This Uncontrollable Catastrophe Shut Down the Entire Gig an Hour Early

On a recent gig, something out of the band’s control went terribly wrong and shut the entire show down an hour early. In all of our combined years of gigging, none of us on stage had ever had this happen to us before...

This was a typical Friday-night, 8-12 type of cover gig, and we were approaching the 11pm mark. The club was getting busy, and the dance floor was getting crowded. It was almost time for the final set - the set with all the upbeat top 40 hits everybody loves - to finish off the evening. A few of us in the band were hanging out at the back door to the venue, chatting with one of the bouncers as our set break wound down.

To our surprise, it was pouring down rain outside. Looking out across the parking deck you could see a blinding wall of rain coming down out on the street. “I hope this doesn’t keep folks away tonight,” worried the bouncer. “We’re coming up on what’s usually our busiest time of night.” The wind started to pick up a little, and we noticed the rain was actually going sideways. We were safe inside this giant concrete building connected with this cavernous parking deck, so we weren’t worried ourselves.... But one of the guys in the band asked the question I think we all started thinking:

“Have you guys ever had the power go out here?”

“Nah,” the bouncer replied. “I don’t think it’s ever happened, and we’ve got a backup system that keeps things running anyway.” Assured that power would keep running as usual, we meandered back in to get ready for the last set.

Right as I sat down at my kit, the lights flickered a little. Then flickered some more. Then everything went black as the bluish-white emergency flood lights came on around the building. It felt like I was instantly in the Upside-Down. If you’re a Stranger Things fan, you know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s weird when the lighting in a large building instantly changes, and suddenly the whole environment feels like a different place. But after 5 or 6 seconds, everything came back on. The whole building lit up brightly, and the crowd cheered. Time to play some music.

By now all the musicians were on stage, plugging in, and getting ready to play. It looked like the lights were back on to stay, so we powered up all the equipment and counted off the first song of the “hype” set. A cover of Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” was going just fine until...

SILENCE.

Well - not really silence, since the drums kept going. The power was out again, the lights were off, and the entire band was silenced except for me. The bandleader turned around and motioned for me to keep playing, which I planned to do anyways. The show must go on! After all, the power was only out for a few seconds last time. I was excited for the epic moment when the power would come back on, the whole band would light up again, and the crowd would roar. I kept my 4-on-the-floor beat going, inserting a fill now and then. Folks kept dancing, and the party kept going. But after about a minute we realized the power wasn’t coming back on.

The bandleader motioned for me to stop, so I sadly ended my Daft Punk beats. The whole thing was hilarious at this point, because a bunch of people next to the stage were cheering for an encore. DRUM SOLO!! DRUM SOLO!! You-don’t-need-microphones-you’re-the-best-part-of-this-band-you-don’t-need-the-other-guys-keep-playing-don’t-stop!!!

People suddenly get excited about the drums when the drums are now the only thing they can hear.

We sat there in the darkness, looking around at each other wondering what was next. After waiting another couple minutes, we decided to take 5 and reconvene in a few minutes. Hopefully the power would kick back on and we could finish our set with a prevailing spirit of victory. The crowd will be thrilled.

5 minutes...10 minutes...15 minutes. No power.

The dance floor emptied out, and the crowds began to thin. A steady stream of patrons were heading for the exit. This was due to a new problem arising...

The building was starting to fill with smoke.

Evidently the kitchen maintained a wood fire for cooking food back behind the bar. This always smelled amazing, but now the entire building was starting to smell like a campfire. Normally a ventilation system would safely get the smoke out of the building, but without electricity....

At this point we knew we’d better get out of there. Management told us to pull the plug, and they decided to shut down the club before the smoke alarm and sprinklers made this evening worse for the musicians with expensive non-waterproof gear on stage. We packed up as fast as we could, and as far as I know the fire alarms never went off. Thankfully I had been able to park my car at a prime spot in the parking deck, and I was able to skip past the now crowded valet line and get out of there. Of course I headed out and hit the road only to find the chaos of a busy city operating with no traffic lights for several blocks. But I survived, made it home, and went to bed. What a night.

It’s funny how an ongoing theme of these gig stories is improvise, adapt, and overcome. Of course, I’m not at all trying to compare my gig situations to those faced by military personal who adhere to this motto. (I’ve heard of Marine units adopting this mantra.)

But I do believe there’s a lot of reason to follow this line of thinking in the music world. So much of being a musician is about being flexible and maintaining a positive attitude no matter what happens. Thankfully, the guys I was playing with that night totally understood that as well. Everybody was cool, and we all knew this was just part of the job sometimes. And actually when you put this in perspective, the venue was the party truly hurt by this event. We, the band, still got paid. The venue lost a lot of potential business by having to shut down early. Honestly we had no reason to complain anyway. Hey I got to go to bed early! You have to look at the bright side sometimes.

For me, any opportunity to get to play music with people is a blessing. And if I’m getting paid and getting to make a living doing this, that’s a huge blessing. Be thankful for ALL the opportunities, even when they don’t go like you expect.

God Bless,

Stephen