fullmetaldrummer87
New member
Let me elaborate on one of the worst shows I've ever played.
Check it out. This was back in September, me and the guys were slated to play with Death Pilot and a couple openers. We're thinking that it's gonna be a good show. Rock the house, make some friends, have a few drinks, the usual. Oh, it was far from that.....
We show up, finding out that it's a movie theater inside a bowling alley, converted to accomodate live bands. We had heard of this place before, and it seemed pretty cool, seeing as the word "Theater" is in the venue's name, and it's next door to another popular rock bar/club in the area. We were thinking it was an actual theater, ya know, for live performances.
Then we see a bunch of young teenage kids running around, hanging out and being, well, teenagers. The place was a teenage hangout. Okay, no problem with that, we can gain some new fans.
Now we pull around back, Death Pilot is loading in. I step inside and I'm horrified.
It was a rundown, old movie theater. A stage setup/built in front of a ripped, tattered movie screen. The place was dingy and dirty, more like gross. The seats were ripped, some broken. And there was at least two inches of water on the floor and and no sound system, no lighting rig or anything, like a normal venue. My guitar player Chuck coined it right when he arrived and said "Dude, this is probably gonna suck." This place was not fit at all to have live bands.
Death Pilot is loaded in, we move our gear up onstage and set up. Sound guy hasn't shown up yet with the PA, and the place is pretty much empty, people wise. A few of the Death Pilot guys are sitting in the last row of the theater, a few of our people, the other band on the bill, and other various people. I let loose on the kit for about 10 minutes, seeing as there was nothing else to do, playing whatever came to head, just improvising.
I go outside where the Death Pilot guys are and our crew and hang out. This young guy wearing a hat comes up to me and says "Hey man, you're pretty good, you've got some killer chops. I was in there watching when you were playing the kit" I had no idea who he was, so I thanked him for the props and we introduced ourselves and who we played for. He goes "Yea, I'm the drummer for Death Pilot" then he goes "You're probably the best drummer I've played with on this tour." Cool. Thank you. But I still had no idea who exactly he was. We talked shop about this and that for probably a good half hour or more. Judging from the conversations we had, he had been in the business, but never mentioned anything about his previous bands. I found out exactly who he was a few days later by visiting Death Pilot's myspace page and looking at his page. Come to find out, Death Pilot's drummer was Alexei Rodriguez from 3 Inches of Blood and Walls of Jericho. Wow. It was rather flattering now that i look back on it, that he gave me props on my playing and told me I was the best drummer he had played with and seen on the Death Pilot tour. But, we talked like regular people, fellow musicians. Maybe he was afraid I would get all starstruck or something if I knew who he played for in the past, which might explain why he didn't really mention anything about it in our conversations that night. But I don't get all starstruck crazy though.
Anyway, showtime, we go on, and the place is still empty. The sound guy had the PA set up. One mic in the kick, and 3 vocal mics up front for my lead singer and my guitar players. The sound was downright horrible. The sound guy did a quick check before we played and left, never came back. He was at the bowling alley bar all night. There was maybe 10 people in the place, nobody very responsive. No monitors, PA speakers out in front of us, I was up high, we couldn't hear shit. It was downright horrible. Our lead singer made a mockery of the situation, by getting sarcastically excited and yelling "__insert venue name___ You guys fuckin' ROCK!" when there was no action on the floor, just people with blank stares, sitting in the seats.
We weren't allowed to bring drinks from the bar, onstage either.
When it came to a crowd participation/sing along part in one of our songs, it didn't happen. 3 people did it. Other than that, you could hear the crickets. I remember playing, looking out to the front row of seats at Bill, my drum tech, just shaking my head in disbelief.
One of the worst shows ever.
Death Pilot kicked ass, brought their own lights and tweaked the sound for their set. Cool guys, we hung out with them afterwards. They dug us alot and put the offer out there to do another show together next time they're in town. I felt bad for those guys, they came all the way from California, and ended up playing that shitty place, a long way from home. We all made the best of it though and got through it and made some friends.
Anybody else got some really bad gig stories?
Check it out. This was back in September, me and the guys were slated to play with Death Pilot and a couple openers. We're thinking that it's gonna be a good show. Rock the house, make some friends, have a few drinks, the usual. Oh, it was far from that.....
We show up, finding out that it's a movie theater inside a bowling alley, converted to accomodate live bands. We had heard of this place before, and it seemed pretty cool, seeing as the word "Theater" is in the venue's name, and it's next door to another popular rock bar/club in the area. We were thinking it was an actual theater, ya know, for live performances.
Then we see a bunch of young teenage kids running around, hanging out and being, well, teenagers. The place was a teenage hangout. Okay, no problem with that, we can gain some new fans.
Now we pull around back, Death Pilot is loading in. I step inside and I'm horrified.
It was a rundown, old movie theater. A stage setup/built in front of a ripped, tattered movie screen. The place was dingy and dirty, more like gross. The seats were ripped, some broken. And there was at least two inches of water on the floor and and no sound system, no lighting rig or anything, like a normal venue. My guitar player Chuck coined it right when he arrived and said "Dude, this is probably gonna suck." This place was not fit at all to have live bands.
Death Pilot is loaded in, we move our gear up onstage and set up. Sound guy hasn't shown up yet with the PA, and the place is pretty much empty, people wise. A few of the Death Pilot guys are sitting in the last row of the theater, a few of our people, the other band on the bill, and other various people. I let loose on the kit for about 10 minutes, seeing as there was nothing else to do, playing whatever came to head, just improvising.
I go outside where the Death Pilot guys are and our crew and hang out. This young guy wearing a hat comes up to me and says "Hey man, you're pretty good, you've got some killer chops. I was in there watching when you were playing the kit" I had no idea who he was, so I thanked him for the props and we introduced ourselves and who we played for. He goes "Yea, I'm the drummer for Death Pilot" then he goes "You're probably the best drummer I've played with on this tour." Cool. Thank you. But I still had no idea who exactly he was. We talked shop about this and that for probably a good half hour or more. Judging from the conversations we had, he had been in the business, but never mentioned anything about his previous bands. I found out exactly who he was a few days later by visiting Death Pilot's myspace page and looking at his page. Come to find out, Death Pilot's drummer was Alexei Rodriguez from 3 Inches of Blood and Walls of Jericho. Wow. It was rather flattering now that i look back on it, that he gave me props on my playing and told me I was the best drummer he had played with and seen on the Death Pilot tour. But, we talked like regular people, fellow musicians. Maybe he was afraid I would get all starstruck or something if I knew who he played for in the past, which might explain why he didn't really mention anything about it in our conversations that night. But I don't get all starstruck crazy though.
Anyway, showtime, we go on, and the place is still empty. The sound guy had the PA set up. One mic in the kick, and 3 vocal mics up front for my lead singer and my guitar players. The sound was downright horrible. The sound guy did a quick check before we played and left, never came back. He was at the bowling alley bar all night. There was maybe 10 people in the place, nobody very responsive. No monitors, PA speakers out in front of us, I was up high, we couldn't hear shit. It was downright horrible. Our lead singer made a mockery of the situation, by getting sarcastically excited and yelling "__insert venue name___ You guys fuckin' ROCK!" when there was no action on the floor, just people with blank stares, sitting in the seats.
We weren't allowed to bring drinks from the bar, onstage either.
When it came to a crowd participation/sing along part in one of our songs, it didn't happen. 3 people did it. Other than that, you could hear the crickets. I remember playing, looking out to the front row of seats at Bill, my drum tech, just shaking my head in disbelief.
One of the worst shows ever.
Death Pilot kicked ass, brought their own lights and tweaked the sound for their set. Cool guys, we hung out with them afterwards. They dug us alot and put the offer out there to do another show together next time they're in town. I felt bad for those guys, they came all the way from California, and ended up playing that shitty place, a long way from home. We all made the best of it though and got through it and made some friends.
Anybody else got some really bad gig stories?