Pro Musicians Tell Their WORST Gig Story!

You can ignore the live show I briefly mention I didn’t put this video up in time rip:(

Thanks to all the cats who shared their stories. I loved this so much! More of this content please :D

Been gigging for about 15 years, mostly bars, wineries, cafés, <150 type venues. Bad experiences have been very few and far between, but the consistent factor is exactly what @FoolishFrankie said: the band mates. Had band members trying to take advantage of the clients by ordering a lot of drinks, extra meals, not returning from breaks (15min turns to 40), bad attitudes complaining about the venue/sound audibly on the band stand, that kind of stuff. As the sax player not managing the groups generally, I get to just roll with it and try to have a good time. But one time I was leading a show at a larger venue with a dedicated stage, dance floor, sound tech, fx, all that fun stuff. We had a bass subbing in that night and I had sent him our playlist prior and told him to tell me if there were any songs he would like subbed out if he wasn’t too familiar with it (Latin jazz, so I expected to have to send him a few charts to work on) but he says “nope, looks good got it”. So fast forward, we are on stage and he starts whispering to me he doesn’t know the song we are about to play. So it turns into a game of ‘can he play the next song on the playlist’ because he won’t say until we are about to start. Tried to work it out during break in the green room, but he was dismissive and insisted we were fine to continue playing the guessing game on stage. Stressful. 😅

Man, i just had a gig last Sunday. There was a planned jam session after the gig and there was a really good pro keybordist i really wanted to listen to and then jam with (she was planned to perform first). Well, the linup messed up and she was performing last. I thought that the gig ended, this was the jam session and accidentally joined her in her actual performance (and she was recording live). Well, it was a mixture between free jazz with some modal stuff (that i messed up real bad). After the gig i went to say sorry, but the thing is she actually liked that, but im filled with unbearable cringe. If youre reading this- im so sorry.

Watching this video is the perfect validation for all the times I trusted my gut after that first contact with a bride to be said ended up saying NO to or referred the bride to be to someone else. It’s a shame there is so much “extra stuff” that has to be dealt with just to do our work. This video is very well done!

I do have a "good gig" story.... Background: a barn dance in a rough-ish area of North London. "Barn dance" there meant English, Scottish, Irish folk music with dancing in square or parallel sets. The initial impression was not good. There was a warm-up DJ who was in his late 50s and dressed like John Wayne. At one point he was playing Achy Breaky Fart and singing along emoting like Meatloaf - the lyrics obviously resonated deeply with him in a way we couldn't understand. Anyway, our turn came to get them dancing... Couldn't get hardly anyone to stand up and especially the men - they clung fearfully to their pints. That was a problem; the art with the men is to get them up and dancing before they get tanked-up (at which point their participation is no longer desirable). Anyway we did a few dances with the ladies and tried persuasion and cajoling to get the men up. Still no luck. Then came an unlikely hero - John Wayne. He went around and worked on the blokes to get them to overcome their fear, let their hair down, and have some fun. He kept at it and wore them down. We owed him a big debt of gratitude and learnt a life lesson about first impressions. That guy not only saved the gig but made it into one of our most successful gigs. Ever since then, whenever I hear Achy Breaky I think of that unlikely saviour and wish him well.

I'd love to hear more stories!! The first story was a little hard to follow because I don't know the lingo or how a band works together, but your explanation at the end was really interesting! Thanks!

The “long tones” bleep is insane 😂

After years of Dj'ing ... I always said i should write a book... sounds like you guys have had simular experiences to me :)

I stumbled upon your content through Reels. Found your YouTube channel. Subscribed to it. I'm enjoying the heck out of it. It's phenomenal stuff.

This video is a great idea dude, such a natural and fun extension of your gig vlogs. Awesome content.

Had some fun gigs. One wedding the bride's father had no cash or cheque to pay the band (the terms he'd agreed with the agency were cash on the night). You don't want to spoil the event but the agency already had their cut so it's up to the band to collect as nicely as possible. Another bunch hadn't sold enough tickets to cover the overheads of their charity gig but didn't ask us to play for free until AFTER we'd played the gig - funnily they didn't try to pull that stunt on the caterers! We insisted on being paid. They complained to the agency but we'd already told the agency we would never gig for that client again.

Love this type of content. Trying to start gigging toward the end of this summer so it's nice to hear what it's like out there 😨😂

Got a gig at a marina restaurant- solo acoustic so as not to disturb the guests- and when I showed up for set up, I found there was no one there that knew why I was there. The manager forgot to tell anyone I was coming. They stuck me in the corner by the bar. No PA, no mic, no stool. The kitchen door was behind me so I had to dodge that. The waiters had fun messing with me though. Finally towards the end of the first set, the bartender told me to stop playing because the guests couldn’t hear me anyway. I packed up and left and called the manager over the couple days over payment. She finally called and told me that she hadn’t expected me to show up but I reminded her that she had signed a contract I had previously emailed her promising to pay me. She said for me to consider it an exposure gig and good experience. I showed up that evening with the contract and confronted the marina owner. He paid me but told me to never expect to play there again.

I love that 8bit big band music in the background! Really interesting video and when I heard that beginning sting to still alive I had to replay it to make sure I wasn't hearing things lol.

Phenomenal video, would love to see more of this

This is was wonderful! Is it possible to make this series?

Loved this video! As a music major it’s fun to hear from other musicians:)

❤ oh I’m so glad I ran up on this beautiful content. But I could tell a few of these stories myself good job on this.

Great one. More please.