First real gig

Subject: RE: First real gig
From: Willie-O
Date: 12 Apr 00 - 06:40 PM

Thanks Rick -- Matter of fact the second Smiths Falls gig got cancelled--he claimed double booking but set off my BS detector bigtime--but who cares.

Somebody else I'd never heard of called me up and offered me another one-nighter at a party, same day. Jeez. Maybe I could be working steady if I actually pursue them a bit.

W-O

Subject: RE: First real gig
From: Teasle
Date: 12 Apr 00 - 05:00 PM

I used to be part of a 3 piece, all female band in Alice Springs, Australia. We were asked to sing at an Italian restaurant on Australia Day one year. Quite an unusual venue for us ... with an unusual remit!

Anyway, being used to folk loving audiences, who usually paid some attention to the performance, we were thrown by an audience who were only interested in one thing - food! We may as well not have been there!!! So we dealt with this by thinking that, ah well, we can look on it as a practice session, and hey - we would even be paid for it.

Fine.

During one unaccompanied song, we all got the giggles. I mean - WE REALLY got the giggles! Hold on to your sides or you'll burst, don't look at me it makes it worse sort of giggles! (It's makes me laugh to think of it now, 18 years later)!

Then, we suddenly became aware that every single person in that restaurant had stopped eating and was not paying us full attention. We somehow pulled ourselves together and managed to finish the song .... pointless really, because almost as soon as we stopped giggling, they all turned their full attention back to the important task of eating.

The funniest performing experience of my life ...

Subject: RE: First real gig
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 11 Apr 00 - 08:20 PM

Willie...did several weeks in Smith's Falls one night...and I'm still breathing (the bruises will heal in no time) Kick Ass, fellow Cat.

Rick

Subject: RE: First real gig
From: Crowhugger
Date: 11 Apr 00 - 08:11 PM

So Marion, send your mother & grandmother to the Crown & Thistle on April 13th. Music starts 9-ish, Mom & I hope to get in a set 10-ish or soon after, two sets if not too many instruments show up.

Subject: RE: First real gig
From: Willie-O
Date: 11 Apr 00 - 02:42 PM

I'm playing solo in a place like that this saturday. Right next to the tracks, four pool tables, Smiths Falls Ontario (toughest town in the Ottawa Valley). Did a Sunday afternoon there last week, Saturday night's gonna be real interesting.

The things I'll do for a hundred bucks...

W-O

Subject: RE: First real gig
From: Jim Krause
Date: 11 Apr 00 - 02:38 PM

Well, this isn't the first gig I ever had as a fiddler, but I think I'll tell the tale anyhow. The band I paly in had been hired to do an evening show in a town not too distant from home. We did the show, got paid, and asked the host where a good place to bet a beer might be. She thought for a moment then finally said "Well there's this place out on the highway. . ." I should have known.

So we followed her directions, and sure enough, we found the place, a real joint. Cinderblock construction, no windows, and pickup trucks with gun racks in the back. I turned and said "Guys, put yer hair up under yer hats, they kick hippies' asses and raise hell just for fun in there"

So we walked in, took a table in the rear corner of the place. The Good Ol' Boys didn't pay us much attention, until we'd had a few beers, and the guitar player and I launched into all 56 verses of "Jolly Grog" louder than the jukebox. All of a sudden, the neon lights all went dark, and there was this threatening presence. In a thundering voice Threatening Presence demanded "What are yew guys, some kinda band?"

I gulped and said meekly "Yes, Sir."

Turns out Threatening Presence was the barkeeper, whereupon he said, "Well, if you got your instruments and give us a few tunes, we'll give ya'll free beer, and turn off the jukebox."

Needless to say, we obliged post haste.

Subject: RE: First real gig
From: Willie-O
Date: 11 Apr 00 - 02:34 PM

Yeah, I'm in McDonalds Corners. I know you're from Perth, that's part of the reason I posted this little reminiscence.

W-O

Subject: RE: First real gig
From: Marion
Date: 11 Apr 00 - 02:30 PM

Willie-O, are you from Perth, Ontario? That's where I grew up, and my mother and grandmother still live there.

Marion

Subject: RE: First real gig
From: Willie-O
Date: 11 Apr 00 - 02:27 PM

just another whistle stop...

a number of years ago I collaborated with a friend on a play which was performed by the Perth Summer Theatre. (For two weeks, fortunately, not just once.)

My friend wrote the play, I composed the music and wrote some songs. One of the actors, who was stressed out from learning to play guitar in a week for the show, was tired of me hanging around on the set and offering advice as they rehearsed, so I was instructed not to bother coming to the final rehearsal.

The music involved both live-on-stage performances and a bunch of taped bits...and when I got to the premiere performance I realized that the sound tech was not familiar enough with the music to know that he was one cue behind and the wrong cue was playing for each sequence. The actors trouped on though. The dramatic climax was a scene (kind of gothic) where a guy struggles and ultimately gets kicked to death by a horse he's trying to break, in a solo dance kind of thing. The music for this segment was a dark electric guitar arrangement of "Jenny's Welcome to Charlie" of which I was inordinately proud. Unfortunately the previous cue on the tape, which was what was actually playing when the actor/dancer was earning his merit badge in improvised choreography, was a rather smarmy waltz. The poor guy was getting waltzed to death by a horse.

When the curtain dropped on that scene, the few of us that knew something was wrong just about cracked up. I advised the sound guy what had just happened.

Haven't done another play score, but now I have a better idea what "artistic control" means--and I'm not shy about sharing my opinions!

Wilie-O

Subject: RE: First real gig
From: Whistle Stop
Date: 11 Apr 00 - 01:59 PM

As a youngster, I was something of a classical guitar prodigy (this "accelerated ability" didn't last, unfortunately; it's more like a kid who walks at nine months, but ultimately doesn't walk any more skillfully than anyone else). At the tender age of 13, I had played a number of youth concerts and church services, when my teacher/mentor decided it was time that I hired myself out to play background music for private functions. Light classical, arrangements of pop tunes (Bert Bacharach, etc.), that sort of thing. Anyway, I showed up to the first of these, which was a party at the home of a wealthy gentleman whose daughter was getting married in a few days. He showed me around before the guests arrived -- where the party would be centered, where I would play, and most importantly, where the refreshments were.

Being thirteen and a "professional musician," I figured I was entitled to the perks. I wasn't very experienced with alcohol, but I didn't want to hit any one beverage too heavily, so I "sampled" -- a glass if gin here, a glass of wine there, some bourbon, etc. It wasn't long before my host (employer) noticed that I was having trouble holding my head up, much less playing anything worth hearing. He was amused and very gracious about it, gave me a lift home (the next town over), paid me even though I had only played for about half of the allotted time, and watched until he was sure I had made it in the front door. I didn't make it much further than that before I was violently ill, and the next day I thought I was going to die. It was a painful, but valuable, lesson in humility.

Subject: RE: First real gig
From: Ely
Date: 11 Apr 00 - 01:33 PM

I don't have any disaster stories. There is a local-talent bluegrass & country show twice a year in the town where I go to college (town population 8900, so it's not a big show), and our lead fiddler, who is also the one who has all the contacts and does most of our PR, dropped his bow and accidentally said, "Sh*t" into the microphone in front of an audience consisting almost entirely of the 70+ crowd (and the rest were their 6-year-old grandkids). Caused some nervous laughter but we got over it.

We played a pretty good joke on the audience at one of those shows. We had about 6 band members and all of us came on stage with banjos--five-strings, four-strings, mando-banjo, all kinds of banjos--and started playing. I don't even play the banjo, I just did chords. Then we had the emcee yell at us that there was a town ordinance against having more than two banjos on stage at once, so, one by one, the non-banjo players went offstage and got their real instruments. It was pretty funny.

I think the worst music occurrence ever must have been the accordion recital that a friend of mine attended. 146 accordions in one room.

Subject: RE: First real gig
From: TerriM
Date: 11 Apr 00 - 01:15 PM

It wasn't our first gig but one time we played a local pub as a favour to the landlord who has lots of (spit) karaoke nights and thought real music would make a pleasant change. The audience were so geared for karaoke that they insisted on getting up on satge and 'singing' with us. Many were furious to find out we didn't have words written up on a screen and one wretched woman asked, apparently seriously, how we could remember all those songs! Scarred us for life, that gig!

Subject: RE: First real gig
From: MK
Date: 10 Apr 00 - 08:11 PM

Driving to a sphincter of a town in Quebec (that the agent assured us was a classy place) from Toronto.

Arrive at this little schtettle (small town/village) called Buckingham. Hotel was called the Buckingham Palace. (no shit!) Looked like it was built in the 30s.
Reaked of stale beer, cigarettes and unrine. *Peelers performed before and after all of our sets.
Rooms had no bathrooms (just communal ones in the hall) and the fire escape consisted of a long rope near the window. No light fixtures in the rooms. Just a bare bulb dangling from the ceiling. No TV. No radio. Get 20 of the local women together and you have one full set of teeth.
One hour into the first night of playing there, I'm thinking why didn't I listen to my mother and become a doctor or a lawyer? And so the dues paying process began.


*strippers

Subject: RE: First real gig
From: Magpie
Date: 10 Apr 00 - 07:27 PM

Speaking of trembling knees..

Nice one, katlaughing! This is not my own story, but it is about trembling knees:

On a TV appearance, a famous Norwegian fiddler was going to play an old folk tune. He got on stage, and after having looked around for a while, he got down off the stage, grabbed one of the chairs intended for the audience, brought it back onto the stage and sat down to play. The TV host asked him, somewhat confused " I thought you folk musicians played standing up?" Your man answered "No, we're too nervous. It's only the Swedes who stand up, they're too stupid to be nervous!"

Good thing it isn't just me who's got trembling knees!

Magpie(who has got nothing against Swedes, but couldn't help laughing all the same)

Subject: RE: First real gig
From: katlaughing
Date: 10 Apr 00 - 02:13 PM

Well, first one as an adult with the violin (does that count?) was for a church service, with my brother, the genius pianist. We were performing Ave Maria, so I had lots of opportunities to use the WHOLE bow, in those long, full notes. Only problem was, I was so nervous, it sounded like I was doing vibrato on EVERY note, in every passage; people could actually see my knees knocking together! In my mind, I kept hearing the old song my mom and dad would sing about "dancing with the dolly with the hole in her stockin' and her knees keep a'knockin'!" Don't know how I made it through it. From then on, I just used my voice for any *real* gigs. Might be a change in that soon, thanks to the Mudcat.

Subject: RE: First real gig
From: BlueJay
Date: 10 Apr 00 - 02:07 PM

Well, I blew it and ended up playing the instrumental "Alices Restaurant" throughout "The Unicorn in the Garden" scene from the play, "The Thurber Carnival" in High School. It actually turned out OK!

Subject: First real gig
From: Marion
Date: 10 Apr 00 - 01:37 PM

OK, I'm going to tell you the story of my first real fiddle gig, in the hopes that others will share their stories, whether as humour, inspiration, or cautionary examples.

And I define a "real gig" as playing neither in your living room nor anybody else's living room, but you can define it however you like.

Here's my story:

One day after I had been playing fiddle for about eight months, we got a call from a local church saying that the seniors' group was having a talent show that evening, and asking if my mother (piano) and I could play some duets.

So we picked out and rehearsed four hymns for violin and piano.

When we got there, the audience were already in their seats. We set up then sat in the congregation waiting for our turn to be called.

Later in the show the MC said, "Now we're going to have a poem and violin piece." An old man I didn't know went up to the front then turned to me and said, "Don't you want to come up and play?"

It turned out that he wanted to recite a poem while I played any old thing in the background. I agreed, but since I was flustered by the sudden request I forgot to tighten my bow, which was very loose indeed. Also, I decided to use my muting clamp, which I had never used before, since it would be background music. Once I started playing I realized that the mute blocked my view of the strings so that I couldn't find them very well, and I kept hitting the side of my violin when I tried to find my E string.

The poem he read was "The Touch of the Master's Hand", which is about an old maestro producing beautiful music from a ratty old violin. So I was supposed to be evoking this image, and instead I'm slapping the side of my fiddle with a limp horse's tail. Sigh...

But that's not the punchline. Due to some failure of communication, the MC didn't know my mother and I had something to play and never called on us. So the audience who got to see me set up my music stand, and tune to the piano, and attach my shoulder rest, and rosin my bow... as far as they knew, I went through all that routine just for my miserable "touch of the loser's hand" performance.

I must have looked like such a fool, but I was able to see the humour in it right away. And I did play a respectable guitar piece as well, which helped me feel somewhat better. And there was cautionary example as well - don't try something in performance (i.e. muting clamp) you haven't tried in practice.

More stories?

Marion