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Most Embarrasing moments/problems/accidents on stage
- Thread starter Bassmanhopkins
- Start date
Can't say that I've had anything embarassing happen. The closest thing that even comes close is when I was doing a gig in front of about 5,000 people. The band that was supposed to go on after us cancelled so we had to play twice as long. However, the lead guitarist failed to tell the rest of the band. I have diabetes and one of the symptoms is frequent urination. While we were playing, I had to go to the restroom. I figured I would wait until the end of the set. Then the guitarist informs us that we have to keep playing because the other band wasn't coming. I told him to stall so I could go to the restroom. He went over to the microphone and said "Pardon us while we stand here and look foolish so my bass player can go take a piss." I walked to the edge of the stage, took a bow, told the audience that I would be right back and went to the restroom. When I came back everyone started cheering. I figured that I handled it much better than the guitar player did.
I played a show on thursday night and a small bar in the middle of the city. The room for all our band gear was in a little function room at the back of the bar. Two bands played before of us, both of which were very good! It was our second show so we were just happy to sorta keep up with them in terms of tightness, although some of the songs need a bit of arranging work.
So we finish our set, and I was just stoked to keep it together and play a tight set, so I turn around, turn off and unplug the amp (I used the 2nd bassplayers cab), and walk off stage with my bass to the back of the bar room. It was only when I got halfway through the room that my guitarist yelled out. I looked back, and there was my lead stretched out back to the stage! Luckily I had unplugged it from the amp, but my tail was running right through the crowd. What a rookie mistake!!!
So we finish our set, and I was just stoked to keep it together and play a tight set, so I turn around, turn off and unplug the amp (I used the 2nd bassplayers cab), and walk off stage with my bass to the back of the bar room. It was only when I got halfway through the room that my guitarist yelled out. I looked back, and there was my lead stretched out back to the stage! Luckily I had unplugged it from the amp, but my tail was running right through the crowd. What a rookie mistake!!!
I've been performing for 20+ years and fortunately have yet to be the cause of a truly embarrassing moment on stage...I hope it stays that way.
Here are two of the funniest gig stories I have ever heard:
A couple friends of mine used to do this acoustic duo thing in the early 80's. At one of the more upscale restaurant gigs, they had full house, and things were going great. The one guy had a sneeze sneak up on him while singing. He turned away from the mic, sneezed, and then realized he had snot all over his mustache. He quickly wiped it off only to look down and see it all over the back of his hand, glistening in the stage lights.
I thought that one was pretty funny, but this one is truly horrifying:
Back in the Hair Metal days, there was a local band that did a big tour (long road trip in a van). One of the band members had relatives close to one of their gigs, so guys were looking forward to a nice home cooked meal. They arrive in the afternoon at Aunt so-and-so's house to find a nice big pot of chili waiting for them and devour the delicious meal. Later on the boys are killing it on stage, and the place is packed! It doesn't get any better, until the lead singer gambles on a fart and loses...BIG TIME! Keep in mind the attire of the era...he was wearing spandex pants, sans underwear. He immediately leaves the stage in sheer panic. Now the club was a not-so-great place with no dressing room, and one mens room at the opposite end of the building. With nowhere to go, the singer exits the club via the back door and runs down the street to the first place he finds with a mens room...Denny's, where he strips off the soiled garment and begins washing it, and himself at the sink. A few patrons walked in while the Haz-Mat cleanup was going on. Standing there naked from the waist down, all he could say was "Sorry, I **** my pants". By the time he got cleaned up and back to club, everyone in the band had figured out what happened. Fortunately for him, most of the crowd didn't.
Here are two of the funniest gig stories I have ever heard:
A couple friends of mine used to do this acoustic duo thing in the early 80's. At one of the more upscale restaurant gigs, they had full house, and things were going great. The one guy had a sneeze sneak up on him while singing. He turned away from the mic, sneezed, and then realized he had snot all over his mustache. He quickly wiped it off only to look down and see it all over the back of his hand, glistening in the stage lights.
I thought that one was pretty funny, but this one is truly horrifying:
Back in the Hair Metal days, there was a local band that did a big tour (long road trip in a van). One of the band members had relatives close to one of their gigs, so guys were looking forward to a nice home cooked meal. They arrive in the afternoon at Aunt so-and-so's house to find a nice big pot of chili waiting for them and devour the delicious meal. Later on the boys are killing it on stage, and the place is packed! It doesn't get any better, until the lead singer gambles on a fart and loses...BIG TIME! Keep in mind the attire of the era...he was wearing spandex pants, sans underwear. He immediately leaves the stage in sheer panic. Now the club was a not-so-great place with no dressing room, and one mens room at the opposite end of the building. With nowhere to go, the singer exits the club via the back door and runs down the street to the first place he finds with a mens room...Denny's, where he strips off the soiled garment and begins washing it, and himself at the sink. A few patrons walked in while the Haz-Mat cleanup was going on. Standing there naked from the waist down, all he could say was "Sorry, I **** my pants". By the time he got cleaned up and back to club, everyone in the band had figured out what happened. Fortunately for him, most of the crowd didn't.
Hilarious! It would almost be worth the disgusting nature of the event to have been one of the patrons who walked in on him and heard this first hand.
...not embarrassing, just dreadful,.....playing the senior recital of a buddy...tune is "Spain" (chick Corea)...and my G string breaks about halfway through the tune....
I had to do my best to reconfigure all that muscle memory of playing it on 4 strings to 3 strings!! Not fun at all and it was a recital hall packed with about 100 people and some professors.....very intense circumstances to begin with.
I had to do my best to reconfigure all that muscle memory of playing it on 4 strings to 3 strings!! Not fun at all and it was a recital hall packed with about 100 people and some professors.....very intense circumstances to begin with.
This is why I never aspire to exceed the promise of my screen name. Any place I have ever played or likely ever will, no one would have noticed.
I take that back, I did one open mic jazz thing once. Trainwreck. Nothing funny or exciting, just a mess. I kept reaching back and bumping the volume down until I was pretty much muted and then immediately split.
Not me, but an upright player who replaced me in a blues/rockabilly type outfit:
The band was playing a small town gig somewhere in North Dakota, on a riser stage about a foot off the ground. The guy went to do the big rockabilly, stand-on-your-bass routine, but his right foot missed the bout and went under the strings. He lost his balance and fell rolling and tumbling off the stage. He continued to roll around the floor trying to extricate his foot. By this time, the drummer was laughing so hard he fell off his throne backwards off the stage. The bass guy finally got his foot loose and scrambled back up to the stage. By then of course the entire song was a trainwreck and the house and band were dying of laughter. After the show, a local farmer and his wife came up to talk to the band. He said to the bass guy, "Well son, she tried t' buck ya off, but ya hung in there, didn't ya?"
The band was playing a small town gig somewhere in North Dakota, on a riser stage about a foot off the ground. The guy went to do the big rockabilly, stand-on-your-bass routine, but his right foot missed the bout and went under the strings. He lost his balance and fell rolling and tumbling off the stage. He continued to roll around the floor trying to extricate his foot. By this time, the drummer was laughing so hard he fell off his throne backwards off the stage. The bass guy finally got his foot loose and scrambled back up to the stage. By then of course the entire song was a trainwreck and the house and band were dying of laughter. After the show, a local farmer and his wife came up to talk to the band. He said to the bass guy, "Well son, she tried t' buck ya off, but ya hung in there, didn't ya?"
Me, 41...playing since I was 15, worked professionally as a lighting tech..gigged many yrs...
5 months ago my cover band setup, getting ready for sound check, kicked on the power to my rack, plugged in and no sound....I'm grabbing cords outta my gig bag, nothing, I'm re-patching my rack...nothing, have a friend hit the store for a new battery in the bass..still nothing, Sound guy is getting pissy with me, I'm freaking out....singer looks at me and asked "is the amp on"?
I reply in a pissy tone, "yeah ****er, this ain't my 1st gig" Singer.."are you sure?"
Me.."Look goddamn it, the lights on all my rack gear is on.....oh, wait....the power amp isn't...lol I had it turned off at the switch....I shake my head and bought everyone in the band and the soundman a shot for making a rookie mistake...kinda of a rule of ours
5 months ago my cover band setup, getting ready for sound check, kicked on the power to my rack, plugged in and no sound....I'm grabbing cords outta my gig bag, nothing, I'm re-patching my rack...nothing, have a friend hit the store for a new battery in the bass..still nothing, Sound guy is getting pissy with me, I'm freaking out....singer looks at me and asked "is the amp on"?
I reply in a pissy tone, "yeah ****er, this ain't my 1st gig" Singer.."are you sure?"
Me.."Look goddamn it, the lights on all my rack gear is on.....oh, wait....the power amp isn't...lol I had it turned off at the switch....I shake my head and bought everyone in the band and the soundman a shot for making a rookie mistake...kinda of a rule of ours
"gambled on a fart" priceless.....i recall a guy that recruited me to play for him in the 70's,but i bailed when the subject of spandex arose.....even without the potential for disaster at the hands of a chili pig out i just couldn't inflict my ass in something like that to an unsuspecting,innocent audience...
when i was 19 i was in this band and we played at a house party outdoors. i was headed into the house via the large patio where there was probably twenty people sitting or so. i proceeded to walk through what i thought was an open patio door only to find out there was a near invisible screen in place; i went through it and landed starfish style on the family room rug on top of the screen.
the show hadn`t even started yet and i wasn`t even drinking! beyond humiliating...
the show hadn`t even started yet and i wasn`t even drinking! beyond humiliating...
In the early 90's I get my 1st fretless bass. A '76 Fender P-bass sunburst. My classic rock band is on the gig and I start the into to the Animals We Gotta Get Out Of This Place. Problem is I'd been playing a Modulus Graphite 35 in scale 5 string as my only bass for a couple years @ that point.......it wasn't so much poor intonation as bad position + inexperience + a blank fingerboard .....nothing like being a half step off when those guitars come crashing in!
I'll also never forget the look I got from a guitarist when I got that 5 string & started adding those octave down sounds to classic rock tunes that didn't include 'em originally..... the sourest look I've ever seen on a human being's face!
Or even better....quoth the drummer " Anybody seen my stick bag?" 1st set completed with the singers 3/4 size broken cowbell stick and literally a stick from outside the club. Luckily we live in Oregon
& finally at that same club I watch as a shoe flies from the back of a packed dance floor in a perfect arc to impact directly on my Modulus. Priceless!
I'll also never forget the look I got from a guitarist when I got that 5 string & started adding those octave down sounds to classic rock tunes that didn't include 'em originally..... the sourest look I've ever seen on a human being's face!
Or even better....quoth the drummer " Anybody seen my stick bag?" 1st set completed with the singers 3/4 size broken cowbell stick and literally a stick from outside the club. Luckily we live in Oregon
& finally at that same club I watch as a shoe flies from the back of a packed dance floor in a perfect arc to impact directly on my Modulus. Priceless!
once played a club in town that had a really high stage i always rock a wireless kit so my thing is to kinda jump offstage into the crowd n get heads knocking
anyway the stage was higher than normal with the wires running accross the front of the stage connecting to the moniter speakers overhead which hung just below the lighting rig
the wires are not supported and not duck taped down as i descovered durin the sound check when i had a trial run to make sure i could jump back on stage
i ended up landing right on the edge and my feet kinda rolled with the wires as if they were marbles lucky for me the singer caught me before i could fall back
fast forward 4 hours and were halfway through our set i jump off stage and do a bit of crowd work i then head back towards the stage
not forgetting the earlyer misshap i decide the best way to jump back onstage is to build up some serious speed and leap as high as i can to hopefully clear the deathtrap wires and land on terra firma stage
so i built up the speed.... i got near the stage..... LIFTOFF.... it has to be one of the best jumps of my life and i easy cleared the cables..... unfortunatly i smashed face 1st into the overhead moniters and kinda did a half backflip but with my legs still open... and landed right on the guitarists pedal board breaking his wah wah and switching is tone from fuzzy to clean with flanger as well as putting a gash in my shoulder 3 inches long and opening my right eyebrow up
i got up n carried on playing but it was no good the laughter was 5x louder than our band
anyway the stage was higher than normal with the wires running accross the front of the stage connecting to the moniter speakers overhead which hung just below the lighting rig
the wires are not supported and not duck taped down as i descovered durin the sound check when i had a trial run to make sure i could jump back on stage
i ended up landing right on the edge and my feet kinda rolled with the wires as if they were marbles lucky for me the singer caught me before i could fall back
fast forward 4 hours and were halfway through our set i jump off stage and do a bit of crowd work i then head back towards the stage
not forgetting the earlyer misshap i decide the best way to jump back onstage is to build up some serious speed and leap as high as i can to hopefully clear the deathtrap wires and land on terra firma stage
so i built up the speed.... i got near the stage..... LIFTOFF.... it has to be one of the best jumps of my life and i easy cleared the cables..... unfortunatly i smashed face 1st into the overhead moniters and kinda did a half backflip but with my legs still open... and landed right on the guitarists pedal board breaking his wah wah and switching is tone from fuzzy to clean with flanger as well as putting a gash in my shoulder 3 inches long and opening my right eyebrow up
i got up n carried on playing but it was no good the laughter was 5x louder than our band
Mine are pretty tame.
Starting a song with no sound and giving the sound guy an angry look thinking I was still muted only to notice I stepped on the cord and unplugged the bass myself.
Song starts and no sound because I forgot to turn up the volume pot. :scowl:
Just switched to a five string bass and starting a song (solo part) which should have been on the E string, not the B string. Didn't quite sound right.
Going through a long introduction of the next song we were going to play only to be told that it was not the next song (obviously the rest of the band was not going to deviate from the printed set list).
Starting a song with no sound and giving the sound guy an angry look thinking I was still muted only to notice I stepped on the cord and unplugged the bass myself.
Song starts and no sound because I forgot to turn up the volume pot. :scowl:
Just switched to a five string bass and starting a song (solo part) which should have been on the E string, not the B string. Didn't quite sound right.
Going through a long introduction of the next song we were going to play only to be told that it was not the next song (obviously the rest of the band was not going to deviate from the printed set list).
I've split my pants from Zipper to rear belt loop. Had to borrow some sweats from the bar owner.
I was attacked by a drunk woman in heat, not always a bad thing, but I was on the very first date with my future ex wife.
The guitarists girlfriend threatened to kill her until she left poor me alone. My date showed up from work about 10 min after the whole thing calmed down.
The drunk chick went out an did the horn section in the parking lot.
I was attacked by a drunk woman in heat, not always a bad thing, but I was on the very first date with my future ex wife.
The guitarists girlfriend threatened to kill her until she left poor me alone. My date showed up from work about 10 min after the whole thing calmed down.
The drunk chick went out an did the horn section in the parking lot.
mine almost became the most embarrassing moment-and on the very first time ever playing with a band.
The strap to the bass had pulled part of my shirt down and I ALMOST had a wardrobe malfunction. It was funny, cause one of my dear friends came to meet me on the side of the stage when I was done and here I thought she was gonna say something like "way to go girl! woooieeeee!" instead she said "Miko, your boob almost fell out of your shirt!"
see? thank GOD it didn't!!
almost captured an embarrassing moment!
I was laughing cause the guy who used to sing and play guitar there ( friend of mine for years, but never heard me play bass before that night) had bowed down at my feet after I was done.
A boob falling out of a shirt at a rock gig is not a wardrobe malfunction, its a special feature. And it costs more at the door!
