What got you giggling on a gig?

[SemiDriven]

Mine happened last night on a small stage.

Our lead guitarist likes to bring a plastic storage bin with the band’s logo on stage, plop it in front of his amp (and the drummer’s riser) and use that as a foot rest as he does solos throughout the show.

Normally, he has a lot of cables (and assorted crap) in there to weigh it down. Last night, for some reason, he hardly had anything in there. So he swings his foot up there to plant it for his solo, and the thing stands straight up causing him to nearly take a dive.

Well I did a bit of inward grinning as we averted a near disaster.

So our guitarist recovered, played his solo, and then righted the plastic bin just in time for his second solo.

You guessed it, he did it again. Only this time, he manages to move our rhythm singer’s monitor 90-degrees. Hello feedback. At least she had the presence of mine to minimize the feedback. Then she simply stared at the monitor for a minute wondering what to do. She eventually, using one foot, moved it so that it was more at a 45-degree angle facing her.

Well at this point I was bustin’ a gut — the inward grin became a series of outward giggles. Couldn’t help it. The good thing is that we all kept the groove going smack dab through it all.

So what’s tickled your funny bone while on a gig?

 

[StereoPlayer]

I used to use the stage lights reflecting off my tuning keys. Shine it right in peoples eyes. They had no idea I was doing it on purpose. I’m chuckling about it now as I typed this.

 

[SemiDriven]

I used to use the stage lights reflecting off my tuning keys. Shine it right in peoples eyes. They had no idea I was doing it on purpose. I’m chuckling about it now as I typed this.

Oh, you're one of those bass players!

 

[lokikallas]

At a bar gig, a trans woman showed up on the dance floor randomly.
Unfortunately our bandleader is pretty much blind without glasses, so for the next song starts us off on "I'm just a girl" totally coincidentally.
The person was not amused, but me and the drummer were having a hard time holding it together.

 

[Bertr]

Farting unnoticed among the stage din. Made me giggle everytime (The guys next to me not always).

 

[Passinwind]

So what’s tickled your funny bone while on a gig?

Some burned out looking butt rock/soccer mom type asking me how much it would cost for our lounge jazz act to stop playing on a gig at the local dive bar. I told her I'd happily do that for free, but good luck with the rest of the band and the bar owners.

 

[Neil Martin]

Mine happened last night on a small stage.

Our lead guitarist likes to bring a plastic storage bin with the band’s logo on stage, plop it in front of his amp (and the drummer’s riser) and use that as a foot rest as he does solos throughout the show.

Normally, he has a lot of cables (and assorted crap) in there to weigh it down. Last night, for some reason, he hardly had anything in there. So he swings his foot up there to plant it for his solo, and the thing stands straight up causing him to nearly take a dive.

Well I did a bit of inward grinning as we averted a near disaster.

So our guitarist recovered, played his solo, and then righted the plastic bin just in time for his second solo.

You guessed it, he did it again. Only this time, he manages to move our rhythm singer’s monitor 90-degrees. Hello feedback. At least she had the presence of mine to minimize the feedback. Then she simply stared at the monitor for a minute wondering what to do. She eventually, using one foot, moved it so that it was more at a 45-degree angle facing her.

Well at this point I was bustin’ a gut — the inward grin became a series of outward giggles. Couldn’t help it. The good thing is that we all kept the groove going smack dab through it all.

So what’s tickled your funny bone while on a gig?

I did a similar thing at one gig. I thought to myself. I'm going to put my foot on this monitor at the very edge of this stage and point my bass at the audience Steve Harris style. Soon as I put my foot on it it started leaning backwards and everything went in slow motion as I started falling forward and nearly fell off the stage. Would have made a right tit of myself if I had fallen off the stage but JUST managed to avoid disaster. Personally I didn't laugh but I'm sure someone somewhere did. Serves me right for trying to be clever and trying and look "cool".

 

[Jefenator]

This one group was working up The Beatles' "If I Fall In Love With You" with all the elaborate vocal harmonies and everything. Took loads of rehearsal time but we were getting it dialed in real nice.
Then I made some sophomoric wisecrack which triggered a terrible laugh attack and before you knew it, we couldn't make it through that tender intro to save our lives. (Everyone trying not to look at anyone else & be the first to explode...)
Fun stuff, but I did feel bad for "breaking" that number we had worked so hard on. (A month later the saxophonist divorced the guitar player and that pretty much nuked the group as we knew it - such is band life.)
I related this incident to a Beatles-hating buddy and his take was: "Well, sometimes these things work out for the best."

 

[Ignatius]

This one group was working up The Beatles' "If I Fall In Love With You" with all the elaborate vocal harmonies and everything. Took loads of rehearsal time but we were getting it dialed in real nice.
Then I made some sophomoric wisecrack which triggered a terrible laugh attack and before you knew it, we couldn't make it through that tender intro to save our lives. (Everyone trying not to look at anyone else & be the first to explode...)
Fun stuff, but I did feel bad for "breaking" that number we had worked so hard on. (A month later the saxophonist divorced the guitar player and that pretty much nuked the group as we knew it - such is band life.)
I related this incident to a Beatles-hating buddy and his take was: "Well, sometimes these things work out for the best."

My band also does 'If I Fell.' It is a lot of work to get it right. At one of our practices, while we were setting up, someone suggested that we sing the intro to get the vocal mix right. Everyone ready, keyboard player who sings lead on it starts "If I fell in doggie doo..."

It still sends a couple of us into church giggles.

 

[bluesblaster]

I was doing a big Biker rally once and they had a mechanical bull like the ones they have in Texas mega honkytonks. So these two very drunk and topless biker chicks climb up on the thing facing each other no less, when they flipped the switch.... well it was about the best 3 seconds of astounding feats of gravity defying entertainment I 've ever witnessed.

 

[roccobass]

@Bertr
Another episode from the annals ( or should I say anals? ) of the flatulence Hall of Fame.

My dearly departed former drummer had no qualms at dropping his anytime or anywhere and laughing about it.

Payback came to him in a big way at a gig with a small stage. In the middle of a long song, I felt the mother of all f-bombs coming on. I immediately noticed his cooling clip on fan at my waist level pointed back at him and on at full blast! A better opportunity never presented itself. He was so trapped! God, I never laughed so hard.

Adding insult to injury, when the fallout cloud finally reached all other band members, they all blamed him.

 

[SemiDriven]

I was doing a big Biker rally once and they had a mechanical bull like the ones they have in Texas mega honkytonks. So these two very drunk and topless biker chicks climb up on the thing facing each other no less, when they flipped the switch.... well it was about the best 3 seconds of astounding feats of gravity defying entertainment I 've ever witnessed.

But what we're all dying to know is if you managed to keep the beat during the gymnastic gyrations?

 

[SemiDriven]

@Bertr
Another episode from the annals ( or should I say anals? ) of the flatulence Hall of Fame.

My dearly departed former drummer had no qualms at dropping his anytime or anywhere and laughing about it.

Payback came to him in a big way at a gig with a small stage. In the middle of a long song, I felt the mother of all f-bombs coming on. I immediately noticed his cooling clip on fan at my waist level pointed back at him and on at full blast! A better opportunity never presented itself. He was so trapped! God, I never laughed so hard.

Adding insult to injury, when the fallout cloud finally reached all other band members, they all blamed him.

Oh that's low.

er...I mean you were definitely holding down the low end!

 

[roccobass]

Oh that's low.

er...I mean you were definitely holding down the low end!

Subterranean like, if get my drift. (So to speak)

 

[punchdrunk]

We had a very humorous cover band vocalist that would constantly take sexually suggestive/silly liberties with the lyrics of songs. He had me near rolling on the band stand numerous times.

 

[bluesblaster]

But what we're all dying to know is if you managed to keep the beat during the gymnastic gyrations?

I wasnt actually playing at that moment. If I remember correctly I had gone back to the car to get something and it was parked close to the beer tent where the bull was also set up. Just happened by at the right time I guess.

 

[WI Short Scaler]

This reminded my of my biggest stage gaffe of all time. It was about 15 years ago, NYE, we were playing in the bar of the largest hotel in the area, scheduled 9-1. That night in one of the conference rooms there was a wedding being held that wrapped up at midnight. So alot of the bridal party worked their way to where we were playing and mingled into the crowd.

We got a request for a slow one for the wedding party, so when we finished the song we were on I proceeded to the mic, looked at the two people dancing in front of us and said something to the effect of the bride dancing a special song with her father. OOOPS, that's the groom. It's something I'm reminded of often by my bandmates.

Too many fart stories to list, most aimed at our drummer in retaliation of his constant griping about how I ran the PA.

 

[Killing Floor]

Ok this was a long time ago, before smart phones. So regrettably no film.
But my band had a gig at this swampy bar in Atlanta and the common thread between us and the opener was the drummer. So we thought it would be fun to roll up behind the stage and have a little fun. Me and the guitar player started knocking on his throne with drumsticks out of rhythm with the song he was playing. Pretty amazing idea, right? So the sacks in his other band didn’t realize how funny we were. Their loss in my opinion. So their singer did the same thing in our set. To the same drummer. And we were “OK” anyway but could not keep it together the whole set. I’m sure it’s funnier in my head.

 

[2strings2frets]

I used to use the stage lights reflecting off my tuning keys. Shine it right in peoples eyes. They had no idea I was doing it on purpose. I’m chuckling about it now as I typed this.

Had a wrist watch with a large flat crystal, used to do the same thing, people always thought it was random. It wasn’t.

 

[Lagado]

I remember a private outdoor party we played under a canopy. From seemingly nowhere a few hornets appeared, then more, then there were quite a few of them flying around under the canopy. The singer is twitching around dropping lyrics as he scans himself for landers. While this is going on, the family dog decides to put its butt on the turf and run around on it for a good scratch, as they do. Meanwhile people are still dancing. Hornets and all. Bizarre scene.