RE: [Harp-L] weirdest gig

["Rene Carlson" <Rene@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

OK, here's another.  I was traveling with a big band in Europe.  Gigs
were largely booked site unseen, leads taken from previous contacts who
knew someone who knew someone... Language differences created
interesting challenges in confirming details... 

Anyway, the band leader ended up contracting with a club owner in
Heidelberg who had recently converted a medieval wine cellar into a
trendy jazz nightclub.  The band leader tactfully probed as to whether
the venue was appropriate for a big band and was assured that it was.
The owner even sent a photo of another big band in situ.

Well, we arrived to knock on a nondescript narrow door in an old brick
building on a cobblestone street.  After wending our way down a long
flight of stairs and through several small, low-vaulted anterooms (think
King Tut's tomb), we walked into a long narrow brick room set with
tables that couldn't have been more than 15 feet wide and 35 feet deep.
Nice space for a jazz trio.  The band leader had the challenge of
setting up 4 saxs, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, a drum kit, a bass and
keyboard with enough room left for a paying audience.  He finally
settled on a double wing formation, with the drum kit in the center of
the front wall, half the brass facing the other half along the sides,
and the keyboard and bass farther along the wall opposite the entry
door.  The trombone players actually preferred the setup saying that it
was the only time on the trip they heard the saxs.  Needless to say the
sound bounced off the walls.  But there were very few patrons to comment
good or bad.



-----Original Message-----
From: harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Rene Carlson
Sent: Monday, October 03, 2005 11:20 PM
To: Mojo Red; Chris Michalek; harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [Harp-L] weirdest gig

OK, the band I now play with was doing a private birthday party gig to
an uninterested crowd when the next act showed up:  a midget dressed in
a superman costume, who hounded the band to play Elvis tunes so he could
do his Elvis impersonation.  The host had to eventually "escort" the
midget out.  At least, that's the way the band tells it....  

-----Original Message-----
From: harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Mojo Red
Sent: Monday, October 03, 2005 10:51 PM
To: Chris Michalek; harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] weirdest gig

My weirdest gig? Hah! I got nuthin' on Chris.
That's gotta be the wierdest gig I ever heard tell.


Fire-boy wins, hands down!

... Well, there ~was~ the time this summer when my band played a
daytime, outdoor private birthday party for an aging biker gang... It
got pretty weird.

We were asked to improvise bump-and-grind stripper music for the young,
well-endowed silicone bimbo gal who did her own bump-and-grind thing on
Grampa Biker's birthdayboy lap... wiggling her frosting-decorated
"charms", encouraging the grinning white-bearded birthday biker to er,
enjoy the frosting right in front of all his biker buddies, their wives
and, yup, and their kids... 

Yeah, that was pretty dang weird alrighty... But I still think Fire-boy
still gets the prize.

Harpin' in Colorado,
--Ken M.


--- Chris Michalek <Chris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
> 
> What's your weirdest gig?




		
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