Post some fun/cool gig stories here...

[Bill L]

I'm very fortunate. I love in an area that has a lot of great musicians and touring bands love playing around here too. One of my side gigs is helping my buddy at a venue that gets a lot of national acts. This past Saturday, I helped the load in for Marty Stuart. His crew were a bunch of cool dudes. We talked about gear and stuff. Then he pulled out this bad boy!

PXL_20220305_195151445.jpg

I can't believe they did that to a guitar, but it is a pretty fuckin' cool looking and sounding guitar. It's got a b bender, at the bridge, and a g bender, attached to the strap.

Here's a little history of the guitar:
https://guitar.com/features/artist-rigs ... elecaster/

I'll post some more stuff too but would love to hear some of your stories.

[Lt. Bob]

Man ...... I have so many and I'll try to put some of the best in this very thread although I gotta run right now but I promise to have quite a few good ones.
But that's a cool one man ..... I've been pondering getting a b-bender .... hipshot makes one you don't have to mod the git to use.
Did you get to watch the show?

Oh and I got my Mardi Gras wah ...... ordered it right after you got yours and Sweetwater was already out ..... seems it's a really limited edition and they sold all they had and that's it ..... no more coming.
But I found one on Reverb .... it's gorgeous and sounds great.

Hmmm real quick gig related story ......... during rehearsals for one of his tours I was just hanging around watching and Gregg Allman gave me and one of his roadies 1800 bucks to go buy an oz. of coke ..... this was in Macon.
We went to a sketchy part of town where we were told to "sit here and don't move" .... after a while the guy brought a bag to us and we took it to Gregg where he gave us each a gram for our trouble.
I never saw brown coke before but it was coke. Never saw brown coke again either.

I kept hanging around watching them work ........ by the end of the day that oz. was gone!

Not really a gig story I guess but modestly interesting.

[vomitHatSteve]

I have a bunch of them from the time I went on tour with my brother, and we picked up a homeless dude to be our bassist:
https://zombiedogband.blogspot.com/

[Lt. Bob]

I have a bunch of them from the time I went on tour with my brother, and we picked up a homeless dude to be our bassist:
https://zombiedogband.blogspot.com/

that's pretty awesome

[CrowsofFritz]

I don’t have too many, but I do have some bad ones. My worst gig happened right after my best one.

[Lt. Bob]

so we were opening for Bo Diddley at Grants Dance Hall in Lafayette la. and during the afternoon we were doing soundchecks and such and Bo was up on stage with his signature square guitar.
I don't know if all his gits had it but this one had red leds set into small holes on the face of his guitar .... a ton of them ..... and they spelled out 'Bo Diddley' in letters about an couple inches tall.
He had a button on the guitar to turn them on and it would flash 120 bpm or so.

So whenever a waitress or woman in the audience walked nearby, he would quit playing and turn towards her giving her what I suppose he thought was a 'come hither' look and flash the Bo Diddley sign at them.
lol
Didn't seem to get him any women though.

[Lt. Bob]

I was playing with Gregg Wright and we opened for Buddy Miles in Tallulah La.

We did our set and then just sat and marveled at his drumming .... and Gregg was a left handed Jimi look-alike and we did a lot of Hendrix so Buddy was digging us too.

So after the gig he told us we'd continue the party at his motel room.

We loaded up and headed over there and knocked and he threw the door open ..... butt naked! ........ lol ........ big and fat and naked as shit!



Let the part commence!!

And it did .................. so I don't remember much else.

[Armistice]

I was in a covers band back in the day and each band member was allowed a freebie gig a year... so the bass player organised his freebie gig at a private retreat (actually somewhere not too far from where I now live, not that I could remember exactly) which was a nudist colony.

Interesting. Before I went I had this idea that it would be full of lithe young things walking around naked, but I should have known better. I was only about 20 and the other members of the band - bass and drummer - were a good 10 years older than me. As it turned out, the average age of said nudists was probably about 40, if not more, and while some of them had lithe young children, they sensibly kept their clothes on.

I spent a lot of time trying to not see the horror of the overweight old nude people everywhere.

But there was only so much you could do.

Anyway, we were on a break - it was a relaxed, loooooong gig, so half an hour breaks were the thing of the day - and I was in a caravan with some lithe young thing that had crossed my path, doing what you'd expect, and then I heard the band strike up a tune! What? How was this possible, given we were a 3 piece and I was the singer/guitarist?

Turned out the bass player had let some of the people there borrow our gear and they were having a jam. The guy playing my guitar (sorry honey, I really have to go!" as I re-robed and exited the caravan) was clothed, but the guy playing the drums was not. And our actual drummer was nowhere to be seen.

They played a couple of songs and then we got them off stage. The drummer was exceptionally unhappy at having to wipe nudist bum sweat off his drum seat.

[rayc]

My stories are uninteresting & low key...like when we played a 21st and the band was out of tune. I told the guitarists they were out while the sax & I were in. They protested, played another song and then tried their tuner...it was set wrong and they had indeed been playing in with each other but out with us & their vocals.
Being bored playing the usual set at the Lismore Hotel in Pitt St. I had a long lead so walked out the nearby door and played to the passing crowd...a few actually came inside.
Same venue & an old band I'd been in were our support...they played two or three songs that were my chord progressions...nothing said THEN they stole pedals from our guitarists gear bag as they left VERY quickly without paying their share of the PA fee.

[Greg_L]

This isn't really a story...But I've really noticed a big change in the punk rock scene at gigs. [old man voice]Back in my day[/old man voice], fights and assaults and jumpings and all sorts of terrible shit was pretty common. Too common. I used to go to shows, and play shows, and just assume that I was gonna at least have a shit-talking shoving match with someone. I won some, lost some, that's just the way it went. I've got a million stories of run-ins with skinheads and metalheads, and any other "heads". Nowadays the punk rock kids and bands are way way friendlier to each other. I never see fights in the crowds or hear about so-and-so getting jumped in an alley or fucking stabbed or whatever. Never. And no one ever fucks with me, or my bandmates. Everyone is super nice. I don't know if it's the change of era, or maybe I'm just an old man now and not worth it, or maybe we're intimidating because we're fully grown adult men still playing punk rock and not some weakling kids, I don't know, but we get treated really good now. And since I have a mic I always make a point to remind whatever crowd is there to be cool - especially when young ladies are present. Have fun, get crazy, smash each other, in a good way, but don't hurt the ladies. It's awesome to see girls at punk rock shows. That didn't used to happen too much. But now they're there, and there is a lot of them, and they get right up front, and I do whatever I can to keep them there and not get wrecked or groped by the sweaty smelly drunk dudes moshing behind them.

[vomitHatSteve]

The drummer was exceptionally unhappy at having to wipe nudist bum sweat off his drum seat.

I can imagine! Gross!
I thought most nudists carried towels for exactly that reason

[vomitHatSteve]

This isn't really a story...But I've really noticed a big change in the punk rock scene at gigs. [old man voice]Back in my day[/old man voice], fights and assaults and jumpings and all sorts of terrible shit was pretty common. Too common. I used to go to shows, and play shows, and just assume that I was gonna at least have a shit-talking shoving match with someone. I won some, lost some, that's just the way it went. I've got a million stories of run-ins with skinheads and metalheads, and any other "heads". Nowadays the punk rock kids and bands are way way friendlier to each other. I never see fights in the crowds or hear about so-and-so getting jumped in an alley or fucking stabbed or whatever. Never. And no one ever fucks with me, or my bandmates. Everyone is super nice. I don't know if it's the change of era, or maybe I'm just an old man now and not worth it, or maybe we're intimidating because we're fully grown adult men still playing punk rock and not some weakling kids, I don't know, but we get treated really good now. And since I have a mic I always make a point to remind whatever crowd is there to be cool - especially when young ladies are present. Have fun, get crazy, smash each other, in a good way, but don't hurt the ladies. It's awesome to see girls at punk rock shows. That didn't used to happen too much. But now they're there, and there is a lot of them, and they get right up front, and I do whatever I can to keep them there and not get wrecked or groped by the sweaty smelly drunk dudes moshing behind them.

I still see the occasional asshole, but they're thin on the ground these days.
Last one I saw was a few years back: a few women were up by the stage, chatting with each other. Dude comes in wearing his battle garb, charges straight to the front knocking into his similarly-garbed friends, one of whom ends up barreling into this group, knocking them over.
Vocalist tells them to chill out. The guy who actually hit the women, promptly picks them up and starts apologizing. One asshole in garb loudly insists "you've got nothing to apologize for" but even his friends just ignored him.

[JD01]

I did a really weird gig a few years ago.
The singer/song writer whose band it was has a Grammy for her soundtrack work.
She'd done the score for this horror film set on Dartmoor (and area of Devon in the UK), was a shite film despite the score.

Anyway, for the premier of this film they had a big screen outdoor on this area of moorland.
They set up a little stage in front of the screen for us. Was just me, the singer playing acoustic, the drummer playing a cajon and the backing singer, playing to a crowd of people who had no idea that it was going to happen all sitting in their seats with their hotdogs and pop-corn expecting to watch a film. It was also fucking freezing.

It was just a really uncomfortable atmosphere for a show.

[JD01]

This isn't really a story...But I've really noticed a big change in the punk rock scene at gigs. [old man voice]Back in my day[/old man voice], fights and assaults and jumpings and all sorts of terrible shit was pretty common. Too common. I used to go to shows, and play shows, and just assume that I was gonna at least have a shit-talking shoving match with someone. I won some, lost some, that's just the way it went. I've got a million stories of run-ins with skinheads and metalheads, and any other "heads". Nowadays the punk rock kids and bands are way way friendlier to each other. I never see fights in the crowds or hear about so-and-so getting jumped in an alley or fucking stabbed or whatever. Never. And no one ever fucks with me, or my bandmates. Everyone is super nice. I don't know if it's the change of era, or maybe I'm just an old man now and not worth it, or maybe we're intimidating because we're fully grown adult men still playing punk rock and not some weakling kids, I don't know, but we get treated really good now. And since I have a mic I always make a point to remind whatever crowd is there to be cool - especially when young ladies are present. Have fun, get crazy, smash each other, in a good way, but don't hurt the ladies. It's awesome to see girls at punk rock shows. That didn't used to happen too much. But now they're there, and there is a lot of them, and they get right up front, and I do whatever I can to keep them there and not get wrecked or groped by the sweaty smelly drunk dudes moshing behind them.

That's cool, but its probably a symptom of wider society generally being less violent and shit.
I obviously don't remember the later 80s, but the 90s was all about going out and getting as fucked up as possible. I've been in France the last few days and going out with the younger graduates who're in their early - mid 20s. They don't tend to get so fucked up that they throw up and crazy shit happens. They still go out and have a good time but they're not a risk to themselves and everyone around them.

[JD01]

This isn't really a story...But I've really noticed a big change in the punk rock scene at gigs. [old man voice]Back in my day[/old man voice], fights and assaults and jumpings and all sorts of terrible shit was pretty common. Too common. I used to go to shows, and play shows, and just assume that I was gonna at least have a shit-talking shoving match with someone. I won some, lost some, that's just the way it went. I've got a million stories of run-ins with skinheads and metalheads, and any other "heads". Nowadays the punk rock kids and bands are way way friendlier to each other. I never see fights in the crowds or hear about so-and-so getting jumped in an alley or fucking stabbed or whatever. Never. And no one ever fucks with me, or my bandmates. Everyone is super nice. I don't know if it's the change of era, or maybe I'm just an old man now and not worth it, or maybe we're intimidating because we're fully grown adult men still playing punk rock and not some weakling kids, I don't know, but we get treated really good now. And since I have a mic I always make a point to remind whatever crowd is there to be cool - especially when young ladies are present. Have fun, get crazy, smash each other, in a good way, but don't hurt the ladies. It's awesome to see girls at punk rock shows. That didn't used to happen too much. But now they're there, and there is a lot of them, and they get right up front, and I do whatever I can to keep them there and not get wrecked or groped by the sweaty smelly drunk dudes moshing behind them.

That's cool, but its probably a symptom of wider society generally being less violent and shit.
I obviously don't remember the later 80s, but the 90s was all about going out and getting as fucked up as possible. I've been in France the last few days and going out with the younger graduates who're in their early - mid 20s. They don't tend to get so fucked up that they throw up and crazy shit happens. They still go out and have a good time but they're not a risk to themselves and everyone around them.

[Greg_L]

That's cool, but its probably a symptom of wider society generally being less violent and shit.

What planet do you live on?

[JD01]

That's cool, but its probably a symptom of wider society generally being less violent and shit.

What planet do you live on?

The UK apparently - violent crime has generally been on the decrease in the UK since the mid 90s. That being said, there appears to have been an upswing in the last few years. Not to early 90s levels though.

That's a general trend though of course - some crimes have increased quite a lot.

[Greg_L]

The UK apparently - violent crime has generally been on the decrease in the UK since the mid 90s. That being said, there appears to have been an upswing in the last few years. Not to early 90s levels though.

That's a general trend though of course - some crimes have increased quite a lot.

Well as far as punk rock shows go, the general consensus among us local scene old-timers is the decrease in violence coincides with the the virtual extinction of skinheads. It's directly proportional. There are no more skins at shows, there is no more random fighting. Win/win.

[vomitHatSteve]

What planet do you live on?

The UK apparently - violent crime has generally been on the decrease in the UK since the mid 90s. That being said, there appears to have been an upswing in the last few years. Not to early 90s levels though.

That's a general trend though of course - some crimes have increased quite a lot.

That holds in the US too.

So one theory is that unleaded gas is a big part of the down-trend in crime starting in the 90s. i.e. kids born before the 70s had just a tiny bit of lead poisoning-induced brain damage, and that made them just a little more prone to impulsiveness and violence. As more kids grew up not being exposed to as much lead, their cognitive function improved, and crime trended down.

The bad news, of course, is that we just spent the last year infecting the children of the world with a disease that causes just a tiny bit of brain damage. I've been calling it for about a year now, but I expect a pretty big upswing in violent crime over the next 20 years.

[JD01]

The UK apparently - violent crime has generally been on the decrease in the UK since the mid 90s. That being said, there appears to have been an upswing in the last few years. Not to early 90s levels though.

That's a general trend though of course - some crimes have increased quite a lot.

That holds in the US too.

So one theory is that unleaded gas is a big part of the down-trend in crime starting in the 90s. i.e. kids born before the 70s had just a tiny bit of lead poisoning-induced brain damage, and that made them just a little more prone to impulsiveness and violence. As more kids grew up not being exposed to as much lead, their cognitive function improved, and crime trended down.

The bad news, of course, is that we just spent the last year infecting the children of the world with a disease that causes just a tiny bit of brain damage. I've been calling it for about a year now, but I expect a pretty big upswing in violent crime over the next 20 years.

I think that link is pretty much proven now. The data from the USA is really good too, 'cos lead was phased out in different states at different times, and the reduction in crime follows the pattern.

I read a piece recently linking lead poisoning to why the romans were so needlessly sadistic. They used lead for everything. Maybe that's why bitter old nuns have such a reputation for cruelty too... living in those old buildings with lead pipes.