the worst band we have ever played with is seeley. about 8 years ago at the middle east in cambridge ma. first they complain about the order of the bands and get it changed. then they complain about the free food. then, when the opening band's guitar amp blows up during sound check they demand all of their drink tickets for use of an amp. total fucking ass holes.

i would say that most other bands we have played with have been great.

as for the borrowing of gear, we share drum kits all the time but check with the other bands prior to the show. we've recently been playing some shows with the chris brokaw rock band (super great guys) i think they have used our kit twice and we have used thier kit twice. i am fine with lending my gear out but just email me about it first.

-e

We played Summerfest a few years back at the Miller Oasis opening for Monovox and Default. The bass player in Default was sound checking his wall of Peavey cabinets when this happened:

Dan (me): Wow! you have alot of cabinets! Are they all hooked up? That wall makes my cabinet look so small!

Seriously there were like 24 cabinets all 4x10" stacked up in 2's, and I used (and still do) an SWR goliath Sr. (6x10's)

Default: Well, yeah they are. You need all of them when your on tour.

Dan: Thats cool. I still think that your stuff dwarves me little amp!

Default: Fuck you, okay? Your shit sucks anyways. Fuck off, now.

At that point, a friend of ours overheard all this and said:

Darrin: What did you say?

Default: Who's talking to you, faggot? (To me) Is this your bitch?

Dan: ummm no.... your GIRL is! (SNAP!!)

At this point, Darrin ran up to this dude and punched him right square in the jaw, blood and all. I got the rest of my stuff, and got the FUCK out of there as fast as humanly possible. The security guys caught Darrin and he went to jail for a night. Man, that was fucked up. This all happened in front of a huge crowd! Crazy.

Nicest? Exo was seriously cool to us. Noel is like a brother to me and the boys, and the whole band were very respectable. The guys in Mudhoney are nice too. All they wanted to do was drink. We drank, and drank..... you get the picture.

Before I forget, I can't remember the name of the band, but they were a new band. The guitar player walked around all night during our set and the band after us's set as well, with a walkman thing that you plug your guitar into and practice playing along to all your favourite music, with headphones on. I thought that that was a little ridiculous. And one other time, we played at the New Moon Coffeehouse in Oshkosh, WI, and the bass player of the band that was opening that night walked in and said:

Dude: Hey. I'm using your amp.

Dan: Huh? You need to use my amp?

Dude: Yeah. How do I turn it on?

Dan: You don't. Where is your amp?

He showed me this little Fender something or another combo with 1x15" in it. He said that it wasn't able to keep up with the other guys amps.

I then took all of my stuff down, put back into the van, and brought it in only to use it myself. Dude asked where it was when he was francitally trying to set up. I told him that it "wasnt in the mood," and "amp said that he needed a rest from last night. He was a little hungover..."

That was that. This is this.

Tom wrote:We played with a band at Nyabinghi in Youngstown . . .

Not to be a nit but . . . isn't Nyabinghi in Morgantown WV? Perhaps there are two Nyhabinghi's?

It used to be, but it(the owner) moved a couple years back.

DrAwkward wrote:Both of those bands would have gotten along famously with Missoula's "The Original Booty Burglars."

As horribly white-boy-frat-funk these guys were, we wondered how bad the other "Booty Burglars" who prompted these guys to add the "Original" to their name were.

We played with this band in Portland. It blew my mind that people would actually want to play this kind of music. They weren't very friendly either, but that may have had somthing to do with the fact that Horsewhip lineup 3.1 stood silent during their set mouthing "what the fuck?" to each other.

chrissummerlin wrote:Nicest bands:

Fucking Champs this last time round. All totally cool guys and really helpful, no probs about loaning gear, they even helped me fix mine.

The Fucking Champs kicked us off of a show we were going to play with them about 72 hours beforehand. There were "too many" bands (4) on the bill. Which I could understand had they not brought other bands on tour with them. Whatever.

Also, Andrew WK didn't even introduce himself to any of the opening bands when we played with him. Which would be fine if he wasn't, y'know, Andrew WK.

Bradley R. Weissenberger wrote:By the way, and as noted on the band's website, Ekoostok Hookah apparently is "on a break". Note to bands: please don't tell me that you are on a break. You are either still together (and I can anticipate/dread future shows and records from you at some point) or you have broken up.

"On a break" is a great example of band hubris. "Hey! We're not doing anything at all! This is what we're telling you, so make note of it! Pay attention to the fact that we are doing nothing at all!"

Seriously, bands. Go right ahead and crow about your great review in the Daily Spartan. Tell me how you slayed in Kalamazoo. Send an unrequested e-mail to me about your gig at the upcoming "Jamaican Me Crazy" party at the Delta Sig house. Post an mp3 to your website of your ten-minute version of Big Mountain's version of UB40's version of Peter Frampton's version of "Baby I Love Your Way".

Do all of these things. Have fun with them. Enjoy your little corner of the musical world.

But skip the "on a break" nonsense.

Seriously. Fuck you, "on a break" bands.

Bradley, "on a break" is code for "No, we don't want any MySpace messages from your stupid fucking band asking us to set up a show for you." It's the only way we can get the My Chemical Romance-abees to leave us alone.

Damn, a band I played in were once booked at Summerfest in 1994. We were given a case of Budweiser, $650, and an air conditioned trailer. We were supposed to play 2 sets, yet we only had 45 minutes. We played our set twice with a 10 minute break. Afterwards some teenage girl asked me for my autograph, I said "wow, this is the first time this has ever happened to me." She said, "don't take it so seriously." Classic...

horsewhip wrote:We played with this band in Portland. It blew my mind that people would actually want to play this kind of music. They weren't very friendly either, but that may have had somthing to do with the fact that Horsewhip lineup 3.1 stood silent during their set mouthing "what the fuck?" to each other.

OH MY GOD THE ORIGINAL BOOTY BURGLARS ACTUALLY LEFT MISSOULA? I'm stunned.

Like Awk said, we've been lucky to play with a lot of really great people. NoMeansNo were lovely with us, although they were a bit harsh with the sound guy (justifiably so). David Thomas can call me anything he damn well pleases. A-Frames. Dälek. Enon. The Hold Steady. And everybody we've met just through playing shows that have become great friends.

The Standard kinda pissed me off once, but only because they insisted on going on before us. We still blew them off the stage, anyway, and then their singer fixed my glasses after the show. So I harbour no grudge.

choppy wrote:OH MY GOD THE ORIGINAL BOOTY BURGLARS ACTUALLY LEFT MISSOULA? I'm stunned.

I think they moved to LA!

Starantula were also on the bill, and since Kelly (also of Fireballs Of Freedom*) is also a Missoula ex-pat, I think that's how we ended up playing together.

* The Fireballs Of Freedom are a class act, despite the fact that they party way harder than any human being should ever consider partying. It is always a pleasure to split a pint of 151 in the men's room of the venue with Kelly. Motherfucker is crazy though.