Thankfully, my first gig was not a paying gig (Does that mean it's a gig or am I misusing the word?). It was an open stage two nights ago at a bar I've never been to before outside Pittsburgh. It was the first gig for me and the drummer, the guitarist has been in a few bands before so it helped to have some experience with us. Anyway, we followed a solo acoustic act (which I thought was pretty good) and we were doing soundcheck. Which is when things turned sucky.

I had one bass (Mistake #1), my 1995 Modulus Q5 Fretless. When I plugged in to the PA, it sounded horrible, distorted with low output that would cut off after a second or two. When I plugged it in to my amp, same result. This caught me completely offguard, as we rehearsed at the apartment prior to and the bass sounded amazing like it always does. I had no idea what caused my bass to do this, we guessed it was the battery, but I had no screwdriver to open the cavity with (Mistake #2).

Then I said I would sit out due to technical difficulties (Epic Mistake IMHO). My band was cool with it and was supportive after the show, but frankly I know in retrospect I should have stayed on that stage. Even though I sounded like something dying, I bet the audience would have hardly noticed (The soundcheck guys didn't notice anything until I pointed it out). I feel I let the band and the audience down, as I distracted attention from the music straight to myself. Of course, when we got back to the apartment I checked the battery, plugged it in and the bass worked. As John Wooden once said, failure to prepare is preparing to fail >_>

Anyways, I wanted to bring tell you guys this so I could ask two questions:
Any idea what can cause a bass with active pickups to act like that? It was cold outside and it was a 30-40 minute trip if that factors in.
Any advice on future gig failures from those who have experience?

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I traded my car in for a microphone.

Gigs fails are just part of life. If you gig, they happen. My worst was probably on the first night of SXSW in Austin last March. It was probably the whole band's worst ever, honestly. We had just driven there from Houston and half of the band went on to the cabin they were staying in while the bass player and I headed straight for the venue. It was a stinky (literally) dive bar off of 6th and the stage was upstairs. No one was there except the other two bands as we watching thousands of people pass by through the window facing 6th Street. They said they would provide a backline, they didn't. The rest of the band was late getting there. The drummer forgot his sticks in Houston and had to buy a pair off one of the other band's drummers. The singer forgot to bring a tuner and her guitar kept going out of tune mid-song. My guitar fell about five feet onto the wood and metal floor from a booth because the cushion wasn't glued down and I had forgotten to bring a stand. We all played terribly, we even stopped half way through one of the songs, which had never happened before live and has never happened since.

That night while everyone else was out checking out the other bands I drove back to my motel room and practiced my butt off. The next morning I stopped by Guitar Center and bought a rack guitar stand, a tuner, and drumsticks. That evening (even though no one showed up but one of my friends and his girlfriend) we played what has probably been one of our best shows to date. So sometimes those horrendous gigs teach you import lessons that you won't have to repeat to learn. Now I never leave without a guitar stand, I always have an extra tuner in my gig bag, and I never trust the people that tell us they'll provide a backline. I'm willing to guess that now you'll always carry and extra bass, extra batteries, and a screwdriver in your gig bag so you won't have to relive that experience again.

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Website: http://www.rebeccalaird.com
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Hopefully a "lesson learned" my friend. I hope it's just the battery in your acitve electronics. Whenever you gig:

Always have a backup instrument (if you own one)
Always have extra batteries (for everything in your rig that requires them)
Always have extra strings
Always have a leatherman tool (or a selection of screwdrivers, pliers, wirecutters etc)
Always have extra cables
Always have super glue and duct tape
Always have Tums, Tylenol, and Immodium
I carry a set of tubes too
I even carry a soldering iron and solder, I've been told that's "over the top" but I've actually needed it to do a quick fix on a guitar input jack (not mine thankfully).

If you're ready for anything it probably won't happen. If you don't have something THAT'S what you're gonna need.

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"Life is like eating jalapenos. What you do today may burn your arse tomorrow"

mthornoo is right on. Any infantryman will tell you: One is really none and two is really one. If it can break, malfunction, walk away, or burst into flame, it will. Have a back up and have it with you.

Everytime something goes bad, you learn from it. Just remember the lesson.

Lastly, look forward to the gig from hell. When I used to be a paramedic, many of my calls were pretty high stress clusterf**ks. On the other hand, after getting shot at while trying to deliver a baby, the rest of my calls didn't seem quite so stressful. How well one learns to function under sucky conditions often dictates how well the rest of the gig goes. Often, there is opportunity lurking nearby.

Peace

mj

We played a good show and the crowd wanted more so the drummer gets the idea to start playing songs we had never rehearsed. I tried to play along but it went down hill fast. I don't think anybody was in the same key. I managed to make my way to the curtain and stand behind it. It was a shame to finish a good show with such an epic fail.

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My ability to spell is in direct proportion to the amount of coffee I've had.

Haven't a battery fail on me at a gig but have had it happened to me at practice twice. Luckily, Music Man basses have a battery case that is easy to access so I was able to replace the battery. So, as everyone has said, carry spares of everything.
But, I have had the experience of playing a song at a gig, which I had not rehearsed before. The guitar player would just call out something then she would start playing. Her husband (the drummer) just shook his head and hoped for the best. Needless to say, I bombed. Then, there was the time, where the guitar player started a song in the wrong key (put on the capo for the key of F). The other guitar player and I were looking at each other, trying to figure out who was off. Then, we looked at the singer's guitar...no capo.
In the end, things do go wrong...just make sure that you are ready to deal with them.

This is a great quote, absolutely wish I could take credit for it...

"Any infantryman will tell you: One is really none and two is really one. If it can break, malfunction, walk away, or burst into flame, it will. Have a back up and have it with you."

I played for over 12 years with only one bass, not only taking one but actually only owning one. Shameless plug, it was my 78 Musicmaster!

Anyway, after all that time I had 3 times over the course of the years where the neck would "tweak" out and one of the 4 strings would be useless /dead. So now I have two other basses that I gig with and my original Musicmaster is retired to home use. But over 20 years of playing has taught me to color code cables and the associated jacks on the speakers amps, have spares of all cords and double check EVERYTHING since the rest of my bandmates are about as handy as the Three Stooges when it comes to the PA or running it.

Learn from it, laugh from it, don't let it kill you and you'll be more ready the next time things go south on you.

The first time I played in public in a band was a disaster-we weren't prepared--we played two songs, and my mind blanked on one of them.
We didn't start or stop in time, or stay in time during the songs.
The stage set up meant the drummer couldn't hear us properly.

Lots of little & big things, so we sucked--but we took responsibility for it.

Just before we were to start the strap knob on my guitar went flying--as I was practicing the chord changes I was able to catch the neck--so it didn't fall, but the strap knob disappeared, and two of my strings broke.

Fortunately I was able to borrow a guitar to play.
(An SG Custom- but that was the only thing that went well.)

So be prepared for anything, as far as possible.

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It wasn't Willy-Nilly, it was at crows.

Suck it up.

That and, in this opinion, passive electronics are 5,814 times more reliable than active. Maybe play a "real" bass rather than a battery-driven one until you get really used to gigging.

(Church bassist, 267 Masses and services, who knows how many practices? Primary ultra-relaible bass: Ibanez 1980 Thunderbird IV clone-oid. Others used, Line 6 VB700 and Fender Precision.)

Everyone has bad gigs.

The 1st gig I ever played was in a band called TONGUE. Yeah, I know.... I was at college.
Anyway, we took the stage, the singer screamed "ARE YOU READY FOR SOME F-ing TONGUE?" and as we burst into our first song.... nothing. The power was off.

Recently I played an acoustic gig to the general public at a busy town event. Within the first 3 songs I had busted 2 strings... on the same song. They were brand new and all that; it was just VERY bad luck. That sucked but you pick up the pieces and carry on with the show.
Really, it's only ever a big deal to you and with a charismatic frontman/woman, you can get away with murder!
We had some bookings after that show and the funny thing is that sometimes when you think you or the the band were really bad.... the audience love you!
"Thank you for your pity!"

Capo no biggy it happens. What bar Im always lookin for somewhere in the Pgh area to play around at.

My own rules for gigging,(well some of them):

#1 carry tools,batteries,extra cords,strings,etc. have a backup amp and guitar.
#2 make sure the tuner battery is good.
#3 get there early,make sure everyone is there.
#4 go through with it no matter what,(the show must go on).
#5 never stop in the middle of a song.
#6 always end the song at the same time.
#7 don't take many requests,if any at all.
#8 take a couple of breaks,for bathroom,and to let the drunks talk nonsense to each other and try to pickup the opposite sex.
#9 if the bar owner asks you to stop playing while they do something for the crowd,stop.
#10 if a fight,brawl,riot,killing,etc.,breaks out,keep playing...if it spills over into the stage,use whatever weapons are at hand to defend yourself and your gear.

My general rule of thumb is to take a well stocked tool kit and at least 2 of everything that you use.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

We were at Thirsty's in Allison Park. They usually have open stage every Thursday, I think at 8 to 11 or so unless there's a Pens game, then it starts at 9. The guitarist did an acoustic act Saturday at the Beer Hive by the Waterfront, I don't know the details as I had to go to my brother's college graduation. Both of those places I believe put up ads on Clist under the musicians tag.



All 3 of my basses have active electronics including my Precision (I was going to get a 62 reissue, but when I played that Am. Deluxe I couldn't resist). I've been looking at getting an upright bass (a real bass ) or a cello, but then I look at my bank account and what car I'm driving. I'd also have to deal with humidity instead of batteries. It'll happen though, one of these days >_>

To all other replyees I didn't quote for the sake of brevity, thanks for the advice and your experiences. I probably won't be packing a soldering iron (overkill IMHO, but overkill is underrated), but there will be spares of everything else. Still kills me that the bass worked after the gig was over, like it was cursed or something. I did buy it used

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I traded my car in for a microphone.

mthorn00 did a very good list. I would add having some fuses for everything the band has is a good way to go.