Brookville opening for Goldfrapp, 2003
|
We were opening for Goldfrapp on their 2003 North American tour. The tour ended in Los Angeles at the Henry Fonda Theater, last show. During Goldfrapp's soundcheck, their crew dropped some of their equipment while setting up, and it broke. They tried to fix it, and then replace it, but by 9:00 p.m. (which was supposed to be our starting time), they had only just solved the problem. They began their soundcheck, and the venue had to hold all 1600 people who'd come for the show back behind the doors.
Goldfrapp took extra long to soundcheck – the audience had to wait behind closed doors for another two hours, while we were biting our nails and cursing under our breath. Finally, Goldfrapp left the stage, and their manager told us we had five minutes to get our shit onstage before the venue doors opened.
We frantically ran onstage, set up our amps and keyboards, with everyone yelling back and forth, trying not to panic. Just then, the doors opened and we heard (from behind the curtain) 1600 angry people rush into the theater. The Henry Fonda monitor engineer (the guy responsible for giving us the sound we need in order to hear ourselves onstage) started screaming obscenities at us and everyone around him. He said that he couldn't work under these conditions, and then he yelled, "I quit!" and disappeared out the back door of the venue.
We heard an announcement, something to the effect of, "Sorry for the two hour delay folks, Brookville's been having some technical difficulties..." and we all looked at each other incredulously. I glanced offstage to try to spot anyone who might be able to help us and yelled, "I can't hear my voice – it's only coming out of the drummer's monitor, and I only have keyboards in my monitor, and..." when then the curtain opened.
I turned around in shock, to face 1600 silent people with frowns on their faces staring up at me. We began to play as best we could. As we were playing our third song, we saw Goldfrapp's manager off to the side of the stage waving his arms at us, motioning that we could only play one more song. The song ended, and everyone clapped enthusiastically. I said, "Unfortunately this is our last song. Thanks for being patient, Goldfrapp's coming up next," and as I strummed the first chord, the curtain came down, and the PA was turned off!
At first there was just silence. Then there some boos, and finally some people started calling, "We love you Brookville! Come back soon!"
I'm hopeful that will remain the weirdest and the worst of all the shows I may ever do.
– Andy Chase, guitars/vocals, Brookville
Brookville, Life in the Shade
(2006, Unfiltered)
Got a good gig story to share? Tell it here.
Posted May 2007
Send to del.icio.us |
|
