Members fuzzball Posted August 12, 2004 Members Share Posted August 12, 2004 I thought this may be fun. What has went wrong during our gigs. One time the drummer fell off of his stool, knocked over a cymbol which hit the lead guitarists stomp box and killed it. Another time the bass amp accidently got unpluged. Guitarist fried an amp. I will think of some others and post them later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members miles to go Posted August 12, 2004 Members Share Posted August 12, 2004 At one of my first gigs ever, I was playing bass in a 3 piece band. During a guitar solo, the guitarist got pissed because his guitar wouldn't stay in tune. So he dedided to smash it. (There may have been some alcohol involved in this decision.) So, he whacks it against the stage a few times and then kicks the pieces off to the side - right through my pedal board. So, guitarist down for the count, bassist unplugged... instant drum solo! Pretty much capped off a crap evening. -Erik Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members zookie Posted August 12, 2004 Members Share Posted August 12, 2004 First paying gig after a nearly 7-year hiatus I get to the venue with all my sound gear, struggle to get everything set up with an acoustic duo setup. I had way too much mid-1980's gear: passive speakers, a 16-track Mackie, amps, etc. The speakers weighed a ton and I was tired before I even struck the first chord. Anyone time runs out so we go on without a sound check. We start playing and immediately notice that it just doesn't sound right. It's not nearly loud enough. We get through the first song and I dive down behind the setup to fiddle with the wires. My left channel is dead. There's no time to fix it so we complete the first set with people coming up to tell us it's not loud enough. We take an early break and I look at the amp again and realize the left channel volume knob is turned all the way down. I learned a lesson that evening about how stressing out doesn't help a situation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TheChopsyWanker Posted August 12, 2004 Members Share Posted August 12, 2004 Our band gets pretty crazy at gigs. I decided it would be fun to jump off my 4x12. So, I get up there and do it. As I landed though, my legs gave out (the jump was higher than I expected) and I fell backwards right into my amp. So there I am, sprawled out on the floor and still trying to play. My wireless broke and started cutting out. I managed to temporarily fix it for the rest of the set. At our last show, our bassist clocked me right square in the head with his headstock. He was turned around the other way, and I went to do this massive headbang thing, and that's when he turned around. It's like 2 trains colliding head on. As my head went forward, so did his headstock of his bass...and CRACK. I'm surprised I didn't bleed. It hurt like hell. I've played about 4 or 5 gigs where I've broken a string. I know it doesn't sound that bad, but I have a floating trem so if one string breaks, they all go out of tune. Usually I'll try to cover it up, but damn, it's hard switching chord fingerings and such around on the spot like that to cover it up. Awhile back people were throwing water at a gig. Plus, it was really hot in there, so the combination of sweat and water makes for a slippery situation. As you probably already guessed, I went down mid-song. I still managed to keep everything together though. Our singer apparently was swinging his mic stand at one show. This didn't actually hit me, but he said it literally was in inch away from hitting my head (and you know how hard and heavy those cast iron bases are on those stands). It could have easily cracked my head open. I was a bit pissed about him not paying attention to what he was doing. Earlier at this same show he was swinging his mic, and managed to hit some guy in the face and chipped his front teeth. Damn singers these days... I think that's all the stories I have for now. I'll chime in with more when I remember them. EDIT: Here's another... This happens often when we aren't on a stage and are the same level as the crowd. With the mosh pits going and such, the people standing in front get pushed into us. Quite a few times before, some people fell over my pedalboard, switching channels and effects in the process which turned that part of the song into {censored}. The thing I worried about the most was them breaking the knobs off my pedals. Luckily that never happened. This also ties in with people (bandmates and/or fans) being in the way of my channel/effects switching. It gets rather annoying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members drowse Posted August 13, 2004 Members Share Posted August 13, 2004 Well.. I suppose our last gig might add on to this list.. we get there and the guy who is organizing it tells us that the sound guy is running late.. Eventually he gets there and takes forever to setup.. while all of our gear is lying right in the middle of the room where our show is.. I had problems with the stap on my synth-ax most of the show, and somehow it got unplugged mid-song as well.. but the thing that turned the show worse was the guitarist losing sound from his lowest 3 strings.. something went wrong with his pickup which still has not been fixed.. it was all weird.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members acesclone Posted August 13, 2004 Members Share Posted August 13, 2004 Originally posted by zookie We take an early break and I look at the amp again and realize the left channel volume knob is turned all the way down. I learned a lesson that evening about how stressing out doesn't help a situation. That is FUNNY but REAL common. I alwyas find that if something is not working 99.9999999% of the time it is somthing idiotic like volume turned down, not plugged in, dead batteries. I try to NEVER get stressed when something is not working.....at least until I find the problem THEN I might get stressed LOL! PS. Don't you LOVE it when people are telling you about problems you are already stressing over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fuzzball Posted August 13, 2004 Author Members Share Posted August 13, 2004 One time in a new band the guitarist was really tearing it up in a solo, he started jumping around and the crowd was really digging it, then pop he triped on his guitar cabel, fell on his face and unpluged himself. It was funny as heck, unfortunatly he was the lead guitarist for my band and we were at a gig. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MDLMUSIC Posted August 13, 2004 Members Share Posted August 13, 2004 Last year the keyboardist/sax player/guitarist (don't you hate guys like that) in my oldies show band decided to utilize one of his other talents and ride a unicycle while playing guitar with a wireless unit. We were doing a car show at a fast food joint and his idea was to hide around the corner until it was time for his guitar solo then come whipping out on the unicycle right into the crowd. He practiced it (he said) for a few weeks until he was confident that he could pull it off. So we start the song and hear him come in with the first few notes of the solo then nothing. A minute or so later he comes up and starts playing one-handed keyboard. He had fallen off the unicycle and we later learned that he had broken his left wrist. He had to stick to sax and keyboards for a few months after that stunt. Everytime someone suggests adding something new to the act, I always say "...Well, I had this idea about using a unicycle..." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members FARGreg Posted August 13, 2004 Members Share Posted August 13, 2004 it didn't happen to my band, but I set up a show for a band... It was the first show of their tour, and one of the guitarists had a brand new guitar, I forget what brand but it was a $1000 plus guitar. During their first song the singer was going crazy and managed to get the mic chord around a tuning peg on the guitar and rip the peg (with a chunk of the headstock) off. Nobody noticed until the song was over... What a great way to start off a tour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Scheming Demon Posted August 13, 2004 Members Share Posted August 13, 2004 Back in 1997 the band I was in at the time was touring Europe. At the second show, somewhere in Germany, our guitarist plugs all his gear directly into the outlet with only the adaptor. He didn't go into the transformer. As you may know, Europe's 220 Volts doesn't mix very well with US 110 Volts. You guessed it, he blew everything he had. His amp and all his rack effects. For the rest of the tour he had to borrow one of the rigs from the supporting band, Edguy, who were kind enough to let him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fuzzball Posted August 14, 2004 Author Members Share Posted August 14, 2004 Dang thoes are some roough stories, this is fun. One time at a small self made and promoted battle of the bands (in a garage) with a home made stage I made a big mistake. In front of about 60+ people (small turn out) I decided to clime on top of the garage and later after the song I jumped down, I did not land so well (due to the drinking maybe..). Lets just say that I really messed up my ankel and foot and had to hobble around for the rest of the show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members HirsuteND Posted August 14, 2004 Members Share Posted August 14, 2004 A few years ago we were playing in an Iron Range (MN) town where the place was diehard into Metallica, etc. We played '70's and 80's rock/pop/dance tunes. Basically, they were going to hate us anyway. I got there early and set up the equipment and waited for the rest of the band to show. We get a couple of tunes into the first set and our soundman tells us that it really sounds like {censored} out front. So after set one we start trouble shooting, and I realize that I actually set up everything just fine--EXCEPT I ONLY HAD THE BASS BINS, NOT THE MAINS, PLUGGED IN!!!!! Woops. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Chuckracer Posted August 15, 2004 Members Share Posted August 15, 2004 Oh man, I should write a book. I'm one of those geezers who thinks many parts of Spinal Tap really aren't all that funny! I've played gigs so sick I've had to have a bucket behind my cabs so I could run back a puke every few minutes...crapped my pants onstage...fell off the stage...broke the headstock off a Les Paul by colliding with my bass player...tripped over the moniters and inadvertantly crowd surfed...had {censored} blow up...burn up...be drenched in a downpour...the list goes on! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fuzzball Posted August 16, 2004 Author Members Share Posted August 16, 2004 Holy cow you craped your pants on stage.... That is funny and sad. Man you have some bad luck their. I will see if I can remember anymore bad stuff, but I think that tops all of mine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MDLMUSIC Posted August 16, 2004 Members Share Posted August 16, 2004 Here's another good one.. My oldies band was playing an outdoor concert at a Chili Cook-Off about ten years ago. The organizers decided to hold a wet T-shirt contest. Since the event was held outside, in the middle of August, in the Mojave Desert, the temperature was about 110 degrees and the wet T-shirt contest quickly became the no T-shirt contest. We were playing background music as the topless girls paraded across the stage and the drummer's son, who was 15 at the time, was watching from backstage. He got so excited that he burst a blood vessel in his nose and the drummer had to rush him to the hospital so they could cauterize his nose. He's grown now, but we never let him forget this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fuzzball Posted August 16, 2004 Author Members Share Posted August 16, 2004 That must have been a hot but awsome gig. I have never had people go topless at one of my shows...hmmm wet T-shirt contest + concert...HMMMMM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members murphmusik Posted August 16, 2004 Members Share Posted August 16, 2004 we have had a girl do a chair dance...on the dance floor by herself, before. it was interesting. There was also a time when a girl lit her hair on fire during our set while lighting a cigarette....what's worse is that when she came out of the bathroom after putting it out, we were playing 'Fire' by Jimi Hendrix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TheManichaean Posted August 17, 2004 Members Share Posted August 17, 2004 Awesome posts. My worst was playing a solo version of "Baby Hit Me One More Time" by Britney Spears and having the crowd charge the stage. One chick started running around behind me and the other started banging on the drums in back of me. Good times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Blackwatch Posted August 19, 2004 Members Share Posted August 19, 2004 I was playing a solo gig in between 2 comics at a dinner club, when a guy in the audience became REALLY verbally abusive to one of the girl comics. She was cute so a bunch of us stood up and told the guy to shut up. He picks me out and rushes me. I caught his hands and told the guy to shut the {censored} up, what did he expect.I got him settled down just in time to go on stage with my adrenaline just pumping. While I'm on stage he mouths off to someone else and a big brawl starts. They took him away in handcuffs. And they never asked me back...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Silvertrain Posted August 20, 2004 Members Share Posted August 20, 2004 Singer wraps mic cord around pedal input, singer unplugs pedalboard with mic cord. Dead signal. Singer gets too close to me right before I have to move to go switch a pedal off, boom I hit him in the face with my headstock and I'm outta tune. I saw another band once, their singer managed to break his guitarists cable off at the input, so the input is still stuck in the jack! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 69lespaul Posted August 20, 2004 Members Share Posted August 20, 2004 About 10 years ago, my then band "The Bentwood Rockers" (classic rock of course) were playing a steady gig at a large sports bar. We called the place "tons o' drunks". One night we just finished "La Grange" (in our last set) when this guy staggers up to me (lead vocalist)......I figure he wants a request, so I lean in to hear him better and he yells in my ear at the top of his lungs....Do you guys know any ZZ Toppppppp, and promptly throws up all over my Crate powered monitor my pantlegs, my shoes, my pedals, and pretty much splattered the rest of the band and our instruments in the process. Then he falls first onto his knees, and then onto his face right on the bottom of my mike stand (round metal base type) which wasn't level because of a cord it was sitting on. You guessed it....mike pops me right in the mouth, splitting my lip and badly chipping one of my front teeth. If the bouncer had not known him, I'd have kicked the {censored} out of him while he was laying there. Anyway the manager paid us in full (we couldn't finish obviously) gave us a 75 dollar bonus and free meals for our next 3 gigs there. Sometimes {censored} happens. I still have the monitor. Had it pro-cleaned. Yuck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fuzzball Posted August 21, 2004 Author Members Share Posted August 21, 2004 I am sure I will have more stories soom I am getting a new band together to support my albums. If things go well I will record an album with them. I know this will make for some more great horror stories. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sws bassist Posted August 22, 2004 Members Share Posted August 22, 2004 I broke the a string on my bass on a song where the chourus is all pretty much played on the A so i do the first thing that comes to my head....the octive. Well imagine a dark song with real heavy distortion then imagine the bass line being all on the G string. yea not good. Another show drummer broke around 3 sticks in one song andguitarist broke a strap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fuzzball Posted August 23, 2004 Author Members Share Posted August 23, 2004 HOw do you break a strap?? That must suck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members peter butler Posted August 23, 2004 Members Share Posted August 23, 2004 MDLMUSIC....love the one about the 15 year old & his nosebleed !! Back in the late 70's by band were experimenting with some "visual effects". 1 / Small explosive devices at the front of the stage....at the big moment we all backed away from the from of pyros but....a fan decided to climb on to the stage at that very moment, as he crawled over the stage front, it went off, I thought we had blown his head off or at least some serious injury....not a bit...he was so out of his head on one thing or another he just looked up, shook his head and carried on "head banging" Tonypandy Naval Club, South Wales, U.K 2/ One evening we discovered that dry-ice & leather soled cuban heels don't mix, suffice to say the stage was so wet we could hardly stand up and our singer sliped at one point and we enden up in a very embarrasing heap....aaah the days of Rock n Roll stardom seem very long ago Pete B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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