by DzM Tue Sep 28, 2010 12:24 am
Fr. McGreer wrote:Maybe your question should be "What's Your Worst Gig?"
Ahh. Well that's a different story then.
Without a doubt my worst gig was Fuji Rock Festival, 2005.
I spent however many Yen on a train ticket from Tokyo. Got to the event (where Foo Fighters were to play on the main stage). Spent the afternoon watching other bands (they were loud - very very loud) and getting rained on. The Pogues took the stage at 8:00(ish), but due to the train schedule and event shuttle schedule I had to leave at 8:30. I saw three songs, then had to listen to them fade into the distance as I trudged up the valley to the shuttle queue. Queued for forty-five minutes, then rode the shuttle for an hour. The shuttle let us off at the curb of the train station one minute (ONE MINUTE) before the last train to Tokyo was scheduled to leave and if you know anything about Japan's rail lines then you know they're fricken prompt. Everyone on the shuttle sprinted up the stairs and down long marble-walled and marble-floored corridors. While I was sprinting I heard from behind me I heard a horrible sound that the instinctive part of my brain registered as "very expensive." Skittering across the marble, somehow overtaking me, were various small parts from my (at the time) very expensive camera with a friend's loaned even more expensive lens still attached to the body. I scooped up the parts and shoved them into my camera bag (the zipper had worked loose during the sprint) and resumed the sprinting. I made it to the platform just in time to see the train's red lights rapidly accelerating out of the station.
So ... Another shuttle back to the event site. By the time we arrive it's 11:30pm (at least). The Pogues have LONG since finished their set. Foo Fighters have finished theirs. There's nowhere to stay. I spent the night wrapped tightly in my Dryzabone (well ... nearly spent the night - at first I huddled up at the back edge of the lawn where Foo Fighters had been, but after a half hour Security came by and woke me up. They spoke only one word of English - "No! No!" - and making the "X" symbol of two crossed forearms. So I relocated down to where the all-night DJs were spinning and slept under some bushes while listening to some terrible Hip Hop DJ MCing "When I say YO! you say HOOO!"). The next morning in the pre-dawn light I took another shuttle to the train, spent $60 for another train ticket, got back to my hotel, and slept for 20 hours.
For those who might be curious - the camera wanted $30 in parts and $550 for the labor to re-attach them. Fortunately the camera had padded the fall of the lens so my friends' Even More Expensive lens required no repair or replacement.
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Note: Edited for clarity and bad writing.[quote="Fr. McGreer"]Maybe your question should be "What's [i]Your[/i] Worst Gig?"[/quote]
Ahh. Well that's a different story then.
Without a doubt my worst gig was Fuji Rock Festival, 2005.
I spent however many Yen on a train ticket from Tokyo. Got to the event (where Foo Fighters were to play on the main stage). Spent the afternoon watching other bands (they were loud - very very loud) and getting rained on. The Pogues took the stage at 8:00(ish), but due to the train schedule and event shuttle schedule I had to leave at 8:30. I saw three songs, then had to listen to them fade into the distance as I trudged up the valley to the shuttle queue. Queued for forty-five minutes, then rode the shuttle for an hour. The shuttle let us off at the curb of the train station one minute (ONE MINUTE) before the last train to Tokyo was scheduled to leave and if you know anything about Japan's rail lines then you know they're fricken prompt. Everyone on the shuttle sprinted up the stairs and down long marble-walled and marble-floored corridors. While I was sprinting I heard from behind me I heard a horrible sound that the instinctive part of my brain registered as "very expensive." Skittering across the marble, somehow overtaking me, were various small parts from my (at the time) very expensive camera with a friend's loaned even more expensive lens still attached to the body. I scooped up the parts and shoved them into my camera bag (the zipper had worked loose during the sprint) and resumed the sprinting. I made it to the platform just in time to see the train's red lights rapidly accelerating out of the station.
So ... Another shuttle back to the event site. By the time we arrive it's 11:30pm (at least). The Pogues have LONG since finished their set. Foo Fighters have finished theirs. There's nowhere to stay. I spent the night wrapped tightly in my Dryzabone (well ... nearly spent the night - at first I huddled up at the back edge of the lawn where Foo Fighters had been, but after a half hour Security came by and woke me up. They spoke only one word of English - "No! No!" - and making the "X" symbol of two crossed forearms. So I relocated down to where the all-night DJs were spinning and slept under some bushes while listening to some terrible Hip Hop DJ MCing "When I say YO! you say HOOO!"). The next morning in the pre-dawn light I took another shuttle to the train, spent $60 for another train ticket, got back to my hotel, and slept for 20 hours.
For those who might be curious - the camera wanted $30 in parts and $550 for the labor to re-attach them. Fortunately the camera had padded the fall of the lens so my friends' Even More Expensive lens required no repair or replacement.
[size=85]
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Note: Edited for clarity and bad writing.[/size]
