Embarassing Gig Stories

LilMissStrange · #1 11-30-2008, 10:29 PM

Hey guys! I thought we could share some embarassing gig stories, rather it be an instance where you played a show and would have rather been invisible the whole time OR if it was just a small moment where you wanted to die.

Here's one for you:
I used to be in a band with someone whose mother was a 7th grade teacher at a Catholic school. Every year she organized a Christmas show for us to come in the last day of school before the holiday break and play Christmas songs. Sorry to say, but I HATE Christmas songs! So they piled all the kiddies into one classroom and there we were up front- her, myself and another friend, a big, 6 foot 2 gentlman with a scraggly beard and long hair playing the likes of Jingle Bells, Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer, and Frosty the Snowman while wearing antlers and such on our heads! I know they were just a bunch of kids, but it was humiliating none the less.
The plus side was afterward we played our rock covers-Smoke on the Water, Sunshine of Your Love, Jumpin Jack Flash, etc. To be honest the kids couldnt have given a rats about the Xmas tunes, but went CRAZY for the rock songs! I only had to endure this 2 years in a row, until we had a falling out. Honestly I only did it for the money-$50 for each of us, which is more than you get at a REAL gig around here!

Fetusyolk · #2 11-30-2008, 10:37 PM

I played a show a while back with my (ex)band, where we had to come on right after this crazy hardcore band, they blew the roof off the place which would normally be great, except we weren't a hardcore band! Dear god, we ended up playing a truly horrible set with our vocalist running around in bright pink pants singing, while the crowd calls for the old band back after every song. Oh, and we had some kids in the crowd that wouldn't stop yelling 666 and other satanic things for the whole duration of our set.

LONGEST. SHOW. EVER.

JQ1986 · #3 12-01-2008, 07:23 AM

The last gig I played was by far the worst, and probably the reason why I haven't been in a band in 2 years. I quit the band a month before because our keyboardist was...well saying she was a b**** would be putting it mildly (I have other words that would suit her better but I'll refrain from using them), but they convinced me to come back for the gig since they wanted to get a gig at some rock festival. Anyway, I get to the gig and the lead singer and rhythm guitar player were drunk off their asses, the keyboardist was stoned, the drummer barely made it in time to sound check, and I was already pissed because I thought I was late. The first set went...ok despite the people were drunk/stoned. The second set was a disaster. The first song the PA speaker on stage right blew, the singer wasn't staying in key, the rhythm guitar player was messing up horribly which was screwing me up, five songs later I look to my left and the other PA speaker was smoking like it was on fire. Needless to say I left the band for good after that, and was quite embarrassed about the whole thing. Oh and during sound check I see this hot girl lookin at me, I smiled at her and kinda winked...OMG! I have never seen such nasty lookin teeth on an attractive young woman in my life! But all I can say is welcome to a small town in Wisconsin.

TheoFly · #4 12-01-2008, 09:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JQ1986

....the lead singer and rhythm guitar player were drunk off their asses, the keyboardist was stoned, the drummer barely made it in time to sound check.....

Sounds like most every band I was in until I was over 30!

Lazylion · #5 12-01-2008, 09:14 PM

One of my many embarassing moments:
I was on the road with an L.A. band. We were at a club in Phoenix AZ, it was a weekday night. I had noticed this one girl, who seemed to have her arms folded in the "I'm cold" pose all night. The crowd was shrinking as the night wore on. She finally came up to the stage in front of me to make a request, arms still folded. I was overly cocky, and a bit grumpy that the crowd was shriveling, so I shot my mouth off, saying "I haven't seen you clapping much." My mistake. She uncrossed her arms, and that was when I saw that she only had one hand.

To use an expression that Homer Simpson would later make famous, "D'oh!"

mokkat · #6 12-01-2008, 09:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lazylion

One of my many embarassing moments:
I was on the road with an L.A. band. We were at a club in Phoenix AZ, it was a weekday night. I had noticed this one girl, who seemed to have her arms folded in the "I'm cold" pose all night. The crowd was shrinking as the night wore on. She finally came up to the stage in front of me to make a request, arms still folded. I was overly cocky, and a bit grumpy that the crowd was shriveling, so I shot my mouth off, saying "I haven't seen you clapping much." My mistake. She uncrossed her arms, and that was when I saw that she only had one hand.

To use an expression that Homer Simpson would later make famous, "D'oh!"

Ouch

LuckyCondlins · #7 12-01-2008, 09:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lazylion

One of my many embarassing moments:
I was on the road with an L.A. band. We were at a club in Phoenix AZ, it was a weekday night. I had noticed this one girl, who seemed to have her arms folded in the "I'm cold" pose all night. The crowd was shrinking as the night wore on. She finally came up to the stage in front of me to make a request, arms still folded. I was overly cocky, and a bit grumpy that the crowd was shriveling, so I shot my mouth off, saying "I haven't seen you clapping much." My mistake. She uncrossed her arms, and that was when I saw that she only had one hand.

To use an expression that Homer Simpson would later make famous, "D'oh!"

she must give great HE@D

complexprocess · #8 12-01-2008, 10:00 PM

Here in VT we don't have any pro sports teams, so most people adopt Boston's teams as the "Local" favorites. I was playing this bar that has a bunch of TVs on June 17th, 2008--the night the Celtics won their first championship in something like 20 years.

We started playing at what must have been half time, and there was a handful of people checking us out. As the game neared its end, more and more people were leaving to watch it in the next room where the TVs were. By the time we had two songs left, our side of the bar was empty. The bartender could see into the next room, so we were literally playing to no one. We stopped playing after our last song and began to pack up. 10 seconds after we stopped playing there was a HUGE cheer from the next room--the Celtics won the NBA championship.

standupright · #9 12-01-2008, 11:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lazylion

One of my many embarassing moments:
I was on the road with an L.A. band. We were at a club in Phoenix AZ, it was a weekday night. I had noticed this one girl, who seemed to have her arms folded in the "I'm cold" pose all night. The crowd was shrinking as the night wore on. She finally came up to the stage in front of me to make a request, arms still folded. I was overly cocky, and a bit grumpy that the crowd was shriveling, so I shot my mouth off, saying "I haven't seen you clapping much." My mistake. She uncrossed her arms, and that was when I saw that she only had one hand.

To use an expression that Homer Simpson would later make famous, "D'oh!"

what's the sound of one hand clapping?

anywho.......what club in phoenix?

LilMissStrange · #10 12-02-2008, 12:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheoFly

Sounds like most every band I was in until I was over 30!

Yeah, sounds like the people I played with in the past too. I have nothing against drinking or getting high if thats what you want to do, but music comes first! They cared more about if they had enough beer in the cooler and when the joint was coming around again than playing music.

sonic assassin · #11 12-02-2008, 12:35 AM

i played a show in old worn out shoes on a slick wooden stage, and in my moving/bouncing/thrashing about, almost slipped and fell right on my face.

we've have a lot of disaster gigs, but they were mostly the other guys. there was another thread about rough shows, and i posted a breakdown of the worst show i ever played.

JQ1986 · #12 12-02-2008, 06:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheoFly

Sounds like most every band I was in until I was over 30!

What's funny is the lead singer was over 30 and the keyboardist was pushing 50. The rhythm guitar player was 17 so I don't know how in the hell he got served.

lindseyp · #13 12-02-2008, 06:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by complexprocess

... We stopped playing after our last song and began to pack up. 10 seconds after we stopped playing there was a HUGE cheer from the next room--the Celtics won the NBA championship.

I don't understand; you weren't in there watching the game with the rest of them?

Manndreas · #14 12-02-2008, 06:05 PM

Except for a few times in my earlier days when I had a nasty tendency to drink a few beers too much, I only remember one really bad moment.

Once at some charity gig, me and some friends decided to play a few tunes. I didn't have my bass with me, so I borrowed a Warlock from a metal band that had played a bit earlier in the evening. Only thing is, he forgot to tell me the thing was tuned a half step down, and because I didn't bother to ask for any guitar in my monitor (I'm happy as long as I can hear the drums and some vocal), I didn't figure it out until afterwards...When a friend in the audience laughed at me and told me we sounded like ****.

GearHeadBassMan · #15 12-02-2008, 11:39 PM

played a show during a fairly bad winter storm (nowadays, probably would have cancelled, but it was our first show in a long time and we were pretty young.

Anyways, none of the other bands showed up at first, and we opened the show up, played out 30 minute set, things went well.

We finished and were about to start packing up, not knowing that there was no one else to play, and the promoter told us to keep going until another band showed up.

So we played the covers that we knew (all 3 of them!) and still no other bands. with the promoter cheering us on, my singer said, "guys, just jam one out!"

it might help to add at this point that we were an experimental metal band.

So our singer just started screaming, me and my guitarist tried to lock in on a riff, and our drummer started going absolutely insane for about 2 minutes until we came to an arupt end. people actually laughed.

The best part? It was the first time my gf at the time ever saw me play.

GearHeadBassMan · #16 12-02-2008, 11:47 PM

got another one, about a guitard I had.
I was fronting a cookie cutter killswitchy metal band, getting my scream on because, frankly, I was bored and didn't have anything else musically going on at the time. My guitard had one of those cheapy crate fullstacks but he had just gotten a peavey XXX and was completely in love with.

We had a gig at our regular venue, not a big show or anything, but as the gig got closer, my guitard's XXX started to show signs of tube decay (less and less distortion, volume, cutting out) and I told him to replace the tubes before the show. He didn't, because he was too poor and lazy so the day of the gig I tell him to toss his crate head in the van just in case his XXX cuts out. He flatly refuses, because he "can't stand that thing"

We get to the gig, set up and soundcheck, and just as we're about to start, sure enough, two tubes give their swansong light show and the amp dies out. So instead of busting into our first song, I say "anyone have an amp we can use?"

luckily, one of the other band's guitarist brings out his marshall mode four (yeah, the 350 watt one) and hooks it up. While he's doing so, I tell my guitard to keep the gain knob and volume down a bit since his cab boasts 100watt handling.

Sure enough, he cranks the thing and we get through a riff before, poof, there goes his cab.

We did end up finishing the set, and it wasn't a bad one, but I think we took a hit on our image because of the sheer stupidity of my guitard.

Lazylion · #17 12-03-2008, 08:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by standupright

what club in phoenix?

Toolie's. This happened in the late 80s, is it still there?
We also opened shows for, among others, New Grass Revival and Eddie Raven there.

Jeff Martinez · #18 12-03-2008, 09:32 PM

I'll spare a few details to keep y'all from blowing chow. You can fill in the blanks, if you dare.

Basically:
-One of Denver's most popular clubs
-Walking to the front of the stage to play a solo
-All eyes on me
-Fan blowing up
-Me wearing a kilt the "proper" way
-

LilMissStrange · #19 12-03-2008, 09:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff Martinez

I'll spare a few details to keep y'all from blowing chow. You can fill in the blanks, if you dare.

Basically:
-One of Denver's most popular clubs
-Walking to the front of the stage to play a solo
-All eyes on me
-Fan blowing up
-Me wearing a kilt the "proper" way
-

LOL! Very embarassing indeed!

Saetia · #20 12-03-2008, 09:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff Martinez

I'll spare a few details to keep y'all from blowing chow. You can fill in the blanks, if you dare.

Basically:
-One of Denver's most popular clubs
-Walking to the front of the stage to play a solo
-All eyes on me
-Fan blowing up
-Me wearing a kilt the "proper" way
-

I know completely what you're saying, I love kilts... one day in highschool automotive class a smart @ss decided to use an air compressor up my kilt... Imagine the look on my female teachers face!

-Benny