As you may or may not know, I played a concert at the Viaduct Theater in Chicago this past Saturday. Well, Sunday. The concert was supposed to be Saturday, and while I've come to expect things to go wrong with any concert I play and will ever play ever, I didn't expect things to go this wrong.
First and foremost, Chris Whatever/Irrelevant from Lost Horizon was supposed to bring a PA system. This concert was going to have two stages, five bands per stage, and it was supposed to be done around 1 in the morning (which means close to 2 if it's a good night). However, the guy never brought the PA. He didn't even show up at all. So the secondary leaders decided to cut all set times (save for the heading nu-metal band (seriously, nu-metal hasn't been "cool" for 10+ years and it hasn't been good, well, I mean, a couple bands were able to do it well ever in my opinion)). So what they decided to do was put Strongman and ESM AFTER said heading nu-metal band. That's just a good idea. So, the other bands played. Most of them were good. However, we were on band 4 of 9 at quarter to midnight. El Diablo, the headliners, went on at I don't even remember what time, but they didn't finish until sometime between 2:30 and 3 in the morning. SO, ESM went on at around 3. To complicate things further, there were technical difficulties regarding backing tracks and the PA, so we played the set all on real instruments, switching instruments once, and it was the best worst thing ever. I played guitar for a song and drummed four. THEN, I drummed/did lead vocals for Strongman immediately after (but not before stripping to my boxers and pouring a cup of cold water down my body). How I didn't die, I'm not entirely sure.
To sum things up, it was the best worst concert ever. We played at 3 in the morning, we were angry enough for it to be pretty much our best performances to this point in time, and I wish I had the kind of money to just book myself places because I have yet to really work with someone truly competent enough to do anything all the way right.