Major disasters at gigs

[Mike Shevlin]

Originally Posted by bevel19

Wow!!!!!!!! 181 posts and still going.....it is ALIVE!!!! it is ALIVE!!!!!!!!!

Yep, and what I though was a thread winning story about the volcano eruption stopping my gig got bested by a dude that got bit on the ass by a lamb.

[markkoelsch]

Originally Posted by Gabriel51

I know exactly what you mean, he yells It's a 1-4-5, as you try to get some sort of count from the drummer knowing you must start very soon as you try to get some idea what the hell is going on. The pressure is on. I'm still laughing! Been there more than once

Some of it was 1-4-5, some not so much. I am a good seat of the pants player. They were about 50% covers/50% originals. I know they liked a couple of my improvised parts over the originals and used them after that. I know they taped the show, but my copy got munched in a faulty cassette deck.

Mark

[machine gewehr]

I had 3 gigs so far with my heavy metal band,all of them being disasters.

1st gig: 2 of the guitarist's pedals broke down several times.There were many parts where it turned out to be drum'n bass heavy metal.They weren't so present in the mix even when we were playin all together.I mixed a song,jumped from the vocal part right into the solo part.Luckily lead guitarist understood what was going on and improvised a solo.The look on the vocal's face was priceless.

2nd gig: Everything was fine except that the bass was never ever heard.My Big Muff was destroying the PA when I turned it on/off so the sound guy cut me off very much from the mix.
Worst part was,when I played the G on the E string,it was so loud that the monitor it was literally pushing me back.

3rd gig: A completely broken drum set,in the middle of a song drummer started to lose the time,when I looked at him he was playing with 1 stick and was holding the kick-drum with his other hand as it was falling apart.
We got off the stage and left the place asap.

[kraigo]

Originally Posted by Wh4len

my brother, who was the drummer in my old band, broke the snare skin in the first song.... and the crew at the communitycenter duct-taped it.... geeez

There is no excuse for a drummer not having an extra snare head with him. I carry an extra snare, each snare has an extra head with and a kick drum head. I should be bringing an extra kick pedal with too, but I haven't broken even a snare head in years.

KO

[lefthandedmutha]

Years ago, broke my A string about halfway through a show...yup, no replacement, shame on me!
It was a bit of a challenge to compensate for no A string,
Managed to limp through the rest of the evening.

Suffice to say, I now carry two spare sets of strings.

[lefthandedmutha]

Worst/funniest band disaster. Kinda long and actually involves the drummer
We were playing a Tues-Sat. in Janesville Wisconsin (back in the mid-90's).
Wednesday that week, is the drummers b-day. So we decide to help him celebrate, starting 3 or so hours before we're supposed to go on. Needless to say we're fairly happy by the time the show rolls around. We weren't exactly at the top of our game, but there were approx. 5 people in the bar, so we weren't overly concerned about being a bit sloppy.

Middle of the second set, the owner walks in, so we try and knuckle down a bit. But the drummer is pretty well sloshed at this point, and if you've ever heard/played with a drunk drummer, there is just no hiding him.

So we get to the drum solo in the middle or 'Radar Love'...and he's actually hanging on when...suddenly there is silence. I turn around just in time to see our beloved drummer stand on his throne and try to moon the bar....I say try because as the shorts are coming down, he falls over into his floor toms!
Truly one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

Needless to say, the owner was less than thrilled (as he should have been), dressed us down after the show and threatened to fire us. He did let us play out the week. But we were never invited back. I wonder why?
Irresponsible and unprofessional? You bet we were
The moral? Never ever let your drummer get drunk!

[the_fonz]

Originally Posted by nysbob

.
We were heading out to the gig from some shabby motel and there was a storm door - I was following the drummer out, and he let it go right as I was walking out behind and the handle latch snapped back and the latch handle went right through the satin pants I was wearing and impaled me through the scrotum. Blood, extreme pain...had to go to an ER and get checked out...and OF COURSE had to play the damn gig...I rigged up some padding.

wow
you win

[BWB]

Originally Posted by markkoelsch

I know they taped the show, but my copy got munched in a faulty cassette deck.

Mark

If anyone ever wondered about the superiority of digital vs. analog ....

[Spinal Tapper]

Originally Posted by nysbob

There was also the impalement.
We were heading out to the gig from some shabby motel and there was a storm door - I was following the drummer out, and he let it go right as I was walking out behind and the handle latch snapped back and the latch handle went right through the satin pants I was wearing and impaled me through the scrotum. Blood, extreme pain...had to go to an ER and get checked out...and OF COURSE had to play the damn gig...I rigged up some padding.

dude...

[midnightsin]

About a year or so ago my band was going to play a show with a couple other bands. Now we'll be the first to admit this but we were a$$$oles at the time. Anyway a friend of mine drives for a small limo service and asked me if we would like to ride in the limo for this show. I said of course, we're rock-stars. We were slated to go on second at the show. We show up in the limo and the guy that is putting the show on changes us to the headline spot which is just fine by us. The band that was the headliner got pi$$ed and called us out when they were doing their stuff.

I'm sorry but you just don't do that.

They get done and we do our thing. After we get done we go outside to cool off before we get our stuff off stage and we find out that someone from that band took a dump in the front seat of our roadie's truck. Needless to say that band hasn't gotten many gigs since then.

[Mike11121]

Originally Posted by iamoldschool

Finally - a story that beats getting bitten on the butt by a goat! WINNER!

Except, of course, if anyone has played at an ex-strip club in Alaska that was taken over by gay bikers who brawled until the volcano erupted causing everyone to run outside into the tornado where the bassist impaled his scrotum on a flying goat, ending up covered in (you guessed it!) blood and urine . . . . and the band didn't get paid!

[MatticusMania]

Oh, I was just reminded of this one time, not much of a disaster, but still...

So we were playing at this cool warehouse converted to venue in LA, the place was called Zamakibo, very cool place. So we went on after this one really cool band from our area, a local favorite of mine. They had supplied the PA, and I didnt realize it until after our set, but they had this 6 channel yamaha PA hooked up to WAY too many speakers. You know what that means right? Yeah, I was getting electroshock therapy on stage while trying to keep my distance from the mic best I could. But the damn thing was sucking too much juice, and started cutting out left & right. So I just said to hell with it, and moved away from the mic, projecting my vocals without a mic best I could. It worked fairly well, especially since we were just made up of drums & bass. The people closest to the stage could actually still hear me sing. And after we finished the night, we probably got more compliments than we had from any other gig. So, not really much of a disaster.

[El Beardo]

So there I am riding shotgun to my cover bands last gig w/ my guitar player(a.k.a. my cousin Brian). We would always carpool to gigs and he had a nice new Toyota Tundra that was way cooler than my crappy little pickup truck. The band was breaking up since the drummer and lead singer decided to get divorced and hate each other. We were running a little late and we had never been to this place before so that on top of wondering what kind of night it would be with the newly divorced non-couple made me a little uneasy. Also I heard a very attractive girl that is rumored to fancy me is going to be there tonite.
The place(Club 420 in Clearwater, Fl) ends up being set back off the main road there so we are just turning based on poor directions. So now we are waiting in the turn lane looking around not seeing the bar yet. All of a sudden my cousin says while looking in his rearview mirror and in an oddly calm and quiet voice "f@#k." So I look in my passenger side rearview to see a sedan driving at us and.....well, not braking! For those of you who have been in a car accident, you probably noticed how everything seems to move in slow motion. Well that was the case with me too. BOOOOM right into the back of us at I guess about 20mph sending the truck forward and throwing me back against my seat. The first thing I see(thanks to the rearview mirror) is my bass amp head which was stacked up against the tailgate take flight almost straight up in the air. We get slammed forward and ram into the car in front of us stopping us dead. O yea did I mention I wasn't wearing my seatbelt So I fly foward and smash into the windshield striking it with the side of my head just above the ear. I end up crammed down on the floorboard Once everything stops moving my cousin(who was wearing his seatbelt ) asked me if I was alright. "I guess, I don't know..." Before I even get back up in the seat the car that hit us peels out and takes off and the one we hit decides to take off too! I'd like to mention that NO ONE around us stopped to see if we needed help or anything, no one even slowed down, it was like we were invisible to everyone. So I check myself over to see whats what. Checking my head for a cut thinking blood would be dripping down but no....nothing. Hmm, "Maybe it wasn't that bad?" i think to myself. Then I look up and notice that I have thoroughly destroyed my cousins windshield with a good dent where my head hit and huge fractures stretching out from my head dent. My cousin asks my over and over if i'm ok. He simply doesn't believe I could be after seeing what I did to the windshield. We hop out of the truck to check the damage to the truck and the gear. The truck was bigger than both the other cars but the bumpers were a little screwed up The gear was thrown around but ok. My cousins Guitar cab was scraped up and the grill cloth get ripped but all his other stuff was ok. My bass was fine which was in the hardshell case thankfully since I usually throw it in a gigbag since that's usually "good enough." May cab was fine but my amp head landed back in the bed of the truck but went from the tailgate to up by the truck cab and some of the knobs including master volume, comp. and a eq gain knob were all bent to one side. So with both cars gone, no one helping and what seems like no serious injuries we pull in the parking lot and wouldn't you know it.....there's the bar. So we head in. Obviously we're a little late and my head is pounding like...well you know. We walk in and soon as we do the manager is in my face with a contract to sign on the spot stating reasons to be docked pay including being late. We tell her what happend and got her out of my face so we could quickly set up. I'm already convinced my amp is dead and I'll likely be using my Sans Driver/D.I. to run straight into the board and have to rely on monitors for stage volume but the Dam thing turned on and worked perfectly My other head worked ok too but the headache didn't let up all night. I gotta say, it could've been worse

That was October, 13th 2004. I remeber because that was the night of the Kerry/Bush debate and I wanted to see it so I had the barkeep put it on one of the big TVs and turned the captions on for me. O and the girl was there, and fancy me she did, we're still together.

[seanm]

Originally Posted by El Beardo

blah blah blah Also I heard a very attractive girl that is rumored to fancy me is going to be there tonight.

blah blah blah O and the girl was there, and fancy me she did, we're still together.

.

Fixed it for you

Just kidding. It isn't bass related, but I was once hit in a parking lot. We where lined up and stopped at a stop sign to let pedestrians go across. The car in front of me puts it in reverse and slams into me No damage to my car, but just goes to show how you can be in an accident anywhere.