Last Night's Gig, the best/worst ever

[bitflipper]

Getting old sucks. Yeh, you have the benefit of experience and the ability to keep things in perspective. But damn, sometimes it hurts.

Earlier in the week I injured my back. I was taking a PA speaker down from a stand, packing up  for Saturday night's gig. Tripped. My only thought was "save the speaker". Which I did. It never hit the floor. But in making the save I performed a move that only a pro gymnast should ever attempt, a twist like a shot putter winding up, landing on the floor with the speaker on my chest. I felt a distinct ripping sensation in my back while I was going down. In breaking my fall I landed on my left hand, the one with the gimp finger that can't straighten without excruciating pain. Next morning, I couldn't walk.

I really didn't know if I'd be able to stand up and play, but I have never cancelled a gig. I have played with the flu. I have played the same week after having surgery. I have played on pain killers that made the room spin. But I've never not shown up for a gig.

Fortunately my bandmates helped me move the gear, and I set up close to a wall and was able to lean against it. Not the best posture for blazing solos, but it worked. We've been playing a lot of early gigs over the past year, like 6 to 9. I love getting to bed before midnight. But last night's gig was 9 to 12. The last song, a rocker that I sing,  took every ounce of energy I could muster and I was fully drained at the end. 

Fell into bed around 2:00 AM. Slept poorly. I dreamt I was in hospital after a car accident, woke up and thought "oh no, it wasn't a dream, it's real!" It wasn't, but it felt like it. Today I am shuffling around like I'm 100 years old and nodding off in a stupor from lack of sleep. It'll get better.

But how was the gig? I am reminded of the one-liner my Dad used to say: "Aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?"

It was a great gig. Packed house, enthusiastic audience, got as much in tips as the paycheck. The band was firing on all cylinders, tight and punchy. I was reminded of why I keep doing it.

[Bapu]

Bad News/ Good News

The back is shit but you woke up on top of the dirt.

[bitflipper]

Yup, what doesn't kill you...

[PhonoBrainer]

Who will invent the hydraulic speaker stands that lower to a convenient speaker removal height?

@BostonDynamics might as well make them sentient

[craigb]

[Grem]

Damn bit, sorry to hear of your struggles. Glad the gig was great. Yep that makes it worth it... maybe!

Working in the house on the step ladder, coming down I missed a step and never thought nothing of it. But the next day I felt something in my back, nothing bad. Until I went to pick up my left leg to get.out the car. Oh dat hurt. Went to work and had to take BC powder to make ut through and Advil PM at night.

I just don't feel this old. My body keeps arguing with me. I think I am gonna let it win this one.

Edited January 16, 2023 by Grem

[Shane_B.]

Being the tallest by far in the bands I was in (6'3") I always got stuck with speaker hauling and setup duty. And amp hauling duty. It's amazing how all the guys I played with had bad backs. Hah. To be fair though I started at 13 and played till I was 29 and all the guys I played with were hugging 40 when I started. I didn't mind and I'm lucky I never got hurt.

Hope you heal up soon. Glad you didn't miss the gig.

 

[Bajan Blue]

Hi Bit - I feel for you and hope you get on the mend soon - I have a chronic bad back and know all too well how debilitating back pain is

Get well soon

Nigel

 

[Rain]

I hear you. Hopefully, that's nothing that will stay with you

I injured my back carrying a Marshall combo form the rehearsal space in February 1989. Slope + icy sidewalk + precious (rented) cargo on my right shoulder. Slipped but I managed to avoir any damage to the amp. My back though... I was stuck in bed for days afterwards. And I've had back problems pretty much ever since, although that's probably just one of the reasons. I blame my Bobby Orr-grade knees for most of my hips, back and neck issues. These things are like dominoes.

Oddly enough, I ended up buying the exact same amp from a frind of a friend a few years later. My first decent amp. Transistor but it actually sounded very good (from what I remember).  That one I eventually had to haul around in for hours in Montreal going from pawnshop to pawnshop when my first wife and I hit a rough patch. I always regretted it. And they gave me $50 for it because the knobs were dirty - something I could have fixed in a minute with a can of air. But we needed to eat.

It was one of these.

 

Edited January 16, 2023 by Rain

[whoisp]

Could of been worse, gig could have been cancelled 

[Xoo]

And I thought my worst gig ever was bad...at least no-one got injured (not for want of trying :-)).  Fingers crossed you're back on your feet soon.

[craigb]

1 hour ago, whoisp said:

Could of been worse, gig could have been cancelled 

Or someone could have spilled their beer all over the gear and ruined it (seen this one!).

[Notes_Norton]

You played the gig. The sign of a real trooper. The show must go on.

I hope your injury heals quickly and completely.

And I'm glad you saved the speaker. Save the gear always comes first, doesn't it.

And I understand about the speaker. Ours are almost 40 pounds each. I lift, and Mrs. Notes helps to get the pole in the hole. (That sounds suggestive, doesn't it?)  Well, playing music is our second favorite thing to do.

Notes ♫

 

[mark skinner]

                                i fell off the wagon 

[Michael Richards]

23 hours ago, bitflipper said:

Getting old sucks. Yeh, you have the benefit of experience and the ability to keep things in perspective. But damn, sometimes it hurts.

Earlier in the week I injured my back. I was taking a PA speaker down from a stand, packing up  for Saturday night's gig. Tripped. My only thought was "save the speaker". Which I did. It never hit the floor. But in making the save I performed a move that only a pro gymnast should ever attempt, a twist like a shot putter winding up, landing on the floor with the speaker on my chest. I felt a distinct ripping sensation in my back while I was going down. In breaking my fall I landed on my left hand, the one with the gimp finger that can't straighten without excruciating pain. Next morning, I couldn't walk.

I really didn't know if I'd be able to stand up and play, but I have never cancelled a gig. I have played with the flu. I have played the same week after having surgery. I have played on pain killers that made the room spin. But I've never not shown up for a gig.

Fortunately my bandmates helped me move the gear, and I set up close to a wall and was able to lean against it. Not the best posture for blazing solos, but it worked. We've been playing a lot of early gigs over the past year, like 6 to 9. I love getting to bed before midnight. But last night's gig was 9 to 12. The last song, a rocker that I sing,  took every ounce of energy I could muster and I was fully drained at the end. 

Fell into bed around 2:00 AM. Slept poorly. I dreamt I was in hospital after a car accident, woke up and thought "oh no, it wasn't a dream, it's real!" It wasn't, but it felt like it. Today I am shuffling around like I'm 100 years old and nodding off in a stupor from lack of sleep. It'll get better.

But how was the gig? I am reminded of the one-liner my Dad used to say: "Aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?"

It was a great gig. Packed house, enthusiastic audience, got as much in tips as the paycheck. The band was firing on all cylinders, tight and punchy. I was reminded of why I keep doing it.

I was a 5 night a week musician for years. I used to run a stereo guitar rig that included a Fender Dual Showman Reverb amp with a 2x15 cabinet. My back is shot and I need multiple epidurals every year and still can't walk around a NYC block. Two years ago I had 3 disks in my neck replaced. A god awful surgery. Don't have it unless it is life or death, as it was in my case. I still need another one, my left hand can't get around a guitar neck. What a mess. Yet, I write and record much more. Good at the music writing, still bad at the mixing and mastering.

I once played for a week with pneumonia. I was young and stupid, but the music was good.

Michael

[57Gregy]

The army has a vehicle that can carry a squad's gear and follow them wherever they go on foot, stopping and starting when the troops do.
I saw a baby carriage (pram) on the news last week that will follow the parents, stopping and starting as they go.  I would never use one of those, but I'm sure many parents will.
I imagine a speaker that, when the gig is done, you just press a button and it rolls itself out to the van and loads itself in it. Like R2D2.
 

[bitflipper]

3 minutes ago, 57Gregy said:

I imagine a speaker that, when the gig is done, you just press a button and it rolls itself out to the van and loads itself in it. Like R2D2.

Oh, wouldn't that be sweet. It would have to be able to climb stairs, though. And rough terrain. I'm thinking about the outdoor gigs I've done where we had to lug everything across grass and gravel.

This was the best single investment I've ever made. Get the one with the 8" wheels on the front and 10" wheels on the back. It'll roll over everything. Well, almost everything. I didn't see a pothole once and dumped all my gear onto the street.

2 hours ago, Notes_Norton said:

And I understand about the speaker. Ours are almost 40 pounds each. I lift, and Mrs. Notes helps to get the pole in the hole.

Yeh, but you're probably old enough to remember when PA speakers required two people just to lift them out of the truck. And you'd probably have 4 or more of them. I had bi-amped PA cabs in the 70's with separate tweeters, and those tweeters alone weighed 50 lbs each.  They had separate passive crossovers, also heavy, and a massive amplifier. 

Today, my little QSCs are only 32 lbs each. I never thought that their light weight might actually make them more dangerous, because if they'd weighed 100 lbs I wouldn't have been lifting them by myself.

10 hours ago, Rain said:

And I've had back problems pretty much ever since,

And there's the warning for younger folks who still think they're invincible. Back problems tend to never go away. I had my initial injury at age 30. Like you, it laid me up for a week where I couldn't walk. I foolishly assumed that would be the end of it. But back issues have continued to plague me ever since.

17 hours ago, Shane_B. said:

Being the tallest by far in the bands I was in (6'3") I always got stuck with speaker hauling and setup duty.

I'm sure you're familiar with the Code of Tall Guys, which says that while it's impolite to volunteer to reach something for someone, you can never deny a request.

My band's tall guy is also the youngest member at 28, so double the expectations. I try to be appreciative and not holler "hey, tall kid!" when I need to drape a speaker cable on a high nail. I like the kid so much that I will actually pretend to listen when he's complaining about his current girlfriend of the week being an insufferable PIA.

[Gswitz]

Sorry about your back!

[Notes_Norton]

On 1/16/2023 at 1:21 PM, bitflipper said:

<...snip...>

Yeh, but you're probably old enough to remember when PA speakers required two people just to lift them out of the truck. And you'd probably have 4 or more of them. I had bi-amped PA cabs in the 70's with separate tweeters, and those tweeters alone weighed 50 lbs each.  They had separate passive crossovers, also heavy, and a massive amplifier.

<...snip...>

I remember those huge "Voice Of The Theater" cabinets, 1/2" plywood monsters with one speaker in the middle and a huge horn on top. I also remember helping to haul a B3 organ up a flight of stairs. I think they were over 400 pounds.

In my youth, I was a sax player in the band, so all I had was a tenor sax, an alto sax, and a flute. That meant I was free to help everyone else with the heavy equipment.

Now I'm in a duo with my wife, who certainly does her share of the schlepping, but being the male, the stronger of the two, and wanting to keep my faux-macho image, I lift all the heaviest gear.

I also play guitar, wind synth and sing on the job, and because I also play bass, drums, and keyboard synth, I make our backing tracks. I used to bring another 10 space rack full of synth modules for my backing tracks, but I leave that at home now and record the tracks and bring the recordings on a computer. I schlep a spare for that too.

A couple of years ago, I had my back x-rayed, and a world-famous orthopedic surgeon said my back is surprisingly good shape for a man of my age. Just lucky, I guess. He said there was some wear at the base of my neck, and that's where the sax strap hangs.

Playing the same instrument for years does affect one's body. The fingers on my right hand are curved a little to the right, an effect of reaching for the keys on the tenor sax all these years.

In the end, the back problem was just a pulled muscle, and continuing to lift the gear made it slow to heal. But I had no choice, Mrs. Notes helped as much as she could, but she weighs only around 110 pounds.

My EV ZLX-15P active speakers are 38 pounds each (I just looked them up). I used to have Carvin passive speakers, but gaining a pound or so on the active class D amplifiers in the speaker cabinet, let me leave home a heavy QSC power amplifier. The Carvins sounded good, the EVs sound even better.

The good thing about having active speakers, is if one amp goes down, I still have one working speaker and the show goes on. And yes, I have a couple of spares.

I lift the speakers (with my legs, not my back) to about 4 feet, and Mrs. Notes guides the speaker hole over the pole. There is a crank on the stand to get it higher than that.

The 10 space rack with mixer, fx, and synth modules is probably heavier than the speakers, but I can lean it against the van's side door, lift from the bottom and slide it in so I never get the full weight on my back. The rack has wheels.

We're gigging on the average 18 gigs per month since covid restrictions ended in January 2022, and each gig is a set-up and tear-down, so I don't need a gym membership to stay in shape. I call it "Speakercise". :D

I have been gigging for a long time, it's what I do for a living. Sick or well, good conditions or bad, so far, I have never missed a downbeat - never been late or missed a gig. I'm a "the show must go on" kind of guy. I'm old enough to retire, but I love playing music to an appreciative audience. I have no intentions of quitting as long as I can get an audience.

 

Insights and incites by Notes ♫

[bitflipper]

"Speakercise". I'm going to use that.

18 gigs a month. Cheese und crackers, I can't imagine doing that now, at my age. When I was 25, playing 6 nights a week for 50 weeks a year wasn't a big deal at all. Finishing a gig and jumping into the van for a 10-hour drive to the next one was normal. Red Hot Beef 'N Bean burritos from a truckstop microwave at 4:00 AM, delicious. Now, I play out at most 4 times a month and even that's pretty draining. But it beats going to a gym.

14 hours ago, Notes_Norton said:

I'm old enough to retire, but I love playing music to an appreciative audience. I have no intentions of quitting as long as I can get an audience.

You and me both, brother.

Except I'd still do it with or without an audience. A month after my wife died, I played New Year's Eve at an Elks lodge to a dozen morose old men sitting at the bar staring vacantly into their beers. It should have been depressing, but staying at home in a big silent house watching fireworks on TV - that would have been way more pathetic. Life with a little music in it is always a little bit better.