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Thread: Really Bad Gig Confession

  1. #1
    Forum Member Coque's Avatar
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    Really Bad Gig Confession

    Bless me Father for I have sinned...

    So my birthday was Saturday and a week or so before when my wife asked what I wanted to do for the occasion, I told her I wanted to have a jam night/party at the house. I had been REALLY sick all week (I took off three days and still felt ill) but was determined not to cancel; I wanted to play on my birthday.

    So the house was decorated, the PA was set-up and in the end it was just me and one other guitar player I play with from time-to-time. I pride myself on being a good player and practice every day. But on Saturday, despite my efforts and my stubborn adhearance to the date, I sucked. I royally sucked. Did I mentioned I sucked? I mean some seriously crappy guitar playing!

    My singing was good, despite the cold/flu, but I simply could not play two-notes together that sounded good -- and all this in-front of my friends from work whom have heard about my guitar skills but have never heard me play. Sure, I could offer excuses and fish for compliments to make me feel better but I know they would be empty. And my friends will still think I suck.

    In the end, the party was a grand success and the last friends left at 4am. However, although I have had off days in my playing, I have never felt like my skills abandoned my as they did Saturday. I guess man plans, and God laughs!

    Any of you other esteemed folk have any similarly embarrassing/dejecting stories of your worst night's playing? I sure could use your insight so I can still pick up a guitar and continue despite my terrible night playing. Misery does love company...

  2. #2
    Forum Member rudutch's Avatar
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    Re: Really Bad Gig Confession

    it happens.
    Next time they hear you they will be amazed on how much you have improved
    do I look like I know what I'm doing?

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    Forum Member curtisstetka's Avatar
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    Re: Really Bad Gig Confession

    I doubt your friends from work are truly capable of assessing the suckitude of your playing.

    You should have tried not to suck.
    s'all goof.

  4. #4
    Forum Member Coque's Avatar
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    Re: Really Bad Gig Confession

    I usually try so hard not to suck that I'm pretty good! However, due to the flu, my suckitude came to the fore. Incidentally, so far my work mates have been telling me how much I cranked, so maybe you are correct: they are incapable of judging the extent of my suckiness.

    However, my guitar player friend (the owner of a big sound company whom I've played with for the last couple of years) carried me through the gig and even went so far as to tell the crowd how great a player I am. I owe him a better gig.

    Please, tell me of your worst gigs (as a player). It might make me feel better. (and I need it)

  5. #5
    Forum Member curtisstetka's Avatar
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    Re: Really Bad Gig Confession

    I was playing a classical guitar solo at a church one time when suddenly aliens utterly erased my mind in the middle of a piece. Not only did I have no clue how the rest of the piece went (one I'd played zillions of times before) but I forgot how to play the guitar altogether. I'm fortunate to have retained bladder control.

    I learned the very important lesson that day to never take any performance for granted. I need to prepare properly for each one. That day my attitude going in was "I've played this a zillion times... no need to practice it or have the music in front of me." Yeah, right. I wasn't that good then and I'm still not that good. It was a humbling experience to stand up with a blank look on my face and stumble back to my seat.
    s'all goof.

  6. #6
    Forum Member Plugger's Avatar
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    Re: Really Bad Gig Confession

    Quote Originally Posted by curtisstetka View Post
    I learned the very important lesson that day to never take any performance for granted. I need to prepare properly for each one. That day my attitude going in was "I've played this a zillion times... no need to practice it or have the music in front of me." Yeah, right. I wasn't that good then and I'm still not that good. It was a humbling experience to stand up with a blank look on my face and stumble back to my seat.
    The more important lesson to be learned here, that obviously young Stetka has yet to grasp, is that style is much more important than substance. Instead of stumbling back to his seat looking humbled and sheepish, he should have riffed into Purple Haze, dazzling the congregation with virtuosic displays in an alternative style, all culminating in the necessary final conflagration. If the pastor was on his toes, it could have made a nice segue to the topic of the day's sermon.

    But no. Stetka blew it. The great Martin Luthier, the patron saint of praise bands through the ages, would _never_ have made a mistake like that.

    -Mark

  7. #7
    Forum Member Coque's Avatar
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    Re: Really Bad Gig Confession

    Hey Curtis, your story really helped. Once on Saturday I looked down at the guitar and thought "Do I know how to play this thing?"
    A jillion, fuffillian, gagillion scales and chords later and there I was in a sweaty fever (in the middle of this damn flu I still have) and utterly lost in songs I've played for years.

    It was sad from my perspective -- so much practice, so little return when it really counted. Alas, I sucked, and I am trying to get myself pumped to play again. And not suck. Flu or no Flu.

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    Forum Member KevinWaide's Avatar
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    Re: Really Bad Gig Confession

    Here's one for ya. Late 94/early 95. I was asked by this female that I was backing if I was available to do a local TV morning show. Sure, I said. What time do I need to be there? 5:00 AM. Uh, I'll do my best to be there. Get there and get all set up. We're going to do 2 songs with the house band, with a 30 second break between songs. Well, the amp I took quit working, so I just turned my guitar volume down and let the guitar guy with the house band carry that song. In the 30 second break, I plug into his rig and get ready for the next song. about 5 seconds into the second song, I remember that I had forgotten to get the capo out of my case, and I have no idea how to transpose this song into the key she's singing. All this on TV at 6:00 AM on a Friday morning. Went to work to find out that this was the morning EVERYONE decided to wake up and turn on the TV.
    --The music is all around us. I can hear it. Can you?

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    Forum Member Don's Avatar
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    Re: Really Bad Gig Confession

    We've all been there.

    The important thing to remember is that most of your non-musician friends thought you were awesome.

    I can almost guarantee that.

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    Forum Member Coque's Avatar
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    Re: Really Bad Gig Confession

    Thanks Don! Those four words -- "We've all been there" -- were very reassuring. I knew I could get some good 'Ol postive vibes from TFF folk!

    I can be pretty hard on myself and my playing (we are always our own worst critic) but I felt this was an honest assesment of my own suckiness. Though you are right, several of the attendees came out to tell me I played well. And most importantly, they all had a great time!

  11. #11
    Forum Member refin's Avatar
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    Re: Really Bad Gig Confession

    I've had nights where I felt like I was looking at life on a screen,a dimension away.....blank mind,bad tone,no inspiration,touch,or creativity,and the best players in town sitting in the crowd.
    You want the floor to open up and swallow you---the guys who know you can play see it as an off night,the ones who have only heard that you can play are gracefully sitting there with a puzzled look,thinking about the credibility of the one(s) who told them "This guy can play".
    The only consolation is that if they have been around (and are honest),they will remember nights like this in their own life.
    "My flesh and my heart fail...but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."
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    Forum Member bonefish's Avatar
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    Re: Really Bad Gig Confession

    count yerself lucky-we had a night like that once in deadwood (not just me-the bass player was baked, the drummer was crabby because he wasn't baked, and the sound guy forgot to turn up the mains) when who should walk in but the owner of THE venue to play in town. needless to say, we have never been asked to play there. on the plus side, i learned (the hard way) a very important lesson. NEVER WORK W/ POTHEADS!!!
    Röckin' nön-stöp ön my Föckin' Glöckinspiel...
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    Forum Member dpritch87's Avatar
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    Re: Really Bad Gig Confession

    Don said it best--but I'll throw in another story anyway. I played a Halloween gig last year that was terrible. Nobody showed up, including the ones who promised they would; I guess people had other plans. We got there and setup and I realize I don't have a battery for my wah. So we have to waste time in between songs changing out pedals. The soundman was a huge dick to us...my guitar kept cutting in and out of the monitor, so I had to just adjust the volume on my amp and hope it sounded good to the few people who were out there. I couldn't hear my vocal mic at all, and even though I repeatedly asked him to put more in the monitors, he wouldn't and then someone else said it was clipping. What BS. In fact, the sound guy walked out on us about halfway through the show. I don't even know why. The sad thing is that this particular soundman was one of the owners of the club, and it was a fairly large venue. Then the other guitarist broke a string, and he didn't have a backup, so he had to use mine. Which I was going to use for some songs. I was thrown off by all that and my playing sucked...but regardless, I definitely know how it feels to have "off days". Some days I just look at my guitars, and if I pick one up, I feel totally uninspired. But in a situation like the above, I just give it my best and try to realize that the people in the audience probably don't know any different.

  14. #14
    Forum Member frank thomson's Avatar
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    Re: Really Bad Gig Confession

    not me.
    i've ALWAYS been great






    .........as if
    Imanidiot.

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    Forum Member Coque's Avatar
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    Re: Really Bad Gig Confession

    I booked myself into an audition this Thursday (tomorrow) for a classic rock band looking for a lead guitarist and singer just to prove to myself that I can still play. Unfortunately I can't seem to get my mojo back but I'm trying to force myself to find it so I can get past the bad gig.

    I played Monday with some of my students (I'm a teacher) and still felt "off".
    Anybody got any tips for getting back on the horse other than what I've done so far?

  16. #16
    Forum Member curtisstetka's Avatar
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    Re: Really Bad Gig Confession

    Maybe you're over-thinking this, Coque. You keep bringing yourself back to one night where you sucked. How can anyone play with that looming over them continuously?

    Everyone has off nights. Nobody is immune. The skills to build are: 1) when it's an off night, still being able to play at a certain level. 2) shaking it off so that one bad night doesn't translate into a bad week or month or whatever.

    Don't forget that playing guitar is fun!

    Go into that audition with the idea in your head that YOU are auditioning THEM - because you are! Is that band good enough for you? And don't make any excuses or apologies for your playing even if it's not your best. For all you know, your "mediocre" playing may be better than anything they've heard before!
    s'all goof.

  17. #17
    Forum Member frank thomson's Avatar
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    Re: Really Bad Gig Confession

    lol
    if EVERYBODY gave up after a bad gig, there would be NO bands
    Imanidiot.

  18. #18
    Forum Member Coque's Avatar
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    Re: Really Bad Gig Confession

    Damn Curtis, that's great advice! I AM really over thinking this! I've had bad gigs before but I think coupled with the crappy-all-over feeling one has when sick, I've let this one rattle me.
    Your advice could not be more timely. Normally, I have a certain "swagger", if you will, about my guitar skills and this had sent me for a loop. When I go to the audition tomorrow, I WILL think that I am audtioning them and not the other way around.

  19. #19
    Forum Member curtisstetka's Avatar
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    Re: Really Bad Gig Confession

    When I was at music school it was tradition for the stage hand to whisper some advice to the performer as they stepped onto stage: "Try not to suck"

    Excellent performance advice. If you can manage that, things will go okay.
    s'all goof.

  20. #20
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    Re: Really Bad Gig Confession

    When I was at music conservatory the motto was, "The right note is never more than a half-step away." And I agree with everything Curtis has written in this thread. Don't over think it. Bad gigs happen.; it just helps the good ones stand out!

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    Forum Member Offshore Angler's Avatar
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    Re: Really Bad Gig Confession

    He, he, y'all ever do that thing during a solo when you play yourself right into a corner with no way out? I hate it when that happens.
    "No harmonic knowledge, no sense of time, a ghastly tone, unskilled vibrato, and so on. Chuck is one of the worst guitar players I know" -Gravity Jim

  22. #22
    Forum Member frank thomson's Avatar
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    Re: Really Bad Gig Confession

    that's why they made *harmonics*!

    lol
    Imanidiot.

  23. #23
    Forum Member KevinWaide's Avatar
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    Re: Really Bad Gig Confession

    Quote Originally Posted by Offshore Angler View Post
    He, he, y'all ever do that thing during a solo when you play yourself right into a corner with no way out? I hate it when that happens.
    That's when I lean my guitar against my amp and let it feed back while rocking my wah with one hand and turning any knob that will move on all my other effects. :-)
    --The music is all around us. I can hear it. Can you?

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    Forum Member Offshore Angler's Avatar
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    Re: Really Bad Gig Confession

    Quote Originally Posted by KevinWaide View Post
    That's when I lean my guitar against my amp and let it feed back while rocking my wah with one hand and turning any knob that will move on all my other effects. :-)
    Works especially good during "You Light Up My Life" at a wedding gig.
    "No harmonic knowledge, no sense of time, a ghastly tone, unskilled vibrato, and so on. Chuck is one of the worst guitar players I know" -Gravity Jim

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    Forum Member Plugger's Avatar
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    Re: Really Bad Gig Confession

    Quote Originally Posted by pc View Post
    When I was at music conservatory the motto was, "The right note is never more than a half-step away."
    You obviously didn't attend the New Delhi Conservatorium.

    -Mark

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    Forum Member Jonnda's Avatar
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    Re: Really Bad Gig Confession

    I've posted this before, but it might make coque feel better:

    An open mic night was advertised, and so naturally i try to prep my "band" aptly named "in theory" (as in we are a theoretical band, that could theoretically be enjoyable). We practiced once. :dead

    Turns out that their was some author lady who was scheduled to read her hour long over descriptive short fiction novel. All the people who came to hear or play music left within 15 minutes except for me and my band. At the end of the hour all all that was left in the now dismal crowd were the english majors (or whatever they were). and they were busy talking their heads off in a circle about the boring novel. Don't get me wrong, I like to read. I'm currently on "No Man is an Island" by Thomas Merton, it's heavy stuff but i think everyone should read it.

    I was not about to go back to my dorm with my two guitars, three cables, distortion box, and my 20lb amp with out a single note being played.

    So I asked if the other guitarist wanted to jam or go home and he said jam. So we did and made sucky unorganized noise. The english majors quickly left. Then our vocalist re-apeared and we poorly played "Tainted love" by Soft cell and "building a mystery. Then as there were no other acts we again tried to jam but neither knew each others tunes. He plays modern rock, I play mostly jazz these days. The many hecklers exclaimed "You suck", I said "Thank You". I still have no idea why, maybe to not let them have the satisfaction.

    I felt like spinal tap when they played at the army base party for veterans.
    "The other Shaltanac's joopleberry shrub is always a more mauvy shade of pinky-russet."

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  27. #27
    Forum Member Erock_Germany's Avatar
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    Re: Really Bad Gig Confession

    Well, let us set the scene here. It was about 18 years ago and I was still in college. We had this band called "Not That Band" because when we were just sitting in together doing acoustic stuff some drunk walked into the roadhouse and said "Oh Jesus, not that band". So time went on and we kept the name and got better......

    So we were playing in some hellhole in Oswego, New York where we got booked by some friends (some friends). All I say is a mix of students and locals and 1 dollar pitchers of beer. Everybody screaming louder than our PA was and all of a sudden beer was being thrown on us. Our roadie goes out and starts a fight with a few, leaves the bar - no sound man. Beer and possibly some ungrounded equipment equals electric current where it sould not be and I go up to the mic to sing Jumpin Jack Flash and Boooooooooooom. Erock out, lights out and the smell of burnt flesh in the air. The gig was over, I was OK but shit, what a disaster.....

    But then as a rock and roller, I met a nice girl and tried my luck with a direct line: "You want to go and see the roof of my car?" Well, it worked and the night was saved.......
    "Sorry" - John Belushi as he smashed a guitar in Animal House

  28. #28
    Forum Member Rickenjangle's Avatar
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    Re: Really Bad Gig Confession

    Quote Originally Posted by Offshore Angler View Post
    He, he, y'all ever do that thing during a solo when you play yourself right into a corner with no way out? I hate it when that happens.
    Yup. Last Friday during the solo to "I Shot The Sheriff." For some reason, I forgot what notes I could play...what key...everything, about halfway through the solo. So, what I did is hit a note, ready to bend, or slide, it into the right one.

    Another way to get around it - if you've made a big mistake - is to do it again and again and make people think you meant to do it...

    "I'm gonna find myself a girl
    that can show me what laughter means
    And we'll fill in the missing colors
    In each other's paint-by-number dreams..."

  29. #29
    Forum Member KevinWaide's Avatar
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    Re: Really Bad Gig Confession

    Quote Originally Posted by Rickenjangle View Post
    Another way to get around it - if you've made a big mistake - is to do it again and again and make people think you meant to do it...
    That's what Nugent says do. "If you're going to hit a wrong note, hit the son of a bitch as hard as you can and make everyone think you meant to hit it!"
    --The music is all around us. I can hear it. Can you?

  30. #30
    Forum Member NTBluesGuitar's Avatar
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    Re: Really Bad Gig Confession

    The motto here in North Texas music land is,

    "You can play anything, no matter how 'wrong', but, do it with conviction and it will sound right"

    I think that's what my guitar teacher said that Fred Hamilton (UNT music prof.) says.
    "...pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field;
    that, of course, they are many in number; or that, after all, they are other than the little,
    shriveled, meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome, insects of the hour."

    -Edmund Burke

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    Re: Really Bad Gig Confession

    Let's see, long list of things to choose from. Used to be a recreational drug abuser which lead to:

    1. Trying to play a block party gig for about 700 peeps after dropping acid (1977)
    2. Got called to sub a country gig (not really my bag) in the mid, late eighties. Went out on break and got stoned with the drummer. Second set, the crowd started to line dance. I had never seen that before and immedeately stopped playing and stared in total amazement.
    3. Had a few nights where nearly every single piece of gear seems to call in sick
    4. Got to sit in with Bo diddley. Guitar I was given was so out of tune it made Hendrix live sound like Larry Carlton. I was so nervous my attempts at tuning by ear (I totally suck at that at gig's) just made it worse.
    5. Got totally hammered on my 40th bd while playing a gig at a wet t shirt contest. By the third set I thought I was Sheryl Crowe and later in the night, gave my PRS to the bartender. (she didn't play and gave it back).

    6. played at a big college spring break thing. Did my finest Pete townsend jump to end a tune and went right through a week part of the stage. Tore up my shins and trashed my beloved 73 strat. (it was actually a piece of crap anyway but I bought it when I was 14).

    Point is everyone who plays live vacums at some point. Mostly it is in your head. I've heard guys that are really good. I'll talk to them at a show and occasionally someone thinks they totally suck and I will have thought they were just fine.

    Hang in there
    Don't lose your mojo
    don't drop acid and play a gig (ew god that was 30+ years ago and it still makes me cringe)
    Doug

    Oh one last thing: Never date the female singer. And certainly never marry her. I've done both and have lived to regret the entire experience.

  32. #32
    Forum Member S. Cane's Avatar
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    Re: Really Bad Gig Confession

    Quote Originally Posted by Coque View Post
    Bless me Father for I have sinned...

    So my birthday was Saturday and a week or so before when my wife asked what I wanted to do for the occasion, I told her I wanted to have a jam night/party at the house. I had been REALLY sick all week (I took off three days and still felt ill) but was determined not to cancel; I wanted to play on my birthday.

    So the house was decorated, the PA was set-up and in the end it was just me and one other guitar player I play with from time-to-time. I pride myself on being a good player and practice every day. But on Saturday, despite my efforts and my stubborn adhearance to the date, I sucked. I royally sucked. Did I mentioned I sucked? I mean some seriously crappy guitar playing!

    My singing was good, despite the cold/flu, but I simply could not play two-notes together that sounded good -- and all this in-front of my friends from work whom have heard about my guitar skills but have never heard me play. Sure, I could offer excuses and fish for compliments to make me feel better but I know they would be empty. And my friends will still think I suck.

    In the end, the party was a grand success and the last friends left at 4am. However, although I have had off days in my playing, I have never felt like my skills abandoned my as they did Saturday. I guess man plans, and God laughs!

    Any of you other esteemed folk have any similarly embarrassing/dejecting stories of your worst night's playing? I sure could use your insight so I can still pick up a guitar and continue despite my terrible night playing. Misery does love company...



    Sounds precisely like my last gig, except that I wasn't playing for friends, it was an actual professional job My rhythm work went ok, even the riffs but my soloing was disastrous. I just wasn't on a good day.

  33. #33
    Forum Member gibsonjunkie's Avatar
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    Re: Really Bad Gig Confession

    When I played in the church folk group we were playing on Christmas morning. It was a big deal because our church had recently merged with another church and the combined parishes were all at our place (Which was being sold). We were performing a Christmas song that I wrote and had gained some notoriety in our parish, but the other church had never heard it before, so we wanted to really do it proud. On top of that, my wife and I (she sang in the folk group, too) were starting to talk about divorce, but had decided to wait until after the holidays so as not to ruin Christmas for the kids. In fact I had told her privately that this was the last time I would sing with the group (and I was the only guitarist so it meant it was probably the group's last gig). NO PRESSURE!!!!

    ANYWAYS...... we were being joined by an old-time local legend, a guy named Don Sineti who is a big name in the early American music crowd (sea chanteys and whaling songs). We always did the song in the key of "D", but he asked us to do it in "C", oh - and he couldn't join us for practice. So we are on the altar - ready for our big moment and I start off in "our" key - realizing halfway into the introduction that we were in the wrong key. Now we should have just kept going and forgetting Don's voice, but no - I stopped in the middle of the intro, said "oops" or something stupid like that, and restarted in "C", which I was not familiar with - and we SUCKED! We sucked so bad half the parishioners became atheists right then and there. It was the last time that song was ever sung and it will be remembered as having SUCKED...
    "We catched fish and talked, and we took a swim now and then to keep off sleepiness." Mark Twain

  34. #34
    Forum Member Don's Avatar
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    Re: Really Bad Gig Confession

    Wow! Old thread!

    I played an acoustic duet gig with a friend a couple of summers ago. His regular partner was out of town. I'm really not much of an acoustic player and it was hard to get my friend to sit down to rehearse enough. I played horribly and got paid well. My friend was nice about it, though I never played another acoustic gig with him (some electric gigs, though- they went well).

  35. #35
    Forum Member S. Cane's Avatar
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    Re: Really Bad Gig Confession

    The thing with gigs is that they don't all go ok...

    but then, is there anything at all in life that does?

  36. #36
    Forum Member ch willie's Avatar
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    Re: Really Bad Gig Confession

    There was a bit of bad blood in my last band, and our last gig saw me nervous and feeling less than confident. I played like crap and lost my showmanship. It rattled me for a long time. I regained my mojo after I started playing for a youth group. I'm probably the only atheist for 150 miles who plays regularly at a church. I love playing for those kids and enjoy it almost as much as some of the great bar gigs I've had.
    If we'd known we were going to be the Beatles, we'd have tried harder.--George Harrison

  37. #37
    Forum Member S. Cane's Avatar
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    Re: Really Bad Gig Confession

    Yes, bad gigs rattle our confidence terribly, they really sting.

    But like you said, after a while we get our mojo back and step into the stage to do better. There were times when I even felt like quitting, but I can't think of myself without a guitar and a band anymore. It's part of my existence.

  38. #38

    Re: Really Bad Gig Confession

    Ok guys, this is just between us, ok?


    I eat a lot of salad and veggies. Hey, I like them. One side effect though can be plenty of gas. Not the rank "Holy shit! Run away" nasty smelling ones, but some really loud ones.

    It leads to discomfort all day having to hold it in until I am able to let go.

    On stage it's usually loud enough to not be heard, so....


    Oh, wait. You mean "bad" gigs.....
    Last edited by Franklin; 04-19-2017 at 06:05 AM.
    Fuzz is proof God love us and wants us to be happy. - Franklin
    http://www.frankdenigris.com

  39. #39
    Forum Member S. Cane's Avatar
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    Re: Really Bad Gig Confession


  40. #40
    Forum Member OldStrummer's Avatar
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    Re: Really Bad Gig Confession

    Quote Originally Posted by Franklin View Post
    Ok guys, this is just between us, ok?


    I eat a lot of salad and veggies. Hey, I like them. One side effect though can be plenty of gas. Not the rank "Holy shit! Run away" nasty smelling ones, but some really loud ones.
    Is that what causes it? I thought it was simply a matter of reaching a certain age...

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