• 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.

Most pitiful thing youve ever seen a bassist do live

#361
TolerancEJ said:
Here's another one of my own. The one and only time I did a bass solo, I attempted Stu Hamm's solo. Needless to say, with anxiety & nervousness on stage... Musically-speaking I fell flat on my face for that performance. I sucked big time! To make matters worse, that was after the guitarist and drummer just finished doing wicked solos.
Click to expand...

This reminds me of a very very talented freind of mine (one of these people that can play any instrument) I had so much respect for this guy but any way he kept working on doing this stu Hamm solo on bass (peanuts theme song) he played this thing flawlessly for two weeks at practice and at home but when it came time to play at a local club and it was his turn for a bass solo he flubbed it big time! It was a complete train wreck! From that day forward he never attempted to play it live again! Most unfortunate because he could really nail it at practice!
 
#363
I was 16. 1986. I weighed like 50 pounds (I'm sure it was more, but yea). I was the superstar (haha, in my own mind.... but i was good and it sure went to my head back then) bass player in the grade 11 jazz band at high school. Playing for the grade 12 graduation gig, I was SLIDING the Acoustic brand combo amp (big! no wheels!) across the school gymnasium, in front of a school full of my friends, enemies, and co-students, and I lost control and it tipped over and slapped HARD and LOUD onto it's big flat back under bright lights. My band teacher was watching with fumes coming from his ears. Laughter erupted.

I said screw it, hefted it back up, slid it the rest of the way, got setup, we played the hour long concert and I cranked the amp and went for a few improved solos. why not? might as well go out with a bang.

hmmmm.....

again me, still 16 years old, bassist for the provincial (like state-wide for you americans) high school honour jazz band.... started falling over while playing. people watching. losing balance. caught myself, spun around a couple times. looked stupid. fun.

I'm sure there are more...

oh yea, the gig in the early 90s where I jumped up and down on the spot non stop (more or less on the beat) through an entire song with an original band I was gigging with. I'm sure people were laughing... I was having a great time, but I'm sure it looked moronic.
 
#364
I've seen some funny stuff, one recently I've started to see a lot is probably due to the nature of gear trends and it actually makes owning a wireless that much more important. I've seen a bunch of times where bassist have pulled an amp or rack off the top of a cab while playing. It's almost always guys with light weight amps who run their instrument cable around a loop of steel on the front of a head or preamp. They are really into the show and try to move around often with a short 10' instrument cable and pull the amp right off the top of the cab. At first i feel bad for them but if the gear is ok I'm sorry its funny as hell.
 
#365
There was this band I saw -
I don't remember their name.
Third song in their short 5 song set, the girl doing vox and guitar...
Switches instruments with the bassist!
She wasn't great on guitar. Just a simple chord every bar.
She could play quarter notes on bass but... her plucking was so bad it was pretty much a pop.
Like trying to dig a grave in her bass with her index finger!

OTOH she was a fairly good vocalist and the rest of the band did well!

I dunno if this counts as a pitiful bassist - but I find it pitiful.

At the same gig the crazy insane bassist of a local band fell. The fall was pretty ugly, but he got up without missing a note.
 
#367
Doesn't compare, but at the local shop on the weekend I watched a guy eye up a Fender Mustang bass for 10 minutes, tune it up and sit down in front of an amp. Then proceeded to get all pissed off and storm out of the place because the amp was "a huge piece of ****"

Upon closer inspection, 'Headphone' jacks are for headphones, not patch cords...
 
  • Like
Reactions: WI Short Scaler
#368
I never took pity, but I watched George Porter Jr show up in his van and unload his bass and amp/cab as well as some sort of fancy digital recording device at the Maple Leaf in N.O. many times. You can too every Wednesday night. I also watched one of the greatest drummer's EVER set up his drums --Johnny Vidacovich.

It IS a pity that these guys don't have apprentices at least to carry their gear for them at their age. Imagine the education! I don't live there anymore or I would work up the courage to approach George. "Please sir may I carry that Ampeg for you?" Ideally, these guys would have lapdogs catering to their every need.

Johnny V Trio rules!
fnord!
 
  • Like
Reactions: 5StringBlues
#371
Way back in my 80's metal days, I was leaning way back along with my guitarist during a guitar solo and I fell back on to my back. I just scooted around on my belly while hanging the bass off the stage while I was playing it. Didn't miss a note and the crowd loved it! My band mates never let me live it down though :-)
 
#373
Way back I'm high school this other band was playing the talent show. These guys were way into hair metal the guitarist were not to bad but the guitarist and singer did something sad. They played every school talent show even though people weren't into them but props for having fun.

The singer guitarist came out in tiger tights would look good if he was a nice curvy woman but he was a pudgy kid. Worse when I went to bust his balls he said he was talked into it.

Their bass player did the MOST PATHETIC thing a bass player can do..................he started playing guitar and they became a three guitar band with no bass.
 
#376
millsbass5 said:
When a player turns down a nice, ripe one-night-stand, that's hittin' rrreally hard on them, all while he/she's straight-up, primed n' rrrready to go. And....... The reason they didn't "hit it"? Because he/she (Yes.... SHE, TOO!!) has a soul mate, waitin' at home........ :rollno: UGH!!!!!!
Click to expand...

Actually cheating is a better fantasy then reality-

never works out to be a good thing-

chances are if she was that eager-she would turn out to be a stalker and then ruin your bass players life and now you don't have a bass player anymore-LOL
 
#377
millsbass5 said:
When a player turns down a nice, ripe one-night-stand, that's hittin' rrreally hard on them, all while he/she's straight-up, primed n' rrrready to go. And....... The reason they didn't "hit it"? Because he/she (Yes.... SHE, TOO!!) has a soul mate, waitin' at home........ :rollno: UGH!!!!!!
Click to expand...


Herpes is incurable you know.
 
  • Like
Reactions: WI Short Scaler
#378
Actually have a story on this...

A few years ago the then-incarnation of the band I'm in now had a great summer show at a place called the Wharfside in Point Pleasant. It's a great gig, outside, jersey shore crowd and packed in the summer. Unfortunately, at that time I wasn't able to be completely committed to the group, something they agreed upon and remedied by having fill in bass players take the shows I couldn't make.

Well THIS guy....holy crap. They got a guy to fill in for them who, in practice, was very solid. Not flashy, but it was there when it counted. Problem was, he was in his 40's and this was his FIRST LIVE SHOW in front of ANYONE. He didn't tell anyone this.

When they started playing, he has his wife there. From what I was told (I wasn't there of course) he literally started posing for his wife to take pics of him on stage, all the while messing up. He even stopped playing mid song and pointed to his bass with a big s*&t eating grin as if to say "Look at me! I'm playing in a band!!", so that his wife could take another pic...

There were other problems that night, I was also told the vocals were out of whack and the one guy in the band who insisted on singing and couldn't sing to save his life, was up front in the mix. But the fill in's antics were noticed too, as the management of the venue actually approached my lead singer and asked him why they were so off tonight vs. last time. Unfortunately, we haven't been invited back since.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back