I am not sure if this is should go here but why not.

What is the most amusing thing to happen during a concert that you have actualy have seen or been part of?

I get a smile every time I remember this.

I was in college at Northern Arizona University in the winter of 68/69 we were doing the mandatory Christmass concert playing White Christmass when unannounced fake snow started falling out of the over head loft. Someone had good aim and dumped about a office garbage can of fake snow down the tuba, in one big clump. The poor tuba player was dumping paper out of his horn all spring.


Then there was the milk shake that went down a Sousaphone, I don't think this was too funny because of the smell after a week or two.

I guess that about covers it then ?

Back in the Seventies, at a Headhunters concert, I tolerated a very irritating skinny guy dancing badly in the aisle nest to me, for the entire show. When Herbie Hancock kicked off the synth bass line to "Chameleon", it was apparently too much for the guy to handle, as he sprinted up the aisle, bounded onto the stage, and gave Herbie a very aggro, high velocity love hug from behind, knocking him to the ground and scattering Arp synths in every direction. To his credit, Herbie landed a couple of nice shots to the guy with a pair of 6" platforms before he took off with a couple of large road guys in pursuit. The ensuing chase was pure Keystone Cops, with all three guys appearing and then vanishing through various doors throughout the auditorium; meanwhile, Herbie had reset and was now providing funky background music. Not sure what happened to the guy; if he's smart, he's still running.

That's funny! I work for NAU at the Cline Library. Small world...



band members falling asleep during song

I cannot believe that happened :eek:

I've done it. Sitting in a chair, playing Slab on a fox-trot dance gig. Free beer. Bad band. 5 hours of hell.

well, i was playing in the band for jon faddis's band at a college and i had a part in one of the songs i was a little unsure of. so while he's talking on the mic between songs i turned my volume all the way down and was kinda playing the little lick when all of a sudden really loud in front of a packed house he exclaims, "are you practicing on the job?!?!?". i then proceeded to turn all kinds of red and he continued introducing the next song.

Years ago, afternoon, outdoor, garden-party sort of gig. Four foot high stage. Your bass player absently banging out 4/4 at maybe 120bpm, boring changes, boring tune, boring gig.

Eyes closed, mind drifting (no artificial stimulus, I swear). Angle formed by bass/bassist to stage floor began to widen, at first not noticed by your bass player. Eyes opened, too late. Bass and bassist, as a unit, gracefully tipping over, right off the side of the stage, ass over teakettle, onto the grass below. Band didn't skip a beat, bassist finshed number lying down, guests, under a hot sun and well into the chardonay, scarcely noticed.

All in a day's work, I suppose.

1) Not amusing, exactly, but unforgettable: I was jobbing as a drummer for a blues bandleader friend (a young lady bass guitarist). During the last set a VERY drunk patron approached the stage and actually lifted up the front of my friend's skirt as she was singing and playing. As I was behind the drum set I did not actually see the incendiary act, but all of a sudden her bass hit the floor right in front of my bass drum as she dove off the front of the stage, pinning the drunk to the floor as she pummelled the **** out of him. He was bleeding as he got thrown out of the bar.

2) The "rent-a-elephant" pooping on stage during "Carnival of the Animals"

I did a gig once at a venue that has a corner stage that doesn't quite make it to the wall. I look at the gap and thought it would be a wonderful place to put my amp, facing across the stage so the Nice EV PA could take care of the FOH.

The guys in the band look at the position of the amp, pointed and started laughing hysterically while exclaiming "that'll fix it" over and over. I had absolutely no idea what they were laughing about.

When they calmed down they explained. Their regular bass player had a tendancy to wander off mentally during a show. The last time they played there, the singer decided to give him a little poke in the ribs to wake him up mid song. It worked a little too well. He got such a start that he lost his balance and put one foot in the gap. He somehow landed in there bum first with legs up in the air. He used his arms to break the fall so with nothing to mute the strings, the bass made that BBOOONNGGGGGGGG noise basses make when they collide with something hard. And of course it was 5 times louder than the rest of the band!

The poor guy ripped his jeans, broke a string, and took a nice chunk out of the bass. He couldn't get up and the band were laughing too hard to help him. He couldn't even get his hands to the strings to mute the BBOONNNNGGGG noise.

I wish I was there.

A couple more rough gig experiences:

A) Inebriated female in mini-skirt inadvertently (though repeatedly) exposes sanitary appliance while dancing in front of the stage

B) Guitarist bandmate loses most of the skin on his right hand in a electrical mishap while tying in the lighting tap and has to play several shows with pick duct-taped to his bandages

C) Drummer bandmate leaves his mastiff tied to the FOH riser during an outdoor set; audience proceeds to serve the dog several pitchers of beer while the band is on stage; intoxicated 130-pound dog has to be carried to the car

Picture this....

Its a 40 degree day (110 for the centigradically challenged) in Sydney, Down in the orchestra pit at the Opera House, its at least 45.... 5 minutes into the second act, there is a General Pause, lights down to black, sound down to nothing, precisely at that moment, the percussionist behind me vomits up his Big Mac, fries cola sundae, all over the back of my black roll neck skivvie, there is 55 looong minutes till curtain close......

Like I said, everyone else laughed quite a lot..... L.

Luke, that's yukky!

Nope much has happened to me, thank God although in my first ever Xmas concert when I started secondary school (I was 13) I was just about to play in year 8 orchestra when the big school orchestra came off stage and the space between the stage and audience became very crowded.

Someone thought it was a good idea to climb over the only double bass we had at school at the time (funnily enough the other two were in for repair). He tripped and fell and broke the neck right off. There was a horrid cracking sound and then a deadly silence and all the strings went ping ping ping ping.

I couldn't play so went home, LOL! :rollno:

not sure why or the music, but the bass section of the orchestra had few notes too play.

two outta the five fell a sleep at some point.

So, Friday night the Rick Ross Trio is playing the bar at Pala Mesa Country club and the drummer says "I just saw Will Ferrell in the mens room".We say really, are you sure it was him?Yup, it was him he replied. So shortly after we start off our thirdt set, in walks Will with this large group of his buddy golfers who quickly order up a round of "Jose C" and beer.As they raise their glasses to slam the shots down, I yell out stop! wait! They look at me and the band looks at each other and break into the West Montgomery version of "Tequila" needless to say, things started to get a little crazy after that as they started to "bump and grind" to the latin beat. Soon everyone noticed it was Will in the group and quickly there was a line of autograph seekers and cell phone photgrapers pestering him. Poor Will, he can't even play a round of golf without causing a comotion.

I was at an Aerosmith concert when they first reunited. Joe Perry was on the drum riser doing that rock thing of looking at his drummer with his back to the audience. Well right as he turns and leaps off the drum riser Steven Tyler starts running to the other side of the stage and cuts him off at the knees in mid air. Perry and guitar hit the stage in a mega decibel crash. Drums and bass play for about five minutes until Perry and Tyler come back out and the band plays on and never mentioned it.

I was at an Aerosmith concert when they first reunited. Joe Perry was on the drum riser doing that rock thing of looking at his drummer with his back to the audience. Well right as he turns and leaps off the drum riser Steven Tyler starts running to the other side of the stage and cuts him off at the knees in mid air. Perry and guitar hit the stage in a mega decibel crash. Drums and bass play for about five minutes until Perry and Tyler come back out and the band plays on and never mentioned it.I've heard some great stories about that tour, I don't know how true they are. Apparently at the end of it, they decided to change the set list around a little bit and started with the song they had been finishing with. Steve Tyler was so doped up, he finished the (1st) song, yelled out "Thankyou, you've been a great audience", not realising he was still facing the the drum riser. He turned around to make an exit an walked straight off the front of the stage........

I wouldn't be surprised if that was true Petebass. I remember thinking that this was going to be a short lived reunion :D

Was playing at a party celebrating the end of an international seafood vendor convention. The party was in a mansion overlooking the ocean. We were set up outside on a large terrace with a couple of open host bars and seafood stalls ringing the dance area.

Anyway since it was January the whole party of about 300 folks went indoors after the second song. The girl singer started to cry (it was her first gig) and she just left. The real capper came when they closed the French doors to the house since it was getting cold.

We all looked at the leader, he said that we were still on the clock so we played to the empty night while raiding the bar and seafood after each song.

Jello Biafra, the Dead Kennedies singer, leaps into the mosh pit during the 1st song. Climbing back onto the stage, he's buck naked save for a few scraps at the wrists & ankles. Does the rest of the show as if nothing ever happened.

During the hardcore punk era I had a couple of sound systems installed in punk clubs and saw a lot of antics (probably not any worse than an average night in Motley Crue's dressing room). I'd like to say I was an allowable outsider since somebody had to remain sober enough to turn knobs. The lead singer from "the Mentors" was so trashed he peed in the center of the dance floor and not only forgot to zip up, but also to tuck in and walked (sort of) around that way until he fell down and passed out. Another group featured beastiality videos on 2 screens as a surprise part of the performance (not revealed during sound check!), which I took as sufficient excuse to leave and look for the manager (it was a firing offense to shut a show down without approval). When we returned one of the band was throwing up on stage...the show got shut down. There were a couple of years where clubs were trying to outdo each other with gross-out stunts like "handcuffed to the bar night" which ran weekly at one club for months, and "Thunderdome" where there was a locked cage covering the dance floor and e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g took place, except so far as I know no one died. Now, there is only "fear factor" a sanitized, primped-for-prime-time shade of the 80's. Needless to say whatever promotion the clubs could come up with, the bands took it to an extreme.

I know Blue Flame. It's all about the music, isn't it? :rolleyes:

someone else told me these, so i wasn't actually there, but I wish i was...
This guy was playing in a chamber group in front of a pretty big audience. Leans forward to turn the page, and hears a super loud TWANG behind his head. Sits back down...and there's nothing on the front of his bass except the fingerboard. Tailpiece and strings are round the scroll....bridge is in the lap of a little old lady sitting in the front row of the audience.

Slightly bigger orchestra (got a feeling it was the philharmonia in london), same guy. Halfway through a concert, his desk partner starts swaying and humming really loudly. Then throws up right down the front of his bass (seeping into the f holes and evrything -yuck) and faints off his stool. Luckily, someone did catch him and his bass, and he was fine afterwards, but the bass still has the stains. :spit:

i once saw a conductor throw his stick at the viola player (accident?) it was pretty fun to watch.

n

Club date land.

Doing the garter thing; young girl probably 14, crew cut guy around 24 and VERY drunk; starts going higher and higher with the garter and all of a sudden the father of the girl grabs him by the scruff of the neck and yanks him across the dance floor; a bunch of his friends jump on the father, father's friends jump in and it turns into an all out fistfight with lots of bloodied faces.

Band segued from playing "I want to take you Higher" to "Saturday nights' Alright for fighting" but I don't think anyone noticed but us. :p


First night with new male singer. He comes from playing bars for 15 years and it's his first club date. All during setting up the bandleader is telling him how dignified club dates are and that it's very different from playing bars.

New singer has to sing first dance. As soon as he invites everyone else to join in on the first dance a very elderly couple start strutting their dance chops. After a very graceful turn the wife trips over the monitor in front of singer, the husband falls over her and both of them knock over the Latin percussion setup which falls on top of them. The singer keeps singing, band keeps playing as guests try to extricate the couple from the tangle of percussion instruments and hardware which creates a percussive racket not really in time with first dance.

After that we decided to keep the singer. :)

one time when we were playing the finale from the William Tell Overture, toward the end, one of the viola players got caught up in the energy of the moment, and with a great flourish, lost his grip on his bow on a great upbow, letting it fly through the air and hit a cello player. :D

Seeing a string quartet- a music fan was sitting first or second row of this concert, and videotaping the perfomance. Fine. Well, the little blinking red light on his videocamera was just a few cents off from the tempo of the piece. The first violinist, between movements, points his bow at the unsuspecting fan, then points the bow to the door at the back of the hall; it was kinda like Zorro.

Zorro, or maybe Gandalf... He could have used his bow as a wand to float the guy out through the door...

A few years ago I was in the audience for a Sunday afternoon concert by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. A few seats away from me a woman sat down with a months-old baby in her lap. Incredulously I went up to one of the door staff and said, "You're not going to allow a baby at a chamber music concert, are you?" "There's nothing we can do, sir, sorry." So I sat down, and surprisingly, the concert proceeded with not a sound from the sleeping infant.

However, at the end of the first piece, the enthusiastic applause woke the baby up. By the time the conductor came back on for the second item, the baby was crying - still cradled on this woman's lap, mind you. Except for the bawling you could have heard a pin drop as the conductor turned to face the audience. He folded his arms, fixed an icy stare in the direction of the crying and waited. All eyes turned on this idiot woman, who finally responded to the waves of irritation flooding over her and made a great show of leaving in indignation, as if it was her perfect right to take her baby absolutely anywhere she wanted.

If I'd known where she lived I'd have exercised a similar freedom to rev up my Harley at 3am outside her bedroom window...

My funniest story was playing for the first time at the Mohegan Sun Arena. We opened the show with "Bony Maronie," and I did one of those rock and roll leaps and the stage was slippery and my feet went out from under me and landed flat on my butt, while my bass made a huge "CLAAAANNNGG" sound. I look up and see a shot of me laying on the stage on the two big projection screens. Just then, the guitarist comes over to me and says, "What the **** are you doing ruining my song?" I said, "Sorry I just ruined your song breaking my tailbone, *******!" I didn't break it but I was in a lot of pain that whole show. Now every time we return, someone brings it up and embarrasses me all over.

I don't have many stories, but they all seem to involve falling down.

A few years ago I was in the audience for a Sunday afternoon concert by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. A few seats away from me a woman sat down with a months-old baby in her lap.
No doubt someone told her that having a child listen to classical music makes them smarter. :rolleyes:

I was at a L7 concert once (for those who dont know all female punk rock band)

Well I guess it was that time of the month for the bass player. She turned around on stage reached under her skirt and grabs her tampoon by the string,Pulls it out. Turn to face the audiance twirling it over her head on the end of the string and thows it into the audience. Someone Caught it and threw it back at her.


Rock and Roll


Aj

No doubt someone told her that having a child listen to classical music makes them smarter. :rolleyes:

my grandfather and dad were classical/jazz muso's and so i grew up listening to music, therefore I am living proof that that theroy false!

Tay

I was playing in a funk band while in college. We played for an annual event known as the "Naked Relays". The swim team would strip down and streak through the neighborhoods...people would dancing naked...or just hang out...literally...but the best was looking up across the crowd and seeing the girls doing kegstands

I have a friend who used to be a tech at Barrymores in Ottawa, it holds over 1000 people, and gets everything from local acts, to international rock groups. One night they had a band in called The Forgotten Rebels, Gary wound up working the follow spot for the singer. He was told by the bands manager to only have white light on the singer, no flesh colour, or any other colour, just white. The show starts, Gary gets a cue to put the light on the singer, on comes the white light, and the singer stops the band and starts to verbally abuse Gary over the P.A. about how the light is in his eyes, the light guy in a f***ing idiot, turn it off you f***ing a**hole. So Gary turns the light off embarrassed and angry. The band starts up again, the singer is right up at the edge of the stage dancing around and being the rock star he thinks he is. Gary decided to give him the full power beam of the follow spot right in the singers eyes, somewhat as bright as a landing light on a 747 jumbo jet. The singer goes a little too far forward, falls off the stage into the crowd. Feeling vindicated, Gary turns the light off and goes home for the evening. Tip of the day: don't berate your lighting tech over the P.A. system..........

Back in the Seventies, at a Headhunters concert, I tolerated a very irritating skinny guy dancing badly in the aisle nest to me, for the entire show. When Herbie Hancock kicked off the synth bass line to "Chameleon", it was apparently too much for the guy to handle, as he sprinted up the aisle, bounded onto the stage, and gave Herbie a very aggro, high velocity love hug from behind, knocking him to the ground and scattering Arp synths in every direction. To his credit, Herbie landed a couple of nice shots to the guy with a pair of 6" platforms before he took off with a couple of large road guys in pursuit. The ensuing chase was pure Keystone Cops, with all three guys appearing and then vanishing through various doors throughout the auditorium; meanwhile, Herbie had reset and was now providing funky background music. Not sure what happened to the guy; if he's smart, he's still running.

Man, that's WILD!!!! :)

December , many years ago. Doing my customary stomping while playing slab. I broke the wooden stage, almost fell through. I'm very tall and have a strong touch to....everything.

A few years back, my school orchestra was playing the "Farewell" Symphony by Haydn. Most people had alread left, and so it had gotten pretty quiet. My stand partner (I was sitting principal) sets his bass down as he reaches his que to leave the stage, which, incidentally, is also the beginning of my solo. As he turns to walk off stage, he knocks his metal stool over. The look on his face was priceless. Sure screwed my solo up, though...

Two weeks ago, I was in the pit for Fiddler on the Roof. Moments after the first scene, some moron in the front row sticks his bare feet over the edge on the pit, a foot away from the conductor's head. The second violinists start laughing hysterically and point it out to him, so he turns around and maliciously jabs the anonymous feet with his baton.