Have you seen famous performers screw up a show?

hbarcat · #1 01-20-2009, 10:28 PM

Have you ever been to a show (music, comedy, theater etc..) where you paid to see someone famous perform and they had a major screw up, something that was painfully obvious to everyone in the audience? How did they handle it? Did they act professionally and just soldier on or did it actually ruin the show?

I have two stories:

1) I saw George Carlin a couple of years ago and toward the end of his act he was about 4 minutes into his big finale and he stopped for a moment and then announced that he'd forgotten to tell us a crucial part of the setup. But he actually made that funny. He said something like "It would help with the punchline if I had told you the critical part of the setup. ****, I hate when that happens. Well, just pretend that I wasn't such a dumb *** and I had remembered to tell you this . . . . " and then he went to fix the joke while being self deprecating, and what was amazing is that it worked. He didn't let it get to him, but he went on with his act with the attitude that he was going to be funny in spite of the major screw up.

2) In 1988, I saw Pink Floyd and during the playing of "Us and Them" they had some kind of major melt down with wrong notes coming from everywhere during the first verse and just as soon as they got a handle on that, Gilmour forgot the words and started making them up. This was followed by an obviously blown transition and then Gilmour forgot the words to the next verse. Still, they forged ahead and managed to get back on track and the last half of the song went fine. When the song was done, Gilmour made a comment about it to the audience in chuckling kind of way thanking the audience for singing along to help him remember the words.

Any good stories?

bongomania · #2 01-20-2009, 10:36 PM

It can go a few different ways. There was that infamous Van Halen video that went around some time back where the pre-programmed keyboard part of "Jump" was horribly out of key with the rest of the band- some transpose button must have been hit, or a sample playback rate entered wrong, etc. They played the whole song without acknowledging the error, and it was horrible. "Soldiering on" didn't work for them.

And we've all seen Winehouse.

OTOH I have seen many famous jazz artists apply the rule "if you make a mistake, repeat it three more times, that's jazz" and get away with it without breaking stride or cracking a grin.

Georynn · #3 01-20-2009, 10:49 PM

I watched Paul Gilbert get his hair stuck in the power drill he was using!!!

He had short hair after that...

hbarcat · #4 01-20-2009, 10:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bongomania

"if you make a mistake, repeat it three more times, that's jazz"

20db pad · #5 01-20-2009, 10:57 PM

I'll admit it...I was at the show where Milli Vanilli's sampler (or backing track?) got stuck repeating "girl you know it's.....girl you know it's.....girl you know it's....." for a minute or so. Lake Compounce in Bristol, CT.

They just kind of walked around while the track kept on going. Nobody in the crowd really seemed to notice or care, and the show continued - maybe with a little less energy and swagger from Milli and Vanilli.

This was the beginning of the end of Milli Vanilli, where they eventually had to give back their Grammy award and ending with one the guys committing suicide.

MakiSupaStar · #6 01-20-2009, 10:58 PM

Many times from many different artists. I've seen Bradley from Sublime so drunk he couldn't remember any lyrics or even put it together enough to fake it. I've seen Phish blow it, each member at different times. I've seen Jerry Garcia flub badly straight into a magic solo. 311. I could go on all day.

bryan bailey · #7 01-20-2009, 11:08 PM

I saw thom yorke screw up the second verse in faust arp from like, 20 feet away.

MJ5150 · #8 01-20-2009, 11:35 PM

Nope, or I was too stupid to notice it.

-Mike

Joe Gress · #9 01-20-2009, 11:45 PM

At the Claypool show last year, the percussionist and the drummer were performing a long percussion solo. Except the percussionist's vibes were not working, and were going crazy with feedback and such. So as the stage crew and percussionist were fighting the battle of the finicky vibes, the drummer went crazy with his own little solo. Pretty cool.

Snakeman1066 · #10 01-20-2009, 11:46 PM

I have seen Guns and Roses More times than I care to Admit...and Axle Rose screwed up lyrics everytime I saw them...

Saw Jason Newstead screw up a bass Solo during the And Justice For all Tour

Saw Nicko McBrain seriously Flub a Drum Solo

Saw David Lee Roth So drunk that he couldn't even sing...

Saw Rob Halford drop his motorcycle one night on stage

Saw Alice Cooper screw up and trip on one of his "demons" during the going to hell bit!

And I myself (though no famous just infamous) stepped on my guitards cord one night as he was running across stage and yanked it out!.....lol

Kelly Coyle · #11 01-20-2009, 11:49 PM

I saw Ralph Towner phone in a performance a couple of years ago. It was just sloppy, delivered with an "I don't care about your stupid event" kind of vibe it seemed to me. Maybe he had the flu or something, though. Happily, Glen Moore was just out of this world great. Jaw-dropping.

Linas · #12 01-21-2009, 12:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MakiSupaStar

I've seen Phish blow it, each member at different times.

+1. Ive seen them all chump it, individually and as a group.

Jared Lash · #13 01-21-2009, 12:06 AM

I've been very lucky and/or inebriated at the vast majority of shows I've been to (somewhere in the neighborhood of 300-400 concerts) in that I don't recall any "major" screwups. Sure, I've seen cables cut out, or strings break, or guys transpose lyrics from different verses, but nothing especially memorable.

I did see Radiohead at the Outside Lands Festival this year (right after Beck, nice) and the entire PA system cut out completely during two of the first four songs. The second time was during "All I Need" and was pretty cool in that the audience just kept singing along and the sound came back at just about the perfect point in the song.

Standup comedy is a different story. I am a junkie and was a part-time performer and have seen some MAJOR flaming wrecks. I saw one local comedian start off his set OK and then flub a couple jokes until he started getting heckled pretty good. He then started trying to go after people in the audience, with really racist and unfunny stuff. He was pulled off stage by the night's MC when it looked like it might get ugly. Side note - saw the same guy two weeks later and his set went like clockwork. Strange.

I also saw Dave Chappelle at the Punchline for his last set of the week. He was completely hammered. He looked like he was going to fall asleep the whole time. At one point he sat down and talked slower and slower until finally he was just staring at his shoes and not talking. Finally, something startled him and he said, "oh wait, I'm performing" and stood up, going directly into a bit that he pulled off really well.

sonic assassin · #14 01-21-2009, 12:37 AM

i was at the honda civic tour this year and caught justin from motion city soundtrack forgetting the first line to the opener. the sweetener vocal track kept playing. as soon as the song was over, he admitted that he forgot, and said that he was thinking about the season finale of veronica mars. apparently, someone opens a door and says "im so glad you're here" and they never show the person. apparently it was enough to make him forget a song from the first album.

and the first time i saw karate high school, they performed at a small club they'd never been to. they run a light show that is controlled via midi keyboard and it syncs up to the sampled bits. really cool. not 10 seconds in the first song, they blew a fuse. awesome. set the show back about 20 minutes and all momentum was gone. they restarted the song and finished the show flawlessly. i guess that will teach them to check the power rating first

basste · #15 01-21-2009, 12:57 AM

i saw Opeth.
In an intro, guitarist started to fail in a slide lick. Then, singer/guitarist started to laugh at him. And when cames the first lyrics, singer couldn't sing. He was laughing without can control it. It was a very fun moment.

armywalaby · #16 01-21-2009, 01:30 AM

I was at a Spinal Tap show and they started a song where they were gonna come out of these pods, but the bassist got stuck in his pod until the end of the song. The guitarist and vocalist went back into their pods and he popped out of his when the song was over. That was pretty funny.

Mark Latimour · #17 01-21-2009, 02:32 AM

I've seen a few "technical" stuff ups at Opeth shows; one time the ehad fell off Mendez's rig and went out and there was no bass at all for a good part of The Leper Affinity, another time Mikaels guitar cut out for some reason or another. They just kept going and it worked out fine.

I love the We Lost the Skyline CD from Porcupine Tree where Steven Wilson stuffs up the intro to Normal after talking for 1 minute about how hard it is to play and that if he stuffs up he's going to keep trying until he gets it right. He then plays it, stuffs it up, stops and plays it again. Its a great bit of "honest" recording.

DawnOfNone · #18 01-21-2009, 02:32 AM

I saw Vanden Plas at Bospop. The guitarist's rig had technical difficulties about midway the show. He could no longer change between clean/distorted/lead and other sounds. Al he had was his lead distorted sound. It's a good sound, but when they started playing some slower ballads, it got a bit painful.

Oric · #19 01-21-2009, 02:42 AM

When I saw George Clinton and P-funk over the summer, the PA system went out, so you could only hear the monitors. Their solution? Keep playing and pretend nothing happened, and people kept dancing. I guess it's true that you can't stop the funk.

Relic · #20 01-21-2009, 04:51 AM

I saw Yes mess up pretty badly in Philly. It was a tour supporting the Big Generator album quite a few years back and they still had Trevor Rabin on guitar. Thinking back, I honestly don't remember what song it was. Might have been the very beginning of Roundabout. It was kind of funny in that they stopped, laughed about it for a few seconds then started up again perfectly.