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Biggest screw up you have ever made?

#21
*Left Bass at home when gig was almost an hour away from my house

*No power to amp/rack, freaking out, changed batt. in bass, changed cables out...ended up being turned off {bows head in shame}

*Went to wrong bar and was fussing at band that was setting up, and bar mngr. about double booking...ended up being at the WRONG bar :)
 
#26
My band opened up for Run DMC and the Pharcyde in 1998....which was the bigfest show of my life at that point. During the first song, the fuse in my amp blew and i couldn't hear a thing on stage. Luckily, i was plugged into a DI and could still be heard thru the front of house, but it sucked do bad to pmay a gig of that magnitude without hear anything that you played with any clarity. I did get to drink all of Run DMC's Heineken's...but lesson here....carry an xtra fuse party people.
 
#27
My biggest screw up happened today, Tossed my G30 Wireless Transmitter half way across the room riiiight before the drum & bass section of the song. Except I didn't notice and kept on playing for about 15 seconds. I look around and see the guitarist and drummer laughing at me.

I sounded awesome in my head.
 
#28
OP, if your biggest screw-up is not having a 24th fret on your highest (pitched) string, I'd say you're doing pretty good for yourself, either that or your other screw-ups were all so embarrassing you've blotted them out of your mind ;)

My biggest screw-up was probably yelling myself hoarse right before a big show, made a fool out of myself and everyone assumed we sucked because my singing blew chunks. Lost a lot of potential fans and a great venue.
 
#29
rtslinger said:
Yup the gig I was supposed to cancel's owner was calling to see where the F we were! We scrambled to put the band together minus our drummer because the place was packed! We did the show with no drummer but not unplugged. We rocked them like we had a drummer a lot of toe tapping!But the owner wasn't happy and never had us back!
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Yeah, I can see how the owner wasn't too peachy about it. We've had to play one short a few times (drummer). Luckily, they were for house parties with no pay and all for fun. We've all made dumb mistakes like it before and we'll all do it some more. It's all so very humbling. :)
 
#30
1) Staying with one band far longer than I should've. A cover band that also did some original material, good female lead singer/songwriter, but in time, instead of really being a band, it started to feel like her backup band, worse yet, the music was stating to get insanely cheesy and leaning towards juvenile and sappy by tuns. I was just stating to write my resignation notice when luckily for me, the band broke up. I was never happier. Lesson leaned.

2) Playing for free. NEVER AGAIN!!!!!
 
#31
Played an acoustic set at a coffee house - acoustic guitar, acoustic bass guitar, drummer sitting on a box thing (cajon?). The singer/guitarist called Sitting on the Dock of the Bay. I don't sing one little bit, but I said "cool, I'll whistle when that part comes round." Whistling time comes - nothing comes out but a little spit. I start licking my lips like crazy - still nothing. Guitarist starts giggling. Drummer starts giggling. I start giggling. The guitarist, referencing the line from "Maverick" shouts "Whatsa matter Coop? Another wheel fall off?" The whole joint starts guffawing. Paralyzed by laughter, we could't finish the tune and took a break to regroup.
 
#33
When I was on tour with the Boston Pops, I needed to plug in the Spanish guitar I was using for a couple of tunes. Even though I've been doing this a (very) long time, at the first show, I was pretty taken aback by the hockey arena full of people, and so started the tune without plugging in. The soundman on the side of the stage was jumping up and down to try to get me attention, and about 10 bars in I figured it out. Don't know if anyone else noticed, but I was beet red as you might imagine...
 
#36
Worst EVER?????

I played bass for the house band that toured with Wolfman Jack in the early to mid '90's...we had six groups on the tour, one of which was the Drifters, who went on last closed the show with "Under the Boardwalk"

We were in Hagerstown, Md early on in the tour...doing 2 shows in one day...up since 5am, rehearsed all day and barely any time to eat or get changed...hit the first show from 3p-6p...second show was 7p-11p and by the time we got to the last tune I was F R I E D!!!!!

So, Charlie Thomas is lavishly reminiscing with the audience (probably @ 1500) as we are comping the outro of the second to last tune and he starts in with my cue..."I'll bet y'all remember those glorious days UNDER THE BOARDWALK"...and the house goes black as a spotlight is placed on me to start the song...but I wound up playing the notes in some syncopated double time thing and COULDN'T GET BACK INTO THE PROPER RYTHYM as Charlie is looking at me and mouthing "What the HELL are you doing boy?"...and my keyboard player had to step in with a LOUD "BANG, BANG BANG BANG, BANG BANG"...that snapped me back into the song and the rest was history...seemed like a good 45 seconds til things were normal as I died a slow and painful death on that stage :-)

20+ years later, I still hear about it...
 
#37
Can't think of a playing screwup at the moment, but...

One time opening for Lynyrd Skynyrd in front of about 5000 people my foot slipped. Cowboy boots, wooden stage... I managed to turn it into a Chris Squire-esque spin and put my other foot down, but I was millimeters away from falling on my behind.

After the show the steel player walked up to me and said "nice save".
 
#39
Russell L said:
Concert night, Columbia Philharmonic Orchestra, I'm on upright in my tux sitting in the middle of the section (I'm not the best, but not the worst either). We were playing Rigoletto, by Rossini. The signature motif line in the piece has a "grand pause" the first time through (or is it the second time, I forget) on the last measure. Heh, except for me. I scratched out a nice note right in the middle of the silence before I could stop my bowing hand. Jeez, I wanted to crawl under the back curtain and on out of the concert hall. Absolutely unbearable embarrassment. To make it worse, no one even looked my way. I tried to make light of it during the intermission by asking the conductor if he liked my little solo. He just stared at me, and then turned and walked away. I shuddered in shame.
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Yeah I'm inclined to say that takes it, its easy to cover up screwups in rock much harder in classical, especially during a grand "pause"
 

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