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Major disasters at gigs

#21
This was almost a disaster.

I loaded my shiny new B4R head up into the back of the van. Everyone was reminded to watch out if they opened the hatch so the brand new bass head didn't fall out and shatter on the ground.

Our singer (who I wasn't very fond of anyways), decided not to worry about anything falling out. The B4R fell out of the back of the van hatch...and onto his foot. It broke his toe, bent a corner of the front on the head ever so slightly, and worked perfectly when I plugged it in. Needless to say I had an SKB rack case a week later.
 
#22
Just bought a brand new Mesa Bass 400+. Didn't even have a rack for it yet. Somehow, it rattled off my cab during the last song of one of our shows. The A/C receptacle smashed into the inside of the unit. I almost cried!

Thought for sure that the thing was toast. Fortunately, an easy fix as the A/C receptacle was the only thing that broke.

Thank God the tubes didn't shatter!:eek:
 
#23
We were 3 songs into a packed gig in downtown Anchorage, Alaska in 1992 which was abrupty halted due to the volcanic eruption of nearby Mt. Spurr. The eruption send a plume of ash miles into the sky and the ash was headed towards the city. Volcanic ash is full of acid that can destroy the inside of a car's engine, so everyone took off to get there cars home. We really didn't have any place to go so we stayed in the club until morning. Here is a photo that I clipped of the net of Anchorage the morning after.

Invalid Link Removed

If I may be so bold, I would like to declare myself the winner of this thread unless someone got hit by a tital wave while playing a gig.
 
#28
We were playing a show in the Arctic Circle back in February, at a new club that had never hosted music before. Naive owners and soundmen ran the PA on the same circuit as the backline. The first band used smallish SS amps, and made it off without a hitch. When my SVT and my guitard's Boogie head started sucking down power, disaster struck. About 30 seconds into the first track, at the exact moment when the song climaxes, we blow the breaker box. No lights, no sound.

The crowd went fuggin wild! We rocked so hard that we blew the power out. It took an average bar night and made it into something that none of us will ever forget. Not really a disaster, but a fun story to share none the less.
 
#30
Years ago,.. huge club,...elevated ramp for the PA to be placed on. We're into the 2nd set,... I happen to look up and see the elevated stack wobbling back and forth,...30 feet below the stack are tables full of people,......:eek:.... the PA wobbles some more,... and falls!!!!!! Backwards fortunately,coming to rest against the back wall, otherwise there would have been some probable fatalities,.. still thankful for the way that one went!

Also years ago, psychedelic era,.. guitard gets the bright idea to leap from an elevated platform with 2 bigarse strobes going to start the show off!! Gonna land at his fx pedals and be sooooooooooooo cool !!! Well,....he goes for it,.. we're announced,...drummer counts,.... he leaps,... it's beautiful !! He flies through the air,. strobes hilighting his leap of faith,.. then I see panic in his face,.. lost his sense of balance with the strobes going,... he's now sideways and,....... BAM!!!!! hits the floor with a huge whhhhrrrooooonnnggggggg,.......almost busted his guitar,...and DID bust his arse!!!,..funniest chit I think I've ever been witness to!!
There's lots more, but those two will suffice for now. ;)
 
#31
Gigging at a bar for a combo graduation/birthday party type deal. Ton's of college kids. We're playing Santaria and the lead guitarist TOTALLY screwed up the solo. It was comically bad, to the point where myself, the lead singer and the rhythm guitarist all had to turn so we could laugh. The crowd just kinda looked around confused... kinda like if someone farts and you're stuck there wondering "*** just happened? Should I run away screaming, or just wait it out."

------

Played a small graduation party for a friend of the band's guitarist's son. It was weird how they had a projector running a Power Point presentation of pictures of the kid. Crowd was mostly kids, some highschoolers and their parents. Only a handful of people were of age. We totally wrecked the first set, drummer missed cues, came in at wrong points, and dropped beats a lot. Lead missed EVERY solo, and by missed I mean didn't even come close to playing the right key. Singer forgot a lot of words, I screwed up a few songs, rhythm played the wrong things for half the songs. When we broke we decided to increase our intake of liquid courage. Singer said if the second set started as badly as the first he was just gonna get trashed and start cursing at everyone.

Amazingly the second and third sets went over MUCH better, but that was still a horrible gig.
 
#32
Weirdest part was when I got to the local hospital to get checked out (good thing it didn't break the skin...I hate shots!), the nurse knew about the goat! I mentioned I was with the sound crew at the venue and that a wild goat had bit me...she responded, "Wild? No, that goat's been there for years."

Ended up with a nice black and blue butt, but at least no needles necessary. Made for a painful ride home in the car, though...

-Mark
 
#33
mrokern said:
Weirdest part was when I got to the local hospital to get checked out (good thing it didn't break the skin...I hate shots!), the nurse knew about the goat! I mentioned I was with the sound crew at the venue and that a wild goat had bit me...she responded, "Wild? No, that goat's been there for years."

Ended up with a nice black and blue butt, but at least no needles necessary. Made for a painful ride home in the car, though...

-Mark
Click to expand...

Hahahahaha xD

It may not be a Major Disaster but that is the best anecdote involving a goat I've ever heard :D
 
#34
At the very first gig of the band I am still currently with, the keyboard player (flake-o!) decided to not show up. I knew my parts pretty well, but had been expecting a full line-up for the gig, and the considerable space a keyboard could fill. Instead, it had to be me, particularly when the guitar player soloed. (I was the only other chordal instrument) I was a bit rattled about it, being the first gig and all, but the gig went off ok. And I'm still with the band, so I guess it couldn't have been that bad. I'm not sure if it qualifies as a "major disaster" but...
 
#36
Thunderthumbs73 said:
At the very first gig of the band I am still currently with, the keyboard player (flake-o!) decided to not show up. I knew my parts pretty well, but had been expecting a full line-up for the gig, and the considerable space a keyboard could fill. Instead, it had to be me, particularly when the guitar player soloed. (I was the only other chordal instrument) I was a bit rattled about it, being the first gig and all, but the gig went off ok. And I'm still with the band, so I guess it couldn't have been that bad. I'm not sure if it qualifies as a "major disaster" but...
Click to expand...

No, but this does qualify as a pretty pointless, boring story:rollno:
 
#38
We were ending our show at a club where the dance floor was level with the stage. The floor itself was packed with dancers mostly too impaired to walk much less dance. One guy fell and hit the lead singer's mic stand on the way down. He ended up draped across her floor monitor, and our singer was treated to a bloody lip and a chipped tooth when the mic catapulted forward.

The drunk was scooped up by her husband, and the rest of the band quite possibly saved his life by talking the singer's husband out of thrashing him.

We had a power amp "go up in smoke". I mean literally, thick dark grey smoke pouring out of the front of it!

The only one that really qualifies as a disaster is playing through a tornado. Seriously, we never heard the sirens go off. We didn't even know anything about it until later.
 
#39
I don't want to stop the flow of disaster stories, but I really think that it's important (especially for the less experienced players who are reading this) to remember that, when playing a live show, it's over when it's over and then it's just another memory of a show "in the past" . . . don't get hung-up by ANY problem during a show, be it a technical problem (that you probably can't do anything about anyways), a missed note, a missed entrance OR WHATEVER!

Remember, MOST (or ALL) of the audience won't even notice the "problem" . . .

Now back to the gig stories . . .

:cool:
 
#40
deaf pea said:
I don't want to stop the flow of disater stories, but I really think that it's important (especially for the less experienced players who are reading this) to remember that, when playing a live show, it's over when it's over and then it's just another memory of a show "in the past" . . . don't get hung-up by ANY problem during a show, be it a technical problem (that you probably can't do anything about anyways), a missed note, a missed entrance OR WHATEVER!

Remember, MOST (or ALL) of the audience won't even notice the "problem" . . .

Now back to the gig stories . . .

:cool:
Click to expand...

No goat related advice? :p
 

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