For me, there are two, each by the Dillards: the first with their original lineup and the second with Herb Pedersen having succeeded Doug on banjo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV6DX05R4P0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfUpQsGCInE
I proudly confess that I saw both shows when they originally aired, in 1963 and 1970, respectively.
A gig's a gig.
How about sharing the stage with Ba'aka pygmies on the banks of the Ubangi river in the Central African Republic (just a year or two before the whole country went down the metaphorical tubes)?
(I was the banjo player on that tour, but the soundtrack to the video features Mike Munford.)
youtube.com/watch?v=TlBOhH4-baI
My band appeared at a hotel fumigation once. It was a low-income hotel in the Tenderloin District of San Francisco. They sent all the residents into the cellar while we played. Meanwhile, upstairs, they were fumigating for roaches and God knows what else....
I was the banjo player in Mudflaps & The Taillights ,,, we regularly played in front of the Broadway liquor store in Vancouver…..
A bluegrass band I was in once performed at a fundraiser for a high school Mariachi band. We played a bluegrass version of "Jesusita En Chihuahua" (aka Jesse's Polka) and "La Bamba." Our performance was rather well received!
A lot of guys play music in bands so they can meet girls. Playboy After Dark seems like it would have been a pretty good gig.
I played a gig with my pirate band, The Brigands, on the top of the #2 16" turret guns on board the battleship New Jersey. Was a real PIA to haul the sound equipment up to the top!
We also played a New Years Eve gig on board some steel hull 3 masted tall ship, I forget the name, in Baltimore. Memorable only because the Capt. got drunk and crashed the ship into the concrete dock. The ship had to be written off, I found out later.
Edited by - wrench13 on 01/27/2023 11:12:06
At a Vince Gill concert a few years ago he told a story about his first Bluegrass band from high school (Mountain Smoke) being call at the last minute to fill in for a warm up band at a big concert in OKC. Once they got to the venue they found out the band they were warming up for was KISS. They played one song to boo’s and yelling. They started a second song but couldn’t finish because they couldn’t hear themselves.
There is a tale that a certain banjo playing friend of Doug Dillard told of seeing the picture ------of the Dillards playing in a nudists event---said Doug had that Doug smile and was smoking a pipe.
Around 1990 there was a tribute concert for Jimi Hendrix at the State Theater in Portland titled "Are You Experienced".Bands from many cultures played a Jimi song.A polka band,a balinese band and a dozen others including a 5 piece bluegrass band with Don Roy on fiddle and me on banjo.We played Little Wing as a slow blues then the bass set a breakdown tempo and we "grassed" it.
Don's sister played a great electric guitar with tasty Jimi fills.She ended the whole thing with a perfect "Purple Haze" two measure quote.
As far as personal stories go, in the summer of 1979 my band was booked to play a Cub Scout jamboree in a park in Connecticut. When we got there, we learned that we were to be the sixth, and next to last, act of the afternoon. The act following us was Dan Haggerty, star of the mega-hit tv show Grizzly Adams. Clearly, he was the only one the Cub Scouts wanted to see, and as the other acts came and went they were increasingly unhappy waiting for him to come on. Well over an hour passed before we finally took the stage, and by then those Cub Scouts -- all 3,000 of them -- were pretty fed up, and showing it. We played our set looking out at a sea of impatient, stony faced stares. To this day I can still see their beady little eyes.
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