Let's hear some gig stories!

^^^^^^ Very cool. Jamming and grilling on the open sea (there were brews on board? right?)

And who DIDN'T rock an 8000 series Valvestate at one point or another!

Think I had the 2x12 combo. :rawk:
 
[ Donnie B. ] said:
^^^^^^ Very cool. Jamming and grilling on the open sea (there were brews on board? right?)

And who DIDN'T rock an 8000 series Valvestate at one point or another!

Think I had the 2x12 combo. :rawk:
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No brews on board, just good old fashion pottable water, ha.

yeah mine the 2x12, looks cute in the pic. But at the time, it was what I thought was my first “real” amp, a big step up from my Crate 2x12c.
 
stratjacket said:
Very cool stories, great reads. Love it.
I joined the Navy right out of high school so never really pursued playing in many bands. Was stationed in Japan. I bought a Marshall Valvstate (8100 maybe?) in Japan and kept it on the ship along with my trusty old Ibanez RG540. We had a band, played to a riveted crowd of a few people while out at sea. That was actually a cool experience. We called it a steel beach picnic where we basically stop in calm waters, grill and relax.

Once we were in Singapore on this rooftop bar and a live band was playing. There was the hottest girl I was trying to pick up all night with absolutely no luck. One of the guys talked the band into letting him and I play, so we did Johnnie B Good. After that, the girl was all over me. Good times...

This pic was around 1993 or 1994. No women on the ship, so no groupie stories and anyway what happens at sea stays at sea

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Killer experience. Navy man....I dig it. Lots of friend from HS served in the Navy. My Gfather was at Pearl on the St Louis during the attack.
Thank you for your service!
 
About 5 or 6 years ago my band lined up an "end of the year" gig at one of our favorite local venues. Usually just a show with other bands we have befriended over the years. Just a big hangout to have some fun and play some music. Big snow/ice storm drops that day, so we were a little worried about attendance. One of the bands that lives a couple hours south of us got hit pretty hard with the ice, and their rhythm guitarist backs out maybe 3 hours before their set. I got word of it maybe an hour before their set, and the band was pretty upset because they were going to drop out. I offered to fill in. I went on a mini-tour with one of my bands and them the previous summer, so I was slightly familiar with their music. They took me backstage 30 minutes prior to their show time, and we ran through the set real quick. Gave me a cheat sheet of chord changes and tunings. Went up on stage and did . . . not too shabby haha. Played their set then rolled right into my band's set and it was a damn good night. I fondly remember downing half a bottle of Jameson that night too. Then got massively sick the next day (not hangover sick - more like flu/I'm dying sort of sick). After that gig, the band recruited me as a road guitarist for their next handful of shows as their rhythm guitarist was out with back surgery/therapy. So I was already active in my main band, a guitar tech/fill in guitarist for another band, rhythm guitarist for another metal band, had a side project kicking off, and now this band. Hell of a year.

Another memorable one happened during the previously mentioned summer tour. Wednesday night gig, we show up in Tulsa. Walk in to the venue, and it's a ghost town. One bartender and the owner. Ended up doing a quick sound check, both bands did 2 songs, and then they closed up for the night. In and out waste of time. Oh, and prior to the show a few guys went across the street to check out a gay bar just for the hell of it. They came back with quite a lot of glitter and feathered cowboy hats lol
 
...not a (real) gigger... so no stories of personal gigging experience. but.. this thread had fallen to the second page. so...

whilst in HS, 1985/86, this band came through...not sure how they even got to our school as we were living in Podunk. but they set up in the gym and played a concert... COOL AF. RNR was ALIVE and these dudes could really play. it was all cover stuff of course, but they played all the good stuff,,,, CRUE, Maiden, VH, AD/DC, etc. they mixed in a few pop-ish type tunes. but very cool.

so the night of the concert... the bass player takes off for a couple songs...not sure if he had to go drop a deuce or was running lines out back or what, but the sound-guy takes over on bass. Now most of these musicians looked to be not much older than us...I'm guessing they were 20-somethings... where as the sound-guy looked to be in his 40's. At that time, as far as I was concerned, he was OLD-AF! So they're laying-down a Ratt song :thumbsup: and the 40-something-bass/sound-guy decides he's gonna leap onto the drum riser...MF was feeling the musical vibe as it were...

So right on queue he leaps for all he's got...STICKS the landing... only to have the black carpet shit slip out from under his feet. Dude falls backwards, banging his head on the way down...never missing a note, hits on his back whilst rolling backward mind-you (feet over head). His feet hit the floor, he sticks that landing, and springs up like a fucking Olympic gymnast doing a floor routine. at this point blood is just streaming down this guys face... He never. missed. a note!

so the 3rd string bassist rushes in and takes the bass, the band never stops, old guy nearly completely blood drenched by now, throws double devil-horn hands :rawk: to the students as he casually meanders out of the gym. about 400-500 kids went nuts. :rock: Rock-N-fuckin-Roll! :rock:
 
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Here’s a funny one...back in 91-92 my band was on the road 2 weeks per month(just Mn/Wi, not too far) and this particular week we were up in Virginia Mn up in the Iron Range. 5 nights, free motel/hotel kinda shit. First night was dead city, playing to like 20 people-hell it’s a Tuesday. But Huey, our drummer( real name Ryan) says “cmon guys let’s go meet some people!” We’re like dude, there’s NOONE here. He finds his way to a table with 3 girls, none of which were even resembling hot. So he hangs there the whole night in between sets. At the end of the night he says he’s gonna hang with them after the show. Ok. Lol. Next morning at like 5am we get a call from him “hey guys can you come pick me up?” Well, where are you? “I’m in Eveleth” ...well, it’s 5am, we are still probably a little drunk yet and Eveleth is 15 miles away. “No Huey, call us back after we get some more rest”. We could hear a bunch of kids being loud in the background. So @11am a knock at the door..it’s Huey and he walked the whole way back! Or so he said..he was pissed. Haha. So that night, same group of girls shows up and we are relentless with him, “which one is your girl? Which one?” All night we bugged him until right at the break in Rock n Roll by Zep, he starts his solo and our singer keeps nagging him until he stops playing, throws his sticks down and says “does it really fucking matter?? Look at them!!” He jumps off the stage and we are laughing our asses off trying to end the song with a big giant A chord to mute our laughter....So of course our theme for the next 6 months was...”Does it really fucking matter?” Lol
 
Racerxrated said:
Here’s a funny one...back in 91-92 my band was on the road 2 weeks per month(just Mn/Wi, not too far) and this particular week we were up in Virginia Mn up in the Iron Range. 5 nights, free motel/hotel kinda shit. First night was dead city, playing to like 20 people-hell it’s a Tuesday. But Huey, our drummer( real name Ryan) says “cmon guys let’s go meet some people!” We’re like dude, there’s NOONE here. He finds his way to a table with 3 girls, none of which were even resembling hot. So he hangs there the whole night in between sets. At the end of the night he says he’s gonna hang with them after the show. Ok. Lol. Next morning at like 5am we get a call from him “hey guys can you come pick me up?” Well, where are you? “I’m in Eveleth” ...well, it’s 5am, we are still probably a little drunk yet and Eveleth is 15 miles away. “No Huey, call us back after we get some more rest”. We could hear a bunch of kids being loud in the background. So @11am a knock at the door..it’s Huey and he walked the whole way back! Or so he said..he was pissed. Haha. So that night, same group of girls shows up and we are relentless with him, “which one is your girl? Which one?” All night we bugged him until right at the break in Rock n Roll by Zep, he starts his solo and our singer keeps nagging him until he stops playing, throws his sticks down and says “does it really fucking matter?? Look at them!!” He jumps off the stage and we are laughing our asses off trying to end the song with a big giant A chord to mute our laughter....So of course our theme for the next 6 months was...”Does it really fucking matter?” Lol
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LMAO! that's awesome. i love, love stories 🤣...

This is not gig related, but i played a little baseball in college. one of our pitchers got hooked up with a "MILF" one Friday night, a real specimen of a lady 😜 .... he went to her place, packed her fudge all night, only to be brought from his beer-google induced slumber the next morning by the pop-tart stained face of a toddler asking who he was and why he was in his moms bed!

we were playing a double header Saturday and had to report early for all the pre-game BS. so at about 9:00 a.m. his roomies show up... we never heard back from him they said. about that time, he is chauffeured up to the ball field in front of god and everybody.... by his new found lady, and her 3 kids, hanging all out of the car and shit, like dogs when you drive them around.

imagine his embarrassment, but our amusement.

oh and did i mention, he hadn't showered, at all... smelled of 💩💩 due to the aforementioned packing of fudge. from that moment on, he became known as TURD!
 
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lots of road stories, but dang weirdest one-playing Marion Indiana for 6 nights in a row. It was Tuesday, pretty dead, all of the sudden a colored guy runs through the bar, we were puzzled. About 30 seconds later 3 guys in full kkk outfits and what looked to be tar and feathers run through the bar... we stopped and I was like was that real?!?!?! Then a bunch of other colored folks came in and it got a little crazy with them throwing some chairs saying wheres the klan. They realized we had nothing to do with it and didnt bother us, but man that was unreal. prolly about 1993 when that happened.
 
ok one more I just remembered that was crazy. pretty cool club in Indianapolis. Warrant was in town and at the end of the concert Janie Lane announced over the pa he was going to that club where we happen to be playing. The club packed out qnd Janie showed up. He jammed Tush with us which was cool. After we were done, in a store room, a bouncer was showing Janie his gun. well, it went off. went through a bathroom where the soundman was doing #2, bullet grazed his neck, bullet goes into the band dressing room, bounced off a water heater and into the case of my Les Paul that the bass player happened to be holding. would have went in his leg if that guitar wasnt right by him. Bullet stopped in the cutaway horn of my les paul. Bar owner paid me what I paid for the guitar, soundman got a free case of beer and went to Church lol
 
I played in a cover band for about 15 years. 3 piece, no backing tracks (too lazy) mostly taking 80's tunes and punk'ing the up a little although still have nightmares about Jessie's Girl lol

So we get a corporate Xmas party gig at the Renaissance in Austin and there is about a band in every ball room.

During the booking process I have to meet with the head of HR, she's concerned about songs that could be "inappropriate" for a corporate setting. I tell he we get it, we all have boring corp day gigs. Also told her we basically only play what is on the website, we don't learn holiday songs, etc

So we're about 2 hours into the party and the HR lady runs up to the stage and yells "the boss is gone play the dirty songs". OK... we immediately go into She Hates Me by Puddle of Mud. We're about half way through the 1st verse and she tells the person next to her "I thought they would play something dirty".... she fuckin' hates me, la la la la... "Oh". the look on her face was freaking priceless.

We always ended with Hash Pipe. As we're loading out someone from the band across the hall stopped us " can I play with you guys, I'm playing Rudolf and you guys are ripping Hash Pipe at a Xmas party" :D
 
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