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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! > What's the coolest stage you've played on?
What's the coolest stage you've played on?
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HawkeyeKane
2594 posts
Aug 27, 2014
4:10 PM
Performing stages differ...there's no question about that. The PA, the caliber of the people running said PA, the lighting, the effects, the setup, the real estate, etc...

What's the coolest stage you've played on to date? Post pics if you have them.

I'll start. This past 4th of July, we played at a festival in White Hall, IL. We weren't expecting anything so grandiose....in fact we weren't expecting any stage or PA provisions at all. We brought our own gear. Boy were we surprised!!! Here's a URL to the Facebook album taken that evening.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152294572198527.1073741919.91044268526&type=3
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Hawkeye Kane - Hipbone Sam
Philosofy
596 posts
Aug 27, 2014
5:15 PM
I played at Graceland once.
bluemoose
998 posts
Aug 27, 2014
5:38 PM
Dirty Dancing Burlesque show stage! Did the harp part of "Hey Baby".
Get to play harp on Jimmy Reed "Baby what you want me to do' this Saturday at the Vancouver Tap Dance Festival with tap star Michelle Dorrance signing and tapping. Fun, fun, fun.


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JustFuya
401 posts
Aug 27, 2014
5:49 PM
I played in a courtroom in San Diego while doing janitorial work. Excellent acoustics to an audience of three. We all had orange suits.

My most exciting stage experience, with a paid audience [not captive], was in Ann Arbor close to the campus. It had 2 levels with a dance floor. I'll never forget the first song we played. "Taking Care of Business". I hated it and my legs almost gave out when the bobbing heads stopped and turned for my solo.

But you asked for the coolest. It was on the beach in San Diego. Pacific Beach. It started with a fiddle and a harp/flute every Tuesday night after the bars closed at 2am. A fire ring. Our different gigs were done but we weren't. Then we got a guitar. Then another. Then crowds. Then cops. Then I moved.
Goldbrick
650 posts
Aug 27, 2014
5:55 PM
Not technically a stage- but we did play on the front veranda at the Barnacle which is the oldest house in Miami .
The gig was for the Art Basel week closing party and was a blast
Buzadero
1213 posts
Aug 27, 2014
6:09 PM
Early 1980's. A buddy of mine was part of the entertainment staff for the Louisiana Superdome. They were the group that were the facility dudes that hosted the actual road crews for booked acts. One evening, I rode my bike down to meet up with him and some friends to go out for the evening. The following night was the Rolling Stones, and they were wrapping up the stage setup when I got there. I got introduced to the sound guy and was hanging in that area while my buddy wrapped up some loose ends. We got to talking. Mainly me asking questions. I had my usual two or three harps on me. I got to stand center stage with a house SM58 vocal mic plugged into the "harmonica" circuit and listen while the sound staff humored me. One guy stood next to me with a radio and talked to the booth while I blew my homage "Midnite Rambler" through the Big System. The monitors in front, then slowly cranking it to the wing banks, overheads and the booster sets. At one point I was fricking "Thor". The seats were vibrating. To me, it felt like I could have cracked the concrete. I think stadium venues could very easily go to your head. I'm pretty sure I could get a high level of "satisfaction" as a rockstar. A couple of the Stones guys were grinning and got a kick out of it. I sure did.

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~Buzadero
Underwater Janitor, Patriot
BigAl
30 posts
Aug 27, 2014
6:23 PM
Torrance state mental hospital pavilion. Beautiful grounds, wonderful old buildings. Always a pick up band of friends, the best players. Been there every year for 15 years/
nacoran
7966 posts
Aug 27, 2014
7:54 PM
A teacher once told me a story about a friend who pitched a perfect game in the World Series- or rather, a friend who was so overwhelmed when he watched Don Larsen throw his perfect game that he switched pronouns describing it, calling it 'my perfect game.' In that sense, I once played the Ed Sullivan show! In the more practical sense, I've only played harp at coffee houses and bars- nothing particularly noteworthy, although I have, on a couple occasions, played to myself at cool locations like under some redwoods.

As a kid I was in the school choir. My senior year we performed for graduation. It was at the Empire State Plaza in Albany, NY, but it wasn't a particularly great stage. (I got to perform there my Freshman year too, but that wasn't as big a deal.) There is a nice little stage outdoors at a local ice cream parlor. It's really just a platform with an awning over it but it's got a nice feel to it. I think they've gotten some noise complaints though. The last time I was there they had things so turned down that you couldn't hear half the acts if a car went by. I'm not sure I'd recommend it anymore for anyone, even if they are just starting out. The quality of the performers seems to have dropped off a bit too.

There is a pavilion in the town I grew up in that I'd very much like to play someday if I can get to the point where I could pack the park with a couple hundred people. A friend of mine got to give a speech there in front of a couple hundred people. He was being honored because he won a Tony for sound direction in a musical. He had I recorded together a couple times as a kid. I asked him, and he said I could advertise myself as, 'having recorded with Tony Award Winner...'

The worst stage was probably our bands only ever full lineup performance before we spectacularly self-destructed. The venue was nice, the host was nice, and the sound system, for what it was was okay, but the stage was so tight that there wasn't even really room to shift your weight, let alone stretch between songs. My heel spurs were aching by the end, and my back was stiffening up. It was still fun, but I think if I was ever going to play there again I'd scale back the drums so we had some room.

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Nate
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Diggsblues
1513 posts
Aug 27, 2014
8:21 PM
The Walnut Street Theater on the set of "Big River".
This is the same set but at the Maine State Theater.

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Last Edited by
Diggsblues on Aug 27, 2014 8:21 PM
BronzeWailer
1415 posts
Aug 27, 2014
10:14 PM
I usually have a harp with me so have played in some unusual places.
I jammed with a couple of buskers with their guitars in a restaurant in Santiago, Chile.
Blew after a boat ride below the Iguazu falls in Argentina. The boat drivers pretended to pass around a hat for me.
I had a play on the steps of a temple at Golden Rock, Burma. My wife told me that some cranky priests started smiling when they heard me. I also played for some little kids along the bank of the Irrawaddy River. They were giggling the whole time.
I also shot a guerrilla video in one of the old cells in the Police and Justice Museum, Sydney.


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LSC
675 posts
Aug 28, 2014
12:24 AM
Dee Dots Double-0-7. We shared the stage with the topless dancers.

Club Mayfair, a brothel in Rotterdam

Feyenoord Stadium, Rotterdam - No stage. We played on the center circle to 35,000.

Antone's, Austin, TX
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LSC
Harptime
68 posts
Aug 28, 2014
4:39 AM
Preservation Hall in New Orleans. Sat in with some of the original Ink Spots .... early 80's

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Warren Bee
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Last Edited by Harptime on Aug 28, 2014 4:40 AM
HarpNinja
3915 posts
Aug 28, 2014
7:16 AM
Vetterstone Amiptheater at Riverfront Park in Mankato. I've played there a number of times to 1-3,000 people, but that have the nicest set up ever, and have 5-6,000 people a night during our Ribfest in August.

The sound is great, the stage is awesome, and the venue itself is very fun.




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Mike
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The Iceman
1965 posts
Aug 28, 2014
7:45 AM
Pine Knob outdoor festival stage...

always had a harmonica in my pocket. When I used to be the first call piano tech for all the big shows in Detroit, I would always use the stage as a practice venue after finishing up the piano.

Wanted to know what it felt like to be alone in the center of a big stage and play to that huge open space. Got used to it so that I could actually fill the area with my presence rather than have the enormity suck the energy and life out of me.

So, over the years, I've done this on many big stages across the country - a lot of them due to my affiliation with I.A.J.E.
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The Iceman
LittleBubba
308 posts
Aug 28, 2014
10:54 AM
I played a '50s band gig ( I played a Farfisa organ then ) back in '71 at one of those classic auditoriums with a balcony; it was owned by a hospital. The place is still there.
It had a large dressing room off each side of the stage. We had 3 girl backup singers (not the same kind of "backup" singers they have these days! ).
We mic'ed up the dressing rooms and broadcast pre-show banter out into the audience - schticking it up of course. I've always liked those classic old "theatre style" auditoriums with the orchestra wells in front of the stage.
Bilzharp
11 posts
Aug 28, 2014
11:21 AM
I like those old silent movie era theatres too. Back in the early 90's when the retro cowboy group Riders in the Sky was doing their radio show in the Cincinnati theatre, the acoustic trio I played in guested on one of their shows. That was a kick. We even had a bit part in their radio drama.

Festival gigs are fun, what with separate monitor mixes and a bigger crowd but for the shear intensity of playing give me a crowded little dive.
JustFuya
405 posts
Aug 28, 2014
11:35 AM
Iceman - Do you play piano? I used to move pianos and organs in San Diego and there was a tech in the back room that played beautifully. I was young and asked him what he was doing in a warehouse when he could be playing Carnegie Hall. He told me he had to pay bills. It took a while but I understood eventually.

It was grand knowing him.
The Iceman
1968 posts
Aug 28, 2014
11:38 AM
Piano is my first instrument.
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The Iceman
Tuckster
1452 posts
Aug 28, 2014
12:44 PM
BigAl-Torrance,Pa near Blairsville? That's near my neck of the woods.
I played the city arts festival on this huge stage. Big enough to accomodate the symphony orchestra that followed us an hour and a half later.Top quality PA gear and sound men.
The other stage I'm impressed with is a small one at the local blues club. It has a sloping ceiling and terrible sound on stage. The stage floor-well if you dropped anything less than a 20 on it,you don't want to pick it up.But every major harp player within the last 25 years has played there. The fact that I'm standing on that same stage always give me pause.
LittleBubba
309 posts
Aug 28, 2014
1:31 PM
I've only played a few festivals, but my current opinion is that I'll take the heat of stage lights and packed clubs indoors over the heat of mid-summer, late afternoon sun on an outdoor stage when it's 90 degrees F. outside.
Rarko
127 posts
Aug 28, 2014
4:13 PM
Couple Of months ago a group of students in High School where I work as a teacher ask me to join them on charity gig in one club where young people hang out. Students played some modern music and I played blues with bunch of old guys, friends of mine. Wow, those kids realy loved that "new" music (for them blues was something new) and They where jumping and dancing im front Of the stage, club was full of people. I havenever seen that kind Of audience on blues gigs before ... :-)
walterharp
1502 posts
Aug 28, 2014
6:20 PM
as a beer brewer, people ask me, what is your favorite beer... my answer, a full one.

what is my favorite stage? one with a full dance floor.
walterharp
1503 posts
Aug 28, 2014
6:21 PM
and my last post is the first with a repeat captcha, given then autofill function on my computer.
BigAl
31 posts
Aug 29, 2014
4:37 AM
Tuckster, yep one in the same.
BigAl
32 posts
Aug 29, 2014
5:02 AM
The torrance auditorium has a great old stage to play as well. Very live room.
bloozefish
175 posts
Aug 30, 2014
10:59 AM
played on a big paddlewheel boat out of Memphis in the early 70s. It went pretty well, but the drummer had to not look at the shore moving by, or he'd Eff up big time. All the guests (it was a private party) were so smashed I doubt they ever noticed.
waltertore
2746 posts
Aug 31, 2014
6:52 AM
I could list lots of stages/venues playing solo/with my band/rock greats bands/blues greats bands. But the greatest stage I ever played on is always the same-one where I have freedom to do my thing and to feel good while doing it. Walter
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groyster1
2662 posts
Aug 31, 2014
7:12 AM
rockin` chair pub in northern Ireland...to play stranger on the shore after gay mcintrye played it on clarinet....the pub crowd was very kind
HarveyHarp
603 posts
Aug 31, 2014
10:17 AM
Probably my most memorable gig is a couple of years ago at the Christmas Party for Krewe De Vieux, the wildest Mardi Gras Krewe here in New Orleans. It was crazy wild, and I was playing with a mostly female band that I played with for about 5 years. We made a bunch of money and it was just an incredible fun time. Since then we have played several events for them, including a crawfish boil which spilled over into one of the famous graveyards of New Orleans. That was eerie.


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HarveyHarp
Lonesome Harpman
168 posts
Sep 02, 2014
10:21 AM
@Nacoran
The Tawasentha Park had a fantastic stage. I played a gig there in the 80's. The stage floor had a perfect feel to it, the lighting was fantastic and the dressing rooms had the required mirror and light bulbs thing going for it. Do they still have that?
Honkin On Bobo
1242 posts
Sep 02, 2014
11:48 AM
Winning story in my humble opinion is Buzz's. That's two now Buzz, cause I still remember the story of you jamming with Joe Walsh. Newbies ask Buzz to recount that one.


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