We've all put dinks and dings in our gear when loading in and out of venues but how about the other way round? Last weekend, as we did a soundcheck at a sports club, we see the manager running over waving his arms for us to stop. It turned out that just around the corner from the small stage a glass shelf full of trophies had come off its brackets and the whole lot smashed on the floor. Most of the trophies were okay but the shelf was in a million pieces. The shelf had only recently been fitted and it was just resting on metal brackets - not actually secured to them. The manager was okay about it (probably it was he who fitted the shelf) realising it was lucky this didn't happen a couple of hours later when there would have been customers sitting underneath. Any stories about damage you've caused? Accidentally, of course!
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Inflicting damage.
- Thread starter Sneakypete
- Start date
, poor fella , I bet he feels like a fool.
We played a venue at Christmas time and our sax player got pretty drunk and tried to ride the decoration reindeer. He got on it and everything was okay, but when he got off to come back to the main part of the stage he tripped on the wire for the lights and the whole display came crashing down. The owner of the venue got really pissed at us, but he was a cool dude and still paid us. The next day we bought tons of new stuff with the what we got paid and re-did the display for him.
I played a venue in old down town Hagerstown. Old building with stone walls in the basement (that's where we were playing.) There was a built in wooden shelf behind us with some pictures and memorabilia on it. I set a beer up there too. About the second song we did , the beer and two pictures vibrated off the shelf all at the same time. I LOVE my SVT lol.
There was a place we played in Frederick Md that had wooden steps (about 6 of them) going down from one of the doors. I lost my grip on my 8 10 and away it went. Pretty much destroyed the bottom two steps. No damage to the cab. The owner was planning to replace the steps with concrete ones anyway so she wasn't mad about it.
There was a place we played in Frederick Md that had wooden steps (about 6 of them) going down from one of the doors. I lost my grip on my 8 10 and away it went. Pretty much destroyed the bottom two steps. No damage to the cab. The owner was planning to replace the steps with concrete ones anyway so she wasn't mad about it.
The side stage wall of my house gig is brick. On the other side of that wall..is an upscale art gallery. Ever shake a $10K oil painting of a wall? Wanna guess how fast a bar owner can tell a bass player to move his rig to the other side of the stage?
Fast. REAL fast.
Fast. REAL fast.
Gaolee
Official leathers tester and crash dummy
This happened more than 30 years ago. I was playing a Danelectro or Coral or whatever the Freebass was through an Acoustic 126 combo. It was a small place, and we were good and loud, as people in their early 20s tend to be. I hit a note and a beer stein exploded into a million little pieces. I don't know if it fell or if it was a Memorex moment, but it was a surprise. It didn't get us to turn down at all. I'm 100% sure it was just a frequency issue, because the 126 just isn't that earsplitting.
Hi,
Many years ago I was working with a "chick singer" who could not hear herself well enough on the gig. She decided to rewire the monitors on stage. Since this was the house PA we told her to wait for the sound guy to straighten out the monitor mix. She said she knew what she was doing and proceeded to put too many monitors in parallel and fried one of the power amps. The sound guy was not happy. We did continue to play there for a while and the club is still in business to this day. I played there with a different band a couple of years ago and the same sound guy is still there with the same PA. I guess if the club is making money the owner does not move an ashtray.
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
Many years ago I was working with a "chick singer" who could not hear herself well enough on the gig. She decided to rewire the monitors on stage. Since this was the house PA we told her to wait for the sound guy to straighten out the monitor mix. She said she knew what she was doing and proceeded to put too many monitors in parallel and fried one of the power amps. The sound guy was not happy. We did continue to play there for a while and the club is still in business to this day. I played there with a different band a couple of years ago and the same sound guy is still there with the same PA. I guess if the club is making money the owner does not move an ashtray.
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
A few years ago we used te have this recurring gig every half year at one of the bars when te local carnival was in town.
One of our craziest gig was there and things got a 'little' out of control.
(note: we play thrash, it's a pretty small bar, it's our hometown, the place was crammed, 95% of the people know us and had been drinking since noon
)
First song starts and everyone goes crazy, halfway through someone goes flying though the big window and onto the sidewalk, he hit the pavement and jumped right back up, everyone thought it was awesome.
Barkeep says 'oh poopie, well, those things happen'
Gig continues...we don't even get halfway through the set and someone crowdsurfing get banged down on the pinballmachine and one of the legs buckles. Song is over, machine gets moved, gig goes on.
about 3/4 into the set police shows up outside the door, because there was no more glass in the window neighbours started complaining about the noise.
So the cops are looking at us through the broken window and afther the song we were playing is finished the barkeep comes to the front and the following conversation took place:
"Could you guys turn down a bit, the cops are here"
respons "...no"
And we cranked up our amps one more notch as the cops where looking and started our next song, crowd LOVED it
(barkeep told the cops she would put a piece of wood in the window, and since it was the local carnival the cops just let it be)
Eventually the last song comes up, witch is always our drunken-singalong-song, and since eveyone knows us, eveyone wants to jump onstage...the stage did not like it to say the least
The end total was: One big broken window, One pinballmachine, One warning from the cops, A couple broken planks from the stage, and a bunch of broken beerglasses and bottles on the floor...
Besides al the it was a pretty normal night
One of our craziest gig was there and things got a 'little' out of control.
(note: we play thrash, it's a pretty small bar, it's our hometown, the place was crammed, 95% of the people know us and had been drinking since noon
)First song starts and everyone goes crazy, halfway through someone goes flying though the big window and onto the sidewalk, he hit the pavement and jumped right back up, everyone thought it was awesome.
Barkeep says 'oh poopie, well, those things happen'
Gig continues...we don't even get halfway through the set and someone crowdsurfing get banged down on the pinballmachine and one of the legs buckles. Song is over, machine gets moved, gig goes on.
about 3/4 into the set police shows up outside the door, because there was no more glass in the window neighbours started complaining about the noise.
So the cops are looking at us through the broken window and afther the song we were playing is finished the barkeep comes to the front and the following conversation took place:
"Could you guys turn down a bit, the cops are here"
respons "...no"
And we cranked up our amps one more notch as the cops where looking and started our next song, crowd LOVED it
(barkeep told the cops she would put a piece of wood in the window, and since it was the local carnival the cops just let it be)
Eventually the last song comes up, witch is always our drunken-singalong-song, and since eveyone knows us, eveyone wants to jump onstage...the stage did not like it to say the least
The end total was: One big broken window, One pinballmachine, One warning from the cops, A couple broken planks from the stage, and a bunch of broken beerglasses and bottles on the floor...
Besides al the it was a pretty normal night
Well, I will speak for all of the "pointy guitar guys" (cause most of us have this type of damage)
the tip of my Charvel headstock got it's mandatory nick somewhere along the line, and I don't know how. It happened right after I got it new...so about 28 years ago. that bass also had a cymbal stand fall onto it in the same era....just a very small nick on the upper horn that looks like a small Sharpie mark....I was lucky
the tip of my Charvel headstock got it's mandatory nick somewhere along the line, and I don't know how. It happened right after I got it new...so about 28 years ago. that bass also had a cymbal stand fall onto it in the same era....just a very small nick on the upper horn that looks like a small Sharpie mark....I was lucky
Playing a pool party for a new apartment complex grand opening. After the gig was done we were horsing around and I threw a six pack of the keybard's beer in the pool (shouldn't be a problem, water isn't that hard, right?). Yes, but when the bottle clang together when they hit the water, the bottles will and 4 of them did break.
Do you know how much is costs to drain, clean, and refill a swimming pool? I do.
Do you know how much is costs to drain, clean, and refill a swimming pool? I do.
New Sunn cabinet, 2x18 sherwin-vegas, 200 watt head, leveled every plant,picture, and wall decoration at singers house!!
How about the gear putting dings and dents in ME? We were loading out of this club in New York back in April. We were halfway through our tour, and I wanted to get comfortable as soon as possible after the set, so I sent and threw some shorts and sandals on before load out.
Bad idea.
My guitarist rolled my Mesa-Boogie RoadReady 810 over my toe. I didn't go to a hospital or anything, but judging by the pain, swelling, and purple/blue/black color the next day, I'm 99% it broke. I still have a nice pinkish purpley line on that toe.
Moral of the story-wear actual shoes when moving heavy gear.
Bad idea.
My guitarist rolled my Mesa-Boogie RoadReady 810 over my toe. I didn't go to a hospital or anything, but judging by the pain, swelling, and purple/blue/black color the next day, I'm 99% it broke. I still have a nice pinkish purpley line on that toe.
Moral of the story-wear actual shoes when moving heavy gear.
I was in a jazz combo that had a weekly gig in a local cafe. One evening we were setting up, got all plugged in, the first note produced a uniform darkness throughout the place. We had burned out the main electrical feed, and the whole building had to be rewired and was closed for a couple weeks.
Doing a gig in a small bar, Memorial Day weekend 1999: Up in the corner, near the band setup, was a rather large television--one of the old, heavy tube types--mounted on a shelf about seven feet from the floor. At some point during our second set, the wall anchors vibrated loose and this entire contraption crashed onto the dance floor. Nobody was hurt, but it scared the hell out everybody. Of course, all the dirty looks were sent in my direction.
I've also shattered a few fluorescent bulbs in the basement when I decided to crank up the Trace-Elliot just to see how loud it would go........
I've also shattered a few fluorescent bulbs in the basement when I decided to crank up the Trace-Elliot just to see how loud it would go........
New Sunn cabinet, 2x18 sherwin-vegas, 200 watt head, leveled every plant,picture, and wall decoration at singers house!!
Those are awesome cabs! I also have 2 and drive them with a Coliseum 300. A major problem for anything not nailed down.
