Tour Talk

It was a cold rainy febuary night during the great flood of 93.I had just been informed that my dear cousin Doug had passed whilst we rode in the tour bus down hwy I-70 into St Louis.We had a small gig at the "Dixie chicken" aka dickless chicken and i was not feeling well at all.We got inside to find that it was raining almost as hard as it was out side,you see
there was shotgun holes inthe cieling!we had to set buckets all over the stage and sound board so nothin would short out;by the time I got on stage I had full blown flue...puking and playing...what a night..

I was playin in detroit at blondes and the water started to back up through the tollet,and of course i had to take a sh*t ,so i grabed the TP and went out back climbed a tree and took a sh*t with my ass hagin on a branch, in the pouring rain,it was a good show.

I was playin in detroit at blondes and the water started to back up through the tollet,and of course i had to take a sh*t ,so i grabed the TP and went out back climbed a tree and took a sh*t with my ass hagin on a branch, in the pouring rain,it was a good show.

Ewwww, that is just gross dude

if u haven't peed or taken a sh*t outside on tour, u haven't been on tour

When I can't pi*s or sh*t any more I'll stop touring....

sounds way too much like my band in here... lol.
however, they may have not even brought the TP out with 'em,

Worst gig ever? The one that doesn't happen. You know, you drive 200 miles to get there only to find the place has been closed down for a while, yet nobody goes to the trouble of calling the bands that were booked there.
Had this one gig that I showed up to and the bass player was there and the drums were there, but then some guys showed up to pick up the drums because the drummers brothers old band had decided to do a gig and the drummer was going to play with them and leave us hanging. Cloud had a silver lining though. Turns out the drummer had busted his kick drumhead a couple of weeks before and had borrowed one from me so I told the guys who had come for the drums to hold on while I got my head back. Later the drummer called and was pissed because he couldn't play without his kick. Awwww, boo hoo hoo! A$$hole!

Morale of the above - it always pays to call & confirm a few days before any gig...ESPECIALLY if you have to travel a bit for it, or have other options that you could be doing other than driving to a non-gig.

Ya, I always do that NOW! That was back in my younger dumber days.

Yep - it happened to me, too, once. Well, sorta.

I got a phone call out of the blue asking me to host an open mic. I said I'd try it out for them, sure. They wanted to wait a cpl weeks to advertise.

I'd never even been to the place, but the day of the gig I showed up early, as I am wont to do. They had one of those signs with the scrolling words on them, advertising me for that night. Something seemed off to me, though, so before I set up, I talked to the bartender to confirm I was hosting, & that I would get paid at the end of the night.

The bartender gave me a funny look, & actually said, while my name scrolled across the sign over her head, that she hadn't heard anything about it. I asked her to call the owner to confirm, & when she did, the owner told her to tell me that they'd reconsidered, & weren't going to do it.

So I went home a lil PO'd, but at least I hadn't set up & played for nothing.

In retrospect, I think I really should have gone to the place to meet some ppl, network & hawk myself, in the weeks before the gig started up, so a big part of the problem really prolly lays in my own lap. Ppl didn't know me, there. If they had, it might have made a difference in the whole situation.

Still, I can't help but laugh when I recall her telling me she never heard of me while my name was running by on that sign over her head. I started to point to it & prove it to her, but I figured she was either a bit too slow, or that something was up.

You got to do the legwork if you want to be successfull.
If I have learned anything about the music bizz from this forum.
This one truth would be it.

I was in a covers duo about eight years ago. I'd sent a demo CD to a rather rough pub which I knew put on music quite regularly and heard nothing back. Ten days before Christmas, the landlord called me and said the band he had booked for the Friday before Christmas had cancelled and could we do it?

We agreed, arrived, setup, soundchecked and played all of the first set to a mostly indifferent crowd. Noticing that most of the crowd were celebrating the end of the working year, I had an inkling that things might not go too well when some bird asked my vocalist if we did "any Bryan Adams". I've nothing against Bryan personally, it's just that I don't rate his music. Needless to say, my vocalist replied in the negative and then told her "we're playing The Birdie Song next though!" which didn't go down too well!

Then about four songs into the second set, playing 'Perfect Day' and I look up from my keys to see one bloke punch another full in the face just as my vocalist was singing the "I'm glad I spent it with you" line! A major fight ensued with several people getting stuck in. We kept playing until the landlord came over and said he'd have to sort it out but we'd be paid in full so we packed up and buggered off!

I have only ever seen a couple of good fights that go on in the bar WHILE we played, but we PLAY HARDER AND FASTER once the fighting starts..

It's usually a jam, but the last time my buddy quick jumped up and started FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS so we just all fell in line with it. (I don't know that one so I just kept singing FOR WHOM THE BELLS TOLLS, TIME MARCHES ON and paused during the verse for an extra long solo)

Then the bartender started screaming at us to stop playing and the party was over.

I played in a metal band a few years back, and while on tour a lot of times, our shows tended to get a bit raucous and violent on stage, but all in good fun. We were all like brothers and loved to joke around and prank each other, and throughout the longevity of the band, one of our favorite games was to "Tag" each other by walking by and non-chaulantly slapping each other in the nuts with the back of our hand. well, we all became pretty proficient at guarding ourselves, meaning we were pretty jumpy at times...that is, except on stage.

It became a favorite pasttime of my bassist and me to tag our singer while he had his eyes closed in an emotional moment on stage. it never jeopradized our sound though, because we had also gotten proficient at acting like it didn't hurt, even though it felt liek we were gonna puke blood, after the singer caught on, he started tagging us mid-solo or riff, and we'd have to continue on without missing a beat.

ah, good times....

nick

Oh yea imagine that. He's singing one deep note and all of a sudden you hear a high-pitched shriek. That should be fun.