Gig injuries

[Bard2dbone]

How many of you have a story that could be summarized in the same way by someone else?

Too incoherent?

I would say my worst gig-related injury moment would be getting hit by a car while loading out. It was early 1991. We'd done a show at Fatso's here in Arlington. Most of our gear was in my van The last two things to go to the van were our biggest speakers. When we played places too small to have decent PA's we used ours as the PA. Fatso's had an Okay system so ours were just oversized stage monitors there. That's the way we preferred tp use them.

I had the first of thhe two big cabs almost to the van when I headr a noise. I turned my head just in time to see a car coming across the parking lot right at me. It hit me and just about destroyed the cab. It was smashed WAY beyond fixing. I was thrown between a couple of parked cars and got a darned impressive concussion, some spectacular bruising on my legs, and a bit of road rash on my back. But basically I got real lucky.

Much time passes.

My wife's coolest and most interesting cousin is A.) older than most dirt, and B.) a serious swing jazz guitarist from Austin area. His name is Slim Richey. He knows all the notes personally. A couple of months ago, he was run over by a hit and run driver while loading out from a gig. He was carrying his wife's double bass out to the truck at the time. It was destroyed, like made into kindling, but he came out of it without a broken bone. He got a worse concussion than I did. And he's about fifty years older than I was when it happened. But a lot of the story sound familiar to me.

Let's see: Hit by a vehicle after a gig? Check. Hit while carrying the largest piece of gear in your stage set? Check. Gear destroyed in a way that actually protected us from much worse injury? Check. Banged, scraped, and pummeled into oblivion, but somehow no fractures? Check. Concussion so bad that it was a problem for months(me)/still?(him) Check.

Weird, huh?

 

[JACink]

Not a personal injury..

Many years ago, during a Metal-Punk type festival, one the main bands (of who I forget the name) came on to do their stuff. The lead singer, who was well known for being huge (and I mean really huge) and jumping around like a maniac, had broken his leg a few weeks before.

After a few songs, the singer realised that the crowd wasn´t reacting as well as usual, due to the fact that he was sat on a chair singing (not quite the same!) so during a break between songs, he started shouting (over the mic) at the bassist and 2 guitarists to stop being "lazy (insult goes here)" and to jump around.

Into the next song, both guitarists seem to ignore the singer, however, the bassist takes good note and starts to crazily run around and jump up and down on the spot, but totally random, and looking far more of an idiot than "cool". Suddenly the bassist runs towards the front of stage, jumps up in the air, and then dissapears from sight, well almost, as his head and bass still stuck out from the hole that had appeared on stage (the stage turned out to be made from wooden pallets with boards on top, which is never a good idea!).

I believe the guy cracked or broke his jaw, as the bass hit him under the chin as he went through the floor. The worst thing (for them) was that this was the biggest cheer they got from the crowd all night!!

 

[LiamCohl]

Wow, a lot more damage than I expected with some of these accidents! makes anything thats happened to me seem a lot more insignificant. I had the A string of a set of LaBella JJ flats snap on the first note of a song, recoiling so hard that it sliced the side of my right hand open and the rest of the bass went about 3/4 of a step sharp, no one else in the band noticed and on went the song, trying to play 2 frets down and bend every note up enough to be passably in tune, while singing a harmony through the whole song and bleeding all over the bass. Last week was playing bass in a 3 hour tribute show to Levon Helm and The Band, by the end of the night after all the sliding around in Rick's bass parts on a neck that very badly needed a beveling of the fingerboard edge, the creases on the inside of my knuckles had a couple nasty little cuts in there. Neither of those seemed so bad as trying to play shows through migraine's, impossible to not be obviously phoning it in at those times, doesn't feel good, the blinding head pain or the lack of ability to perform when needed at times, but it will be a lot easier to do next time after reading what some of you have put up with and made sure the show went on.

 

[warnergt]

Or maybe some hints on not getting blisters from long gigs.

Turn up the gain. When the amp volume is too low, I find
myself trying to compensate by digging in real hard. After a
while, that can take a toll on your fingers. That's the only time
I get blisters.

 

[Duckwater]

My fingers turn purple after every gig, that's about it.

 

[xander8280]

I have the habit of biting my nails and ripping my calluses when I'm bored in class or work. It comes and bits me when I play for hours the following day. But yeah man, don't let your fingers get soft. Play every day and it wont phase you after a while

 

[xander8280]

Two injury stories:

1982:
Fever chills sweating no energy laying a gig at Rutgers main campus Student Union or whatever they call it. It was their end of winter semester blowout dance party. I was actually making it my last gig with this band due to long drive time for practices and too much drama between the kybrd player and his girlfriend -our lead vocalist. Which never sat comfortably with me...imagine doing Genesis Asia, the Cars, Styx Queen, ELP, Yes, assorted top 40 with a female vocalist ? it just didn't work for me.
Back to the gig,
It is amazing how all that sickness dissappears once you start playing live !
We were in top form. Audience took a while to warm up to us but when we hit the top 40 stuff halfway into our 1st set the joint was jumpin ! For whatever reason I was playin hard that night even though I'm runnin a well powered triamp'd system. 1st set ends and my fingers are sore.
2nd set we are crankin, dance floor hoppin . I look at my buddy who tagged along to help with load in / outs. His face was in shock he was staring at my right hand. I looked down and my fingers and strings/pups etc totally covered in blood.
My tips on my picking hand were shredded beyond pain- the adrenaline of the gig covered all that.
Finished out 2nd set I grabbed a towel and tried to apply adhesive tape on my fingertips.Now in a state of shock over how I will finish out the evening , Though I never used a pick I tried a few, anything keep playing, tape flying off, drops of blood splatter all over ( good thing my bass was black and so were my stage clothes !)
The gig ends -our best one ever. I nearly collapse from it all my buddy loads my gear in my Plymouth Suburban wagon and captains the boat home. Took a week to recover.

NEXT : as posted in "Worst gig ever" thread..

You can't make this s**t up !

1987 Was guitar/ bass tech for the Plasmatics, Yep, you know em well: Wendy O and Co. As they rehearsed for the upcoming tour, Rod the manager and Wendy's man, came up to me and said .
"Hey Stu when we hit the cities You need to hunt down some cheap junk guitars so Wendy can cut them up onstage."
I said 'Sure i know her deal' and it would give me a reason to get away for an hour from the monotony of load in set up etc.
We did the first show Wendy cranked up the chainsaw and shredded the guitar to bits Crowd goes nuts etc etc.

Next gig Wendy & Rod come up to me and says We got a great idea. I was all ears:
During song "x" and "y" you set the coffin up on end onstage. We have been draggin this coffin around and now i know why !
Then you get into a doctors white lab coat wearing a black executioners mask and hold the guitar while standing inside the coffin .
I am wondering what will come out of Wendy's mouth next cause this is getting bizarre enough. She continues:
'I'll throw the lid open, you step out and hand me the guitar and stand there while I cut it up '
"Okay " was all I could manage, hey I'm getting paid right ?!

That night the chosen song comes up and I get into the gag and step out. The crowd is going berserk Wendy cranks up the chain saw -FOR REAL !- thrashin about the stage she takes the guitar and puts it into the stand and grinds the saw thru all the strings bridge wood etc.

I must add that at the same time this is all happening the lead guitarist is in a wheelchair onstage with a old electrode strap cap on his head and a sign on the chair saying "Lobotomy Patient" shredding leads like no tomorrow wheeling back and forth with his feet! Wendy was good at talking people into doing crazy things !

Back to the sacrifice: Band is blazin away at full speed and high volume, I am standing with my arms folded and next thing ya know i feel pieces of guitar shrapnel hitting my legs, Yikes ! then I see the lead guitarist is bleeding from his arm and he's still playing ! Wendy throws the chainsaw right past him to floor: ITS" STILL RUNNING ! I hold my own, Song ends we retreat behind the amps for a moment

Wendy tells the crowd "we' re gonna take a short break". In shock we indulge in homemade road triage.
Before we know it, we're back into gig mode and continue / finish the show.
Afterwards me and the guitarist have a chat with Rod as Wendy was hounded by local press etc. He understood our concerns and injuries and said he'd talk to her and maybe tone it down a notch.
We were like "Yeah it got pretty dangerous out there !"

Next night was slightly better not so much chain saw swinging and i had removed the bridge and just screwed a few strings on the sacrificial axe.
BUT THEN :
Me and the Rhythm guitarist had gotten pretty good at tossin back and forth for 'on the fly' guitar changes onstage.but then me jumping off the side of the drum riser to catch a badly thrown guitar during a quik axe change in mid song Twist my ankle turns black and blue all over and here comes load out UGH!

Needless to say after numerous nightmares and the end of the first leg of the schedule,
I left the tour. Only time I ever left a band or tech gig !

+1 just made my day.

 

[bleepo]

When we were loading our gear before a gig, the middle finger of my right hand was smashed between a speaker cabinet and the side of the van. I had to pack it in ice until the show started. It was painful but I got through the night. However, my finger turned black and the nail cracked and came apart. It took over 4 months for the nail to grow back and I had to keep it wrapped with a heavy cloth bandage to keep playing while it healed. I'm a lot more careful when we load our gear now

I did basically that this weekend. Loading in the PA out of the trailer because our sound tech broke his knee. First item out was a big Meyer double 18 sub that weighed the same as a VW beetle. As it's coming down the ramp it picked up some speed. I try to slow it down and turn it to find my singer behind me "supervising". I Bump into him but still get caught between the sub and the doorway. Oops. Sharp pinch, but I keep moving the cab. Until I see the blood spurting. Its on the floor. On my clothes, on the gear. Everywhere.

I thought it needed stitches but the show must go on. Hockey tape and bandages and I played over an hour set. Was supposed to be 45 but the feature act was stuccoed an our away with a broken down bus. Lots of blood and some (mostly) silent cursing later, we finally reload the trailer after all bands are done, and a friend insisted on taking me to the hospital. Turns out it was a clean break, could have used stitches also. Luckily we only have one more show booked before I can heal. We're gonna have to rewrite some parts for my lines to be played I think. I take a few melodies, and Use all 4 fretting fingers constantly. Looks like I'll be a meat and potatoes player next gig!

On the same sort of front I used to be a prep cook. We were offered a mid day festival spot and my boss wouldn't give me the day off, so I arranged a split shift. Right before I'm about to go play the gig I cut my first finger, really deep through the tip. Called my wife, and she brought me hockey tape and I taped it as tight as I could, played the set and went back to work. Saw pictures later with blood running down my hand and onto my bass. Including the one for the local newspaper!

Another show years ago had a line in one of our main songs that featured bass wah as the central theme to the song. It was a great show and I was having a blast. As my part is coming up I found myself a fair distance from my pedalboard. I did a quick run jump thing to hit my mark, and the wooden board slid on the hardwood stage under my weight. Blew out me knee. I didn't notice due to the adrenaline until about 2 seconds after our song ended. Months of limping later, I no longer use a pedal board.