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Most Unprofessional Thing You've Done at a Show

#81
david meissner said:
unprofessional , or unfortunate ...

this gig was so hot , over 100 degrees on stage ,
that i literally puked on stage , during a song .:atoz:
bikerrally-1.gif


i did manage to finish the set , and the gig ...
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At this time of the year here you often get temps around mid-30s (95+ for you guys) during the day, which heat the pubs up to over "100" (no AC as that would mean punters wouldn't drink as much!), let alone on stage, under lights/ Let's just say it isn't uncommon for me to go through 2 or 3 litres of water in a night and not touch a drop of alcohol.

To me, your experience was unprofessional....lack of planning for the conditions!

Top effort on getting through though! :bassist:
 
#82
stoneboy26 said:
At this time of the year here you often get temps around mid-30s (95+ for you guys) during the day, which heat the pubs up to over "100" (no AC as that would mean punters wouldn't drink as much!), let alone on stage, under lights/ Let's just say it isn't uncommon for me to go through 2 or 3 litres of water in a night and not touch a drop of alcohol.

To me, your experience was unprofessional....lack of planning for the conditions!
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Give Dave a break, he's old!

You will be too if you're fortunate.
 
#83
We played a gig many moons ago at a brewery that shorted our pay for that night. So we took it upon ourselves to make up for the difference in beer glasses. The place had very nice beer glasses, and we each took 1-2 glasses for each trip during load out. By the end of load out, we wound up with somewhere around 15-20 glasses, minus 1-2 that broke on the way out. Over time, we all broke or lost most of them, but I still have one left from that night. Well, we did make the staff's job easier by giving them less to clean up that night.
 
#84
jive1 said:
We played a gig many moons ago at a brewery that shorted our pay for that night. So we took it upon ourselves to make up for the difference in beer glasses. The place had very nice beer glasses, and we each took 1-2 glasses for each trip during load out. By the end of load out, we wound up with somewhere around 15-20 glasses, minus 1-2 that broke on the way out. Over time, we all broke or lost most of them, but I still have one left from that night. Well, we did make the staff's job easier by giving them less to clean up that night.
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I love beer glasses! And I'll unashamedly swipe one or two or three from a venue that doesnt treat us well. Those Sam Adams glasses have a sleek design, but the glass is thin as hell. I made it out with 4 of them, home with 3, and only had 1 left after about a month.
 
#85
Mcfunkinstein said:
in a punk band but the guitarist was a metalhead, and he would play pinch harmonics all the time during practices, but none of the songs used them ever, so got fed up after like the 1000th time reminding him(not an exageration) so during a show when he played one i was already annoyed with him so this sent me into a rage and i whipped it out and told him that if he's wants to play pinch harmonics he has to play them on my c__k or on his own time or else he is out of the band. luckily this was a very short notice show at a small venue so only like 5 people actually showed up and they were friends so they had already seen my unit before anyways. oh and he left the band after this too
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Ok......Winner...or Wiener depending.
 
#86
I once was in a band that was very unprofessional all along - alcohol, drugs, all the stupid things. We were quite good inspite though, dreaming of "making it" - but in the end we failed miserably.

Anyways, recently I listened to a 10 year old recording from a concert of ours (wich I had totally forgotten about), and I hear myself say immediately after the song: "Where's my beer?" - omg, I felt so embarrassed for my former self. Wouldn't dare to drink on stage these days.
 
#87
stoneboy26 said:
To me, your experience was unprofessional....lack of planning for the conditions!

Top effort on getting through though! :bassist:
Click to expand...
actually , i was very hydrated .
two Gatorade's and two bottles of water before the gig were not enough
to battle the high humidity and higher than normal heat .

the local EMS treated the large crowd for heat exhaustion problems all day long ...

jive1 said:
Give Dave a break , he's old!

You will be too if you're fortunate.
Click to expand...
hey , i resemble that remark !!

:D
 
#90
Lazylion said:
About 30 years ago I was in a rock band. We were booked at a club called Chi Chi's on Catalina Island off the coast of L.A. It was a multi-night engagement, and it was not practical for bands to commute daily from the mainland, so the club also had a scummy apartment for the bands to stay in. One day Steve the drummer and I went over to the club in the early afternoon and began to drink a delicious drink they called the Naked Lady. It came in a souvenir glass with bas-relief naked ladies on the side. We drained quite a few and became seriously impaired. Finally realising that we needed to get our drunk butts out of there, we somehow staggered back to the apartment and passed out.

Unfortunately, we hadn't left early enough to sober up before gig time. The other band members woke us up, but they left without making sure we came with them. We eventually exited the apartment, staggered into the club, still quite trashed, a few minutes after start time, were greeted with withering glares from the rest of the band... and the only other thing I remember from that night is Steve dropping both his sticks about 2 seconds into the first song.

I think it's safe to say we sucked that night. I don't recommend that afternoon drinkin' thing on gig day...

I still have a box of Naked Lady glasses in the attic...
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Sounds like you and the drummer were on the same page! thats all that matters right?:bassist:
 
#91
Back in the dim distant days of 1980 when I used to sub for an old style dance trio playing old style dances. On a particular out of town date we were playing a small country town were the MC world announce every dance and the folk would form a circle and away they'd go. Problem was that although each dance had a different name, they all seemed to be in 3/4 time, just a variation in speed and mostly slow, and there is not much you can do on bass in an old time waltz.
Back then, it was normal to be seated while playing, and it was a hot night, and we had travelled a way, and I'd had a few beers beforehand and in the breaks, so I was begining to feel lethargic. Suddenly I became aware of a quietness. The pianist had stopped and the drummer had stopped, and all the dancers had stopped, and for some reason everyone was staring at me. It was then I realized I had fallen asleep in my chair in the middle of one of those slooow old time waltzes. That was the last time I played at an old style dance.
 
#94
I think the most unprofessional, and probably the worst thing I've done was taking 4 double dipped tabs of a heavy hallucinogenic drug the night / early morning before a gig. I didn't sober up until a couple of hours before soundcheck, and considering this was probably the most horrifying experience of my life so far I really needed a drink or two to calm my nerves. Ended up playing the beginning of a song I had written in the wrong key. My playing was awful that night. Really let the band down that day. Needless to say - I seldom touch chemical substances these days.
 
#95
Hmmm, I have a couple.


I once got asked to sit in for a couple of songs with an ex band of mine, I was borrowing the bassists bass and I normally play a 6 string so I was having to consciously remind myself that its a 4 string. I'd had a good half dozen beers by this time so it took me a while to realize it was actually a 5 string and I was playing a string lower than I should have been.


Another time I tried out some space cake the morning before a gig thinking I had plenty of time. Well it took a couple of hours to kick in and I was still stoned when the drummer showed up to give me a lift to the gig (it was in the days before I could drive). I sat in the van with metallica playing thinking that the bass drum was coming out of the speaker and kept ducking out of the way.

I was useless throughout load-in and soundcheck. It took me about half an hour to get my (admittedly heavy) rig up a set of stairs and then needed water. During which time the rest of the band loaded in the PA system and the lighting rig and got it all set up. I am ashamed!

I think I was okay by the time the gig actually started :P
 
#96
Sizlack said:
Not if your in a Metal band.
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Truth. I think that would've earned me props.

I think the first for me was when our band was first together. We hadn't been playing for very long together and decided that a good way to feel things out was to hit up some jam nights at some local bars. The first night went pretty decent actually. We went out to our drummers home town and rocked 3 songs, showed up the house band, gained to this day that small towns loyalty.

So being on a success high we decided to play what I considered my home bar, a pretty tough biker bar the very next night. We get up, nail the first song (a quasi In Flames kinda deal) and then completely fell apart on our second song. Second song was Paranoid. Yeah, I know. How does one screw up on that? Well, our singer completely forgot the words so the drummer and I just kept playing the same riff over and over to let him jump back in. Except our rhythm guitarist didn't catch on and just kept playing. Fell apart. Nailed our third song being a fairly thrashy metal tune though...

Still, paranoid. Brutal.
 
#97
My father was head professor of jazz at a very music minded university. At the end of the year the staff of the conservatory would put on a show for the comunity. Pops plays trumpet and fleugal horn and switches between the two when needed. So I was 2ish and my mother turned her back for a second and I scamper on stage grab pops trumpet and do my best Dizzy Gilespie impression. Dad being a pro just ignored me and whenever he needed to trade off between instruments he just swapped with me. 32 years ago and whenever I see any of dads contemporaries they bring it up first thing. Got a full ride to that school, and did not attend because when I toured the school the tour director had been told the story by the dean and told it to the rest of the group. Otherwise I play punk so anything that would be unprofessional is considered cool.
 
#98
On my first gig ever I got so ridiculously nervous that i forgot the bassline for the song that I co wrote and then turned my bass' volume way down and just pretended to play... when asked i said "ermmm, my amp wasnt on":rollno::scowl:
 
#99
Once, my girlfriend was on her way to one of my gigs and I panicked because my band was supposed to go on 10ish minutes before she got there. So I told the singer I had to poop and ran off the stage to the bathroom to pretend, to kill some time. From the bathroom, I heard him say to the crowd, "Let's give it up for the bassist, takin' a ****!" I was mortified. I came out about a minute later, and we still ended up going on before my girlfriend got there. Pretty embarrassing.

Same show, I literally unplugged my bass and walked off the stage 3/4 of the way through the second to last song. While I was playing, my girlfriend, who was much sicker than she wanted to admit before coming, had fainted, falling over. Luckily my friend caught her, but I had to make sure. Of course, the same singer as before was just like, "Kyle, what the ****?" I eventually got back on stage and we finished the set.

I am still with the same band and same girlfriend, haha.
 

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