The worst gig in history?

I played an impromptu gig the other night. I shouldn’t have, as it was probably the worst solo one I have ever done and one of the worst ever in any band/orchestra.

We were at someone’s 50th birthday party and 3 months previously when the party was going to be in a village hall with 200 people I’d been asked to play. A month or so ago, however, plans changed and it turned into a much smaller number of people at the birthday boy’s house.

The party was lame so I had this vision of me bringing the while thing to life. I went home to get my gear and couldn’t find my lyrics folder so, after much searching, decided to go ahead anyway.

I set up and played, but there were two or three songs where I really struggled with the lyrics. Bad decision. I shouldn’t have done them. Also I was putting all outputs through a mixer and using a monitor speaker instead of PA (remember it was just in someone’s house). But the volume of the monitor varied. All of a sudden it decreased markedly in volume and then just as suddenly, 5 mins later, it shot back up again. There must have been 15-20 people there and many of them stayed outside, so I was playing to anything between 2 and 10 people. I also am tired at the moment so one song was a struggle in a high bit.

After I had finished, 4 others took up the reins and did some stuff from a songbook – they were OK. Quite good bass playing, though I didn’t like the singer’s voice – it was a bit weedy.

Anyway, the party finished at about 1.00 and I packed up and went home, being thanked for “getting the party going”. The good thing is, I will never let myself be that bad again. I had not rehearsed more than 4 of the songs, and was consequently rusty. On top of the prevailing conditions it was a disaster from my point of view. The good thing is that people enjoyed it, and it got the birthday boy up singing and dancing.

If anyone has any pics, send them though and I’ll post them.

Have a meeting next week on that business idea I mentioned in the post below. Wish me luck. It could be the start of something…
Love and peace