What's the worst thing that has ever happened to you when playing a live show?
xtremehardy388
Posts: 2,759
I've had a few mis-haps. During one small show, We were playing PJ covers, and during RVM, my delay, flange, phase, and chorus all died on me at once. They went to by-pass (and after that, I went to a power supply). This was way back when I relied on pedals though. During another show, My strings broke when playing too hard. The worst thing though was when my former band and I played a festival called 'Rib Fest'. This was major for us (we are all VERY young for these shows and was the biggest we had played for). We were playing 'Alive' and my strat was wacked a step and a half outta tune during the end solo. I was terrified but made it through it all right. There are my 'horror' stories. Oh, we were practicing for a crowd, debuting a new song and I forgot the song six bars into it. I remembered quick though when we retarted the song.
Grand Rapids '04, Detroit '06
JEFF HARDY AND JEFF AMENT USED TO LOOK THE SAME
"Pearl Jam always eases my mind and fires me up at the same time.”-Jeff Hardy
JEFF HARDY AND JEFF AMENT USED TO LOOK THE SAME
"Pearl Jam always eases my mind and fires me up at the same time.”-Jeff Hardy
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cut my knuckles playing an acoustic and didn't notice until the blood got sticky. looked worse than it was.
played "fuckin' up" without realizing the speakers to the street from the bar were on. not a big deal.
bombed a 7am television appearance.
generally fucked up half the songs i tried to play.
good times.
Blown power tube and transformer
Broken strings
Input wires snapped
Patch cable breaks, and frantic search to find out which one it is
Entire strap button pulled out of guitar
Overhead speaker cables rattled loose, fell down on me and shook me pretty bad
Stood on a drum riser only to have a really hard crash cymbal hit take off a piece of my headstock
Forgot how to play guitar.
I got a little crazy before one of the shows (I don't recommend mixing Patrone & Jose Cuervo - Remember, tequila is NOT your friend before a show). Anyhow, I actually wound up falling off the main stage while playing (this was during the show '03 Lollapalooza Tour).
I think the crowd thought I was attempting to do a stage dive (NOT REALLY). I almost lost my Les Paul to the crowd (luckily the gods of rock smiled on me, and I only lost my hat). I don't recommend this to anyone - kids, don't drink and play
Honestly, breaking strings, having to switch out guitars, having bad patch cables, instrument cables, and mic cables, blown amp tubes and fuses, broken drum heads and drum sticks, or having effects pedal mishaps are all fairly typical problems for the active musician (especially on tour).
Seems like something along these lines happens every few gigs - if not to me or someone in my band, then one of the other bands.
Cheers . . .
- Ian C.T. vom Saal
<b><font color="red">CONTACT ME HERE</font>: www.myspace.com/ianvomsaal</b>
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Oh, no, wait... On time in the backwoods of Kentucky we played a show with NO PA, so in turn we had NO VOCALS!!! It was some 15 year old girls trying to put it together, and they thought of everything except a PA!! It sucked really bad, so we just played an instrumental set. God, that was lame. ...at least we got paid enough to make up for the gas it took to get down there. Needless to say, we wont be going there anymore.
..and IVAN, dont worry brah, it happens to the best of us. LOL
http://www.myspace.com/byproduct
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08/02/07 - LOLLA!!!
DAMN!! OUCH!!
Vedderlution, yes ALWAYS have a back up guitar! *puff* ..sorry for yelling
http://www.myspace.com/byproduct
Should it be the same model? or does it not really matter. I'm just getting into the whole guitar specs and all that
but the feedback worked for the song and I woke up quick...still kinda played
JEFF HARDY AND JEFF AMENT USED TO LOOK THE SAME
"Pearl Jam always eases my mind and fires me up at the same time.”-Jeff Hardy
Dropped my pick three times and had to fumble in my pocket for a new one.
Got ahead myself in a chord progression.
Messed up a solo.
Was slightly out of tune.
Not bad for my first time out!
so, it was about 1 year and 1 month ago, and i just started a new band. we were about halfway through our first parctice in the drummers basement, when i backed up really fast, slammed my back into his ride symbol, which caused me to get spooked and jump side ways. no biggie right? well his basement was very small, and at first i laughed for a second, than i turned my hear. my guitar's neck was about 6 inches into the drywall! luckily, i only needed a new string tree and 2 new tuners.
long story short, we're not a band anymore. for some reason his mom didnt like that i put a hole in their wall:)
True story too
this was a couple years ago during a practice..
I was jumping around.. playing loudly.. in a living room... and alllllllllllllllllllllllmost took the top of my head off via ceiling fan.
*whew*...
http://www.wishlistfoundation.org
Oh my, they dropped the leash.
Morgan Freeman/Clint Eastwood 08' for President!
"Make our day"
There was this one show.
It was a 6 or seven piece ROck/Industrial band (not my cup of beer/tea). I was the only guitar player, and besides the singer/writer, the only one who had any right being in a band. This band had: 1 drummer. 1 drummer Electric drumset. 1 Dat machine playing whole song loops. 1 keyboard playing white noise. then bass and guitar also. The bass player and both drummers were unable to play anything remotely in time with the Loops which dominated the mix.
On the positive side, between me and the singer, their was enough pure intensity and hatred being poured at the audience, that we sorta of scared people into paying attention. I was used to all of this by the time we played our third or fourth show.
the drummer playing the real set got extremely stoned, and was about 40 clicks tempo behind the loops, the electric set drummer had taken 35 minutes trying to get any sound out of his kit besides a snare click, and me and the singer had had enough.
Up on the drum riser, he was sort of screaming part of a song into my face, and sorta pushed the shit out of me, leaving an incredibly long black streak down the neck of my guitar (a rental). So i swung my guitar at his face, hit the mic into his face and sent him off the riser.
Threw the guitar ar the back wall with two songs left.
But like i said, in retrospect, it was sorta fun.
Totally forgot how to play guitar and messed it up bad
lower E went half a step out of tune somehow during a quiet bit when its just strumming on two strings to hear the first note be out of tune and no distorion to cover you was rather embarrasing.
Haven't had a string break yet.. (knock on wood)
"I am ahead, I am advanced, I am the first man to borrow Stones leather pants."
Stone Gossard: Is the height of fashion. More poeple should take note, and learn from a master
http://www.myspace.com/brain_of_c
Same drummer a few months later...didn't show up for a gig that was sponsored and covered by a local radio station. :mad:
old music: http://www.myspace.com/slowloader
I was performing for the mirror earlier, did a windmill and put my right hand through a light fixture.
That hand's going to be out of commission for a few days now.
Lots 'o blood.
Just to make it clear, I'm NOT telling people to go get drunk before a gig - Funny or Not, what happened to me was actually a bad thing (yes it was quite funny - but please don't do it)
- Cheers . . .
- Ian C.T. vom Saal
<b><font color="red">CONTACT ME HERE</font>: www.myspace.com/ianvomsaal</b>
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We were opening for Kansas and our rhythm guitarist is less than stellar and started playing the wrong song. Didn't realize it until about 2 minutes in.
We've had terrible soundchecks and it's been reflected in our shows.
We've had dead crowds
I forgot the lyrics to Last Kiss (except the oohs, at the end) and the crowd was forgiving since they sang it.
I have forgotten the lyrics to my own stuff and had to look at the crowd for the next line
JEFF HARDY AND JEFF AMENT USED TO LOOK THE SAME
"Pearl Jam always eases my mind and fires me up at the same time.”-Jeff Hardy
San Francisco, California 07-18-2006
Mountain View, California 10-19-1996
San Jose, California 11-04-1995
San Francisco, California 06-24-1995
I was playing drums one time and smashed my knuckle on the snare and was bleeding pretty bad. Not really willing to stop i kept playing. Trouble was it wasnt my kit... :oops:
Great post to bring back btw!!!
last show my rotosphere was cutting out. i would have to bend down, unplug it, plug it back in, and pray that my rig would work for the rest of the show. not sure why that was happening but it seems fine now.
i have started songs with guitars in an alternate tuning.
when changing guitars i put my headstock through one of those lights with the red film on it. i poked a nice hole in it and had normal white light shining on me instead of the nice red one.
our bass player did a mega rockjump from the drumriser and landed on our bucket of beer that we keep on the stage and he smashed them. it was like a liquid explosion and we all got wet. he is really lucky he did not cut himself.
our drummer forgot his throne and had to play a show in a barchair. one time he forgot his high hat stand or other cymbol stands and had to rush to go buy new ones.
i had a moron dump a whole drink on my pedal board at a show. it cut out for a time but fortunately i was able to get through the show with a very sticky pedalboard.
i dropped one of my les pauls and broke the headstock. it was in the case at the time too.
my 1974 marshall jmp head fell off of my cabinet when we were loading out one time. it broke the power tubes but all of the parts are still vintage and original.
one of the bands we play with were playing and the bass started to sound funny, then it cut out. we turned around and the bass head was on FIRE! they put it out, but it was ruined. looking back it was pretty funny, but pretty scary at the time.
the worst thing to ever happen to me was new years eve 2008. we were playing with a band that we are very good frineds with and we were playing a game of one upmanship. they would buy us a round of nasty shots and we would return the favor trying to get them a worse shot than what they got us. this went on for what must have been 8 or 9 rounds. i had not eaten because i went to the gig straight from work so i got very drunk quickly with the mixing of these shots, beer and champagne. when i play i come to the very edge of the stage because i am kinda like mike and like to play to the crowd. well during a song during our set i began to get a little dizzy so i went to walk back to my normal spot near my board away from the edge and someone held on to my guitar cable and pulled it and i fell down off the stage and into the crowd. i landed on my feel luckily and did not land on anyone and nothing happened to my gear but i got lost and it took me a good 30 seconds to get back on stage and figure out where we were inthe song. i am not very proud of that moment and it was really embarrassing for me and for our band. as a result, i did not drink at shows for 4 months. now i am very careful about drinking at shows. so for all of you younger people out there take it from me and ian, be careful of how much you drink on stage. this is the only time i ever had a problem with drinking and playing and we look back on it and laugh now, but at the time it was a very serious problem for me and my band. we nearly got fired over it. the venue could have gotten sued over it too. the guys in the band refer to it as "the failed stage dive"...
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
We have aquired an old, cheap 70s organ a while ago and that thing gets every soundman bitching and cursing. Another awkward moment was when our singer/guitar player's guitar head somehow got stuck on my belt during some wilder action on a very small stage. Had to finish the song that way and must've looked like complete idiots. Once I had to take a pedal off the board during a show and plugged the wha back in with the connections the wrong way. That was quite a sound! Think the seagull-like tones on Floyd's 'Echoes' in LOUD.
Oh, and I second the Don't-get-(too)-drunk! advice.
Other than that, just the usual stuff that has been mentioned before, but I can remenber only one time where I managed to break a string on stage, but that wasn't too bad cause I had a backup guitar.
i have a story kinda like that but it's too gross to repeat. it involved not a ceiling fan, but an exhaust fan and a rat. and bad timing at turning it on when it was getting too smokey near us.
it's scarred me for life. i shit you not.
The drinking thing also applies. Playing drunk helps my voice (I put salt in my wine so it coats my voice) but I have to make sure I'm hydrated too. I get very...interesting on stage.
Last summer, I played a show, in the rain, and ruined my Univox vintage amp. Thanfully, I bought it for 20 bucks and got that + some from some guitar shop.
I get hella stage fright, too. Usually, my band has to put me on stage, physically. Still, I get through the stuff.
You all have some AWESOME stories that are really interesting and funny, AFTER the initial incident has happened. I guess it's true...
"You'll laugh about this, someday!"
JEFF HARDY AND JEFF AMENT USED TO LOOK THE SAME
"Pearl Jam always eases my mind and fires me up at the same time.”-Jeff Hardy