Let me tell you all a tale of the worst gig I've ever experienced. It happen on Saturday the 8th of December.
Two days before the gig was scheduled to take place the "Booking Agent" sent an email saying that "Health Reasons" prevented him from attending the show. I believe this was more of preventative move as quite a few guys from the other bands were quite ready to add any "health problems" the Booker have have had.
After arriving at the quite hard to find "Tarantula Kult Club" (driving through the red light district, much to the bemusement of my band mates) we loaded our gear out of the car to the backstage area. As we came in the "Sound Check" just finished. I then sought out the rather disinterested Sound guy to tell him of my bands requirements (We would find out why he was so disinterested later). I found out that only the Vox, Snare and Kick (and in our care FX Backing tracks) were going to picked up by the PA. There were also no Monitors. OK, it was rough but nothing we can't handle.
The sound guy then informed us that he was just going out to get a bite to eat and that he would be back in 30 minutes. An hour later, gig kick off time, he's still not there. One of the bar staff managed to call him. "He's at a concert and isn't coming back" PRICK!!! The only guys that could operate the desk were Myself and the guitarist from one of the other bands. We though "This is a fukked situation but if the sound guy set the desk up alright before he left than we shouldn't have any problems". How wrong we were. Feedback and fukked up distortion were apparently the sound guys idea of good sound. We tried to fix it but to very little effect. Apparently the house PA could do either "Barely audible shitty sound" or "Screaming through Bell's first telephone cranked on 11 + extreme feedback slightly audible shitty sound". We chose the first option, you could hardly hear the singers but at least your ears were spared from feedback.
Between the end of the 2nd band and 3rd band's (my band) sets
the club owner arrived. I promptly informed him of the current situation in which he gave the apathetic reply of "eh". After much berating he agreed to do the sound for the rest of the bands. He choose the "Screaming through Bell's...." option. Hoo-fukking-ray....
It was then time for my band to take the stage. Having already been thoroughly pissed off at the circumstances surrounding the gig and being somewhat bemused at the amount
of "Emo / Hardcore" people there I decided to let the insults fly. Being born and raised in Australia I do all my stage banter in English. That being said you'll be amazed to find out how little English German hardcore kids actually understand. Say "Raise your Fist" or "Unity" and you'll get very loud response but tell them "Your mother sucks goats for crack, you bitches" and you just get puzzled stares. Well at least I had my fun.
After another Metalcore band and a Death Metal band the evening was finally over. We all packed up our gear and went to collect our earnings for the night. A whopping 15! It was the perfect end to the night. To top it all off someone had destroyed the toilet, leaving it smashed to pieces.
The Moral of the story is ALWAYS research the venue and Booking Agent before agreeing to do anything!!!
Insult + Injury = Tarantula Kult Club.
Beware!!!
Two days before the gig was scheduled to take place the "Booking Agent" sent an email saying that "Health Reasons" prevented him from attending the show. I believe this was more of preventative move as quite a few guys from the other bands were quite ready to add any "health problems" the Booker have have had.
After arriving at the quite hard to find "Tarantula Kult Club" (driving through the red light district, much to the bemusement of my band mates) we loaded our gear out of the car to the backstage area. As we came in the "Sound Check" just finished. I then sought out the rather disinterested Sound guy to tell him of my bands requirements (We would find out why he was so disinterested later). I found out that only the Vox, Snare and Kick (and in our care FX Backing tracks) were going to picked up by the PA. There were also no Monitors. OK, it was rough but nothing we can't handle.
The sound guy then informed us that he was just going out to get a bite to eat and that he would be back in 30 minutes. An hour later, gig kick off time, he's still not there. One of the bar staff managed to call him. "He's at a concert and isn't coming back" PRICK!!! The only guys that could operate the desk were Myself and the guitarist from one of the other bands. We though "This is a fukked situation but if the sound guy set the desk up alright before he left than we shouldn't have any problems". How wrong we were. Feedback and fukked up distortion were apparently the sound guys idea of good sound. We tried to fix it but to very little effect. Apparently the house PA could do either "Barely audible shitty sound" or "Screaming through Bell's first telephone cranked on 11 + extreme feedback slightly audible shitty sound". We chose the first option, you could hardly hear the singers but at least your ears were spared from feedback.
Between the end of the 2nd band and 3rd band's (my band) sets
the club owner arrived. I promptly informed him of the current situation in which he gave the apathetic reply of "eh". After much berating he agreed to do the sound for the rest of the bands. He choose the "Screaming through Bell's...." option. Hoo-fukking-ray....
It was then time for my band to take the stage. Having already been thoroughly pissed off at the circumstances surrounding the gig and being somewhat bemused at the amount
of "Emo / Hardcore" people there I decided to let the insults fly. Being born and raised in Australia I do all my stage banter in English. That being said you'll be amazed to find out how little English German hardcore kids actually understand. Say "Raise your Fist" or "Unity" and you'll get very loud response but tell them "Your mother sucks goats for crack, you bitches" and you just get puzzled stares. Well at least I had my fun.
After another Metalcore band and a Death Metal band the evening was finally over. We all packed up our gear and went to collect our earnings for the night. A whopping 15! It was the perfect end to the night. To top it all off someone had destroyed the toilet, leaving it smashed to pieces.
The Moral of the story is ALWAYS research the venue and Booking Agent before agreeing to do anything!!!
Insult + Injury = Tarantula Kult Club.
Beware!!!
