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We had a pretty crazy/scary show last night.


Loobs

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We put a show on last night at a venue our bass player runs events for in Camberwell, South-East London. Anyway, we opened and played a fun, relatively tight set. It was very DIY/floor show kinda thing so the PA was pretty {censored}ty, with no fold-backs at all. The sound onstage was dismal, to say the least.

Second band of the night Polio (who are awesome, fans of punk/heavy music check take note) go on, play a couple of songs and are pretty much rocking. Anyway, after the third or so song their frontman/guitarist says into the mic that he's just been electrocuted, but sort of just laughs it off. No one thinks too much about it. Next thing I know, he's on the floor, convulsing. I heard sparks, and his hands were gripped to the mic stand, unable to let go. It took like three people to get him off of it. Finally after what seemed like forever, they shut the power for all the electrics off and called the ambulance. He's a big man and as he collapsed from the shock (presumably through the microphone?) smashed the top of his head into the corner of an Orange 4x12. Here's a picture of the wound after stitching:

http://instagram.com/p/S_3BSQNHcQ/

We called the paramedics straight away, and he was up and walking after a few minutes, albeit extremely disorientated and shaken. His hands had burns on them from where he had touched the mic/stand. It was {censored}ing SCARY. The atmosphere in the room as it happened was nuts, everyone screaming. I think the dude should feel extremely lucky he didn't die or something.

Yeah, so after all that we went to the pub and drank a lot of beer.

KSB.

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Quote Originally Posted by guitardustin

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That's intense man. It was probably a pretty low volt AC shock as he stuck to the source and convulsed. If it was high volt DC it would have thrown him off and could have ended in cardiac arrest. That coulda sucked even more...

 

Yeah. I have no real knowledge of stuff like this, and neither does anyone else who was there so we could only speculate on what the cause may have been. I'm assuming it was either through the guitar or microphone.
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Quote Originally Posted by IRG

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Damn, I say he was lucky. Not sure I would want to play that venue after that experience.

 

Yeah. We've played there twice before and never had any problems. I'm not sure I'm keen to play there again though.
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Quote Originally Posted by Loobs

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Yeah. I have no real knowledge of stuff like this, and neither does anyone else who was there so we could only speculate on what the cause may have been. I'm assuming it was either through the guitar or microphone.

 

I'm not sure of the details but it's when the mic, through the PA, and the guitar, through the amp, are connected to different ring mains. They usually short when the fingers are on the strings and the lips hit the mic grille.
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I have been in one situation where we were sound checking for an outdoor gig and we could see a thunderstorm building up in the horizon, and my microphone was properly electrically charged... and as I would approximate my headstock/guitar strings to it you could see the sparks connecting both.... our bass player said he would not play in that situation... and it took longer than it should have to move the gig to an indoor location....

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I've seen the blue arc between the mic and my lips more than once, it'll wake you up.
I carry a $5.00 outlet tester to check the AC outlets, it'll tell you there's a grounding problem.
it usually only happens at places where gigs rarely happen because any place that holds gigs regularly will have the power problems figured out.
the promoter of any gig should be careful of this {censored} if they want to avoid a lawsuit.
another good reason to hire a pro to do sound.

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I got blasted by a microphone at a gig once, sitting in with a friends band at a place in NY had my hand on the strings grabbed the mic to adjust it just as I was supposed to start the verse "The Thr...........ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!!!!!!.....The Thrill is Gone will always remind me of that, I'm just glad I didn't {censored} my pants in front of a bar full of people.

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I knew a guy who was killed due to faulty equipment on stage. Usually its the {censored}ty little pubs/venues that have the dodgy wiring. I always use RCD plugs on my gear that will pick up an earth fault and trip the supply out.

 

Seriously, if anybody gets a tingle or a jolt whilst on stage then just put your instrument down and get the {censored} off stage until its sorted........

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