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lovechick
Well-known member
Ha! Great thread. Here's some that have been mentioned:
1. Drunken, unpredictable bandmates. I'm at the age where I can't deal with this anymore and it takes the fun out of gigging. What kills me is that these guys seem to think they're playing better than they do at rehearsals and it's not even close. What's worse is that unsuspecting folks have paid to see this b.s.
2. Audience members or friends of the band that don't understand the concept of a stage, nor the boundaries that go with it. I had a guy walk through my side of the stage at a recent gig. Apparently, he just had to say hello to his friend, the drummer, and couldn't do so during a break, after the song, or from the side of the stage. Sure as hell, he gets tripped up in my cable, which yanks the overdrive pedal it's connected to and obliterates the connector between the overdrive and the wah-wah. Sure, he was apologetic but most first graders would know enough not to do this.
3. Here in PA many soundmen tend to think that live bass should sound as it does on an Iron Maiden record. This isn't OK if you're doing a folk or country gig. The best part is trying to explain this to these fellows and seeing them get offended.
4. I don't know if anyone's mentioned this. It recently dawned on me that 90% of the folks who are watching a band have no understanding of repertoire. This explains the kids who request Billy Joel or Elton John despite a visible lack of keyboards on stage. No point explaining this to these numbskulls.
1. Drunken, unpredictable bandmates. I'm at the age where I can't deal with this anymore and it takes the fun out of gigging. What kills me is that these guys seem to think they're playing better than they do at rehearsals and it's not even close. What's worse is that unsuspecting folks have paid to see this b.s.
2. Audience members or friends of the band that don't understand the concept of a stage, nor the boundaries that go with it. I had a guy walk through my side of the stage at a recent gig. Apparently, he just had to say hello to his friend, the drummer, and couldn't do so during a break, after the song, or from the side of the stage. Sure as hell, he gets tripped up in my cable, which yanks the overdrive pedal it's connected to and obliterates the connector between the overdrive and the wah-wah. Sure, he was apologetic but most first graders would know enough not to do this.
3. Here in PA many soundmen tend to think that live bass should sound as it does on an Iron Maiden record. This isn't OK if you're doing a folk or country gig. The best part is trying to explain this to these fellows and seeing them get offended.
4. I don't know if anyone's mentioned this. It recently dawned on me that 90% of the folks who are watching a band have no understanding of repertoire. This explains the kids who request Billy Joel or Elton John despite a visible lack of keyboards on stage. No point explaining this to these numbskulls.
Psychicpet
Well-known member
Newf
Member
Owning only left handed basses almost totally eliminates the urge for anyone to want to borrow my bass…. Hehehehehehehe!
LOL, that was the first thought I had. About the only advantage of being lefty.
Wait till the kid grows up and has their own kids.
Peeves...knowing you are in tune but the drunk lead guitar player keeps telling you to tune down. I actually listened to this loaded idiot once just to shut him up and afterwards I realized I was down a step and a half.
Randracula
Well-known member
Mine would be band members getting drunk before a show.I know sometimes there's nothing else to do when you have 3 hours until you play and nowhere else to go but some people just can't handle it....
adouglas
Well-known member
Oh, yeah.
I play in a band that does mostly 60-70s acoustic pop-rock. At a gig last year one inebriated woman came up and started begging for 80s club music...Michael Jackson, stuff like that.
Afterwards, I told the band we should learn "Ben" just to stick it to people like that.
AnthonyD
Well-known member
We usually tell our audience they should feel free to request anything they want to hear us play...
We also tell our audience they're not likely to hear us play any of it...
We also tell our audience they're not likely to hear us play any of it...
DJBenzBass
Well-known member
1. I agree with you about the NYC gigs. Who knows what you will sound like with "House Gear". My band has a gig in NYC in a few weeks. I actually don't know what will happen because my guitarist is so anal about using his own gear. We are all in NJ and can drive in, but the club probably won't allow us to bring our gear. Understandable too. No room to keep the stuff! I used to worry, but my SR5 HH sounds so good, my fear of a "horrible" sound is very low.
2. People still playing pool right in front of the stage while the bands are playing seems rude to me as well.
3. What used to bother me: Having to drag 2 cabinets to a gig because the whole band would be mic'd through the PA and the bass would only be on stage volume! That's happened a few times. A sound guy even said once while we were setting up: "I can't find the line for the bass, just turn up". No more worries with the Berg HT322 though.
4. Singers that stomp around on stage like a wounded duck bumping into my headstock while I'm playing! That drives me insane!!!
BigStrings
Well-known member
My pet peeves are: 1) small set up areas in some of these clubs. At one club called the "Jail House" (actually a converted jail house where each cell had a table for dining), I was so close to the exit door and the cash register that I could have cashed people out as they left.
2) A keyboard player who plays standing up and is facing me (his side profile facing the audience) so that his boom (mic) stand, which is centered in front of his keyboard is right there to possibly scratch my bass (the plastic piece is gone exposing a metel end) every time I turn around to get a slug of whatever I'm drinking that night.
3) Our guitar player, who is really a nice guy, convinces me to let this bass player sit in. As I hand him my bass (new honeyburst sr 4 HH, am I crazy?) I tell him to take good care of it. The song starts and the bass is drowning out the whole band not to mention some ugly distortion. I quickly ask some other musicians in the audience if my bass is that loud when I play and they say no. It's then that I realize that this guy's plucking hand resembles the claw of an eagle as he's playing my bass. As he attempts to do some slap and pop he breaks my D string and then after the song hollers over to the table where I'm sitting "Ya got another D string"? No more sit-ins, lesson learned.
2) A keyboard player who plays standing up and is facing me (his side profile facing the audience) so that his boom (mic) stand, which is centered in front of his keyboard is right there to possibly scratch my bass (the plastic piece is gone exposing a metel end) every time I turn around to get a slug of whatever I'm drinking that night.
3) Our guitar player, who is really a nice guy, convinces me to let this bass player sit in. As I hand him my bass (new honeyburst sr 4 HH, am I crazy?) I tell him to take good care of it. The song starts and the bass is drowning out the whole band not to mention some ugly distortion. I quickly ask some other musicians in the audience if my bass is that loud when I play and they say no. It's then that I realize that this guy's plucking hand resembles the claw of an eagle as he's playing my bass. As he attempts to do some slap and pop he breaks my D string and then after the song hollers over to the table where I'm sitting "Ya got another D string"? No more sit-ins, lesson learned.
Strangeglow
Well-known member
My pet peeve are guitar players who turn up after sound check.
Had a guitar player once who used to do that everytime. That way, he made sure he was going to be loud enough. Sometimes the sound guy would catch it, sometimes he wouldn't.
His amp was giving him trouble and the drummer offered to loan him one. What he didn't know was that we had pimped the amp. Basically shoved the guts of a home stereo receiver in an old amp case. Added some extra electronics to match impedances, etc.
Guitar player starts with his turn up stuff and I pick up the remote control and turn him down. He doesn't see this, but the audience goes wild. Tries to turn up again. Down he goes. At the break he was complaining about the loose pot in the amp because it kept "drifting back to the same setting"
Someone must have clued him in. In the second set, he turns the amp up and then duck tapes the knob. Then he gets on the mic and says "Some people think they're funny turning me down. But I fixed that. Now what are you going to do?"
Amazing thing is that you can turn those old stereo receivers on or off with the remote as well. The band didn't last long after that. I thought the drummer was going to wet himself he was laughing so hard.
Fast forward a couple of years. I had heard the guy was playing in New Orleans. Went to see the band and brought an old remote control with me. I'd stand where he could see me and pull out the remote. Made him check his amp 6 times that night. Gave the remote to the bass player at the end of the night.
Don't mess with engineers.
Had a guitar player once who used to do that everytime. That way, he made sure he was going to be loud enough. Sometimes the sound guy would catch it, sometimes he wouldn't.
His amp was giving him trouble and the drummer offered to loan him one. What he didn't know was that we had pimped the amp. Basically shoved the guts of a home stereo receiver in an old amp case. Added some extra electronics to match impedances, etc.
Guitar player starts with his turn up stuff and I pick up the remote control and turn him down. He doesn't see this, but the audience goes wild. Tries to turn up again. Down he goes. At the break he was complaining about the loose pot in the amp because it kept "drifting back to the same setting"
Someone must have clued him in. In the second set, he turns the amp up and then duck tapes the knob. Then he gets on the mic and says "Some people think they're funny turning me down. But I fixed that. Now what are you going to do?"
Amazing thing is that you can turn those old stereo receivers on or off with the remote as well. The band didn't last long after that. I thought the drummer was going to wet himself he was laughing so hard.
Fast forward a couple of years. I had heard the guy was playing in New Orleans. Went to see the band and brought an old remote control with me. I'd stand where he could see me and pull out the remote. Made him check his amp 6 times that night. Gave the remote to the bass player at the end of the night.
Don't mess with engineers.
MingusBASS
Well-known member
Great story!
boomer074
Active member
Strangeglow you are going to have to show me how to do that one, We have a guitar player like that now, Practice is miserable, In a small space this guy turns his whole stack up I would love to have a remote to turn that down! Awesome story.
Bass-sic
Well-known member
- Joined
- Sep 28, 2005
- Messages
- 266
Singers...when you tell them they are to loud in the audience, they say they are not because they can't hear themselves on stage. And instead of turning up their monitor, they turn the mains up.
Bass....when the bass player has too much mids and it competes with the guitar. It sounds horrible, like to lead guitars playing two different things.
I hate when I do sound checks and you are trying to blend the band, and the instrument player that needs to go down, looks at you like you don't like the way they play and are just trying to be unfair and turn them too low. When I do sound checks, my goal it to make them sound better....not worse. And if they were in the audience they would hear how horrible they sounded when they were louder than the mix. Very frustrating.
Bass....when the bass player has too much mids and it competes with the guitar. It sounds horrible, like to lead guitars playing two different things.
I hate when I do sound checks and you are trying to blend the band, and the instrument player that needs to go down, looks at you like you don't like the way they play and are just trying to be unfair and turn them too low. When I do sound checks, my goal it to make them sound better....not worse. And if they were in the audience they would hear how horrible they sounded when they were louder than the mix. Very frustrating.
phatduckk
Well-known member
ya me n shane, lead guitarist, get pretty drunk before some/ shows. like you said... u end up at a bar and have 3 hours to kill before you go on; so what else u gonna do.
clint used to get worried the first few times but has stopped being worried cuz we've never been too plowed to play. we keep eachother in check too. so i guess we're pretty responsible about it. truth is nobody gets more upset about us "messing up" than we do so we make sure it doesnt get to that point.
people who chew with their mouth open and make smacking sounds when they open their mouth.
guitar players who turn the bass on their rig up so it competes with the bass player.
drummers. for the love of james brown, learn some new fills!
people who are addicted to chap stick/lip gloss.
people who put lotion on when i'm in the car with them. i don't want to smell that for the next 4 hours.
people who think they have to talk loud as satan on their cell phones. actually, people who talk loud in general.
not being on time.
singers that bitch about not having their mic/cable work yet don't own one piece of gear.
i'm a little particular...
guitar players who turn the bass on their rig up so it competes with the bass player.
drummers. for the love of james brown, learn some new fills!
people who are addicted to chap stick/lip gloss.
people who put lotion on when i'm in the car with them. i don't want to smell that for the next 4 hours.
people who think they have to talk loud as satan on their cell phones. actually, people who talk loud in general.
not being on time.
singers that bitch about not having their mic/cable work yet don't own one piece of gear.
i'm a little particular...
Hutton
Well-known member
Satan is loud? Do you have this on good authority.
Bill
Well-known member
Equipment problems are always a big pet peeve of mine, although I rarely have them these days. Hard to go wrong with a Stingray & a GK half stack! But my band members have them from time to time.
Gig before last our drummer busted his bass drum head & didn't have a spare. He had to duct tape a stack of old set lists to the remaining piece of his head. It was pretty funny, actually, and it did the trick! Also, one of our guitar players was having trouble with his input jack on his Marshall. Our lead guitar player snapped a string, but luckily he had extra strings.
Last gig our lead guitar/sax/accordion player's wireless sax mic crapped out. The AAA battery died & he didn't have a spare. Luckily somebody in the club had some batteries. Also, his 5-way selector switch on his Strat was shorting out. Finally, this place had a very small PA & we had to run sound ourselves. Since the club doesn't allow amps & drums to go through the PA, we had to really crank our amps on the stage. As a result, we were getting all kinds of feedback & midrange hum through the mics. Luckily, we sorted everything out by the second set. It turned out to be a good gig after all.
I don't care for playing through other people's rigs, either. We opened a show for another local band a few weeks ago, and the bass player graciously let me use his Ampeg head & 8x10 cabinet. He told me to set it however I wanted, but I wasn't about to mess with his settings. I got a good tone anyway (thanks to my Stingray & its 3-band EQ!), but I just couldn't seem to get enough volume, even with that massive rig behind me. While I was getting my bass hooked up before we started, the other band's bass player (who played a Pedulla 5-string) asked me how I liked my "little" Music Man bass.
My biggest pet peeve related to playing bass is when the sound guy wants to hook my head to a DI box instead of using the XLR out. When this happens, my tuning mute button is useless (except on the stage) & I have to either tune with the audience hearing me, or I have to unplug my bass & plug directly into the tuner (not very efficient between songs).
I also hate it when I'm trying to read & participate in this forum, and co-workers constantly come into my office and/or call me. What am I....at work or something??
Gig before last our drummer busted his bass drum head & didn't have a spare. He had to duct tape a stack of old set lists to the remaining piece of his head. It was pretty funny, actually, and it did the trick!
Also, one of our guitar players was having trouble with his input jack on his Marshall. Our lead guitar player snapped a string, but luckily he had extra strings.Last gig our lead guitar/sax/accordion player's wireless sax mic crapped out. The AAA battery died & he didn't have a spare. Luckily somebody in the club had some batteries. Also, his 5-way selector switch on his Strat was shorting out. Finally, this place had a very small PA & we had to run sound ourselves. Since the club doesn't allow amps & drums to go through the PA, we had to really crank our amps on the stage. As a result, we were getting all kinds of feedback & midrange hum through the mics. Luckily, we sorted everything out by the second set. It turned out to be a good gig after all.
I don't care for playing through other people's rigs, either. We opened a show for another local band a few weeks ago, and the bass player graciously let me use his Ampeg head & 8x10 cabinet. He told me to set it however I wanted, but I wasn't about to mess with his settings. I got a good tone anyway (thanks to my Stingray & its 3-band EQ!), but I just couldn't seem to get enough volume, even with that massive rig behind me.
While I was getting my bass hooked up before we started, the other band's bass player (who played a Pedulla 5-string) asked me how I liked my "little" Music Man bass. My biggest pet peeve related to playing bass is when the sound guy wants to hook my head to a DI box instead of using the XLR out.
When this happens, my tuning mute button is useless (except on the stage) & I have to either tune with the audience hearing me, or I have to unplug my bass & plug directly into the tuner (not very efficient between songs).I also hate it when I'm trying to read & participate in this forum, and co-workers constantly come into my office and/or call me. What am I....at work or something??
