Nightmare gig last night!

[RockStarNick]

I can tell you how I knew it was going to be a bad gig.

When we arrived, the soundguy said: "Ok guys, here's the deal. 5 bands now. I know that you were told 40 minute sets, but now it's looking more like 25. And don't start crying if it only turns out to be 17. And we're going to start the show a half hour early also..."

Right before we have go go on "Well, we got no monitors, I don't know what to tell ya. I'll try cranking the mains you'll hear yourself..."

Basically, our set was cut in half, and people BARELY got there to see us. And we had to wait until 2AM to get paid. It just sucked.

 

[Ampaddict]

Wait until 2 to get paid? Bet it was a huge sum too right!? That DOES suck!

I can tell you how I knew it was going to be a bad gig.

When we arrived, the soundguy said: "Ok guys, here's the deal. 5 bands now. I know that you were told 40 minute sets, but now it's looking more like 25. And don't start crying if it only turns out to be 17. And we're going to start the show a half hour early also..."

Right before we have go go on "Well, we got no monitors, I don't know what to tell ya. I'll try cranking the mains you'll hear yourself..."

Basically, our set was cut in half, and people BARELY got there to see us. And we had to wait until 2AM to get paid. It just sucked.

 

[maiden_fan]

At least you get freakin paid. The way it works here is you get given a load of tickets, priced at £5 and you have to give the promoter £3.50 of that, so if you sell 10 tickets you get £10.50 thats great apart from I feel bad making money off my buddies as especially as we are a new band, so they get sold at £3.50 which then = no pay.

I can tell you how I knew it was going to be a bad gig.

When we arrived, the soundguy said: "Ok guys, here's the deal. 5 bands now. I know that you were told 40 minute sets, but now it's looking more like 25. And don't start crying if it only turns out to be 17. And we're going to start the show a half hour early also..."

Right before we have go go on "Well, we got no monitors, I don't know what to tell ya. I'll try cranking the mains you'll hear yourself..."

Basically, our set was cut in half, and people BARELY got there to see us. And we had to wait until 2AM to get paid. It just sucked.

 

[Jordon]

AAAAAARRRGGGGG, I hate stuff like that. We had a gig in an armory, when we got there, we could see there was not anywhere near enough voltage to run our stuff, so we had to pull the cover on the panel and come straight off the main leads to our own pwr distribution ctr. It used to take us 4.5-5 hours to set up and get a soundcheck. 30 minuites before the show, the fire marshall shows up, and says we cant run that way, it is unsafe because of the exposed leads. We had to play with a quarter of our PA, and less than half of our lighting system, and still spent the night fighting the breakers We learned a lot that night

Been there. Extension cords running all over the place trying to get enough power from different circuits....ugh.

 

[Jordon]

I can tell you how I knew it was going to be a bad gig.

When we arrived, the soundguy said: "Ok guys, here's the deal. 5 bands now. I know that you were told 40 minute sets, but now it's looking more like 25. And don't start crying if it only turns out to be 17. And we're going to start the show a half hour early also..."

Right before we have go go on "Well, we got no monitors, I don't know what to tell ya. I'll try cranking the mains you'll hear yourself..."

Basically, our set was cut in half, and people BARELY got there to see us. And we had to wait until 2AM to get paid. It just sucked.

Not to sound like a budding rockstar or whatever, but this is where contracts come in handy. We're working on getting our contract written up. Guaranteed pay out for, at the very least, money for travel to and from the venue (depending on the distance driven), and minimum set time is 30 minutes. There's other shit going in there, but they way we run our backing tracks, cutting a set short isn't exactly the easiest thing to do. We rehearse our sets as one big song now....yea, contracts. You'd think it would drive a lot of venues away from letting you play, but it's nothing new to them. Any venue that has had a regional or national act come through has seen a contract before. In reality, you're not asking for very much, ya know?

 

[ke2]

the Tribute Band thing has gotten way outa hand.

That said if I looked like EVH I'd definitely be looking for a Van Halen Trib band!

It's easy to be Zakk Wylde. Don't shave or take a shower for a month, bleach your hair a little, and go to a trailer park and see if they have a Red Cross clothes bin to see what unwanted garments you can grab.

Pumping that metal will probably also help.
I`d look like Zakk`s anorexic brother if I did that

 

[ke2]

I can tell you how I knew it was going to be a bad gig.

When we arrived, the soundguy said: "Ok guys, here's the deal. 5 bands now. I know that you were told 40 minute sets, but now it's looking more like 25. And don't start crying if it only turns out to be 17. And we're going to start the show a half hour early also..."

Right before we have go go on "Well, we got no monitors, I don't know what to tell ya. I'll try cranking the mains you'll hear yourself..."

Basically, our set was cut in half, and people BARELY got there to see us. And we had to wait until 2AM to get paid. It just sucked.

Not to sound like a budding rockstar or whatever, but this is where contracts come in handy. We're working on getting our contract written up. Guaranteed pay out for, at the very least, money for travel to and from the venue (depending on the distance driven), and minimum set time is 30 minutes. There's other shit going in there, but they way we run our backing tracks, cutting a set short isn't exactly the easiest thing to do. We rehearse our sets as one big song now....yea, contracts. You'd think it would drive a lot of venues away from letting you play, but it's nothing new to them. Any venue that has had a regional or national act come through has seen a contract before. In reality, you're not asking for very much, ya know?

It`s safe for both parties to write a contract. We always did it, except for when I was in the house band of the club I worked in as a bartender (before I started my studies) That was safe for both the club and me, because we knew each other. If you don`t KNOW the ower of the venue, get it in writing!

 

[Anonymous]

backing tracks? you gotta be kidding me.oh i forgot it is the 21 st century

I can tell you how I knew it was going to be a bad gig.

When we arrived, the soundguy said: "Ok guys, here's the deal. 5 bands now. I know that you were told 40 minute sets, but now it's looking more like 25. And don't start crying if it only turns out to be 17. And we're going to start the show a half hour early also..."

Right before we have go go on "Well, we got no monitors, I don't know what to tell ya. I'll try cranking the mains you'll hear yourself..."

Basically, our set was cut in half, and people BARELY got there to see us. And we had to wait until 2AM to get paid. It just sucked.

Not to sound like a budding rockstar or whatever, but this is where contracts come in handy. We're working on getting our contract written up. Guaranteed pay out for, at the very least, money for travel to and from the venue (depending on the distance driven), and minimum set time is 30 minutes. There's other shit going in there, but they way we run our backing tracks, cutting a set short isn't exactly the easiest thing to do. We rehearse our sets as one big song now....yea, contracts. You'd think it would drive a lot of venues away from letting you play, but it's nothing new to them. Any venue that has had a regional or national act come through has seen a contract before. In reality, you're not asking for very much, ya know?

 

[turmoil]

man it always sucks playing gigs like that but the moral of the story is, forget how many people show up to watch your band or what other bands/promoters are doing during your set. just have a good time and enjoy playing live for whatever people are there.

i think one of the worst gigs i ever played was somewhere in Alabama along the gulf coast. we get to the venue and find out we have to carry all our gear up multiple flights of steps through some narrow hallways....that's always the worst
after that i find out the promoter is going to be pretty late, ok no biggie we have a few hours to kill so we headed to the local mall to find something to do. we met a few kids at the mall who had actually heard of us but it turns out the venue we were playing at was typically a 21+ bar and this was their first all ages show but guess what else, no one flyered the show!!

to top it off, there were no supporting bands booked, the promoter never showed up and we played for the other band we were on tour with plus a couple of workers. oh did i forget to mention we drove over night from miami (15 hours or so) to get to this gig. fun times fun times

 

[jgk62]

That sucks...I hate it when I have to deal with another band's collective ego.

We (Smash Moon) headlined a gig at Bonnie's Roxx in southern NJ back in the early 90's.

Bonnies Roxx! I played there a couple times in the 80s. Cool little club.
My hangout was the Galaxy.

Did you happen to go to the Bonnies Roxx reunion weekend a couple years ago? That was a kickass weekend of music.