What is the most irritating thing that another member of your band has done during a show? Last Saturday, my drummer left his rug at home, so we tried to improvise by using a large rubber car mat. After the first song we realized we had a problem when his set was two feet away from him. The part that sucks was that I had to plant my right foot in front of his bass drum to prevent him from sliding anymore. I had to spend an entire hour and a half set having my calf muscle torn off because my drummer can't remember his gear.

My drummer used to slow down sometimes. Nothing else has really gotten on my nerves. Screwing up is pretty funny to me.

Stop in the middle of a song because he couldn't hear us.


:D

Dropping his drum sticks...

We keep telling him we're going totie his sticks to a bit of string run up his sleave, across the back and down the other arm - like you had to stop you loosing your mittens when you were a kid.

He keeps about 3 sets of sticks clipped to various parts of his kit so he can grab them quickly - still two songs into a set, he's keeping the beat with one hand, while scabbling round on the floor trying to find a stick, cause he's dropped 5 sticks in 2 songs!!!!

Ian

We used to have a drummer like that. It was annoying because you'd hear him dropping the beat, and then you'd turn around to see that he was feeling around the floor for his other stick. It happened ALL THE TIME. Don't really miss that guy too much.

My guitarist and I have set up a benefit show for Tomorrows Hope every for the last 4 years.

This past Saturday was the show, 20 bands, two stages back and forth... no down time, 1pm until Midnight.

Anyway, my band played around 10 that night, we were short 1 guitar player (went to the hospitol for a fever that he had for like 4 days) which in my eyes under normal circumstances would be enough not to play it. Since we put it together and it's for a good cause we still played

My guitar player (who also helped set up the show), wanted to use both his Peavey 6505+ and Marshal 1960A cab as well as our other guitarists Peavey XXXL and Traynor TS-98 cab.

We set up and he leaves the amp alone not even seeing if it works right. Sets change, it's our turn to bring the rock... he turns off the standby and it starts feeding back horribly.

He kept trying different ways and still kept feeding back... he even had the hush noise supressor on it... then added another one in front of the other amp.

Still feedback... I told him it wasn't going to work and he doesn't need 240 tube watts for guitar anyway.

Well he dinked around for 15 minutes with the whole crowd of a couple hundred people watching and hearing his loud feedback.

I didn't even want to be on stage after that.

Either way, I was upset and really didn't want to be there anymore. Not only was it annoying and he didn't check and double check before just waiting to play, but he embarassed us all and made us all look very unprofessional.

Things are cool now.

The things guitar players do sometimes.

UGH

Peace

-Benny

noone in my band has done anything like the replies in this thread. they make little mistakes, but thats ok, i make them too sometimes and we still sound good.

Good lord this seems moderate. During a session once our drummer got incredibly drunk, not like oh hes drunk, like hes going to die drunk. He couldnt even talk and hes a big guy, almost 300 pounds.

Its basically the singer and drummer both get insanely drunk at shows but what are you gonna do, its punk rock.

The little screwups don't really annoy me unless it's just blatant disregard for showmanship, like getting tanked before playing, though I gotta admit even those are funny, even while I'm chewing their asses out afterwards.

I had one gig where we were doing a favor for a friend, playing for a bunch of drunken barbeque guys, and though the set was decided beforehand the guitard had a habit of changing it up on the fly, so at one point he called out the next song and our keys player didn't notice, so the band went one direction (an original up tempo piece) and the keys player went into some cheezy organ riff of You Can't Always Get What You Want. Luckily that band was good at thinking on its feet, and within a measure the rest of us had covered our bases and shifted over to the right key. Later on we got several compliments on that crazy new intro we thought up for the song. :D

My singer says the stupidest things to the audience. Last show it seemed like he was having a little fit because people werent screaming loud enough. He was getting all puffed up and yelled at the audience because of it.

I wanted to body slam him off the stage.

http://a578.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/4/m_5d00f4b9d27fa56cbbe189df7a14ed19.jpg

This was actually pretty funny:
It happened in practice, not a gig. My old band was playing through some stuff one night when the guitar palyers girlfriend called. Anyway, his phone vibrated in his pocket so he stopped playing right in the middle of the damn song! :eek: He runs out of the room to talk to her.
We all yelled at him but it didn't do any good. So I got on the mic and the drummer picked up the guitar and the singer got on the drums and we started playing an obnoxiously loud, chromatic, death metal rif. Double bass srums, thundering low B bass and guitar (the guitard had a seven string). And I was screaming cookie monster type vocals into the mic. I was making the lyrics up as I went along but it was something like...
"Get off the phone! Get off the phone! Get off the phone! Your girlfriend calls and you drop your d_ _ _. I F_ _ _ _ _ _ g hate you, you make me sick! You really suck and she ruined our band. We would be better off if you would just f_ _ _ your hand...GET OFF THE PHONE!!!! GET OFF THE PHONE!!!" Of course we were all good friends and none of his was meant maliciously. We always gave each other a hard time about aqnything and everything. And we picked on him about her all the time.
But we were all laughing so hard that it was difficult to maintain the playing. And screaming in that low, death metal style kills my throat, so I started coughing all over the place. That just madethe other guys laugh harder. And the whole time the guitard is standing outside of our practice space giving us all the finger and throwing rocks at us.
It was hilarious. It bacame a total inside joke too. Anytime after that, when she would call him; regardless of where we were or what we were doing; we would break into the "Get off the phone" song.

I just laugh at them...until I screw up. Then they laugh at me.

For the longest time the lead guitarist would bitch at the rhythm guitarist about his tone and volume. He was usually right, but of course he has a wicked case of hypocrititis. I've noticed more and more that as we're playing he constantly gets louder, to the point where you can't hear the singer clearly and it sounds like crap. When he does little high register licks it's like someone punched you in the face.

Last night we were working on a new track and he and the singer (who's also the best guitarist in the group so we're giving him lead for this song while the female backup takes the vocals) play a few parts and leads in unison. After the unison parts when they were both playing it sounded like crap. WAY too much going on, too much distortion, and he was so friggin loud I couldn't make out what the singer was saying. After I tell him he's gotta back off the distortion and turn down... so he starts bitching about the tone when I'm playing because I'm going direct into the PA.

"When you're playing it sounds like everythings being run through a compressor and sucking the juice out of it." Sorry buddy, but no. I know it takes a lot of juice to drive bass, but if he can't keep his stuff in check when I'm though the PA, it's gonna be WORSE when I'm not. He's quick to bitch at the other guitarist, but apparently can't take the critisizm when his levels are out of control.

And he NEVER uses his volume pedal. It's there for a friggin reason, USE IT. Keep the volume in check, then kick it up for solos. I like the guy, but damn man.

1. tuning the guitar between every song, it's seldom really out of tune
2. noodling really loud bs on the guitar at practice when people are trying to communicate vocally, shows lack of respect to your bandmates

Our drummer thinks its a wonderful thing to full time between songs with a drum solo. Not a nice little groove that I can join in with him on, while the guitarist changes a string or re-sets an effect or whatever. No. I mean, he suddenly thinks he's Buddy Rich. But he's not, you know?

And he gets so absorbed in it, he forgets to stop when the guitarist is ready, and we have to get his attention.

's very annoyin'.

We don't get too annoyed with each other over mistakes, 'cept maybe tempo. T

hey get aggravated when I get too deep in the groove and forget to watch for the "song is ending" cue. Sometimes we have longer guitar leads than others, or when we have our sax and harp guys sitting in, the songs can take directions different from how we usually do them.

Cherie

I have gone through 4 drummers

First one rarely showed up, cuz he would jump at the opportunity to make other plans and ditch us
second one doesnt show up because hes lazy and doesnt care about music
third one sucked
fourth one was exactly like the first one all over again...

all 4 of them play loudly when we are trying to talk, or are on the phone. they think it is funny.

So apparently from my experiences.. drummers dont give a **** about being musicians where i live.

Me and my guitarist gave up for now. we arent in a band at the moment. JUST because we cant find a single devoted drummer and we are sick of their ****.

(i mean no offense to devoted drummers as i am sure there are many of them)

Our drummer is 100% legally blind, so when he drops the sticks, its a major problem!

This rarely happens though. He's a fantastic drummer... better than all the other sighted drummers I've played with previously.

don't like it when people don't practise and then half-*** it on the gig...very visibly.

Our guitard routinely starts songs in the wrong key. I have taken to calling out the song key before we start. He just looks at me and mouths "Thanks". He knows he's guitarded. Can't really get mad at him though, he does all the lead vocals and plays guitar in a 3 piece band, so he is very talented, IMO, just a little lax on paying attention to the key. Plus he has to switch guitars to suit the tune, check the pedals and the vocal harmonizer, so he has more to remember than the other two of us, so we cut him some slack. Best to work together, right?

so I should preface this by stating that I love my drummer. both as a musician and as a friend. But this thread is hilarious. I've dealt with each one of these issues with my current band. My favorite is the forgotten drum rug, I've done the quick stomp in front of the kick drum to keep the kit from moving, but lately we just steal a floor matt the closest doorway. We live in VT, so in the winter this can cause some sloppy salt/snow buildup in the drum corner, oh well. The dropped stick issue, makes me laugh everytime. The drummer (I'll refer to him as J) has the uncanny ability to only find his fallen sticks with 1 eye closed. perhaps the force? but he rarely drops or misses the beat while searching for the stick. What he does do, is take tempo's that are fast and make them faster. We do a fair share of afrobeat and techno type grooves, and we're off to the races. J has the skills to lay down these super fast beats, but at least one time per gig he gets ahead of himself and falters. makes me laugh everytime, dude goes from kicking considerable ass to sucking in about 0.1 seconds and then back again.

I didn't mean for this to be a band bashing thread. It seems like everybody here has some real pent up frustration. With that being said, my drummer does a couple of other lousy things. He always drops his sticks, but the big problem is the fact that he is literally half deaf, so he drums extra hard to hear himself. I do give him credit, even though he has a very hard time hearing our singer, he manages to keep up with any changes that we might encounter throughout the song. If we miss a verse, he is always in the right spot.

speaking of drummers dropping sticks. ours, on the rare occasion that he does drop one, sometimes almost gets hit in the face with it. ive seen him do it a couple of times in practice, and i start laughing so hard i start messing up.
to his credit, i dont think hes ever done it live, and he almost always keeps the beat going good and proper while he finds it.

Our rhythm guitarist always brings his laptop to rehearsal and patches it into the PA so we can spot check certain cover tunes if we need to, but he seems to think it's to be used to provide sound clips for his amusement whenever we're not actually playing a song (such as when the drummer and I are talking about the timing of a cue or when the lead guitarist is describing the chord voicings he's improvising). We're trying to communicate and all of a sudden there's "Kung Fu Fighting" or "Monster Mash" or "Every Rose Has its Thorn" blasting out of the PA for no ******* reason. I've told him to knock it off, but he apparently can't help himself.

My friend's band has a recurring problem with their guitar player in that he sometimes spazzes out in front of a crowd. He's always nervous and just stands in the corner looking at his feet (never making eye contact with the audience) while playing very conservatively so as not to make a mistake, and if he does make a mistake he sometimes loses control of himself. I've seen him throw a temper tantrum and hurl his guitar across the stage and walk off. I also saw him once play a set and at the end he took the microphone away from the singer and made an anouncement to the audience that he was apologizing on behalf of the band for such a bad performance (because he screwed up a few notes on one of the solos). :eek: :scowl:

I thought the rest of the band was going to murder him on the spot.

I was watching one of my bandmates from the audience when it happened. It was college night at church, where the college group puts together the evening service to talk about what they've been doing. The singer/guitarist was wearing a headset mic. He usually doesn't. He dropped his pick, bent over and dropped the S-bomb.

Is there an s-bomb? At church there is.

I never lose sight of the fact that it I'm not mistake-free, so most of the times I smile when it happens to any of my bandmates, but this (http://media.putfile.com/Mistake-71) really pissed me off. I couldn't believe it. It was the beginning of the first tune of the concert (and it was a big and special gig for us). Look at it this way: His first chord of the night was a BIG dump. I only told him my feelings the next day since I think that complaining at a gig isn't a good idea, but I really wanted to make him wear his guitar as a necktie.

Where does this mistake take place? I didnt hear anything too bad. Also, as it's titled Mistake-71, do you have 70 other videos with mistakes?

Where does this mistake take place? I didnt hear anything too bad. Also, as it's titled Mistake-71, do you have 70 other videos with mistakes?

He, he... no, man. It's just a number that PutFile adds to the original filenames.

The tune moves between Bm and A. The first chord that the guitarist should play is a B5, but instead he played an A5 while the keyboardist plays a B minor. Not that both chords collide horribly, but that feels like throwing a bucket of cold water on all of us who know (and like) the tune.

Guitard arranged a gig, arranged a good price.

We play the gig.

Its rammed, I mean people dancing on tables total groove carnage.
Absolute blinder, the bar made a tonne of cash. Great! Everyone is super happy.

Turns out he forgot to pick up the cash, by the time he went back to sort it out the management had forgotten - it took him weeks - and refused to pay (understandably IMO)

I left the band shortly after!

I was watching one of my bandmates from the audience when it happened. It was college night at church, where the college group puts together the evening service to talk about what they've been doing. The singer/guitarist was wearing a headset mic. He usually doesn't. He dropped his pick, bent over and dropped the S-bomb.

Is there an s-bomb? At church there is.

LOL!!! I play at church all the time so this is cracking me up, LOL. I'm sure it was not funny at the time (or might have been) Nice. :p

I was playing a professional theater gig in Philadelphia. Even though I was 19, I didn't drive yet. There was a rehearsal on the afternoon of the first day, before the show that night. My dad picked me up, and took me out to dinner, to celebrate how I was now a real professional musician.

On the way back from dinner, he miscalculated the distance to the theater, and dropped me off 2 blocks away. I hung out by the back door, and decided to smoke a cigarette (I figured my dad had gone home to NJ directly). He did not know that I smoked. So there I am, being cool, having a cigarette by the back stage entrance, and who pulls up through the alley next to the theater? That's right, my Dad. He only said "drop the cigarette, we'll talk about this when you get home".

Having my dad catch me smoke was disasterous. I messed up so bad that I mis-tuned 2 of the 4 strings on the bass (my dad had let me borrow his 1964 Fender Jazz, which made everything worse), and didn't realize it was mistuned (all the way through sound check) until the opening number, where I quickly tuned it correctly.

I hate drummers/bands that play too loud. How can you tell if you sound good if you're so damned loud you can't hear anything?

The drummer I've played with mostly is so loud you HAVE to wear earplugs.


In a similar vein:
Bands who don't bother/care to EQ themselves so you can hear everything. Especially bad when some members are not open to try new things - like when a guitarist decides on "their sound" and won't change, even though that "sound" was decided upon while playing alone, even though this is usually WAY different from what would sound good with all the other instruments at the same time.
It's especially bad as a bass player - if someone is invading some of your frequency range, you have to sort of EQ AROUND them. Just great.

...my drummer left his rug at home,

Your drummer should always bring a hat. or glue that rug down. :D

I would never bring a rug to a gig. They are heavy and take up room in the van. Have your drummer fashion some heavy duty twisted wire. 3-5/16" works fine (Guide wires used on garage doors. found at home depot) to the legs of his bass drum to the legs of the drum seat. That bass drum isnt going anywhere anymore. Its a great anchoring system. Create the length needed, fold over the end to create a loop and use metal wire ties. Use metal hiking clamps to attach. Folds right up and fits in a gig bag

I hate drummers/bands that play too loud. How can you tell if you sound good if you're so damned loud you can't hear anything?

The drummer I've played with mostly is so loud you HAVE to wear earplugs.


In a similar vein:
Bands who don't bother/care to EQ themselves so you can hear everything. Especially bad when some members are not open to try new things - like when a guitarist decides on "their sound" and won't change, even though that "sound" was decided upon while playing alone, even though this is usually WAY different from what would sound good with all the other instruments at the same time.
It's especially bad as a bass player - if someone is invading some of your frequency range, you have to sort of EQ AROUND them. Just great.

Yes I really dislike this. I am blessed with a wonderful band that actually cares about this. Of course my guitarist (yup guitarist not guitard) is a sound engineer so he wants it to sound it's best. It's nice that others take acoustics and eq accordingly. Really makes it easier on me as well to not have to EQ around them.

My guitar player also sings in our band. He has a bit of stage fright and to combat it, he used to get completely hammered before shows. He'd end up trying to tell stupid jokes to the audience and stuff between songs... it was awful, and embarrassing. He's a total scatter-brain as well, so he'll be looking right at you while your talking and then when you're in mid sentence, he'll just start f'ing around on his guitar loud as hell over your voice. Impossible to keep his attention.

It's also pretty tough when band-mates don't practice their parts on their own, outside of practice. I get so frustrated when they come to practice and are still struggling with things we worked out at the last practice.

2. noodling really loud bs on the guitar at practice when people are trying to communicate vocally, shows lack of respect to your bandmates

+1

This is a stabbing offence.

One time my guitarist decided to randomly do an exteneded guitar solo, for like 7 minutes or so. I kicked hime out. That crap makes me nuts.

Mistakes happen and are usually no big deal.
A few things do bug me tho...:hmm:

Guitarist stopping in the middle of a song to tune/ mess with effects settings.

Guitarist running a GR-33 through a 1000 watt poweramp in a small bar at absolutely crushing volume levels.

Guitarist singing along (badly out of key) during songs.

Guitarist ragging on bandmates for mistakes they make - thru the mike, during a set.

Guitarist not following the agreed upon set list. Starting songs he wants to play, when he wants to play them - again, during gigs.

Bear in mind, this is the same guy doing this, night after night...lol...the second we find a replacement, his a** is gone:D

Drummers dropping beats, people playing out of key, keryboard players with ridiculously bad patches on their sounds, it's all fun fun fun in the world of live music! :p

I never lose sight of the fact that it I'm not mistake-free, so most of the times I smile when it happens to any of my bandmates, but this (http://media.putfile.com/Mistake-71) really pissed me off. I couldn't believe it. It was the beginning of the first tune of the concert (and it was a big and special gig for us). Look at it this way: His first chord of the night was a BIG dump. I only told him my feelings the next day since I think that complaining at a gig isn't a good idea, but I really wanted to make him wear his guitar as a necktie.


Yeah, I hear the mistake, but overall you guys should be proud of yourselves. You (and your band) are incredible. That is one of the best cover versions of an obscure Floyd song I've ever heard.

Do you do other Floyd stuff? Where can I hear some of your other files?

My band takes all its mistakes in stride. I tried playing Tuesday's Gone one night on my fretless and overshot a glissando move. The singer forgot some words and the guitarist and drummer had a glitch or so each. After the gig, we jokingly went around admitting our mistakes and had a laugh about it. Everything was cool after that, but it shows that everyone listens and knows what needs to be fixed.

I **** up way more then my band mates. But its cool. Thats punk rock

When my band mates screw up, I make sure to point it out on the mic. We try not to mess up much, but it does end up with some much needed comic relief.

Intonation is a pet peeve. And I've definitely been "that guy" at shows by having had a little more to drink than I realized. Oops!

Yeah, I hear the mistake, but overall you guys should be proud of yourselves. You (and your band) are incredible. That is one of the best cover versions of an obscure Floyd song I've ever heard.

Do you do other Floyd stuff? Where can I hear some of your other files?

Thank you so much, man! :) We did "One Of These Days", "Young Lust", "Hey You" and "Comfortably Numb". Here are other short video clips from the same concert (November '04):

http://media.putfile.com/Neck-bend

http://media.putfile.com/Fretless-69 (:D For this one, I joined the original Roger Waters live video with our version because of the (sort of) coincidence. You'll notice it. And it was unintentional!)

I used to play in a band that we charged $5.00 for live screw up's. Seriously, and if you showed up late to practice $10.00 (no shows also $10.00). It didn't happen much after we started using the money for equipment (had close to $500.00 in one year) Dicipline and dedication young ones.

Long Story...
...believe it or not, my guitarist doesn't know how to set up his amp anymore.he used to use a Boss GT-8 processor, until it got stolen, then he went to an elaborate pedal setup that my drummer helped him make out. When we were recently in the studio our producer said that his distortion sucked (Boss Metalzone) and set up his head distortion channel for him (Peavy 5150). So when we got back from the studio I showed him how to setup his rigg so he could use his amp distortion and run his effects through the loop so they could be shut off. BIG MISTAKE, now he comes to me at every show wanting me to help set up his rig.

Guitarists, gotta love:mad:

I used to play in a band that we charged $5.00 for live screw up's. Seriously, and if you showed up late to practice $10.00 (no shows also $10.00). It didn't happen much after we started using the money for equipment (had close to $500.00 in one year) Dicipline and dedication young ones.

Great advise by the way, maybe Ill charge him $20 to set up.

:D:DIm in a band with four other school mates (were all 16) and sometimes in practices it really hacks me off when, for instance, our singer is talking bowt his new song, telling our drummer and me how he wants the rhythm to be and sitting behind us is bloody Logan (one of our guitar players) with the master volume on his Fender Valveking at 6 (which is bloody loud in the small room we practice in) trying to play really high riffs and solos over the top of us.

Really hacks me off but hey thats life its hard not to play an instrament when youre holding it!
But i think that discipline in practices' ie not playing when someone else is talking or tuning via tuner mic, is someting that is very important to establish in a band right at the beginning! :bassist: :D

Thats my 5 cents worth!!

Im in a band, i play bass and sing, and i constantly have to deal with these 2 guitards that feel like every time we stop and i tell them to take it from the top, its solo partytime. The only was i can get them to stop is if i just jam and let them have a solo battle. it makes me want to kick somethin.

I'm in a couple of jazz combos and large group at my college, and we always have problems with one of our guitarists.


We have two, instead of having a piano..

anyway, every day at practice, the instructor has to tell this one guitarist to stop playing between songs. Of course hes turned all the way up. The worst part is hes playing a hollowbody epiphone, so even witht he volume down you can sort of hear yourself quietly to practice a lick or something.

Also, in jazz charts he drops the form, plays 12 bars instead of 16, or 32.... It gets very frustrating for me since i have put in the effort to get the charts memorized, and he can't even read the music and follow it. Luckily the drummer and I are used to it, so we can usually cover it up and end together.

We have the same problem with our mandolin player. He is very good musically, but as far as playing when he shouldn't, or being too loud...its just crazy. I honestly walked out on tuesday because i've had enough of this stuff.

Oh, and changing things last minute right before a gig. I mean, most people can handle this, but when you don't have a grasp on the song in the first place, changing things and then forgetting them in the song just doesn't cut it.

Meh, at least i'm transferring.

I've done plenty....but....since we're mostly slam'in drummers I want in on it....We recently did some shows in So. Dokota, at the last show while loading up the bus in the dark, our drummer left his cymbal cases somewhere near the bus? This was discovered the next night while setting-up....in Minn.

We're beginning to get hacked off with our singer in a rock covers band I play with.

He's always going on about how he's been a semi-pro for the last 40 years but he can never remember what he's meant to be singing and coming in at the wrong point during/before/after a solo/middle 8 It wouldn't be quite so bad but he has one of those bigass music stands right in front of him

We're trying to communicate and all of a sudden there's "Kung Fu Fighting" or "Monster Mash" or "Every Rose Has its Thorn" blasting out of the PA for no ******* reason. I've told him to knock it off, but he apparently can't help himself.

Sorry but I found that funny.
I know someone playing guitar while you're trying to talk is very annoying, I had a wanky guitar player who did exactly that, you'd have to shout him 4 or 5 times even though he knew you were calling him.

But that, just sounds funny. I think its the "apparently can't help himself" bit - just like he HAS to do it and it makes him buzz. Awesome

Long Story...
...believe it or not, my guitarist doesn't know how to set up his amp anymore.he used to use a Boss GT-8 processor, until it got stolen, then he went to an elaborate pedal setup that my drummer helped him make out. When we were recently in the studio our producer said that his distortion sucked (Boss Metalzone) and set up his head distortion channel for him (Peavy 5150). So when we got back from the studio I showed him how to setup his rigg so he could use his amp distortion and run his effects through the loop so they could be shut off. BIG MISTAKE, now he comes to me at every show wanting me to help set up his rig.

Guitarists, gotta love:mad:

"Teach a man to fish..."

speaking of drummers dropping sticks. ours, on the rare occasion that he does drop one, sometimes almost gets hit in the face with it. ive seen him do it a couple of times in practice, and i start laughing so hard i start messing up.
to his credit, i dont think hes ever done it live, and he almost always keeps the beat going good and proper while he finds it.

Maybe my drummer would be more careful if it were himself getting hit!

Its a running joke in our band...The bassist needs body armour. And a foxhole!

Never fails...I get hit by "friendly fire" at least once a gig. It just, like, you know...happens. Not every time, but never less than once, and sometimes three or more. Depends on whether he's been drinkin', and what he's been drinkin'.

One night, he threw sticks on purpose, but not at me. We had a regionally-well-known country singer come up on stage with us. Without permission. He was *extremely* drunk. He was screwing up our show, and our drummer began throwing sticks at the guy, trying to get him to shut up. I took the guy's elbow and said to him, "Get off the stage before B.J. quits using his sticks and starts using his fists on you." Singer begins to argue with me. "BOY, I mean RIGHT NOW!!! MOVE YOUR A##"

That was that. :smug:

Cherie :bassist:

I typically don't say anything. Everybody screws up at some point.

There have been a few instances when it was ridiculous though. The band I was in we kicked out the drummer because he couldn't keep a beat.
The lead singer would drink too much and lose his place during songs.
The lead guitarist on a few occasions would also drink a little too much and think that he was a virtuoso. He would turn up his amp drown everybody out, play lead through the entire song and in the process would piss off the audience and the band.

We're a very friendly and cooperative band. If someone screws up a song it's never that big a deal, and we can laugh about it after the gig. We do stay pretty sober, and if something happens it won't be due to drink.

Now, in certain towns our drummer likes to have a toke with his old pals, and we can always tell. He normally has great time, but on those occasions tempos will be noticeably (to us) slower than usual. When we point it out afterwards he's always surprised. "Yeah? Really?".

We've learned to cover for each other, too. Our guitarist insists on using an old Ibanez Time Machine analog delay, which for some undetermined reason will cut out completely at random times. If that happens the drummer and I just keep on pushing while he re-cables on the fly. Same thing if he breaks a string and has to change guitars.

Our singer will sometimes get too caught up in communicating with the audience, and come in on the wrong beat. We're sufficiently tight to just shoot each other a glance and turn the beat around within the bar to accommodate him. Most listeners never even notice. The worst thing that's happened was one night when he was really into it, shaking his head to and fro until he lost his sense of balance and came an ignominious cropper, nearly bringing the guitar stack down. But our rapport with the audience is folksy and intimate rather than showy, and we managed to turn it into something funny.

When I joined this band I certainly hit my share of bum notes before learning the arrangements by heart. The guys were very gracious about it, and would take the time to go through songs with me at the hotel after the gig. I've only had an equipment problem once, years ago, when one of the long retaining screws had dropped out of my amp chassis unnoticed, and my signal kept cutting out because of the vibrations. An easy fix, but as we all know, if the bottom goes the gig is shot.

It annoys me when guitarists constantly moan about not being able to hear themselves and keep turning themselves up and up so all you can hear is guitar.

I've experienced this in every band i've ever been in, bar 1, and it really infuriates me. Guitarists seem to have a problem understanding the concept of a band mix(both onstage and through the PA), and that everyone else also needs to be able to hear themselves and be heard too.

It annoys me when guitarists constantly moan about not being able to hear themselves and keep turning themselves up and up so all you can hear is guitar.

I've experienced this in every band i've ever been in, bar 1, and it really infuriates me. Guitarists seem to have a problem understanding the concept of a band mix(both onstage and through the PA), and that everyone else also needs to be able to hear themselves and be heard too.

Yea. I had to yell at the guitarists last night because the rhythm and lead were fighting for who had lead volume and it sounded like crap.

Haha you think that's bad for a drummer to do? First gig with my new band, drummer comes to soundcheck, all good, "sweet see you guys later"
A week ago.
Haven't seen him since, he's ****ed off up north somewhere.

I usually just laugh my #@! off when it happens during a set. Usually no one really knows anyone messed up except the band mates, it's always a fun time. I mean, is music really worth it if it's not fun? :)

Drummers seem to feature on this thread,our's counts the song in,then starts faster than the count,then speeds up,we nearly have to add a song to the set to make up the time!!!!

I almost always give mistakes a little chuckle. Mistakes happen - getting pissed off about them isn't going to prevent any more mistakes from happening.

There has been one exception that comes to mind. I'm in a band with one of my closest keyboard playing friends who is definitely more of a jazzer. He wasn't use to playing music where you have to be flexible around the vocalist. The monitor mix wasn't great and he wasn't hip to the occasional vamp at the end of a chorus in one of the tunes. He barged right back into the verse while the singer/guitarist, drummer, and I waited for the vocal pickup. He was off for a good number of bars - and it was really jarring. The verse started with a string of V of Vs. I laughed it off at the time and forgot about it. It was the first performance with that group and we weren't playing Carnegie Hall. I knew he'd fix the problem. After the show, he got on my case for messing up the changes to that tune. I thought "What the hell are you talking about?" It took me a few minutes to realize what he was talking about. Then I mentioned that he didn't wait for the vamp, and he responded, "There's a vamp?!" Being the ass that I am, I made sure to mention the mistake and how horrible it sounded every time I saw him for about a month - it was in a light-hearted way, though.

How about this: We had a one-night only gig for a benefit and we had a pretty good set list ready for about two hours of tunes. About a week before the gig the drummer and lead guitar/vocalist got into a tiff. Something about the drummer wanting a song played a certain way and the lead firing back with a line to the effect of "what do you know about music - all you have to do is bang on these things?". OK, we get past it and play the gig. The lead guy starts telling us that he doesn't want to play some of the songs on the list, so we improvise the first set. It goes pretty well. However, the drummer leaves after the first set. The lady in charge of the benefit asks us during our overly-long break to play another set. I tell her about the drummer problem and say I'll think of something. Well, the lead guy decides go on solo and starts playing and singing. I'm thinking "this was a band" so I go up and join him. Halfway through a song he announces "over the PA" that he has to go to the bathroom and leaves.

That was the end of the gig - and the band.

or when the band uses dynamics and he's smacking the crap out of his skins in the quiet passages of the songs;even though our band leader is telling him to come off the drums a tad.we had guest's leave that night because he was too loud.he was an arrogant over opinionated arse.that was his last gig with us. another skin basher i know would do a drum solo at full volume between songs as we were talking.then the guitard would reply at the same volume.how i don't miss this band.

In our early days as a band we considered calling ourselves "Random Outcome" because we could never seem to play the same song once.

After 4 years of playing together all over the place we still screw up endings. For some reason the singer or piano player or guitar play will decide to end the song differently, or simply forget the ending point.

At an outdoor (large) church festival...

Over the PA:

Guitard to Singer: "Hum the next song, I forgot what it sounds like."

Singer: "You know, the own where the Girl is B...hing about her communist boy friend."

Guitard: "Oh Yea, now I remember, I hate that f..king song."

Thank god I stand in the back and wear a hat and sunglasses.

this was a fun one with a good ending:

Playing in a reggae band, the keyboard player was really a conga player who we convinced to play keys because there were tons of percussionists in town but no reggae keyboard players. Worked great, because he played simply and extremely rhythmically - perfect for the band.

But he had to concentrate so much on his instrument that he was like in his own world.

One gig we end a song, and Eric (keyboards) has his head down on the keys, and just keeps playing the keyboard part. For like 3 bars, then he slowly looks up, looks around, and sees the rest of the band has stopped playing, and he gets this REALLY BIG EYED look... :D
But he was still totally on rhythm.

We all looked at each other and dropped back in. It came across as a great spontaneous dub.
Only those of us who had seen the panic in his eyes knew the truth... :D

this was a fun one with a good ending:

Playing in a reggae band, the keyboard player was really a conga player who we convinced to play keys because there were tons of percussionists in town but no reggae keyboard players. Worked great, because he played simply and extremely rhythmically - perfect for the band.

But he had to concentrate so much on his instrument that he was like in his own world.

One gig we end a song, and Eric (keyboards) has his head down on the keys, and just keeps playing the keyboard part. For like 3 bars, then he slowly looks up, looks around, and sees the rest of the band has stopped playing, and he gets this REALLY BIG EYED look... :D
But he was still totally on rhythm.

We all looked at each other and dropped back in. It came across as a great spontaneous dub.
Only those of us who had seen the panic in his eyes knew the truth... :D

Oh man, that's horrible, I can just see that "deer in the headlights" look. Poor guy:p

I mind my band was opening for a band that are pretty well known round the area. Our drummer ****ed off after soundcheck with his girlfriend and came back to the venue completely pissed. Never heard a guy **** up as much in my life. Tbh he wasnt the best drummer at the best of times never mind a half bottle of vodka and 3 litres of cider later.

Moral of the story kids - Wait until you play before you get blocked.

This doesn't happen often, but it's funny when it does.

In the blues tunes when the guitarists are trading leads the drummer and I will get messing with the turnaround. We will extent it or syncopate it, just having fun. Now we lock in pretty tight and follow each other really well. Every now and then the drummer will do a fast run on the drums and end on the "4 and" instead of the 4, so we just give a full beat to the next 1. Basically we've added an eighth to the beat. We (drums, bass) sound really tight and on the beat so most people couldn't tell you what happened. But it's pretty funny to watch the whole bar stager at the same time and not know why. Of course this brings a "what was that" look from the guitarists.

One time my guitarist decided to randomly do an exteneded guitar solo, for like 7 minutes or so. I kicked hime out. That crap makes me nuts.

And your username is....? :p

And your username is....? :p

:smug::D