Most awkward gig moment!

winndaddy · #1 08-23-2011, 02:08 AM

This past saturday I knew before hand that it was gona be one of those days. Our guitarist could not make it. Our singer, being the show man that he is, insisted that the show must go on and offered to play guitar as well as sing(Just started playing guitar a year ago). We all knew better, but since it was not a paying gig( family reunion) we said what the hell. We all agreed to just stick to the simple stuff. Well, from the first song to the last song it was'nt pretty. Everything we played he was getting lost on guitar, voice was off key, skipping whole verses, ect. It was plain terrible! The awkward moment is when he kept turning to me as if to say, save me please!!! By the end, he had fallen completely apart. He was turned around Hiding behind the PA speakers, while trying to sing and play. I kind of felt sorry for him, then I reminded myself of all the times he would brag about himself( Kind of a big show off). Keep in mine that he is 38 years old. Afterwards he had all kinds of accuses. Me and the rest of the band where planning on quiting anyway, this just makes things a whole lot easier.

fractiouslowend · #2 08-23-2011, 02:15 AM

sounds like you learned something though

think of that gig as a (somewhat harsh) bass lesson

Mirios · #3 08-23-2011, 02:17 AM

Playing a jazz gig with a drummer who couldn't swing. Oh the pain and torment.

winndaddy · #4 08-23-2011, 02:39 AM

[quote=fractiouslowend;11375511]sounds like you learned something though

think of that gig as a (somewhat harsh) bass lesson[/QUOTE

I will.

Russell L · #5 08-23-2011, 10:24 AM

Best thing to do in that situation is to laugh at each other, and let the crowd in on it. They'll be entertained just watching ya'll trying to figure out what you're doing. All it takes is, "Hey, ya'll, we don't really know this, but bear with us and laugh with us, too."

Here's my worst moment. I was playing for the Cammy Awards (like the Grammys for beach music) at the Alabama Theater in Myrtle Beach, SC. Backstage I asked one of the crew (a member of the band, Alabama) where to stash my bass. He told me. So, they were giving a couple of minutes between acts, and all we had to do was pantomime anyway, to one of our two radio hits. Well, when it came time to go on I went back for my bass, and before I got to it I heard the music start. Oh NO!!! I'm not out there yet!! Holy crap, so here I come at last about four bars into the music and join my bandmates in front of a full house of celebs. I felt like such a fool. But, hey, it wasn't my fault. They didn't give us any time at all to get set. Just awful. I didn't catch any slack for it, though, thank goodness.

Texan · #6 08-23-2011, 11:45 AM

In the 90's I was playing with a Prog rock band. We had the club packed, so the owner sent up a waitress with "House Special Area 51" shots for the band in the middle of a song, she set them on everyones respective stage areas, except mine, I told her just to pour it in my mouth as I played...BIG MISTAKE!!! To this day I have no idea what was in this shot with the exception of one ingredient. Here's a hint, it's often from Columbia, is a white powder, and is made from the Coca leaf. As soon as the shot was swallowed, my mouth went NUMB. I had a hard time concentrating the rest of the show. Lets just say that I had a great deal of anxiety. Never used drugs before or after that, never had the desire, and now I always politely decline the alcohol and ask for water.

Ironderby · #7 08-23-2011, 11:51 AM

This wasnt a gig i was playing, i was a spectator. But it was a hardcore band (one of them i dont give a **** kinda bands) proper nutters. So theres this balcony above the front of the room where you can view the band better, the singer goes to the stairs to get up the balcony and at the end of the 3rd song, the guitarist decides to join in, but he climbs directly up the balcony side, i was underneath the balcony and...well, his guitar gave my eye a pretty nasty bruise.

dave64o · #8 08-23-2011, 11:53 AM

This didn't happen to me but it's funny enough that it's worth telling here.

A few years ago my wife and I went to see Billy Joel. At one point at the end of a song the bass player motioned to a roadie to come take his bass, which the roadie did. Something went wrong and either the bass player messed up when a switch was supposed to happen, the roadie screwed up, or something like that. But the next song started the bass player had no bass. So he played air bass, the song went on without him, and when it was over a roadie quickly ran out and brought him another bass. Was I upset because I didn't get my money's worth? Hell no. That's one of the beautiful things about a truly live (rather than "lipped") performances and I thought the bassist's reaction and the band's "keep it going at all costs" attitude was worth seeing.

Actually, at the same show Billy went up to a keyboard on one side of the stage to play Pressure and things went horribly wrong as soon as he started to play. The sound was all wrong (think of the synthesizer at the beginning). He and the crew tried the whole song to work it out when he wasn't singing but didn't get there until near the end of the song. The crowd applauded and he stopped us and said something like "What are you applauding for? That SUCKED!!!". So he told us he screwed up and went to a keybaord on the wrong side of the stage. But now that the crew had set up the patches he needed for Pressure, he said they were going to play it again and get it right, which they did. Another big round of applause.

Waffles and Scotch · #9 08-23-2011, 12:14 PM

I had a double fail back when I was playing metal. About a minute in to a 7-8 minute song, I stepped on my cable and unplugged myself. The best part is I kept playing and didn't realize it! After about a minute or so I noticed I couldn't hear myself, looked down and my cable was on the ground. Several audience members cracked up...

Then, later on at the same show, I tilted my bass up in the air and inadvertently unhooked my strap. I slowly squatted down while resting my bass on my knee and played for about 20-30 seconds in the fetal position until there was a long enough break to reattach my strap without missing any notes.

Oh - and one more epic fail! After I'd been in the band for about a year I realized I'd been playing 4 songs in the wrong key!! I was playing them 1/2 step higher than they were supposed to be. The best part is several people complimented my playing after every show - guess they couldn't tell. Yep - I was young, and we were really, really loud.

spaz21387 · #10 08-23-2011, 12:24 PM

We use flash pots on stage. And once we set off the flash pots like always but they blew a fuse and cut all power to the stage. The sound guy nearly crapped his pants. he yelled at us please tell me you guys planned that. We hid the flash charges behind my bass cabs so it just looked like we blew our amps then we lost power it was hillarious. There are videos of this incident ha

stingraysvt · #11 08-23-2011, 01:09 PM

SO my old band was playing a gig out of town and my wife, girlfriend at the time, decided to tag along, well see I had recently been broke up with by a girl from this town (her decision, not mine), and she for whatever reason on God's Green Earth decided to come As Well. Yipppeee.

So having only been dating my wife for little over 2 weeks at the time and the other girl being jealous of that, they both kept getting in my face when the other wasn't there, and poor old me just couldn't take it no more...

I attribute the proceedings of the rest of that evening to the fact that Stage Right was approximately 7 paces from the end of a bar in the extremely empty restaurant portion of this club..... and that I was ordering doubles.

All other accounts and not my own....
My guitarist walked over on the last song and just shut my rig off, and according to him, I just kept on jamming like nothing had happened!

(I trust this guitarist, he's a pretty standup guy)

After the show, it all obviously had taken it's toll on me, I proceed to hurl what seemed to be everything I had consumed that entire month onstage behind my rig (didn't get on my rig or on anyone else! whew!

Luckily there was a wet/dry shop vac there only a few feet from where this went down and I proceeded to get it all up... After cleaning everything up, I'm sitting in the front passenger seat of my ride and my phone starts ringing and it was the "eX" not sure what she said but I'll never forget what happened next, I ended the conversation, with "talk to you later..." about the time my wife comes walking up.

Great.... not only was I in the doghouse but my doghouse had a doghouse!!!

winndaddy · #12 08-23-2011, 02:02 PM

[quote=Russell L;11376900]Best thing to do in that situation is to laugh at each other, and let the crowd in on it. They'll be entertained just watching ya'll trying to figure out what you're doing. All it takes is, "Hey, ya'll, we don't really know this, but bear with us and laugh with us, too."

Good advice, thats how the band handled it except for the singer. He is a real nervous guy and takes himself really serious. By the way, I can read stories like these all day long.

runmikeyrun · #13 08-27-2011, 10:53 PM

When I was about 22 or 23 our band was just beginning to get some notoriety around the area. We had been playing sellout gigs at decent sized clubs for about a year and could pretty much play wherever we wanted. We were invited to play an outdoor House of Blues venue with another couple large local bands. We played our set and killed it. Played in front of maybe 2-3,000 people which was HUGE for us. At the end of the set, the singer dropped his drawers exposing his penis, thinking he was being cool. The whole place erupted in laughter! I wanted to die. I quit the next day.

ric3xrt · #14 08-28-2011, 09:27 PM

This band I was in in the mid 90s, we were playing this club in Camdem NJ, Half way into our 1st set, this girl comes up to the stage and starts yelling at me, calling me all kinds of names, bouncer came over and pulled her away, they tossed her from the club. after the set the bar owner comes over and tells me to keep my personal problems out of his club. to this day I have NO idea what that was all about.

In the mid 80s my 1st band played at the pavlion at Dorny Park In Allentown, one day after a set this woman comes up to my slaps my in the face and says" Thats for not calling me, then she plants a big kiss on me,"thats for a wonderfull night"
and No I have NO idea who she was...

iamoldschool · #15 09-12-2011, 08:18 PM

Band played at a cruise-in this past Friday night, on the lawn of the courthouse. The courthouse is on a corner of main street and on the opposite corner is a funeral home. (Don't get ahead of me...) About halfway through the first set, a guy comes straight up to the band demanding to know who is in charge of the band. I told him I was. He said his cousin was lying dead in the funeral home (visitation, then funeral @ 8) and they didn't want to hear "that junk" (we play classic rock). He actually threatened to call the police. Odd, because we were being paid by the city's Chamber of Commerce. I apologized and told him that I would speak with the lady in charge and let her know what was going on. We took a short break not knowing exactly how to react. When I found her, she was upset that the man had come down and threatened with the cops, so she went to the police station to let them know what was going on. Turns out the funeral home had been put on notice of the event and scheduled the funeral anyway. She told us to continue playing. Later in the evening, someone from the funeral home came down and asked that we turn down. We told him we would, and did. The lady in charge was furious when she found out we had been asked to turn down yet again, and apologized to us. She still plans on booking us next year for the same event. May have to check the obituaries beforehand........

Chuck_Hill · #16 09-13-2011, 01:09 AM

I played upright bass in a string quartet a few years back. We played a wedding where we were asked to do the prelude, processional, and recessional music. There was also a vocalist singing 2 songs during the ceremony, but for whatever reason, the wedding party didn't arrange for us to accompany the vocalist--instead she was singing along with cassette tapes.

Everything went smoothly, up until the vocalist was supposed to sing Ave Maria. Unfortunately, she mixed up her tapes, and apparently had forgotten to cue it up before the ceremony. To make matters worse, she had 4 or 5 unmarked cassettes sitting next to the player. The wedding party waited about 5 minutes, while the singer fumbled with different tapes, trying to cue up her song. Finally, she found it and sung the shakiest Ave Maria ever heard.

It was excruciating to watch. Though our quartet always played well, the comparison made us stand out all the more that day.

jay tay · #17 09-13-2011, 02:09 AM

the singer in a punk band I was with a few years ago had photo sensitive epilepsy. witch was fine as we would tell the house to kill the strobe light before we played, and we never had a problem. about two years in to the band, we scored a gig on a big benefit in a large arena, the biggest place that we ever played. So there we are about two songs in to the bands biggest ever gig, when the lighting guy leans in the strobe light. next thing we know singer falls back into the drum kit, only just avoiding bashing his head open. We never played again after that night, the singer lost his nerve, and the band split as the drummer tried to kick the crap out of the lighting guy, and me and the guitarist got clubbered trying to stop him. worst gig ever...

well actually I was working as a roadie for a different punk band, when some one from the crowd spat at the bass player, the bass player put down his bass mid song and kicked the crap out of the guy, got back on stage and played the rest of the set... that's when I stopped playing the local punk scene.

Antoanto · #18 09-13-2011, 04:05 AM

I used to play with a guitarist-singer and a blind keyboard player in a random/casual setup that happened to work quite well and ended up playing regularly at a local club. One night the blind pianist brought his new synthesizer on stage and , guess what, hit the wrong button in the middle of a song. It was the "demo" button, so suddenly the synthesizer started to play alone a fusion-style demo. We tried to stop the demo, but doing so we were pushing each one a different button at the same time, adding up to the confusion. We had to stop the song, explained what happened and apologized, turned the synth off and restarted.

Rockmusician · #19 09-13-2011, 04:34 AM

I was filling in with my old band because their bass player wasn't available. Everything was going fine until one song where there was a bass solo. The problem was that they had rearranged the song and changed the spot where the bass solo was. Normally this wouldn't have been an issue but they forgot to tell me. All of a sudden, the entire band stops playing and we are just standing there. The lead singer/guitarist is staring at me as if to say "why aren't you playing anything?" I didn't know if they had left out the solo and ended the song or what was going on. After about 10 seconds of silence, we picked up the song where we would have as if I had done the solo. When the gig was over, the entire band aplogized for not telling me about the new arrangement. It was very awkard. Those ten seconds seemed like an hour.