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My band has played at this establishment which is literally 5 minutes from my house quite a number of times always with a decent crowd... Lugged all our crap in, We own the PA so 2 of the guys get there an hour earlier and start setting up the board and the mics, sweating like a pig because they don't want to put on the AC yet so I'm taking my axes out, cleaning them up and tuning them and adjusting my volume.

We do a sound check....sounds AWESOME as we finally have the PA down just right! OK.. we get off stage and wait for the party to start....after all it's Memorial day weekend. This place is gonna be hoppin'! NOT! The only one that showed up was the singers wife with a friend....THAT'S IT! Come 10:10 pm we're still just sticking around
Wup...here comes a couple...they peek in and scoot right on out!

It turns out that my town had not ONE but THREE different fairs going on within a half mile radius as well as quite a few of our friends throwing their once a year parties! By 11:00 we just silently went up there and started taking apart everything....oh yeah....even the singers' wife and friend took off earlier. Just barely said a word to each other...a lot of grunts and groans carrying out the heavy stuff and putting them into our vehicles driving away into the night...

This has NEVER, EVER happened to me in my lifetime... It shows...I'm (we're) getting older and less important in that venue. Understandably I would have either gone to a party or fair over this gig any day of the week..but..I know for a fact if we were a bunch of 20 something's, that place would've been packed to the gills with all of our friends using that venue as the place to party. Friday night it was packed by another band that consisted of 18+ y.o. members and the club was prepared for our gig to turn out the same, as they werent the night before and didn't have enough staff there.. so they "over staffed" just in case!

So there we were... lounging on the old leather sofa in the corner with the staff behind the bar... none of us trying to make any eye contact. One of the most embarrassing and worst gigs ever.

Luckily, there was no one there to witness it....

hey crip,it happends to all of us,this is a good topic.we setup at a gig and two people showed up so we turned it into a rehearsal after they left.you`re not old,you got the fire.it seems to me you just had a bad night.sorry for the bad gig and i know your next one will be great.maybe glen will chime in on this one.

Sorry Crip, that really sucks, like throwing your own surprise birthday party,and everyone forgets. See even when you set up at the right place, it can still be the wrong place.

The brite side is you have more time to ride rather than having to post a whole bunch of new,videos.

Enjoy the BBQ.

Try playing Orange County, California, you're describing our first three gigs when Cisco had his band. We finally just said screw it and played LA.

Funny, about five years ago, there were blues jams everywhere and now they're way out in the Valley.

That's why I have my running joke, "we've played to some of the finest chairs in Orange County."

Chaeya

Crip Ive had a few of those here and there, we ussually just go ahead and play our gig, and dig in the well for stuff we dont normally play, We just play fro yourselves and occasionally those types of gigs have turned into pretty good gigs as the night goes by.

Sorry man, but I can relate it happens if you get out there and do this enough.

Our band quit doing big holiday weekends years ago unless its a paid party.

Anyway, dont sweat it man, Keep On Rockin!

You are so right John. Never schedule a show on the same day as a major concert, on a holiday weekend or when there is a major sporting event in town or on TV. I fondly recall playing to the backs of people's heads when the Tigers won the World Series in 1984. It seemed like every night we played there was a game.

Years ago we were scheduled to play at a bar during NFL pre-season. The Chiefs were playing that night. The place where we were playing had a few big screens, one right over the area the band plays. The idiot manager forgot we were playing that night. We show up and he says you can't play until the Chiefs game was over, about 11:30, and he would pay us $100. I told him either we get $300 or we leave. He decides to pay us after much arguing admitted it was he who forgot about the game. Anyway the Chiefs lost and all the disgruntled fans leave the venue except a few fans of the band. We play one set and the owner (pissed off) gives us $300 and we never play there again. Boo Hoo.

I'll play for two or two million.


I feel your pain just the same.

Hi Crip.

Yeah I've been there once or twice before. I learned pretty quickly to scan the papers before nailing a gig on a certain day. these things bite you, but its not your fault.

Best