I played in an art installation once. It was pretty strange, stalks of corn hanging from the ceiling, Chinese prints surrounded by bits of broken mirrors, lanterns…and a couple of other things I can’t quite remember. The theme was the seven deadly sins (couldn’t you tell?
). I wandered around in the corn and in front of the Chinese prints while playing bluegrass. They filmed me doing it.
It was actually a pretty cool installation, 
I’m not really doing it justice.
PC
Does a Biker wedding in the middle of a parade of cars and Harleys count? The groom in his favorite Greatful Dead T-shirt and the bride in white leathers, fringe and all. Unforgetable!!
You bet it counts. Great gigs, one and all.
Along with weird gigs, there are
weird musicians with whom you play them.
Our fiddler often falls asleep while we’re
performing. Interestingly
he doesn’t stop fiddling.
When we’re playing at parties he tends
to go off and join the party–for
hours–leaving the remaining two of
us desperately trying to project
the tunes. Then, when we’re exhausted and about
to leave, he sits down, picks up
his fiddle, and starts playing energetically.
Why don’t we get another fiddler?
Because the others are worse!
Do you’all have stories about wierd
musicians with whom you play gigs?
We had a guitar player who would do the “wander off into the party” thing before we used sound equipment. We would be playing a song and he’d see a girl he liked so he would wander over to her while still playing the song and start talking to her. He ran of to the aloha state to raise bees.
We also had a guy who played percussion who would pretend to be a waiter at gigs at hotels etc. where we played background music. Our standard “uniform” is black pants and a white banded collar shirt and either bright Ecuadorian vests or Bolivian ponchos. He’d take off the vest between sets and wander around filling water glasses halfway or taking drink orders that never would come.
In the contra dance band I play in we had a fiddler who suddenly had a change of heart halfway through a set and packed up his fiddle and left midtune. Haven’t seen him since.
I’ve also got a Andean music playing friend in LA who will periodically call at one in the morning from a gig at some celebs house or outrageously rich person.
Musicians, strange people indeed. My wife often wonders what led her to this odd fate 
MArk V.
How about playing in a suburban grocery store on St Patrick’s Day while a woman attired as Leprechaun dances around the checkout lanes?
Or working with a guy who can play “Danny Boy” on the saw? 
I have yet to see wierder.
We played a St. Patricks gig at a quilt shop once…
– Nancy
Is there a consensus that fiddlers are
uncommonly weird? Considerable anecdotal
evidence..
Also (if the answer is Yes)
is it something about the act of fiddling
that drives people round the bend?
e.g. the sawing
motion. Or does fiddling attract those
already compromised?
Our group has these discussions, you see,
and could use some other opinions.
I maintain that fiddlers aren’t more deranged
than other musicians; we’ve only had
bad luck.
My favorite STILL is when we played the Renaissance fair at the Nudist Resort. We were in full costume.
Their Ren. costumes were hats and a sword/belts. It was sure hard to
keep one’s mind on the tune being played and we DID make tons
more mistakes than usual; and eating dinner at their snack-bar afterwards
was really a fun people-watching event!
Lolly
Jim, fiddlers are definitely up there. For remarkable derangement, however, we must look to the pipers. 
It’s an ambition of mine to play blindfolded in a bordello as background music for the… regularly scheduled activities. I know i’ve seen that in a movie somewhere, but i can’t remember where. Maybe it’s better that way… 
But i still think it would be the ultimate gig.
Be seeing you,
eric.
Hey, I’d rescind that remark! 
You meant “resemble”, right, not “rescind”?
Fine difference, I know.
Hmmm. My experience leads me to believe most pipers are manic-depressive alcoholics with strong antisocial tendencies, while fiddlers tend to be megalomaniac alcoholics with strong antisocial tendencies.
We get along like a house on fire. 
I started to use Nano’s misuse of words…“I resemble that remark” but decided that “rescind” sounds closer, and it’s more effective.
We’re not really stone cold and expressionless, we’re just rock solid that’s all. Pipers are a little low on humor I’ll admit (except for me and Nano- he’s aspiring to play a C set of pipes in the pic above (he probably never told you)
Geeze loueeze, Pat. Well put! I mean extraordinary! You gotta come out to Seattle (D’arcy never reads this forum).
I play u-pipes and whistle with a fine, fine fiddler (a lady) and we get along great. Her ex plays guitar and bouzouki in our threesome band (“The Blarney Cats”), and they get along great (strange).
We played three weddings last weekend (everyone wants to get married on the summer solstice!) 
and one particular wedding was a first and unusual experience for us. We were hired just to do the reception (which was in a park about 15 miles from the ceremony). Well, somehow the ceremony ran an hour late, the groom calls on his cell phone and tells us to start playing anyway, and we had to leave by 5:30 to drive 2 hrs to get to the next wedding on time, so we played in this gazebo in the park for a wedding and no one from the wedding was there…completely empty, except for a lone fisherman on the bank of the river, and he asked us if we could go play somewhere else cause his dog was getting a little tense.
Excuse me? I was under the impression that if anyone wrote as if he had a stick up his patoot, it was me. 
Around the turn of the century there was a German/Swiss philosopher named Rudolph Steiner. He is the forefather of a world view called Anthroposophy. There is a very rich spiritual fabric to the world under the Anthroposophist view. A very very short version might be: The spirit (soul) is everything, and everything is spirit. Most people come in contact with this philosophy through the Waldorf School, which build their pedagogical principles on Steiner. Part of that educational approach is to teach children music early and intensively. Among the instruments that are used for this (and detractors might say that the only thing more peculiar than Anthropological instruments are the Anthropologists themselves) is a fiddle-like stringed instrument. Unlike a violin or fiddle, it is played resting on ones knee. The neck extends straight-up and the bow passes right to left in front of one’s body. The reason for this unusal way of playing a fiddle (and I am finally coming to the point) is that Anthropologists believe that fiddling the traditional way is not good for your spirit and particularly not for the spirit of children. The “sawing” motion of the bow is really the hand being brought time and again to the body, as if pointing at yourself repeatedly. It is considered I-focussed, emphasizing the ego to much. The spiritual effects would be comparable to a child saying “me, me, me” over and over.
So there, Jim: You are not alone in suspecting that moving the bow has something to do with it.
P.S.:
I have probably offended both those who are Anthroposophists and those who are not with my flip and possibly inaccurate description. If you are offended or upset, please don’t tell me. Thanks.
Not really a wierd gig, just a wierd situation…would have to be the Field in San Diego. Our dance group had four sets over two nights as part of promotion for the San Diego Ren Faire.
We got there, and found that the place where we were supposed to put 3 musicians and 6 dancers was raised 5 feet off the floor, no railings, at one end of the bar, and about 9 feet by 7 feet.
Makes you real nervous doing a leaping dance step next to a dropoff of 5 feet to a stone floor…
I do have to say though, that the Field absolutely ROCKS! They were extremely friendly and fed us (Very well!) both nights. If you are in San Diego this place is a MUST see!
Aodhan
OK, Eric, this is weird. I actually had a neighbor who did the music for the sound tracks for porno flicks. I offered one time to lend my services (musical that is) but he said that I’d be a bit too “classy” for what they were going for.
Seemed like just too funny an opportunity not to ask!
PC