When your band mates screw up.

durarl · #1 10-29-2007, 04:39 PM

What is the most irritating thing that another member of your band has done during a show? Last Saturday, my drummer left his rug at home, so we tried to improvise by using a large rubber car mat. After the first song we realized we had a problem when his set was two feet away from him. The part that sucks was that I had to plant my right foot in front of his bass drum to prevent him from sliding anymore. I had to spend an entire hour and a half set having my calf muscle torn off because my drummer can't remember his gear.

xlows · #2 10-29-2007, 04:44 PM

My drummer used to slow down sometimes. Nothing else has really gotten on my nerves. Screwing up is pretty funny to me.

**Vorago** · #3 10-29-2007, 04:44 PM

Stop in the middle of a song because he couldn't hear us.

IanStephenson · #4 10-29-2007, 05:29 PM

Dropping his drum sticks...

We keep telling him we're going totie his sticks to a bit of string run up his sleave, across the back and down the other arm - like you had to stop you loosing your mittens when you were a kid.

He keeps about 3 sets of sticks clipped to various parts of his kit so he can grab them quickly - still two songs into a set, he's keeping the beat with one hand, while scabbling round on the floor trying to find a stick, cause he's dropped 5 sticks in 2 songs!!!!

Ian

invader3k · #5 10-29-2007, 07:54 PM

We used to have a drummer like that. It was annoying because you'd hear him dropping the beat, and then you'd turn around to see that he was feeling around the floor for his other stick. It happened ALL THE TIME. Don't really miss that guy too much.

Saetia · #6 10-29-2007, 08:08 PM

My guitarist and I have set up a benefit show for Tomorrows Hope every for the last 4 years.

This past Saturday was the show, 20 bands, two stages back and forth... no down time, 1pm until Midnight.

Anyway, my band played around 10 that night, we were short 1 guitar player (went to the hospitol for a fever that he had for like 4 days) which in my eyes under normal circumstances would be enough not to play it. Since we put it together and it's for a good cause we still played

My guitar player (who also helped set up the show), wanted to use both his Peavey 6505+ and Marshal 1960A cab as well as our other guitarists Peavey XXXL and Traynor TS-98 cab.

We set up and he leaves the amp alone not even seeing if it works right. Sets change, it's our turn to bring the rock... he turns off the standby and it starts feeding back horribly.

He kept trying different ways and still kept feeding back... he even had the hush noise supressor on it... then added another one in front of the other amp.

Still feedback... I told him it wasn't going to work and he doesn't need 240 tube watts for guitar anyway.

Well he dinked around for 15 minutes with the whole crowd of a couple hundred people watching and hearing his loud feedback.

I didn't even want to be on stage after that.

Either way, I was upset and really didn't want to be there anymore. Not only was it annoying and he didn't check and double check before just waiting to play, but he embarassed us all and made us all look very unprofessional.

Things are cool now.

The things guitar players do sometimes.

UGH

Peace

-Benny

cutthroatmolloy · #7 10-29-2007, 11:57 PM

noone in my band has done anything like the replies in this thread. they make little mistakes, but thats ok, i make them too sometimes and we still sound good.

bluestarbass · #8 10-30-2007, 07:17 AM

Good lord this seems moderate. During a session once our drummer got incredibly drunk, not like oh hes drunk, like hes going to die drunk. He couldnt even talk and hes a big guy, almost 300 pounds.

Its basically the singer and drummer both get insanely drunk at shows but what are you gonna do, its punk rock.

mjolnir · #9 10-30-2007, 07:33 AM

The little screwups don't really annoy me unless it's just blatant disregard for showmanship, like getting tanked before playing, though I gotta admit even those are funny, even while I'm chewing their asses out afterwards.

I had one gig where we were doing a favor for a friend, playing for a bunch of drunken barbeque guys, and though the set was decided beforehand the guitard had a habit of changing it up on the fly, so at one point he called out the next song and our keys player didn't notice, so the band went one direction (an original up tempo piece) and the keys player went into some cheezy organ riff of You Can't Always Get What You Want. Luckily that band was good at thinking on its feet, and within a measure the rest of us had covered our bases and shifted over to the right key. Later on we got several compliments on that crazy new intro we thought up for the song.

chaosMK · #10 10-30-2007, 09:20 AM

My singer says the stupidest things to the audience. Last show it seemed like he was having a little fit because people werent screaming loud enough. He was getting all puffed up and yelled at the audience because of it.

I wanted to body slam him off the stage.

casualmadness · #11 10-30-2007, 09:35 AM

This was actually pretty funny:
It happened in practice, not a gig. My old band was playing through some stuff one night when the guitar palyers girlfriend called. Anyway, his phone vibrated in his pocket so he stopped playing right in the middle of the damn song!

He runs out of the room to talk to her.
We all yelled at him but it didn't do any good. So I got on the mic and the drummer picked up the guitar and the singer got on the drums and we started playing an obnoxiously loud, chromatic, death metal rif. Double bass srums, thundering low B bass and guitar (the guitard had a seven string). And I was screaming cookie monster type vocals into the mic. I was making the lyrics up as I went along but it was something like...
"Get off the phone! Get off the phone! Get off the phone! Your girlfriend calls and you drop your d_ _ _. I F_ _ _ _ _ _ g hate you, you make me sick! You really suck and she ruined our band. We would be better off if you would just f_ _ _ your hand...GET OFF THE PHONE!!!! GET OFF THE PHONE!!!" Of course we were all good friends and none of his was meant maliciously. We always gave each other a hard time about aqnything and everything. And we picked on him about her all the time.
But we were all laughing so hard that it was difficult to maintain the playing. And screaming in that low, death metal style kills my throat, so I started coughing all over the place. That just madethe other guys laugh harder. And the whole time the guitard is standing outside of our practice space giving us all the finger and throwing rocks at us.
It was hilarious. It bacame a total inside joke too. Anytime after that, when she would call him; regardless of where we were or what we were doing; we would break into the "Get off the phone" song.

louieeadg · #12 10-30-2007, 10:10 AM

I just laugh at them...until I screw up. Then they laugh at me.

Just J · #13 10-30-2007, 11:42 AM

For the longest time the lead guitarist would bitch at the rhythm guitarist about his tone and volume. He was usually right, but of course he has a wicked case of hypocrititis. I've noticed more and more that as we're playing he constantly gets louder, to the point where you can't hear the singer clearly and it sounds like crap. When he does little high register licks it's like someone punched you in the face.

Last night we were working on a new track and he and the singer (who's also the best guitarist in the group so we're giving him lead for this song while the female backup takes the vocals) play a few parts and leads in unison. After the unison parts when they were both playing it sounded like crap. WAY too much going on, too much distortion, and he was so friggin loud I couldn't make out what the singer was saying. After I tell him he's gotta back off the distortion and turn down... so he starts bitching about the tone when I'm playing because I'm going direct into the PA.

"When you're playing it sounds like everythings being run through a compressor and sucking the juice out of it." Sorry buddy, but no. I know it takes a lot of juice to drive bass, but if he can't keep his stuff in check when I'm though the PA, it's gonna be WORSE when I'm not. He's quick to bitch at the other guitarist, but apparently can't take the critisizm when his levels are out of control.

And he NEVER uses his volume pedal. It's there for a friggin reason, USE IT. Keep the volume in check, then kick it up for solos. I like the guy, but damn man.

wingnut · #14 10-30-2007, 11:53 AM

1. tuning the guitar between every song, it's seldom really out of tune
2. noodling really loud bs on the guitar at practice when people are trying to communicate vocally, shows lack of respect to your bandmates

txbasschik · #15 10-30-2007, 12:14 PM

Our drummer thinks its a wonderful thing to full time between songs with a drum solo. Not a nice little groove that I can join in with him on, while the guitarist changes a string or re-sets an effect or whatever. No. I mean, he suddenly thinks he's Buddy Rich. But he's not, you know?

And he gets so absorbed in it, he forgets to stop when the guitarist is ready, and we have to get his attention.

's very annoyin'.

We don't get too annoyed with each other over mistakes, 'cept maybe tempo. T

hey get aggravated when I get too deep in the groove and forget to watch for the "song is ending" cue. Sometimes we have longer guitar leads than others, or when we have our sax and harp guys sitting in, the songs can take directions different from how we usually do them.

Cherie

jsingles · #16 10-30-2007, 12:42 PM

I have gone through 4 drummers

First one rarely showed up, cuz he would jump at the opportunity to make other plans and ditch us
second one doesnt show up because hes lazy and doesnt care about music
third one sucked
fourth one was exactly like the first one all over again...

all 4 of them play loudly when we are trying to talk, or are on the phone. they think it is funny.

So apparently from my experiences.. drummers dont give a **** about being musicians where i live.

Me and my guitarist gave up for now. we arent in a band at the moment. JUST because we cant find a single devoted drummer and we are sick of their ****.

(i mean no offense to devoted drummers as i am sure there are many of them)

::::BASSIST:::: · #17 10-30-2007, 12:43 PM

Our drummer is 100% legally blind, so when he drops the sticks, its a major problem!

This rarely happens though. He's a fantastic drummer... better than all the other sighted drummers I've played with previously.

jomahu · #18 10-30-2007, 01:02 PM

don't like it when people don't practise and then half-*** it on the gig...very visibly.

iamoldschool · #19 10-30-2007, 01:10 PM

Our guitard routinely starts songs in the wrong key. I have taken to calling out the song key before we start. He just looks at me and mouths "Thanks". He knows he's guitarded. Can't really get mad at him though, he does all the lead vocals and plays guitar in a 3 piece band, so he is very talented, IMO, just a little lax on paying attention to the key. Plus he has to switch guitars to suit the tune, check the pedals and the vocal harmonizer, so he has more to remember than the other two of us, so we cut him some slack. Best to work together, right?

**PatO** · #20 10-30-2007, 01:44 PM

so I should preface this by stating that I love my drummer. both as a musician and as a friend. But this thread is hilarious. I've dealt with each one of these issues with my current band. My favorite is the forgotten drum rug, I've done the quick stomp in front of the kick drum to keep the kit from moving, but lately we just steal a floor matt the closest doorway. We live in VT, so in the winter this can cause some sloppy salt/snow buildup in the drum corner, oh well. The dropped stick issue, makes me laugh everytime. The drummer (I'll refer to him as J) has the uncanny ability to only find his fallen sticks with 1 eye closed. perhaps the force? but he rarely drops or misses the beat while searching for the stick. What he does do, is take tempo's that are fast and make them faster. We do a fair share of afrobeat and techno type grooves, and we're off to the races. J has the skills to lay down these super fast beats, but at least one time per gig he gets ahead of himself and falters. makes me laugh everytime, dude goes from kicking considerable ass to sucking in about 0.1 seconds and then back again.