Coldest Outdoor Gig?

Scott Akers · From: Texas, USA

Wondering how other players navigate cold temperatures when playing outdoors. I played my first long show as a steel player recently and the temp was 48 at the start of the show and 44 three hours later when we finished. My Carter seemed to stay in tune once it acclimated. Some band members had space heaters in close proximity. I did not. Didn't want to change the temp once I was tuned up.

Brooks Montgomery · From: Idaho, USA

Not the answer you want, but 6 or 8 string lap steels or dobros sure are easier to deal with in super cold outdoor gigs.
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A banjo, like a pet monkey, seems like a good idea at first.

Erv Niehaus · From: Litchfield, MN, USA

When playing in sub zero weather, you learn real quick not to put your tongue on a frypan! Whoa!

Erv

Brooks Montgomery · From: Idaho, USA

I played in the very first "Icestock" in 1989, and played in almost every one up to 1997. My best advice for playing in the cold: play the harmonica! and wear chap stick ! Laughing

https://antarcticsun.usap.gov/features/4202/
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A banjo, like a pet monkey, seems like a good idea at first.

Jason OConnor · From: Massachusetts, USA

There is nothing worse than playing in the cold, your fingers just don't move like they should. I hate it and try never to do it. I wonder if those gloves with the fingertips cut off would work? I doubt it because you have to feel the the strings with your whole hand. So I am not sure what the solution is. Maybe hand warmers?

Erv Niehaus · From: Litchfield, MN, USA

The last outdoor gig I did was SO cold that when I had to take a leak, I went behind a tree and I had to keep walking backwards to keep from freezing down! Whoa!

Erv

Don R Brown · From: Rochester, New York, USA

Fall 2018 forumite Zeke Cory and I were at an informal outdoor party on a farm. It was 57 degrees to start, and 48 when we finished. The temperature was only the half of it, the wind was strong from the north with nothing to shelter us, I'm guessing wind chill factor was below freezing. And the bonfire was upwind and we got well smoked to boot.

Zeke stuck it out till the second break and said "I'm gone!" I managed to survive, actually had it easy because I could blame any clams on frozen fingers. It was so bad I actually enjoyed it, if that makes any sense!

EDIT - I'll clarify that this party was a gathering of friends, some of whom provided the music. I don't intend to suggest that Zeke would bail in the middle of a paid gig.

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Matthew Walton · From: Fort Worth, Texas

I played a Halloween party a couple of years ago with the swing band I play guitar in. I think it was about 20 F with a wind speed to match. We were of course outside, playing on the aptly named breezeway. They had a few of those propane patio heaters that seem to work for about an hour before puttering out and a bunch of dads immediately crowd around it trying (unsuccessfully) to make it work again.

Funny thing about instruments: When stringed instruments get cold, they go sharp. When wind instruments, horns, etc. get cold, they go flat. So the bass player and I tuned down to A = 436 Hz or so to accommodate the horns. And because you're blowing ~98 F air through them, they never get to really acclimate.

Not much more to the story other than once we were done, the trombone player immediately packed up and started to leave the rest of us to help the bandleader tear down the sound system. The drummer just happened to park right behind him to load up his gear, so even though we still didn't have the extra help, we at least had the minor solace of making him wait to get home. "Why thank you, I believe I will have a plate!" "Cider to go? Sure, why not?!"
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Jerry Erickson · From: Atlanta,IL 61723

Two of the coldest gigs I've played were for Denver Bronco Super Bowl homecoming parades. 1987-88? Losses to the New York Giants and Washington Redskins. Playing on the steps of the capitol building in downtown Denver in late January. It was probably around 32 degrees. The first year it was one band and there were 4 or 5 tubular gas heaters on the stage area, so you could warm up a little. The second year there were two bands and some wise guy from the city crew said that two heaters, one on each corner of the stage would be enough!

Jim Cohen · From: Philadelphia, PA

Brooks Montgomery · From: Idaho, USA

The strings on the guitar shrink much quicker than any shrinkage of the guitar. And vice versa in the heat. Shorter string, sharper pitch.
Horns.....no idea there.
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A banjo, like a pet monkey, seems like a good idea at first.

Ian Rae · From: Redditch, England

Brooks, the string gets tighter rather than shorter, although the effect is the same of course.

With horns, the change of length of the instrument is negligible - it's the air column inside that's vibrating.

As the temperature goes down the air gets denser and the pitch falls too. Under normal circumstances the player's warm breath keeps the temperature up, but a thin sheet of brass is a poor insulator!

In a very cold environment you have to keep blowing air down it even when you're not playing.

Modern concert halls have pretty good aircon, but in the past it was a problem that as a performance progressed and it got hotter in there, the strings would go flat and the winds would go sharp, so that an orchestra that was perfectly in tune at the outset would struggle to sound respectable by the end.
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Brett Lanier · From: Madison, TN

Played a gig a couple years back that was so cold I gaff taped hand warmers to my wrists. It helped a little.

Clyde Mattocks · From: Kinston, North Carolina, USA

Funny this thread should pop up now. This was my situation this past Sat. nite. Outside temp was 28 degrees. We were in a fairly large enclosed garage. They had two propane heaters going but the problem was the guests were all crowded around them so the heat didn't get out but a few feet and we were at the other end. Now I know you know this guy, the one who wears shorts and a tee shirt year round. Well it gets too hot for him standing about six feet from the heater so he turns it down (or off, I couldn't tell the difference). Anyway it was a happy time when I could finally get in my car for the trip home.
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Erv Niehaus · From: Litchfield, MN, USA

I was at an outside gig some years ago and when I went behind a tree to take a wiz, I had to keep backing up to keep from freezing down!!
Now that is cold! Whoa!

Erv

Don R Brown · From: Rochester, New York, USA

Irv, the other day it finally turned nice out. I heard some great music coming from the park nearby, but when I went over there the place was empty. I finally figured out that a few weeks earlier they had an outdoor concert on a really cold night. Seems the notes just froze as fast as they were played! It took a warm day a few weeks later to thaw them out so we could all enjoy them!.

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Erv Niehaus · From: Litchfield, MN, USA

Two guys were out camping in really cold weather.
When they woke up in their tent in the morning and threw back the covers there were two brown spots on one of the guys sleeping bags.
They got a fire going, scraped the two brown spots off the sleeping bag, threw them in the fire and they went prrp-prrp!
Now that's cold! Whoa!

Erv

Bobby D. Jones · From: West Virginia, USA

About 2003 in late October they had a show in a park on the Tygart River, A cement floor pavilion was the stage. I had played about 2:00pm not bad. The last group went on stage at 5:00pm.
About the second song the singer turned to the steel player for a ride or turn around, There he set with both hands in his pockets.
My steel was still on stage, I knew the band leader and motioned like I was playing my steel. He motioned me to come on up. I went over the tuning on my steel and for the next 45 minutes. We traded about every verse and course, One would play, The other steeler would set with their hands, bar and picks in their pockets.
The band leader joked later it was the first gig he ever worked with 2 steel players in his band.

Stan Knowles NC · From: North Carolina, USA

My group, Tumblin' Creek, and I played outside, on
the square in December many years ago now...in the
small town of Archer City, Texas. It was truly so
cold..that my smallest top E-9 strings kept contracting and breaking. I used all the strings in my string
case...then I actually started putting them together
with other broken strings using square knots and large
toe nail cutters to trim them. Honestly, that's the
coldest show I've ever played...and I hope to never
do that again!
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Robert B Murphy · From: Mountain View, Arkansas, USA

I had a pair of silk opera gloves that ended at the second knuckle back in the '70s. I used to play dobro wearing them down at the Cannery and other spots around Fisherman's Wharf in the winter. It snowed once or twice. I also played a biker party for a club called "The Empties" outside of Pocatello while it was snowing.
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Peter Dollard · Posted 22 Sep 2023 1:10 pm **Squah Valley Snow Storm**

In 1980 I was hired to play at a restaurant at the top of the tram .So it was pretty cold when we got there and we set up on a terrace outside the restaurant. It started to snow outside and no one seemed to want to hear us out there; I put on a glove on the left hand which delivered some other worldly sounds... finally the owner asked if we wanted to come inside...

Jacob Yergert · From: Centennial, Colorado, USA

I was playing in a punk band in 2016 or so and we got booked for a St Patrick's Day show. March is typically Denver's snowiest month, and that year was no exception.

We'd never played the bar before (it was like a donut shop in the morning and then a pub at night?) It was snowing and about 29 degrees. We showed up and saw a patio with the lights on. "Surely they'll move the gig indoors, right? No one is going to want to stand in the snow."

There was no stage inside. We played in the snow. There was a little triangular-shaped tarp over the top of the stage, so I tried to lay my amp cover over the top of my amp to keep it dry. We had to tune viciously after every single song.

It was wet and terrible. I think we made $60.

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