worst gig ever. This is not a gig where a lot of shit happenned, but this is the worst gig in terms of preparations and how it turned out. Most of the people think that this event was successful, but in my eyes, seriously. This is effed up.
How big is the gig? MASSIVE. I'm talkin about national-record-making gig.
We were supposed to play lots of songs. That was what they told us. Days approaching the event, we've got additional details that made me wonder "why r u telling us this now?" until the day before the event we received information that we need to play 5 familiar songs, and extra 5-ish songs while the guests are eating. So we came up with 5 familiar songs, and guess what, 2 of my bandmates practiced half-assedly. No. Not even half. Less than a quarter ass!! Dammit. I wanted to kill them that instant. Granted the songs were damn easy. But even though they were easy, we always ended up playing them shittily!! No balance among the instruments (the way we play), messed up chords, and not to mention the "so-boring-i-want-to-kill-myself-for-fun" arrangements. My bandmates will prctice-till-perfect only at those part where they need to do solos or some syncopes.
That was the strawberry on my shortcake, but guess what, apparently the comittee wanted to give us free durian juice to go with it. They expected us to provide our own sound system. Okay. I felt like getting a brand new chainsaw.
Somehow the next day my friend managed to rent the sound system. Now, another problem: The setup.
You see, the sound system provider didn't even have extra jacks. Seriously. They have less than 5 jacks. The speaker is teeny tiny, and the fella didn't know how to operate things. The sound were messed up. Yes they had huge speakers but the engineer didn't have a clue. Oh! They didn't even have D.I boxes!!! Geez.
After hours of setup, the sound turned out less shitty.
We were supposed to play when the parade arrived. So there came this lady, apparently she's one of the comittee, grabbed the mic and started asking us to play some songs with her singing. So we played medley of songs we never even practiced. It went bad. Well I think I was the only one who noticed the awful mash up of chords and the rest didn't bother. Oh well. So we continued playing and during the event there were a lot of people came up to the stage to sing. So yeah. We played songs we didn't practice, didn't play most of the songs we practiced. We managed to play the remaining songs when the guests are eating.
The event ended like nothing happened, people were happy and satisfied. We even got compliments! My goodness. Something THAT horrible managed to get compliments? "You guys did well the other day!!" Seriously?
Wow. In turn I was ashamed because I know we can do better but we didn't! We didn't give our best! And I'm not satisfied. Honestly, I am NOT a perfectionist. You may think I am, but I'm not. If you see my other posts, there were a lot of unfortunate events, the sound got fudged up, etc but I was happy and satisfied with it because we gave our best! We've done our part! Even though we missed out some stuff, we noticed that after the events, learned our lesson and we know what to do next time!
I have left this town for 5 years and 2 months just to come back and see ZERO improvements. I mean, gosh, they have been to LOTS of gigs without me and NOTHING improved!!! I kid you not! Oh. Maybe I shouldn't say 'nothing' because some of them became a better show-off. True story.
Here's some lessons:
First: COMMUNICATION
Things didn't go well because we didn't receive complete informations about how things would be done. And when dealing with people from dog-eating place, one gotta chase their tails like there's no tomorrow. Ask them EVERY teeny tiny details every now and then. Or else, they'll give you a verrryyy last minute updates and info. Or nothing at all.
Second: INITIATIVE
Our youth leader is one of the commitee. I felt so damn guilty that I didn't ask him about things constantly. Well I asked, just not repeatedly that he would remember to give us the details. So you see, even though you're not the one in charge, you gotta find who is, and then make sure they don't miss out anything in the preparation. When people start to talk about you being so demanding, just don't give a damn. It's all for the event's success.
Seriously peeps, if you want an awesome outcome, then you gotta get on your Kardashian ass and work it!! When things turned south, it'll be less painful because you know you have done all you could and sometimes there are certain things that just can't be helped. Well at least that's how it works for me.
Hey OXY! See what I mean when I whatsapped you?
How big is the gig? MASSIVE. I'm talkin about national-record-making gig.
We were supposed to play lots of songs. That was what they told us. Days approaching the event, we've got additional details that made me wonder "why r u telling us this now?" until the day before the event we received information that we need to play 5 familiar songs, and extra 5-ish songs while the guests are eating. So we came up with 5 familiar songs, and guess what, 2 of my bandmates practiced half-assedly. No. Not even half. Less than a quarter ass!! Dammit. I wanted to kill them that instant. Granted the songs were damn easy. But even though they were easy, we always ended up playing them shittily!! No balance among the instruments (the way we play), messed up chords, and not to mention the "so-boring-i-want-to-kill-myself-for-fun" arrangements. My bandmates will prctice-till-perfect only at those part where they need to do solos or some syncopes.
That was the strawberry on my shortcake, but guess what, apparently the comittee wanted to give us free durian juice to go with it. They expected us to provide our own sound system. Okay. I felt like getting a brand new chainsaw.
Somehow the next day my friend managed to rent the sound system. Now, another problem: The setup.
You see, the sound system provider didn't even have extra jacks. Seriously. They have less than 5 jacks. The speaker is teeny tiny, and the fella didn't know how to operate things. The sound were messed up. Yes they had huge speakers but the engineer didn't have a clue. Oh! They didn't even have D.I boxes!!! Geez.
After hours of setup, the sound turned out less shitty.
We were supposed to play when the parade arrived. So there came this lady, apparently she's one of the comittee, grabbed the mic and started asking us to play some songs with her singing. So we played medley of songs we never even practiced. It went bad. Well I think I was the only one who noticed the awful mash up of chords and the rest didn't bother. Oh well. So we continued playing and during the event there were a lot of people came up to the stage to sing. So yeah. We played songs we didn't practice, didn't play most of the songs we practiced. We managed to play the remaining songs when the guests are eating.
The event ended like nothing happened, people were happy and satisfied. We even got compliments! My goodness. Something THAT horrible managed to get compliments? "You guys did well the other day!!" Seriously?
Wow. In turn I was ashamed because I know we can do better but we didn't! We didn't give our best! And I'm not satisfied. Honestly, I am NOT a perfectionist. You may think I am, but I'm not. If you see my other posts, there were a lot of unfortunate events, the sound got fudged up, etc but I was happy and satisfied with it because we gave our best! We've done our part! Even though we missed out some stuff, we noticed that after the events, learned our lesson and we know what to do next time!
I have left this town for 5 years and 2 months just to come back and see ZERO improvements. I mean, gosh, they have been to LOTS of gigs without me and NOTHING improved!!! I kid you not! Oh. Maybe I shouldn't say 'nothing' because some of them became a better show-off. True story.
Here's some lessons:
First: COMMUNICATION
Things didn't go well because we didn't receive complete informations about how things would be done. And when dealing with people from dog-eating place, one gotta chase their tails like there's no tomorrow. Ask them EVERY teeny tiny details every now and then. Or else, they'll give you a verrryyy last minute updates and info. Or nothing at all.
Second: INITIATIVE
Our youth leader is one of the commitee. I felt so damn guilty that I didn't ask him about things constantly. Well I asked, just not repeatedly that he would remember to give us the details. So you see, even though you're not the one in charge, you gotta find who is, and then make sure they don't miss out anything in the preparation. When people start to talk about you being so demanding, just don't give a damn. It's all for the event's success.
Seriously peeps, if you want an awesome outcome, then you gotta get on your Kardashian ass and work it!! When things turned south, it'll be less painful because you know you have done all you could and sometimes there are certain things that just can't be helped. Well at least that's how it works for me.
Hey OXY! See what I mean when I whatsapped you?
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