...Embarrising Moments At a Gig?

I believe we've all done that. Especially those of us with active electronics who are anal about saving our batteries. Live and learn!

 

When I was playing keys in a band, we has this little gig. it was a good time. Until I found my myself, in the middle of our orginial song, "80's Metal Rocks," having to trigger SFX on my keys with one hand and trying to keep my drummers 14" crash from flying off the stand with the other. YEAAAAAAH!!

 

Once, I was gigging with a local metal group, which has eight guitarists. We started the first song, and when we got to the solo, all of them started soloing at once. It was so awful, the audience sprayed paint at us from aerosol cans. Then I found $20.

 

Way back when I was playing violin in highschool, I was concertmaster (I still love the sound of that) we were playing at region (I don't know if that's a Texas thing, but it's a statewide competition). The MC (i guess) announced the our song order and I decided to follow it, but the rest of the band/ director decided to follow the order we planned.

The second song, messed up in order, was a soft song, whereas the song that my stand partner and self was a loud, triumphant song. Fortuneately, we figureg out pretty quickly and I nailed the solo. Nonetheless, hitting a fortissimo note when everyone else was pianissimo was fairly embarrising. Fortunately everything else was solid and we scored the highest marks we could.

 

that sounds like the metalist thing ever.

 

One time, I was getting off the stage with my bass and all of a sudden I got stuck and I couldn't go any further. I was wondering what the heck was going on... until I realized I forgot to unplug the cable from my bass guitar... I was so embarrassed, especially when it was in front of a whole crowd of people. This one dude came up to me and said, "Nice going." Oh well, lesson learned.

 

lmao thats so metal

 

2 days ago we were playing at a party taking place in a large house.
Before we start, guitarist and singer got drunk...
So when we are all plugged in and ready, guitarist tells me silently gazing at me with the drunk-man's eyes "sing me the intro, i don't remember it"
You can imagine the rest....
Oh, and the drum pedal got screwed in the middle of the setlist.
Funny thing...everyone loved our performance...

 

Playing with a punk band at a Christian Youth show, singer drops the F-bomb and gets his mike cut instantly, guy running it walks onstage in the middle of the song and grabs the vocalist and yells "dont you dare swear on my stage again", then cuts us a song short. not so embarrassing for me, but it was for the singer for sure. they made way too big a deal out of it, although it is somewhat understandable.

 

A similar story to the OP's:

We had formed a band back in the 80's, had rehearsed a lot and knew we were tight. When we got our debut gig at a pretty high-profile club we were prepared to really knock 'em for a loop. You could feel the hush of expectancy in the air as we walked on stage. Counted off the first number, and it started out forte fortissimo - except for my bass. Not a sound. I panicked for about two bars... then remembered to turn the volume pot up. It went well after that, but I can't forget that moment.

 

Opening for Bad Religion at the Warfield in San Francisco, which is a pretty decent sized venue -- about 2500 capacity. This was our big homecoming gig after a long tour. First song, thought I would do a cool rock move and jumped up in the air, only to have my feet go out from under me. I landed right on my ass in front of friends, family and a couple thousand other people.

Another show somewhere in Germany. I had unwisely taken some kind of prescription muscle relaxer pills before the show. These pills apparently did not mix too well with beer. Somewhere in the middle of the set I literally blacked out. It actually wasn't embarassing at the time b/c I was passed out and didn't wake up again until the next morning. Then, however, the embarassment kicked in!

 

Our first festival we played (Festival of the Little Hills in St. Charles, MO) was a funny disaster. It's about a 30 min drive from my house to the stage, and I ended up driving with the alcoholic roadie... Killing 1/3 of a gallon before we got there plus sipping on drinks during set-up got me a little more drunk than I'd have thought lol, so we get onstage for our longest set ever (1 hour plus 45 min) and I litterally have to keep my eyes closed to be able to remotely keep focused on playing bass.

I saw the video of the show and jesus was I stumbling everywhere on stage. Needless to say I felt a little like a horse's batute

 

hahaha! sigged!

 

I was playing at a benefit concert, and I was going to sing the lead vocals for "Crossroads".

I forgot the second verse. My plan was to then use the first verse as the outro verse after the solos, and I screwed that one up to.

The good news is that no one really heard me: the PA levels sucked in my favor.

 

I have three stories.

First, I was helping out a few dudes I knew with a performance night they were supposed to do for their music class (I wasn’t actually a part of the class thingy). Two songs to be played, both with very little practice beforehand. The first song was 'In My Head' by Black Flag, on which I was playing guitar and it went fine. The second song I was on bass for and it was supposed to be 'Paranoid' by Sabbath. Me and the guitarist had practiced it, but the drummer for that song had assured us that he knew the song off by heart and we hadn’t had time to practice it WITH the drums (his assurance was actually why we played the song in the first place). It became clear that he didn’t know the song at all and everything spiraled down from there.

Second, when 1 song into a punk gig the lead guitarist asks me if I could get off stage to get him a bottle of water.. To which my reaction was something like 'uumm..no..I kinda can’t actually mate'

Third, playing bass at an open blues jam with an egomaniac that expected we know how to play various riff based songs that 'everybody knows'. The guy began working insults towards me into his lyrics. This went on for a while before I and the rest of the band walked off stage on him.

 

Story #1:

High School Battle of the Bands. First time playing in front of a large group of people (over 500) and we we're playing 'Another Brick in the Wall' by Pink Floyd. At sound check my Stingray 5 sounded downright WICKED through the huge PA. I was excited to hit that big low D at the beginning of the song. So much so that I was dancing my butt off leading up to my big moment and didn't notice that I had stepped on my cord and had pulled it out of the amp. I dramatically hit my entrance pedal tone and got NOTHING!!! Boy I felt like a tool all night. So much so that I left my amp on the curb that night while loading to go home. Luckily I remembered before it was stolen.


Story 2:

I had a big gig this night with a live hip-hop group I was playing with. It was the last night EVER at the Green Door in OKC, a fairly well-known venue that was a blast to play at. We we're literally sending off the club into history.

Well, the day of, I was to report to the State Fair to don the giant yellow cat mascot for OKC's 100.05 KATT. That's right, I was a mascot. First job out of College, but thats another story. The day was EXCEPTIONALLY hot, and I bet I almost passed out from heat stroke several times. Needless to say, at the end of my shift, round 5pm, I was BEAT. Not even 12 RedBulls and some Speed could have fixed this. I HAD to catch a nap before the gig.

So I got home right at about 6pm, and new that I had to be plugged in and ready to play at 10pm. There was a band before us, and then we were to close out the club FOR GOOD. I set my cellphone alarm and immediately passed out. Then everything went to $%&@

I came to at about 9pm instead of the 8pm I had set my alarm for. My cell phone's Alarm setting had been reset to NOT go off on the weekend, though I could tell that everything else on it worked based off of the 20 missed calls I had between my guitarist and MC/Singer/Drummer. Now, I knew I was late but not totally screwed, so I scrambled to get myself and my gear ready and rocketed out the door. I must have called my bandmates 10 times on the way to the venue. NO ANSWER!!!

At this point I was puzzled, knowing that I still had enough time to hurry there and get setup for the downbeat. Why no answer? I was soon to find out. When I get to the venue, the door guy looks at me with contempt and says 'are you that dippoopie bassplayer?' Now, I'm not a passive person at all, and on top of being exhausted from the day's activities, I about tore him a new orifice. After getting past him, I notice that my band is already on stage at around 9:50pm, hacking through one of our tunes without the bass. It sounded like hot garbage without the bass.

Being professional, I took a few deep breaths and began to setup while they were playing. Neither guy had even acknowledged my presence at this point. My bandleader looked PISSED though. At the EXACT moment I started to play, they stopped the song. "Thanks, and good night Green Door". That was it. My drummer/MC/frontman immediately grabbed his snare and threw it at the back wall and then preceded to have a freaking temper tantrum. Not directed at me a single time, but only at all the inanimate objects around the stage. I'm sitting there onstage with the bass on, looking like a true @$$-hat, compounded by my bandleader having a nervous breakdown, drawing the bouncers at this point. My guitar player won't talk to me, and people are shaking their heads and laughing at us.

It wasn't until I was walking out the door, face red from embarrassment and head hung with shame, that someone there bothered to tell me what had happened.

"Dude, that sucks that you guys where bumped up in the show because of that band cancelling. Did you have another gig or something?" I said nothing and simply walked out, while the owner was cussing at me and the bouncers were pulling out my bandleader. Apparently the 20 missed calls were to tell me that we HAD to start over an hour earlier than scheduled due to both a band cancellation and a last minute addition of the club-owner's friend's band.

Things were never the same after that and I ended up quitting that band. I still laugh about it today. The bandleader/MC/drummer does NOT.

 

Story 1:

After leaving school and gaining some local acknowledgment our school invited us back to play at a full school assembly in front of the whole school (roughly 1600 students). Anyway we're a laid back sort of beach band (most of our songs where written in the back of a station wagon with the boot open facing the ocean) so we obviously look the part on stage. Shorts, singlets and no shoes. So I'm bopping along to the second of four songs we are to be playing and turn around to face the drummer. Suddenly I get a sharp pain in my foot, I look down to see that for some strange reason there was glass on the stage (which was indoors) and I had cut my foot open from toe to heal (almost). I continued on leaving foot shaped stains on the carpet before the song stopped for some reason. I looked over at the rest of the band who were just staring at me, then I realized that I had completely dazed out and was standing motionless, pale and not playing. Had to go to hospital for stitches. Bad gig.

Story 2:

My first ever band was playing at battle of the bands in front of my school. Anyway, we get up for our sound check which is being run by the school theater tech. Now, let me tell you about the school theater tech, he is a 40+ guy who blows his fuse at the drop of the hat and scares all the students into submission, I was one of the only kids who ever just laughed off his threats and yells. So I do my bass and vocal sound check and turn around to start tuning my bass. I get about half way through when I hear yelling from the sound desk, I turn around to see the theater tech walking towards the stage, red faced and looking angry. Anyway, he gets to the stage and yelling at me for not paying attention and I calmly inform him that I did not hear him address me as I was tuning up my bass. Anyway he has his little tantrum and informs me that we where doing a full band sound check, I do the sound check, he gives the thumbs up from the sound desk and I go back to tuning (we weren't on for another 20 minutes).
Here comes the fun part, I just finish tuning up when I feel a hand grab my arm and violently pull me around, it was the theater tech who obviously had tried to get my attention (silently) whilst I wasn't looking and blown another fuse. Anyway, in the act of spinning me around my strap detaches itself from the bass and I cant catch it because he has my arm in his vice grim. The bass falls the the floor, headstock first and I watch as the headstock snaps in twain, completely ruining the only bass I could afford at the time (I was 16).
Ok, so I'm normally a calm person but all those years of him yelling at me and everything else just accumulated into one reservoir of rage, the dam of which burst with the breaking of my bass.

I went mental. I pushed him away from me, causing him to almost fall off stage and I took my now useless bass and threw it solidly at one of the P.A. speakers (both of which he owned) which it struck sweetly, sending it toppling off the stage and onto the ground, breaking it instantly. I stormed off stage and walked out the door, flipping the bird and calling him some unpleasant names along the way.

I was nearly expelled and he was fired for the both the incident and the numerous complaints that had been filed against him throughout his years at the school.

Funny addition: A few months ago I was to play a gig in the city (I'm 18 now, so older and out of school obviously) only to find HE was the sound guy there. He demanded to speak to the manager and refused to do sound for us. I simply retorted, "That's ok we brought our own sound guy". Which we had.

Oh the memories.

 

Once ran across stage, tripped on something and fell into my cabinet, all captured on video!

Moshers fell into a mic stand as I was singing, big fat lip out of that one!

I've been kicked out of backstage because the security guy didn't believe I was in a band; we were headlining the show.

Our band was kicked out of Hatebreed and 3Inches Of Blood's dressing room because we wern't supposed to be there. We were openning the show and no one ever told us.

An old singer, who I was never in the band with, threw a bottle at me! I dodged it, it hit my wife (she was okay though) as she was taking pics from behind my cab. What an IDIOT!

Farting

I'm sure there's more but most embarrassing . . . Having to cancel a gig!!!

 

Started a song with the mute still on - that is about it for me.