We have before, if everyone is having fun and someone wants to sing or whatever. All in the interest of having a good time.

Last night however, it was a bit much. A couple of drunk guys got on stage with us to sing along with a song, one loses his balance and falls into the drum kit. He broke a double-braced cymbal stand. The leg snapped right off. I'm surprised he didn't do more damage. And I'm standing just a few feet away with my brand new bass. If one of those guys fell into me and damaged my bass or amp I would have come unglued most likely.

We have before, if everyone is having fun and someone wants to sing or whatever. All in the interest of having a good time.

Last night however, it was a bit much. A couple of drunk guys got on stage with us to sing along with a song, one loses his balance and falls into the drum kit. He broke a double-braced cymbal stand. The leg snapped right off. I'm surprised he didn't do more damage. And I'm standing just a few feet away with my brand new bass. If one of those guys fell into me and damaged my bass or amp I would have come unglued most likely.

Personally I hate it when someone pushes thier way on to our stage/space. I have yet to hear anyone that can actually sing. I figure a real pro would never do that anyways.

we had a guy come on stage , scheduled, and he tooka trombone solo during a jam we did...wa pretty cool.

as for unexpected guests, at a show we played where all the lights were black lights, a bunch of girls came on stage and wrote all over my arms while i was playing....i didnt mind that one bit:-P

I do a side project where we don't have a singer, and just drag people out of the audience to sing. Works REALLY well and we have a had a lot of great singers.

However thats set up to work that way, and we have control of the situation. If someone tried to get up on stage with my main band, they would end up taking some serious gried from the singer...

It really depends on the band, and the venue, but generally it's pretty simlpe - unwanted guests are... unwanted.

Ian

yeah, I imagine that if the people are people you know at least somewhat it could be alot better than a bunch of random drunk dudes, a couple of my friends jumped up on stage when we were playing a song at our high school. We gladly returned the favor later during thier set(I'm the guy in the yellow aquabats shirt)
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/RobTheSkanker/TAH2.jpg
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/RobTheSkanker/TAH1.jpg
Most of those people are not in the band, you can only see the bass player in the back of both, and like half of their singer behind the black dude and the girl in the 2nd one. ah, a good night :)

No.

Not to hijack but it is related to an idea of mine. When my band ends a show we do a solo jam where we just slam around with Emin and C chords and each person gets their own solo. I was thinking of picking out someone before the set and then having them come up, putting my bass on them and do the whole "Whose Line is It Anyway" deal where they put there hands behind their back and I play the bass by putting my hands through the space so it looks like that they are playing my solo.

That's pretty much the only time...unless they wanted to dance..which dancing with worship is awesome.

I only let girls come onstage because I'm sexist :)

They usually just A)sit around on things and or B)cradle their drinks

a few times had people come up. one time was some drunk guy trying to dance so in the end my singer just threw him off of the stage into his mates, but other times weve had people come up an rock out with us and thats cool as fu*k

We've dragged the occasional drunk girl up to bash a tambourine but when these same ladies try and sing it tends to go a bit pear-shaped.

We played a small pub a couple of months ago and were encoring with "Chasing Cars".

One guy, egged on by his toothless, drunken mate, appeared in front of me and asked if we "had a spare microphone?" because he could "do this one really well".

I shook my head but the lead guitarist, in an uncharacteristic error of judgement, pointed out a mic to him.

He then proceeded to completely throw out our timing and balls-up the song, as he'd never sung with a band before.
"Doing it really well" presumably meant some poxy Karaoke evening he attended once.

That won't be happening again. :mad:

No, no, no, no, never, never, never EVER!!!

Its fine for S.C.O.T.S. But if we do that, some drunk will think he can sing, or some drunk will step through a monitor, or some drunk will spill beer all over our P.A., or some drunk will [insert stupid act of destruction here].

So...no audience member on stage unless its a jam and we specifically invited that person, because they're a musician.

Cherie...The Audience Belongs Over *There*! :bassist:

No, no, no, no, never, never, never EVER!!!

Its fine for S.C.O.T.S. But if we do that, some drunk will think he can sing, or some drunk will step through a monitor, or some drunk will spill beer all over our P.A., or some drunk will [insert stupid act of destruction here].

So...no audience member on stage unless its a jam and we specifically invited that person, because they're a musician.

Cherie...The Audience Belongs Over *There*! :bassist:

Absolutely agree...the times it has happened have never been better than "break even"....often much worse. After the last time the lead singer let someone sing (totally ruined the song) the next band meeting "outlawed" it ever happening again. Period.

Last song of the night tradition - we don't mind!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v355/SteveMuntz/1477319.jpg

^

Yowsa.

... But that kind of stuff only happens maybe once out of every 20 or so times.


The other 19 times it's a disaster.

Therefore the answer = :rollno:

We've dragged the occasional drunk girl up to bash a tambourine but when these same ladies try and sing it tends to go a bit pear-shaped.

Yea, one lady we allow on stage to bang a tambourine constantly says (yells loudly and off key into the mic) "blue eyed girl" and it sounds crap when the rest of the band is saying "brown."

We usually allow some people up on stage for specific songs. Mostly friends/wives of the band members. No catastrophe's yet...

Pre-arranged audience participation = cool.

Spur-of-the-moment (unless you know the person really well) = bad idea.

Hell no.

I am not part of a human karaoke machine.

We mostly play parties at my college where I know (or at least recognize) 75% or more of the people in the audience. We've never invited people up on stage, but I think I would probably be ok with it if there was enough room.

At our last show, we played "Twist and Shout" as our last song (actually the 2nd time we played it in the set--we got the "one more song!" chant and didn't have an encore planned, so we asked them if they wanted to hear that again) and we all hopped off the stage and went down into the crowd to dance while we played. I think I enjoyed that more than having people come up on stage.

I've had instances where letting a person on stage turned out to be a bad idea, but also ones where it turned out fine. I think it's best to try and read the person as best as you can beforehand, and never let some random drunk dude sing. I repeat, never let some random drunk dude sing.

Our band was part of the Indy entertainment down at the Gold Coast (Australia) several weekends ago - we had one drunk guy jump on stage & make a grab at our guitarist's mic.

Our guitarist knocked him flying (shoulder to his chest), screaming $*% off (while playing - no bum notes either). The rest of the dance floor weren't impressed either, and dragged his ass off & pushed him out the door before a bouncer could intervene...

Haha - there's always something awesome to see every few gigs. We've also had fist fights break out right in front of the stage while playing Zepplin's 'Whole Lotta Love' (haha). We just keep playing with stupid grins on our faces while the bouncers break them apart...

Haha - there's always something awesome to see every few gigs. We've also had fist fights break out right in front of the stage while playing Zepplin's 'Whole Lotta Love' (haha). We just keep playing with stupid grins on our faces while the bouncers break them apart...

That would be much funnier if the song had anything to do with love. Still damned funny though!

I'll mingle with the crowd, dance with a few women, occasionally sit on a barstool while playing, but I'm less keen on a stranger joining in the band. Usually not a good idea, although the visitor's friends usually make some noise and help fire up the crowd.

My band plays a lot of venues that dont have much of a stage if one at all. Our regular gig doesnt have one. pretty inviting to your regular drunk frat boy or sorority girl. sometimes its ok, but most of the time no. I have some social anxiety issues and dont like crowded places. thats what i love about playing music, I can be ina bar drinking but with a good space.

At our signing party with our management team at our regular gig the place was packed. at the end there was no buffer zone. I practically had to climb up on my amp to get a way from the crowd. Then some drunk sorority girl picks up my dads custom jazz bass that he loaned me for the photo shoots, video and for lookin good for the management team. she wanted to play rockstar. luckily she didnt drop it or ding it. I almost crapped my pants.

Theres been too many times to count all the drunks that have wandered onto the stage area and have nearly caused disasters. I dont like it. I do like my space.

we sometimes play places that dont have much of a stage too. i dont mind sometimes getting off the stage and going into the audience. but we dont like people coming on stage with us. chances are they dont know the lyrics so we relaly dont want them to sing.

Ha, we had some drunk chick that was dancing in front of the stage try to come up. She grabbed a mic stand and it crashed into us. She managed to knock both the guitar and my bass out of tune in one fell swoop. Then she hit the ground and nearly started puking. We were very hung over at the time after opening for Nina Hagen the night before and she almost had us hurling, too.

A night to forget.

http://a450.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/110/l_f1f82236a13dc6721df65512bdea0c91.jpg

I've had instances where letting a person on stage turned out to be a bad idea, but also ones where it turned out fine. I think it's best to try and read the person as best as you can beforehand, and never let some random drunk dude sing. I repeat, never let some random drunk dude sing.

Oh, I don't know, sometimes a random drunk dude or gal can provide some comic relief in a bar gig. Once in a while we will get some sloshed person wanting to sing a song, and once in a blue moon we will let them- but ooohh the fun we have with them! We might start out playing the song right, then we will start playing faster and faster or speed up and down, or make up naughty lyrics, whatever.
The look of confusion is priceless, they generally wander off and don't come back.

I'll mingle with the crowd, dance with a few women, occasionally sit on a barstool while playing, but I'm less keen on a stranger joining in the band. Usually not a good idea, although the visitor's friends usually make some noise and help fire up the crowd.

I agree. If circumstances invite me to take a little walk offstage and dance with the crowd as I play, well then...cool! I just don't want the crowd to invite itself to the stage, and then wreak havoc.

One evening, we had the crowd run onto the stage as we were setting up! We were playing a floating lake bar, with docking spaces for boats. This guy drives up in his brand-new, huge cig boat, and then calls everyone in the bar over to come look at it. They stampeded. A young teen boy valiantly tried to protect my bass as I struggled to get to it. The drunk grownups were just trampling everything to get a look at this stupid boat.

Then the boat's owner, while tying off, *knocks my bass aside* to get it out of his way. I was close enough to catch it before it fell (it had already been stepped on by the crowd). But I was *livid*. It was hard for me to keep smiling and be nice to the crowd. I did it, but it was all acting. I should get an Oscar for that performance. :scowl:

No crowd on stage. Not before, not during, and not after the show. Period.

Cherie :bassist:

Oh, and for you TB'ers who've known me a little while, I have three more words regarding audience members on stage...

The Groping Troll.

Cherie :scowl::rollno:

no, 'cause they always trip and fall. last person who tried ended up mangling a cymbal stand. one time a dude lunged to kiss the singer. we were all ready to jump him, instruments and all.

i must admit, the first time it happened was the first time i'd ever seen anyone fall in an upward direction! weird.

I agree. If circumstances invite me to take a little walk offstage and dance with the crowd as I play, well then...cool! I just don't want the crowd to invite itself to the stage, and then wreak havoc.

One evening, we had the crowd run onto the stage as we were setting up! We were playing a floating lake bar, with docking spaces for boats. This guy drives up in his brand-new, huge cig boat, and then calls everyone in the bar over to come look at it. They stampeded. A young teen boy valiantly tried to protect my bass as I struggled to get to it. The drunk grownups were just trampling everything to get a look at this stupid boat.

Then the boat's owner, while tying off, *knocks my bass aside* to get it out of his way. I was close enough to catch it before it fell (it had already been stepped on by the crowd). But I was *livid*. It was hard for me to keep smiling and be nice to the crowd. I did it, but it was all acting. I should get an Oscar for that performance. :scowl:

No crowd on stage. Not before, not during, and not after the show. Period.

Cherie :bassist:

You are MUCH more patient than I, I would've lost my cool for sure. I'm generally a pretty laid back guy, but people who show complete lack of respect for other's property and possesions due to their own materialistic douchebaggedness piss me off. :mad:

At a recent gig we were playing out doors, and our "stage" was infront of a few tables. There was a door into the building behind us, and another right next to us so you could go inside to get back and forth without getting in our way. This group of people couldn't figure it out, so I had people bumping into me all night. Almost wacked a guy in the face with my bass, and the drummer lost count of how many times he almost accidentally hit a kid in the face who was too close.

I told the singer to tell them to use the doors, but he did a horrible job of relaying the message. :spit:

We did get about a dozen girls on the stage to sing twist and shout with us though. That was interesting.

You are MUCH more patient than I, I would've lost my cool for sure. I'm generally a pretty laid back guy, but people who show complete lack of respect for other's property and possesions due to their own materialistic douchebaggedness piss me off. :mad:

At a recent gig we were playing out doors, and our "stage" was infront of a few tables. There was a door into the building behind us, and another right next to us so you could go inside to get back and forth without getting in our way. This group of people couldn't figure it out, so I had people bumping into me all night. Almost wacked a guy in the face with my bass, and the drummer lost count of how many times he almost accidentally hit a kid in the face who was too close.

I told the singer to tell them to use the doors, but he did a horrible job of relaying the message. :spit:

We did get about a dozen girls on the stage to sing twist and shout with us though. That was interesting.

Yeah...the boat owner was shouting to everyone to come see his great big new toy, and they came a-runnin'. Lots of wealthy folk with big boats around there, and they are always trying to out-do one another's boat and accessories. That bunch cared far more about this guy's watercraft than they did about our equipment. They were all very lucky they didn't have to shell out any money for a broken bass, because I'd have made *someone* put cash in my hand, on the spot.

Twisty dancers are cool...so long as they never fall down and break stuff! :D

I often wonder whether venues think about the interaction between crowd and band, when they have music set up, basically, in the middle of a dining or traffic area.

Cherie

Yeah...the boat owner was shouting to everyone to come see his great big new toy, and they came a-runnin'. Lots of wealthy folk with big boats around there, and they are always trying to out-do one another's boat and accessories. That bunch cared far more about this guy's watercraft than they did about our equipment. They were all very lucky they didn't have to shell out any money for a broken bass, because I'd have made *someone* put cash in my hand, on the spot.

Gotta love rich people and their penis wars. :rollno:

Twisty dancers are cool...so long as they never fall down and break stuff! :D

I often wonder whether venues think about the interaction between crowd and band, when they have music set up, basically, in the middle of a dining or traffic area.

Cherie

I've seen stages in some stupid places. Likewise for DJ booths. Like with a band, part of being a DJ, club or wedding, is crowd interaction. I've seen booths in old bathrooms with no windows, and stages placed so you had to be on the floor to actually see the band.

Gotta love rich people and their penis wars. :rollno:



I've seen stages in some stupid places. Likewise for DJ booths. Like with a band, part of being a DJ, club or wedding, is crowd interaction. I've seen booths in old bathrooms with no windows, and stages placed so you had to be on the floor to actually see the band.

My husband (his day job is boat mechanic) calls them "boat wallys". They buy big, fancy boats, run the by-dogies out of 'em, don't bring them in for proper maintenance, and then end up calling him to come from home and rescue them from the middle of the lake the first time they take their boat out in spring. :rollno:

A band in a bathroom? Weird! No windows...I am imagining hot, and unpleasantly scented. Did you get hazard pay for that?

Cherie :bassist:

Oh, and for you TB'ers who've known me a little while, I have three more words regarding audience members on stage...

The Groping Troll.

Cherie :scowl::rollno:


Oh yeah, been there! :eek:

Oh yeah, been there! :eek:

Ahhhh, yes! The Groping Troll species can be found in a wide variety of habitats. My run-in was with The Central Texas Lakeshore Groper. This species of troll believes itself to be a guitarist. It consumes alcohol in large quantities. If angered (by not letting it play guitar), it will stalk its prey (favored prey -- female bassists in pursuit of their natural activity), pounce, grope, and then flee. It is an invasive and persistent species, but can be eliminated by using Large Angry Male Drummer, which is a good, organic remedy to this pest.

:D

Cherie :D

When I was touring in Japan last time around, playing my NS Designs Bass Cello, people used to come right up onstage to look at it, in the middle of concerts! They're so nice over there, it's hard to take offense.

...
Then the boat's owner, while tying off, *knocks my bass aside* to get it out of his way.

Shot dead, on the spot. No questions asked nothing. Just one bullet.


Hmmm, I guess I'd make a good despot!

Shot dead, on the spot. No questions asked nothing. Just one bullet.


Hmmm, I guess I'd make a good despot!

Well, I'll bring you along the next time we play there, and you can despotize that danged Boat Wally! LOL! :D

If there had been the least little bit of damage, the man would have been giving me cold cash, right then, or face the cops and the hassle of reporting the incident, etc. I'm little, but I'm stubborn, and, given the right motivation, can create a scene of epic proportions. I don't care how much money, he's got, or how big a dawg he is around the town...he's still not allowed to break my property and not reimburse me.

Bastage. He doesn't tip, either.

Cherie

we encourage it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN5s-spS4T0

We had a gig on Sunday where we had like 5 people onstage for one song. It's chancy sure, but it's fun as all hell and the people on stage love it!

I play in a post-hardcore/indie band, and my last band before that was metal/hardcore. With both of these projects, if anyone wanted up on stage to sing along for gang vocals or anything like that, we are always more than happy to let them up.

The last show my new band played, the lead singer of my last band came up and sang (screamed, really) along with the chorus of one of our songs. It was pretty awesome.

yeah, we're pretty much totally ok with the whole crowd getting on stage. we just have to keep an eye on josh's drum kit (custom pork pie > am.std. jazz).

clip one, local venue's last show. sorry you have to sit through nearly 2 minutes of dana, but the insanity is pretty awesome to watch. i was literally sitting on my amp by the end of this song.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=dPWfhub1u4A&feature=related

clip two, bobby's last show with us, same madness, more silly string. this one you can plainly see me trying to save the pork pie.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=D8ooI_XEq3Q

We do a lot of wedding receptions and usuallly only allow this at the request of the bride, groom or parents, who by the way are usually funding the whole deal. We did one wedding where one of the guys from the 90's band Deadeye Dick (The song "New Age Girl" from Dumb and Dumber)came up and played my bass and sang. He was a friend of the groom and they requested it. Other than that you ocassionally have a diamond in the rough, but mostly people who think they are better than they are. We had a guy one New Years Eve that did the best Mick Jagger I have ever seen. We played "Start Me Up" and just let him run with it. It was great, he had all the mannerisms and everything. One thing that really bothers me is when I go out of town with friends and we go to see a band they always try to get the band to get me up to play and sing. I try to avoid it, because I know these guys in that band are going...Oh brother here we go again. I know, most of the time I am the one on stage saying exactly that. I usually go talk with the guys in the band when they take a break and apologize for my friends and explain that I know how it is to be in that situation. You can tell right away they usually warm up to you and realize you share a kindred spirit and understand what the deal is. I have seen people who try to force the issue and that can get ugly. Also it is amazing that a lot of people think a live band is like a mp3 player that can play any song ever made without knowing the lyrics or ever having rehearsed it. However most are understanding when you tell them their request is not on you song list. Our band members are older and we can usually get through any of the standards that people request. One advantage of being a veteran.

The audience can only come on stage if they're doing stage dives.

I was at a basement punk show where, mid-song, this dude runs up to the singer, jacks him in the face, takes the mic and finishes the song...while the singer laid on the ground only partially conscious. When I saw it I though it had to have been planned and that he probably didn't hit him as hard as it looked. I saw the singer an hour later outside where there was more light. Definetly not planned.

I actually encourage people to come up and sing with me, but no touching the instruments! :eek:

Had some bad things happen over the years but for the most part I really like what can happen to the atmosphere of the room and always point out to the "I can't sing" types that everyone can sing, some just better than others, and besides, it's not a recording studio, it's a bar!

Some of my best tip nights are ones where I have a lot of audience participation too.

Our songs are very vocally driven, as in, our singer has a pretty good voice, and that's probably why we do so well. With that said, I sometimes wince when people get on stage and sing, BUT, in the end it all ends up being fun.

we usually have ladies come up on stage & work it :hyper::hyper:

but we've also just had complete morons just jump up & just snatch a mike & yell out,, you guys oughta play blahblahblah, ( moron had some instant contusions, & didn't get to enjoy our next tune )

:ninja::D

Back in the day, generally no, unless we knew them and they had some talent.

Until one night in a south Jersey biker bar, a huge dude (I'm 6'4 and he towered over me, he called himself "Spider") asked if he could play harp with us. The bar owner vouched for him, so at the end of the next set, we announced him and we played yer grandfathers 12 bar blues. The dude wailed like he was born with the harp. We let him rip until he let us know he was done.

Put us over with the bikers and they became a huge following for years and that's another story. or many short stories LOL.

moral of the story, always trust your instincts.