Let's Hear Your Tales of FINAL SHOWS WITH A BAND

[Eric!]

So, been making reggae-rock and folk music with a great friend of mine on and off for the past five years. This Saturday will mark our final performance before me and my girlfriend move to the big city (Grand Rapids) from our quaint little town on the Lake Michigan shoreline, and we're scheming to go out with a bang.

We (The Robinhood Academy) are kicking off the nth annual Indie Rock Invitational. This is the first year that it isn't some crappy BotB jawn, but just free tunes all day.

I will update with my tale next week, but I would love to read about any tales y'all have!

[retinal orbita]

I played with this death metal band a few years ago.I realized I couldn't commit to the band due to work, wife, dog etc. So we played our last show and parted amicably, then I got WASTED after we played, really enjoyed the other bands we played with. Good night. Except it was raining.

[theactionindex]

With my most recent band that broke up we had decided to stop playing together as a band about a week before a show we were already scheduled to play, so we just decided to fulfill our obligation to play and have that be the end of it.

Regardless, we played really well and left on good terms (I'm still good friends with all the duders). That was probably the most amicable parting of ways, at least musically, that I'd experienced.

[BitchPudding]

We had one short gig at AT&T park, one briefly after that was barely a performance, and then went our seperate ways. Thats it.

[tommasters]

High School Band: Played a show in a converted public toilet block behind a "punk" clothing store in a richish neighbourhood in Sydney. Taped fireworks to my bass, accidentally started a fire. Police and fire department got called. Store got closed for fire violations. Scene in suburb subsequently died. I feel bad...

Other thing: Got to play all these awesome shows with Punch. Came back and played this feminist rally thing. Was super cool/posi. Met a bunch of high school guys from the country who said that we super influenced them and now play in awesome Sydney bands

[KaosCill8r]

All 5 bands ended for me the same way. Some drunk dude invading the stage and getting in my face while I was trying to focus on my shit. Me telling him to fuck off. Drunk dude not listening. I start throwing hay makers. End result. Arrested, assault charges and politely asked to depart band. Stopped trying to join bands about 10-12 years ago. Was just a little too territorial about my stage space. The most gigs with any one band = 3
I should have another go now than I'm a little less mentally defective but really not physically fit enough now. Old age crept up from behind and hit me hard.

[Dr. Sherman Sticks M.D.]

man sometimes u gotta lay the hammer. drunk ppl can be weird to deal w/ too.

i try to play every show w/ the mindset that it is my last. b/c hey u never know it just might be.

[cedarskies]

Police and fire department got called. Store got closed for fire violations. Scene in suburb subsequently died.

this story wins

[KaosCill8r]

Police and fire department got called. Store got closed for fire violations. Scene in suburb subsequently died.

this story wins

Was quite a good story. Music performance and pyrotechnics rarely end well.

[voerking]

i've never played a show that i knew beforehand was going to be that band's last.
although, looking back, every one i can remember was kind of a crappy show. sloppy performances, upset band members...i guess the signs were there every time, but i couldn't see them.
bands are fragile little ecosystems. once they get out of whack, things deteriorate quickly.

[Phosphene Audio]

The band I am currently in held a farewell show in 2004, but the band reformed within 8 months.

[odontophobia]

Well -- I don't know if it was our LAST show but we haven't played since and I feel like it was a bit of a nail in the coffin, despite occasional group texts from other members suggesting otherwise.

Some context: a few years back I offer to book Loma Prieta and Birds in Row. Book a few other locals. Turnout is pretty good. Bands crash at my place. Lasting bonds are formed. We see each other a few times over the next years as tours come through Michigan. A year later Loma Prieta is touring again and contacts me about booking another date for them. I agree. I decide that my band should play as a lot of other local bands are playing different shows in similar time frames and I don't want to fill the bill with bands who played the venue the week before. I also figure that my bands last show went out with enough fanfare that we'd perhaps draw a few people out of hiding.

Contact all the members of my band. All of them are living about two to two and half hours away but that's no big deal. We know all the songs. We'll have one drunk, raucous practice and we'll be in tip top shape. Two weeks after all bands are confirmed the drummer lands a new job and has to be in New York the week of the show. Okay. Fuck balls. Know a few people and manage to get a friend from work to fill in. He's into heavy-ish music, but mostly a lot of prog. He doesn't care though because he just wants to play shows. Boom -- no big deal.

Since drummer has to learn the songs we agree to a slightly shorter set. I send all of the recordings to drummer. Guitarist comes down a two months before show and practices with drummer. Goes reasonably well. Downside is that we won't be able to practice again before the show so it's going to be rough. At the time of all this going on I didn't know any of the songs on guitar, I was only doing vocals. So I decide to learn all of the songs that we're going to play so that we can practice at our leisure. So we do that and it goes well. Drummer gets songs down pretty well.

Night before the show guitarist comes to town. Bassist has been slow to respond to anything for the last few days so I begin to assume that he's "not going to be able to make it." So we take our gear to a space where we can be a little louder than usual and start jamming. At this stage I'm really not interested in playing as a 3-piece with just drums and guitar so I decide that I'll go through this practice on guitar and vocals just in case bassist doesn't show. Midway through practice receive text that says, "not going to be able to make it." We go through the set a few more times. I play the songs surprisingly well for having never played them and song them simultaneously and for having learned the songs only a few weeks before.

Drink many beers during and after practice. Go to this restaurant the guitarist loves (best burgers according to GQ) and then we head home. Wake up the next morning and I want to die. Guitarist gets me some throat coat and some flu medicine. All I wanted to do was hang with my friends after the show. The day was turning into shit.

The gig was in April so weather in Michigan was bound to be beautiful. And if you know anything at all about the mitten state then you know that upon waking up the weather had turned into complete bullshit. It was fucking frigid.

We practice, just a one time through the set and then set out for the gig. I buy food for Loma, some vegan pizza and breadsticks. I'm not worried about that coming out of pocket because the lineup for the show is pretty sick and I'm expecting a good turnout. Well turns out I was hella fucking wrong in that regard. Show didn't do badly but I ended up paying for that food out of pocket and I don't think I paid the venue. On top of that I was a bit nervous during our set having never played guitar on stage in front of people before. On top of that having to sing all of the fucking songs. There was only one minor hiccup and that was me fucking up a part and then deciding to just sing the rest of the song instead of playing it.

All in all it could have been worse, It was the second time the bassist has bailed on a pretty important gig. We're still good friends but I think we're done as band friends. The other guys are living busy lives in Chicago and as much as I want them to jam with me on some new stuff I'm just tired of bearing that distance.