Most Embarrassing Moment While Performing

[Fendbassfan]

What is your most embarrassing moment on stage. Here's mine. in the late 70's, we are the house band at the, 'Roman Knight' in Whittier, Calif. (I know, it sounds like a gay bar but it wasn't) Not that there's anything wrong..... Anyway, we are in the middle of 'LA Woman' when these four blond foxes (who've I've seen at local parties many times before) walk in together and start checking us out. I can tell they recognize me so I start showing off (a jump here, a windmill there). Suddenly my strap comes loose and my Bass falls on the stage floor with a crashing plugged in guitar sound that would make Pete Townsend proud.

[chuck norriss]

I was playing guitar at the time. Our opening song was fast & intense. I was getting into it going all out but my guitar wasn't plugged in. Pretty funny

[Fassa Albrecht]

Went for three songs into a set with my volume pot turned down, meaning no bassline for three songs.

[St Drogo]

Punk band show, few years ago. I had my big bass solo, with this big lead up into it. At the moment of truth I jump off the stage into the crowd, furiously picking away and looking tough, only to notice I pulled out my cord out of the amp and nothing is happening. 'Twas the longest silence of my life. My bandmates ridiculed me about it for months. rightfully so, i guess :P

[jaywa]

Don't know how many are privileged enough to have their most embarrasing moment on a church gig, but mine was. It was the last Sunday before our then-worship leader was departing, packed house, lots of emotion. I'm on a raised platform, 3-feet at least. Get done with the last song, rack my bass... and step right off the back of the platform, catch my foot in a power rack (open top) and kind of twist my ankle and pivot straight down to the stage floor... barely breaking the fall with my forearm which wound up severely bruised.

On a less embarrassing (but more frequent) note, I several times managed to unplug my cable from my tuner in the course of gigs, making the always pleasant loud "pop" followed by no bass. Now I'm wireless, so problem solved there.

[Fassa Albrecht]

Trying to jump over an amp to get on stage and breaking two of my toes tripping over it instead.

[Texan]

Lost my balance fell off a 4ft stage in 1997...Never drank at a gig again after that.

[MatticusMania]

Originally Posted by Fassa Albrecht

Went for three songs into a set with my volume pot turned down, meaning no bassline for three songs.

How does that happen? I would be able to tell immediately if there wasnt no bass... especially since Im the one playing it.

[bolophonic]

Originally Posted by Fassa Albrecht

Went for three songs into a set with my volume pot turned down, meaning no bassline for three songs.

There is no way that really happened.

[icks]

My band was playing at a open barbecue along with an other band. We were playing in second place. The first band (Ska-punk) played well and had a nice crowd cheering during their performance. We were enjoying the moment and assumed we'll get good cheering too. BUT at the moment we were plugging to begin our set, the meat was cooked and most people were gathered near the bbq to get food !! We were almost playing for ourselves!

That was not the most embarrassing moment ... at these time i felt better ignored than ashamed. BUT my wife came up at the mic asked for silence of everyone there and told the audience to be kind enough to pay attention to our performance like they did for the previous band and so even if they were enjoying their meal.

[staindbass]

i have had the "big intro" with a jump landing on the stage at the same time as the first note and my amp is on mute. cuz the bass tech forgot to push the mute button. its not fair, he ****ed up and i look stupid. now he has to come out on stage and bow to the audience while we are playing after a ****up lmao !

[staindbass]

pardon my french

[wumusic]

Senior year high school. Basketball team's undefeated on the season, so, the games were PACKED. My band gets to jam for the crowd during warm-ups. A break comes in an original tune where I start a bass-tapping solo (heck, it was the early 90's) with the guitars joining in harmony after the first few measures. I walk a little further ahead of the band to start my solo and I pulled the chord out of the input jack on the amp.

Unfortunately, it was caught on video. Fortunately, I have that tape in my possession.

[davidgoldman]

About 1966 I was playing a gig at a local Halabaloo Club that had black lights. A well built young girl walks in wearing a fish net top - as I watched her walk by I got tangled in my guitar cord, tripped, fell off the stage and broke the neck on my bass. I was 15. And that was a Gibson EBO.

[Bullitt5135]

Originally Posted by davidgoldman

About 1966 I was playing a gig at a local Halabaloo Club that had black lights. A well built young girl walks in wearing a fish net top - as I watched her walk by I got tangled in my guitar cord, tripped, fell off the stage and broke the neck on my bass. I was 15. And that was a Gibson EBO.

We have a winner!

[viper4000]

Not sure if it applies, but mine was playing sousaphone in my high school marching band. I had just moved from TX to OH. My TX school was VERY competitive, thus going to state, regional and national marching competitions (think Drum and Bugle Corps ). Fast forward, I moved to OH, where they didn't have a music program of that caliber. Now, I join the band, and we go play at Sea World. All we had to do was stand there and play. About 10 minutes in, I black-out (locked knees). From the video, it looked like a domino set, starting with me in the back, ending with a flute player in the front (about 12 people felt my wrath, err, uh, yeah). Next thing I remember I am in the med center at Sea World. No clue what happened. Needless to say, I was the laughing stock of the band for about a year. Kept giving me guff about being all bad-a$$ from a TX band and I can't even play standing in one place. Anyway, that was it, in front of about 3-400 people in a very large park.

As far as playing bass, I've done it all probably at time or another. Stepped on cords, guitarists stepping on my gear, me stepping on the guitarists gear, starting the wrong song, singing out of key because I couldn't hear, etc, etc, but that time in high school was still the worst of it.

[jaywa]

Originally Posted by Bullitt5135

We have a winner!

I second that.

[Bullitt5135]

I just started playing with a band for the first time (ever) a few months ago. I'm the weakest link, but the guitar player/singer claimed to be very experienced. They talked me into an open mic, which turned out to be at a warehouse full of people. Not knowing a lot of material and having only jammed with these guys two other times, I made it clear that I was only comfortable with 4 songs. We went up with a set list we all agreed on.

The first three songs go well. I'm nervous as hell, but I'm keeping it together and the crowd is having fun. As I'm getting my head around the fourth song, the guitar/singer turns to me and announces "I'm changing things up... blues in G" -- and promptly launches into a agonizingly slow 12-bar. Did I mention that I'm probably the worst blues bass player ever? My "da-dum da-dum da-dumb" bassline paled in comparison to the lead vocal... this butt-clown starts ad-libbing lyrics about underwear and venereal disease, singling out people in the crowd and asking them their personal preferences on the subject. And this is in a room full of seniors and kids. After a brutal few minutes, he mercifully wrapped it up to a rousing round of crickets chirping. (Remember Eddie Murphy's "Let's give it up for Sexual Chocolate" in Coming to America?) As we were offloading, he has the balls to say to me in an accusatory tone "well, that couldn't have gone any worse." Really Jackhole, you think? We haven't heard from the guy since.

[jeffbrown]

MANY years ago, in my trumpet playing career, I played in a local production of Karl Orff's Carmina Burana (sp?) . In one movement, there is an octave slur from a low E (treble clef bottom line), valves 1 + 2, to 4th space E, open fingering, in a very exposed section. For some known-only-to-idiots reason, I ended on second valve only, Eb. To say I was surprised would be kind; the director was assuredly NOT amused. We had a chat after the show, where the subject of my removal from the ensemble was brought up. I assured him that every single subsequent show would be note-perfect. It was.

[jlane72t]

Potentially kicked out for a single bum note? That's harsh, man.