moves to a pub for an hour or two before heading back to get the train.

They are usually pretty well attended and probably the best fun gigs that I have ever done. Most people's mission on the train seems to be to drink as much alcohol as possible, so by the time the train heads back everyone is pretty far gone http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

happy daze

[Windflite]

mancmando Posted: Nov. 15 2005, 11:03 In Manchester there is this thing called a folk train...


What a great idea that really looks like fun! #Any problem playing on a moving train? #Looks like a really neat way to spend an evening...on either the pickin' or the grinnin' side of the fence! #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[Cetecea]

Our very first number provoked a wicked dogfight; I felt like that was an indication that we were playing bluegrass they way it was meant to be played.
Love that quote!

[tree]

It's true - one of the things that most attracts me to Bluegrass music (other than the sound of good clean pickin' on fine acoustic instruments) is the harmony, which provokes in me the same primal feeling as the sound of a pack of beagles or hounds that has just picked up a scent. #It's primal, and it moves me. #Jimmy Martin, bless his soul, was really onto something. I honestly felt like we had connected with the doggies - maybe it would've been better if they hadn't taken offense and started fighting, but I figured that was the testosterone talkin'.

[Tom C]

One I did attend but did not play was when my brothers band (dead band)played at the Pagan's clubhouse about 10 years ago. We all got out alive. But when one of them wants to sing a tune, you let them sing. They were actually pretty nice. Even the way guys weighing 350 lbs. with the names Roadblock and Tugboat ask if our girls friends were available. Yeah we were sweating a bit.

[blammo]

One I did attend but did not play was when my brothers band (dead band)played at the Pagan's clubhouse about 10 years ago. We all got out alive. But when one of them wants to sing a tune, you let them sing. They were actually pretty nice. #Even the way guys weighing 350 lbs. with the names Roadblock and Tugboat ask if our girls friends were available. Yeah we were sweating a bit.
hahaha…


"Can we dance wif your dates?"

"Why yes! Certainly!"

[Jim Yates]

Quote (Tom C @ Nov. 16 2005, 11:54)
One I did attend but did not play was when my brothers band (dead band)played at the Pagan's clubhouse about 10 years ago. We all got out alive. But when one of them wants to sing a tune, you let them sing. They were actually pretty nice. Even the way guys weighing 350 lbs. with the names Roadblock and Tugboat ask if our girls friends were available. Yeah we were sweating a bit.

Tom C. reminded me of a gig a band I used to belong to played at a hotel in small town southern Ontario about 20 some odd years ago. One gentleman with tatoos and biker colours kept saying,"Play Fox On The Run if you want to walk right." Although it wasn't in our repertoire, we figured out a version that satisfied him. The fellow I remember most vividly was about 400 pounds and kept getting drunker and drunker as the night went on. He finally fell on the floor and started to snore. His buddies tried in vain to get him out to the car. He stayed there on the bar room floor and was still there when we packed up and left.
I've returned to that town and the bar is now a quite respectable pub with a new name and decore.

[Jim Yates]

Oh, the guy was not still on the floor.

[JD Cowles]

my band played the back of a bike shop (twice). bad acoustics and no room, but we did get paid...

[Jonathan Reinhardt]

There are train several gigs in this region - out of southern VT going west (Flying Under Radar - Charles Hunter) that feature the likes of Utah Phillips, Fred Eaglesmith, etc. Another in north MA/ southern NH that does a blues thing.
Sort of a more modern day 'Festival Express' concept.
Where would we be without the unusual to relieve the stress of the routine?

rasa

[mancmando]

mancmando Posted: Nov. 15 2005, 11:03 In Manchester there is this thing called a folk train...


What a great idea that really looks like fun! #Any problem playing on a moving train? #Looks like a really neat way to spend an evening...on either the pickin' or the grinnin' side of the fence! #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif
Yes - it is great fun... There is a certain technique to standing and not falling over (especially on the way back), but I can honestly say that I have never had as much fun doing a gig, the punters are all well into the music and incredibly enthusiastic...

Am playing there on 10th December with this lot, and looking forward to it
andrews brothers (http://www.theandrewsbrothers.co.uk/) http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

[SGraham]

Here's another. I was asked to play a 5 hour realtors open house on the Palos Verdes Penninsula, overlooking the ocean. They said they wanted "mandolin music." When I asked what kind, they replied "you know, just mandolin music." I asked if they'd mind if my banjo picker friend could come along--I was thinking Celtic and old time fiddle tunes--I received a semi-puzzled "OK..." The night before the gig they called and asked me to be sure and dress in keeping with the event's "Tuscan theme." Quick change of plans; banjo pal stayed home, and a fiddler and I ended up playing 5 hours of anything that sounded even vaguely Italian. Of course, I should have realized that "just mandolin music" means tunes from Tuscany! #
Steve