• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Injured right before a gig?

superfunk47

superfunk47

Sep 9, 2007
2,090
39
#1
im not sure if this is the right spot to post this, but here goes.

earlier this morning, i went into my backyard to pull down a HUGE icicle so that it wouldnt rip the gutter clean off my roof (weve been having a rough winter in washington state).

there was a row maybe 5 feet long of icicles all connected between themselves by ice, and i had my hand on the back of a lawn chair directly below them to keep my balance in the snow (it was almost 4 feet deep).

so when i go to pull the thing off, the whole thing comes down...on my left hand. the thing weighed between 100-150 lbs, and it turned out to only fall on my left ring finger, getting smashed in between 100-150 pounds of ice and a metal lawn chair (thank god i was wearing gloves...).

to make matters worse, i have a band practice tomorrow, a gig saturday, another one monday, and another one next thursday.

/story.

anyone ever have really REALLY inconvenient injuries right before a gig/series of gigs/practice?

btw, im not fishing for sympathy, im anticipating ill be fine even for practice, just wanting other peoples experience with injuries right before gigs.

did you still perform? how did it go? etc.
 
#3
Last April all the years of picking up speaker cabinets and other assorted equipment finally got the best of me. I had a herniated disc in my back that basically paralized my left leg with pain. I couldn't walk or stand up straight. There was a period of about two weeks before my back surgery where I had to sit on a bean bag in the vehicle en route to gigs and then lay on the stage during shows. All these club owners kept asking my band mates if the bass player was on drugs. That was one of the hardest periods in my life as a musician. I had to take several pain killers and wash them down with beer just to numb the pain enough to focus on playing bass. My liver is probably going to shut down by the time I'm 50. Oh well, the show must go on!
 
#4
You know those ribbed plastic corners we all have on our cabs? Well, while loading out for our gig, I happen to slide my 100lbs cab on my left hand, and the corner raked across my fingers. Man did it hurt, I thought I broke 3 fingers in my left hand!!!!!!!!!!! The sound check was very rough, but the adrenalin during the show made me forget about the pain of almost brocken fingers. The show must go on :bassist:

Note to self: Keep hands away from bottom of cab!!! :p
 
#5
Oh! Henry said:
You know those ribbed plastic corners we all have on our cabs? Well, while loading out for our gig, I happen to slide my 100lbs cab on my left hand, and the corner raked across my fingers. Man did it hurt, I thought I broke 3 fingers in my left hand!!!!!!!!!!! The sound check was very rough, but the adrenalin during the show made me forget about the pain of almost brocken fingers. The show must go on :bassist:

Note to self: Keep hands away from bottom of cab!!! :p
Click to expand...

yeeowch!! i guess ill just have to play through the pain :bassist:
 
#7
A little while ago I broke both ring fingers. Yup, one on the right and one on the left! I just had to remind myself to keep moving my hand instead of using my ring finger on the left. The right hand was painful and made triplets and slaps pretty hard, but we ARE bass players! Beer and advil baby, beer and advil!
 
#8
This might make you feels better. I almost hate to post it cause it'll have to be the short version. (Maybe an article someday)

Dec 5th 2004

In the middle of the first set my left pinky starts to get a little twingy. Gets worse. All of a sudden in the second set I grab a note with said pinky and feel it "crunch" and actually see stars. Lots of 'em. I almost got sick, but let the finger float and finished the set on 3 fingers.

What I thought was an opportunistic infection turned out to be a benign tumor that had eaten away the bone in the last segment of my pinky. What occurred next was a 12 week oddessey that included:

extensive blood, urine and tissue tests.

Cancer scare

needle biopsy

tumor removal

MRI

Bone scan

x-rays

bone graft harvested from my wrist

Micro wire through all pinky joints

time off from gigging

Finally playing 2 months worth of gigs splinted with 3 fingers (I passed on any solos by giving the international signal for solo declining)

I have at this time 100% range of motion and use in that finger, astounding my hand surgeon.

I got yer icycles, right here!!! :D
 
#9
This didn't happen to me (thank GOD!!).
I went out to see a local Rush tribute act and was trying to figure out what was with the bassists left thumb. He had it wrapped in about 1" thick gauze.
So after the first set I asked him what had happened and he told me that he was a chef by day (see where I'm going with this......) and had managed to almost remove his thumb! I forget how many stitches he told me, but he had sliced it down to the bone.
3 hours after getting all stitched up the gig started.
I gotta give props to the kid. The painkillers were wearing off when we were talking, and I'll be damned if he didn't impress the hell out of me with his playing! Keys too!
I have since removed all knives from my home ;-)
 
#10
I was running, missed a step and fell forward, tore the ligaments on my left hand thumb, because my thumb was pushed all the way back. I had an audition with an agency two days later. I went to the audition with a cast on my left hand. The producer asked whether I wanted to reschedule, and I told him no, I wanted to audition. He kept looking at me, and finally when it was my turn to audition (there were other bassist auditioning) I played the songs, not as well as I could normally, but I played them. I got the gig. The producer said, you could have given me an excuse, and it would have been justified, but you didn't, that showed me that you have character, and you can play. The moral of the story, if you can do the gig, do the gig. Your reputation will not suffer. Only you can answer that question.
 
#11
I fractured my left ring finger on 2 seperate occasions and it always happened the day of a show. The first time was playing basketball (I was 18) I don't do that anymore. That was a 45 minute set. The second time I was getting changed in a rest room a couple minutes before the show and caught my hand on the entry door (This was 2 months ago)! The second time was nowhere near as bad as the first time because I only played one song but it took a while for the swelling to go down. Other than that I have been fortunate. Just playing with a cold or minor stuff.
 
#13
I joined what is currently my band many years ago and they wanted to do a cd right away (3-4months from my joining). I learned the tunes and practiced with them and got as ready as I could. I was a carpenter back then and 2 days before I was to record I cut the tips of two fingers on my left hand on a table saw. Fortunately the blade was slowing down so basically I had two deep sawteeth cuts in each finger. I taped them up really tightly and made it through my tracks......not a lot of fun though.

Also: 4 or 5 years ago I broke my left collarbone mountain biking. Broken into 3pcs. I missed one gig then found a way to re-work my strap to hang on my right shoulder and continued playing gigs. I will say that I was in a lot of pain at gigs, but my scrip for vicodin, a few drinks and a ride home got me through it.......

Nightmares!!
 
#14
While waiting to pick up our guitar player for a gig, I was adding a new hole to my belt and sliced my left middle finger to the bone. Quick trip to ER for stitches (the doctor wanted to imobilize the hand- I said "I've got to get to work!"). He wrapped the finger with 6 miles of white gauze, and I was a set late. I then spent the rest of the night flipping off everyone in the club from the stage!
 
#15
I broke my scaphoid (the bone that connects your thumb/hand to your wrist) and elbow in November. I play hybrid finger/thumb style, but had completely lost use of my thumb. Luckilly I didn't have a show that night, but one was looming in the not to distant future. I worked my ass off to relearn what I had written when I had a functioning thumb. And I actually pulled it off. Anyway, the point is, that I think it made me better. I had to incorporate my ring finger more in order to produce the triplets and quadruplete as well as cross strings as fast as I had before. Plus, I looked like Michael Jackson in his weird cast wearing phase. Ehh-Hee

DSC01124.gif
 
#16
1983 - damn near sliced the top 3 or 4 mm off my left thumb with a craft knife. I went to rinse it under running water and the top was flipping back and forth like the lid of a pedal bin. The blade had gone straight through one edge of my thumb nail, clean across and out the other side. The hospital nurse stuck it back in place with butterfly stitches.

It hurt like hell for about a week and was bandaged up to about three times its usual size - but I still managed to play at a rehearsal a few hours after doing it and record a couple of demo tracks in the studio a couple of days later.
 
#17
I hurt my foot three days before a show a while back. There's a thread around here with the whole story, so I'll pass up the incident where I actually hurt it. Foot was swollen, I couldn't put any real weight on it, yet on the night of the show I still hauled in all my equipment, though I broke down and asked for a stool on stage. Eventually I got tired of that too and rocked out on the hurt foot anyway.

I found out nine months later I had broken my foot in three places and had torn my lisfranc ligament (the one right above the arch of your foot). I had surgery a few months ago for it and now have seven screws and a plate in my foot and will be a cripple for life.
 
#18
My story is similar to Virgil's...three hours before I was to audition with a 60's covers band, I ran the corner of my forehead into an open jalousie window. It took nine stitches, and I was 40 minutes late to the audtion...and got the job. They seemed to think just by showing up, I demonstrated...what? Lunacy? :D



This was last November, and we now have enough songs to start gigging. Open house/coming out party is this Saturday afternoon. If you are in Austin and are at all curious, PM me and I'll send you the details.
 
#20
i was drilling out holes in a house that was being built and i smashed the tip of my finger which resulted in a blood blister on the tip of my right index finger! i had to learn to play all of our songs using just my middle and ring finger on my plucking hand. it was a nice little challenge :)
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back