Ever let the audience come on stage with you?

Busker · #1 11-04-2007, 11:49 AM

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.

Ricky Daion · #2 11-04-2007, 12:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Busker

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.

gkbass13 · #3 11-04-2007, 12:27 PM

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

IanStephenson · #4 11-04-2007, 01:18 PM

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

RobTheSkanker · #5 11-04-2007, 01:32 PM

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)

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

Baryonyx · #6 11-04-2007, 04:33 PM

Incognitus · #7 11-04-2007, 04:39 PM

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.

BellBottomBlues · #8 11-04-2007, 04:49 PM

I only let girls come onstage because I'm sexist

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

mattofash · #9 11-05-2007, 03:26 AM

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

Bass Pleasures · #10 11-05-2007, 11:45 AM

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.

txbasschik · #11 11-05-2007, 11:50 AM

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*!

vicenzajay · #12 11-05-2007, 11:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by txbasschik

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*!

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.

high mileage · #13 11-05-2007, 03:53 PM

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

CapnSev · #14 11-05-2007, 04:00 PM

^

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 =

Just J · #15 11-05-2007, 04:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bass Pleasures

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...

MonetBass · #16 11-05-2007, 04:13 PM

Pre-arranged audience participation = cool.

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

agreatheight · #17 11-05-2007, 04:19 PM

Hell no.

I am not part of a human karaoke machine.

MaxZolt · #18 11-05-2007, 04:28 PM

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.

Audiophage · #19 11-05-2007, 04:31 PM

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.

JazzFusionB0rg · #20 11-05-2007, 07:20 PM

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...