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sahlgoode
SENATOR BABYHEAD  Posts: 254 Registered: 7/6/2005 Offline
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11/14/2005 at 16:50  |
Now that I've been around for a while, I've noticed that there are a number of fellow musicians in the swarm.
Let's hear your road stories. "The gig that went bad", "The awesome basement jam", or "Rik Emmett is an asshole".
I'll Start:
The Warm-up Act
This one goes way back to my first arena gig. The headliner was Triumph, and the other act was the Ian Thomas Band. We were the warm-up act. I was pretty young (21), and we were all very excited. This was our biggest gig so far. We had been sluggin' it out in the bar circuit, and had done a few concert halls as back-ups to more established bar bands, but damn it, this was Triumph. They were in the middle of promoting their second album, (I forget the name..."Rock & Roll Machine", and Joe Walsh's "Rocky Mountain Way" were on it.) and they didn't need us to fill the 10,000 seats, so we considered ourselves lucky.
We arrived at the arena in Simcoe, and laughed at how it was located at the corner of "Young" and "Head" streets.Grabbing our gear we walked inside, thoughts of screaming fans filled our heads. Getting ahold of the stage manager, and then finding the dressing room's were our next order of business.
As it turns out, there were four dressing rooms. Ian Thomas, and his band had one, we had one, and Triumph had TWO. We dropped our gear off in ours, and proceeded to investigate the others. Ian, and his band were layed back, shooting the breeze, and offered us beer. The next one over had Mike Levine, and Gil Moore in it, but no Rik Emmett. We talked gear for a bit, but when we mentioned the fact that Rik wasn't there, they both tensed up a bit, and said something like, "He's next door. You don't want to bother him." Hmmm.
It was still a few hours before the show, and I decided to sneak out and see if I could knock on his door. After all, we both put our guitars on, one strap at a time. I mean, I'd respect his privacy, but surely a few words wouldn't hurt. I knocked lightly, and then with a little more force, when I didn't get an answer. "Arghhhmnfmnf." sounded a lot like come in, so I opened the door.
He put his double-necked Gibson down, came storming towards the door, asked me what the fuck I wanted. By this time, my band had come looking for me. (Hoping I'd had success) "Does this guy belong to you? Tell him to stay the fuck out of MY dressing room." or words to that effect.
That's when the bad voodoo karma monkeys started to take over. All of the sudden, it wasn't fun anymore. It was business. NAY! It was war.From that moment on, all we could talk about was how we were going to blow him away, with our incredible riffs. We were going to use every snap. pop, and paradiddle in the book, because "Rik Emmett was an asshole." So we went into oour dressing room to practice our chops.
After about an hour, we felt confident that we could do it. Feeling brave, we decided that there was time to grap a quick few beers across the street. THIS is where our plan started to crumble apart.
It was cold outside, and wrapping our hands around the frosted mugs didn't help our cause either. Shuffling back to the arena, we got back about five minutes before the show. After a quick check of the tuning, and an lukewarm intro by the local DJ, it was time to hit the stage.
THIS is why they call it a "WARM-UP ACT".
The stage had been set up for hours, with nothing more than the working lights, and there was a chill in the arena. Our fingers were stiff from the cool weather, and cold beer. Between all of this and admitted nervousness, by the time the stage lights came on, and we were into our first few bars, it had become quite obvious: we weren't going to be cutting heads with Mr. Emmett this evening.
I remember my teeth rattling, and wanting to get closer to the spotlight that was on the singer. Yeah because I wanted to be in the spotlight, but more importantly, it offered warmth. It wasn't until we had finished our fifth song in an eight song set, that I could feel any heat on stage.We managed to have a strong finish, but by then it was too late.
We took a quick bow, and practically ran to our dressing room. Not a word was said, as we packed up of guitars.
We found a place in the rafters to watch the rest of the show, and smoke herbal jazz cigarettes.
Lesson learned.
Okay swarmers. It's time to get the band back together. Regale us with your stories of broken strings, grueling tours, and magic shows.
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Closed indefinitely in accordance with the Digital Milennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998
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LORDKAHUNA
Don't make me fuk your moustache   SSHOLEPosts: 1667 Registered: 8/5/2003 Offline
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11/14/2005 at 18:31 |
I wanna pre-empt the penispic parade and say that this is probably your most worthy forum topic to date.
I will add my bit later, but I sincerely hope my fellow swarmenrs don't gay this too much.
good job faggot
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the rice I had yesterday came out practically verbatim |
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vladtweano
DARTH MENSES  Posts: 517 Registered: 3/11/2002 Offline
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11/14/2005 at 18:50 |
DOOSHED BY RIK EMMETT! HAR!
Even at the height of Triumph's *ahem* popularity here in the nearly-Canadian states, it was glaringly apparent that Rik Emmett wanted nothing more than to be Geddy Lee AND Alex Lifeson. In the early 90's I went to a local bar just to see some live music and it turned out to be...Rik Emmett. He thanked all 60 people about a hundred times and even wandered around between sets chatting. Sad, in a HAHA YOU'RE SAD kind of way. The music was ok.
Now tell me a Max Webster/Kim Mitchell story.
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"Those are my principles, and if you don't like them...well, I have others."
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DonQuixote
DARTH MENSES  Posts: 641 Registered: 4/22/2005 Offline
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11/14/2005 at 18:51 |
^^ I concur on the part about this being a good thread. I have no clue what your sexual orientation is.
Anyways, I used to live over seas and thats the only place I ever had a band. It was when I first started out playing guitar. We were called "Verticle Smile" and won most of the school talent competitions (member I was like 13 at the time). Anyhew, the first time we ever played in front of anyone, ie talent show, I got nervous and missed the beat where I was supposed to start the solo for "Smells Like Teen Spirit" I was hping no one noticed that I had to wait a couple extra bars to start. Only one person noticed andd it was my brother. He was kind enough to point it out.
However, the next talent show, we had written our own songs with words and everything!!!!! Remember I was like 14 then so this was an accomplishment. Anyways, we are up in the talent show and I start to play the first kick ass song I ever wrote. I can't remember what it was or how it went. Anyways, my high E string breaks on my POS axe. I borrow a guitar from another band and start to play the inro again. PING the high E on this guitar breaks. I was so pissed cause I really needed the high E to make the song sound full (we only had three people on on drums one on bass and one on guitar) anyways we people were pretty pissed that they were just sitting around waiting so we switched up so my bandm8 ted could play his song. Then I played another song that I wrote that only used power chords. Anyways, we won the contest but I am still pissed that like three strings broke and it totally fucked up that song. Oh well. I should have just kept playing. Lesson learned.
RAWK OUT
SFW
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( . )( . ) <--- Boobs. |
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sahlgoode
SENATOR BABYHEAD Posts: 254 Registered: 7/6/2005 Offline
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11/14/2005 at 19:28 |
vladtweano:
Now tell me a Max Webster/Kim Mitchell story.
Now you're testing my memory.
I used to hang out at a bar called Duffy's Rockpile, because they had live music, and I could drink under-age.
They had kick-ass Satruday afternoon jams. I think it's converted into a Glory-holed fag filled peepshow joint now
The resident soundman//gofer was a guy by the name of Maurice who owned a house on East Ave. N. in Hamilton. After the bar closed, we'd all go to his place and jam in the basement. I got to kick it out with alot of "Canadian" musicians, including Bruce Cockburn, and Rush. This was in the 70's, and all these guys were just starting their careers.
Kim Mitchell, and Max Webster went there almost everytime they played the Rockpile, so I got to jam with them a few times.
Later on, when he went solo, we'd run into each other in places like What'sshakin' Beach, or the Commercial in Barrie. (The place still have that Bulldog on the roof?)
Mostly it was just hangin' out. No real story there, but Kim's a great guy.
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vladtweano
DARTH MENSES Posts: 517 Registered: 3/11/2002 Offline
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11/14/2005 at 20:03 |
I play drums with a bunch of other idiots that usually includes madturk and loki. For some reason I can't remember, we call ourselves Los Juevos. We make lots of bad honking and crashing noises, but sometimes good stuff happens. We always have fun, which is our only aspiration, aside from enslaving the human race with the hypnotic signals embedded in the bass guitar.
I will never ever understand musicians or actors with ego problems.
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"Those are my principles, and if you don't like them...well, I have others."
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ghostrider
liberal exit  SSHOLEPosts: 2502 Registered: 7/29/2004 Offline
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11/14/2005 at 21:33 |
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LSD? Heck no, those were Opal Thompson's dinner rolls. |
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sahlgoode
SENATOR BABYHEAD Posts: 254 Registered: 7/6/2005 Offline
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11/15/2005 at 15:48 |
vladtweano: We always have fun,
I will never ever understand musicians or actors with ego problems.
I remember Madturks journal. It was one of the first I replied to after registering to the swarm. I'm waiting to hear the follow-up album. If you want, I can lay some bass tracks down for you to add to the mix.
LK: This is the second ever forum topic from me. I've read several hundred from the past. Playing catch-up to an established site like this, I didn't want to break the un-written rule of starting one that had already been discussed.
Ya gotta write what you know.
SFW: As a bass player I don't often break strings on stage, but it has happened. I've always been able to play through it.
Ghostie:
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Closed indefinitely in accordance with the Digital Milennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998 |
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Geez, I signed up at this site called Linkswarm.com. After posting over there for 2 days with those assholes my worst enemy in here seems like my best friend. Those retards are ruthless. -- zapple
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