Worst Show Ever

Worst Show Ever

Permatouring bassist C.J. Boyd meets up with fellow musicians while on the road to ask them about the worst shows they've played. Ranging from the hilarious to positively tragic, these stories give a glimpse into how things can go horribly wrong while just trying to play music for people.

Episodes

January 22, 2020 95 mins
Seasoned listeners of this podcast will note that the episodes vary pretty widely in length. I like having the guests present their stories without prescribing a predetermined amount of time. But I usually edit it to be sure it doesn't go over an hour or so. Not so with this epic series of stories from People With Bodies, a lovely band of buds from Reno, Nevada. I mean, I did in fact edit it down, but it's still 95 minutes even wit...
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At a Joyful Noise Recordings Xmas party in 2018, while some of the finest rock stars and weirdos were mingling and getting wasted on vegan chili, I was sitting in the office of dear friend and label owner Karl Hofstetter, talking to labelmate Jasamine White-Gluz of No Joy about some of her most harrowing tour stories. Jasamine was a blast to talk to, and had me on the edge of my seat trying to take in some truly awful and amazing e...
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Marisa Demarco had me over to her studio, where, in front of a table full of cheap gold earrings she was currently turning into a circuit board, she told me about her worst show ever. There's no way for me to accurately describe this amazing person without saying she's a living pioneer of experimental music and one of my personal musical heroes. It was an honor to have her on the show and get deep into intersections of politics, ex...
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Rence is a road dog if ever there was one, and I knew when I asked him to be on the show, he'd have a story that packed a punch. Boy howdy was I right.
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I had the pleasure of seeing Melanie perform twice last year at Treefort, and both performances blew my mind. First as the bassist in a harp-led chamber pop ensemble called Wend, and then in the legendary rock band Built to Spill. She was gracious enough to meet up with me to discuss some of her most awful shows, coming from her time with her previous band, Marshall Poole. The stories range from the tragic and somber to the humilia...
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Liz Hysen tells an incredible story of turning into a wolf on tour, while also dealing with some of the most sexist and ridiculous behavior by her driver / tour manager that has appeared on this show, which is saying a lot because (as is no surprise to women musicians, but still seems to shock some of the guys) women deal with a lot of bullshit on tour that men don't experience, and seem to rarely even notice. Thanks to Liz for sha...
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William Goldsmith played in the legendary bands Foo Fighters and Sunny Day Real Estate and has the crazy stories to show for it. Just a heads up, things get pretty gross pretty fast in the first of several stories William shows.
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Dear friends and Joyful Noise label-mates Ohmme share the story of their most bizarre tour experience at a haunted hotel in upstate New York, as well as a show in which the venue disputed the fact that there was a show at all.
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Lung are one of my very favorite bands currently touring, and it was a delight to sit down and discuss so many ways shows can be shitty. This is a longer episode, with lots of twists and turns from these veteran badasses.
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Wether its her stellar drumming or her personality that fills up a room, Lupe Flores is a powerhouse of a lady. And it was pretty incredible to hear some of the crazy places touring has taken her.
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Last winter, a bunch of us musicians who release albums on Joyful Noise met up for their holiday party in Indianapolis, and this also included us all recording a bunch of music for a holiday compilation, which ended up being more fun and more interesting musically than I had ever thought it could be. Adam Harding had a song with Thor Harris, which I ended up playing on, and there was a general love of cross-pollination all around. ...
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It was a true delight to sit down with Matthew and hear about the show in which this full bill of fantastic Cincinnati local bands was commandeered by a certain celebrity-focused television network. It was also funny to hear us talk so much about my own life, particularly with respect to permatour. I'm releasing this episode on my first day living in an apartment after almost 12 years of nothing but living in vehicles. The episode ...
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Nilan Perera has been playing what he calls "adventurous music" in the Toronto scene for 35 years. We get deep into the ethics of improvised music and how it can go wrong.
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A staple in the Montreal experimental music scene, my dear friend Catherine Debard recounts an adventure in the US that had huge ups and downs, and how she managed to keep her calm through it all.
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Xiu Xiu frontman Jamie Stewart tells the story of their worst tour ever. But his approach to this common theme is unique in how, on the one hand, he labels himself an asshole and takes full responsibility for how terribly he treated his tour-mates (Tune-Yards). On the other hand, he makes a compelling case for having the moral high ground in this dispute, despite acknowledging how shitty he treated them. I was absolutely fascinated...
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I was very fortunate to run into one of my favorite current rappers, Mariah Parker (aka Linqua Franqa), at Treefort Music Festival earlier this year. And somehow I managed to keep my fanboying to a minimum for long enough to talk to her about her worst show ever. We were using the festival's press room, which was in fact reserved for someone more official, so the convo was kept short. But Mariah manages to pack in a lot in 22 minut...
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Emmett Kelly has toured in a variety of roles from front man of Cairo Gang to sideman in Bonnie "Prince" Billy, from band leader for someone else's band to hired gun holding it down. Here he tells a story about one of the shows that made him question whether all of those roles are actually for him. Alex Dupree has also toured in many different ways, and here he recalls maybe the worst trip between shows.
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Casey Chisholm is an old friend with whom I've shared many a stage. One of the first times we played together, he asked to interview me, standing on the street outside Mama Buzz Cafe in Oakland. It seemed fitting that I would eventually get to interview him, also standing on a street, though a much calmer one in the tiny mountain town of Sonora, California. It also seemed fitting that we'd meet up to talk about Casey's roughest sho...
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Victoria Shen plays experimental music, pushing the edges of performance and noise. She might be the first on this podcast to share a story of a show that went really well, as far as she knew, but resulted in some truly brutal and vitriolic hate mail.
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Sam Humans and I meet up after a show in Portland to discuss some crazy and awful occurrences while on tour. Highlights include van breakdowns and the shenanigans that ensue.
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