What got you giggling on a gig?

[jbybj]

A couple of years ago I was playing a gig at a bowling alley bar in Palos Verdes. About twenty people that night, among them was a couple, he looked 50 with a Dutchboy haircut, and she looked 65, blonde and pudgy.
They were dancing to every song, having a great time, and if they were drunk, they weren’t sloppy about it. They did however tend to get pretty raunchy with some of their routines. Great fun to play for.
We ended the second set with “Sunshine Of Your Love”. The fella reaches into a duffle bag and pulls out his tap shoes. What followed was an inspired improv tap accompaniment. He tap danced to the whole song, in perfect time and following the arrangement. The level of his taps on the dance floor provided a great mix, he blended right in. It’s the single most awesome, and funniest thing I’ve ever seen from the stage. I laughed continually through the entire song, and gave him a big hug during the break.

 

[keyboardguy]

Actually happened last night.

I go to a weekly Jam at a pub playing my Hammond SK1 keyboard. A guest guitarist wanted to sing and play "Evil Ways".
So I decided to be cool and just start the song by myself in the original key with just the Hammond organ riff.

Unfortunately I was playing the intro to "Oye Como Va"

I later apologized to the guitarist but he said the song actually came out pretty good anyway . He said "Great Mistake"!

Duh......

 

[murph7489]

haha..good stories...There was a gig I was playing and my girlfriend and her best friend were there (both Irish) and after the first set I was talking to them and they told me that some girl was talking trash about them..That's all I needed to hear because I knew what was to come...well, it brewed throughout the 2nd set and into the 3rd set until we were on the second to last song...then on the dance floor during radar love..it happened, a brawl between all three girls...punches being thrown, rolling around on the floor we keep playing although I can barely play because I was laughing so hard...nobody else in the band knew it was coming but I knew for sure it was gonna happen...ha ha the girl talking trash got thrown out and my gf and her friend were acquitted of any wrong doing...but it was captured on video and made fb...lolol...

 

[Volker Kirstein]

...but it was captured on video and made fb...lolol...

Link, please?

 

[NigeJ]

Early days of transmitter systems. The guitarist takes a hike into the audience, does a solo and attempts to run back on "stage" (an eight inch raised area of the floor space). He misses his footing and lands in the monitors. Singer deadpans....."get up Phil, you're making a scene" Twenty six years ago and it still makes me chuckle.....

 

[hbarcat]

Back in my metal days (late 80s) we had the crowd of leather jacket and chain types moshing and occasionally stage diving.

Then one guy, who apparently didn't understand the concept, dove off the stage, except a bit off to the side and not where the crowd happened to be.

Since no one was there to catch him, he just belly flopped hard onto the floor. Amazingly, he got right back up, but he looked pretty shaky as he staggered away.

I couldn't help myself and just laughed hysterically for about 30 seconds. I was also the lead singer and I couldn't finish singing the song (It was "Seek and Destroy").

 

[Mr_Moo]

Back in my metal days (late 80s) we had the crowd of leather jacket and chain types moshing and occasionally stage diving.

Then one guy, who apparently didn't understand the concept, dove off the stage, except a bit off to the side and not where the crowd happened to be.

Since no one was there to catch him, he just belly flopped hard onto the floor. Amazingly, he got right back up, but he looked pretty shaky as he staggered away.

I couldn't help myself and just laughed hysterically for about 30 seconds. I was also the lead singer and I couldn't finish singing the song (It was "Seek and Destroy").

I did that at an underground punk rock gig. Everyone was stage diving happily. I might have been a bit bigger than most of the punks, or maybe just not tight enough with them. In any case, they parted like the Red And Tartan Sea. A couple of brave souls stood their ground and tried to catch me, poor wee things. My band dined out on that story for a couple of weeks.

 

[Beersurgeon]

Oh, the flatulence that made my own eyes water and as it hit the rest of the band, the motion of dry heaving was hilarious! After we finished the song, I had to do a PSA of, "oops, my bad."

 

[JRA]

the best laughs i've had while working were usually caused by my own fatigue + a bizarre person/moment. like playing multiple gigs over a few days and then finding your jazz trio playing for the folks at the nudist resort?



"looks like we're all bushed!"

 

[SemiDriven]

So last night, our rhythm guitarist brought his new 12-string acoustic to a gig for a smattering of country-western songs we do (he usually uses his PRS electric 6-string). Everything was going fine until he realized he couldn’t do one of his rare lead solos on one song. Oh-oh. Cue potential train wreck. Shortly thereafter, it suddenly dawned on our lead guitarist that he was the designated-hitter to perform the solo (which he had never performed). It’s kinda fun watching the gears turning in somebody’s head while adjusting on the fly. There were a few hiccups, but all-in-all he did a bang-up job improvising!

This all happened after one of our drummer’s symbol stands decided to free-fall my way off the elevated drum platform. It managed to miss everything. The drummer and I locked eyes momentarily, grinned, and we didn’t miss a beat. The giggles came when our lead guitarist attempted to swoop in to save the day by thinking he was going to hoist the stand with symbol still attached and hoist it back on the platform—while he was still playing. Made two attempts. What was he thinking? LOL!

 

[roccobass]

One more from giggling at a gig department.

Another classic moment was when the cops busted my power trio’s gig at an apartment complex and tried to confiscate me and the guitarists’ equipment. We both had vintage Acoustic equipment. Mine the 360 and his the guitar version with the 6 -12” cab. The cops were pissed because the couldn’t fit it all in their cruiser. We knew how to get it in but weren’t gonna tell them.They ended up just writing us a ticket.

The drummer got Houdini points for seeing the cops first before them seeing him, grabbing his small kit into a nearby apartment and schlepping it out through a bedroom window and avoiding all subsequent chaos.

 

[NZBassman]

played a NYE gig at a small rural town in 2009? - had a big (wide) stage and the place was pretty packed
I just happened to look down as I was playing and there was a woman in front of me with her BF / Hubby... and she was quite attractive with huge boobs
Anyway I must have had a glance or 2 at her chest, as the looked at me and waved her finger as if to say "you shouldn't be looking at my boobs".
I just smiled and continued playing... then looked at her a few seconds later and she lifted up her top and bra and jiggled her boobs right in front of me for about 4-5 seconds... I was initially shocked... but then I just started laughing... so much so I was unable to sing my backing vocals!

when we finished the gig our singer said "Did that woman flash her boobs at you"??
she was as shocked as me

 

[Raoul_Duke]

I was in a death metal band for awhile, and our singer would say “This next one is called _____,” and it was never the actual name of the song. He used “Jet City Woman” a lot, and mostly 80’s hair band stuff or yacht rock standards. It was always funny.

One time were playing a really fast song that ended very abruptly, and just as it ended some old drunk guy in the back screamed “The devil!” as loud as he could. Like he’d just -seen- the devil. You had to be there, but holy crap was that funny.

Don’t worry, I don’t play death metal any more, and rarely listen to it.

 

[2saddleslab]

While playing an outdoor restaurant patio gig, adjacent to a highway overpass, during a particularly quiet portion of an already quiet song, all of a sudden we heard the loud glug, glug, glug, of a tractor trailer exhaust brake. My geetar player interrupted mid verse with, "whatever you do, don't order the tilapia." Nearly pi$$ed my pants.

 

[Flamingo21]

Don’t worry, I don’t play death metal any more, and rarely listen to it.

Why would it worry us if you played death metal?

 

[Flamingo21]

While playing an outdoor restaurant patio gig, adjacent to a highway overpass, during a particularly quiet portion of an already quiet song, all of a sudden we heard the loud glug, glug, glug, of a tractor trailer exhaust brake. My geetar player interrupted mid verse with, "whatever you do, don't order the tilapia." Nearly pi$$ed my pants.

For the win.

 

[SemiDriven]

played a NYE gig at a small rural town in 2009? - had a big (wide) stage and the place was pretty packed
I just happened to look down as I was playing and there was a woman in front of me with her BF / Hubby... and she was quite attractive with huge boobs
Anyway I must have had a glance or 2 at her chest, as the looked at me and waved her finger as if to say "you shouldn't be looking at my boobs".
I just smiled and continued playing... then looked at her a few seconds later and she lifted up her top and bra and jiggled her boobs right in front of me for about 4-5 seconds... I was initially shocked... but then I just started laughing... so much so I was unable to sing my backing vocals!

when we finished the gig our singer said "Did that woman flash her boobs at you"??
she was as shocked as me

Rare are the things that have the ability to shake our concentration as bass players while gigging.

You mentioned two of them.

Obligatory politically correct speech disclaimer: speaking from the vantage point of the heterosexual male bass player. And please, don't flame me regarding sexual harassment. Just responding to a story of a bass player who got a DWPB (Distracted While Playing Bass).

 

[Flamingo21]

You mentioned two of them.

 

[basscooker]

I saw a cocktail waitress pull off the most amazing save I've ever seen. Cement floor, puddle of something; her with a full tray of drinks. Well as the slip-dance began she switched hands with the tray, trying to maintain balance and the tray she pulled a 180 and started going down. In some sort of physics- defying feat she launches the tray about 2 feet, intentionally or not I will never know, and it lands perfectly upright with almost no spillage on a bar table nearby. She wasn't so lucky and landed square on her duff in the middle of the puddle that cause the whole thing. Most hilarious part of it all was that I don't think anyone else saw it. I was beside myself for at least a hot minute.

 

[Jakeman]

Played a gig at a college bar awhile back. As we were jamming on Jumpin' Jack Flash, some drunk kid hops up on stage and starts pulling his best Mick Jagger moves. Didn't try to take the mic or anything, just chicken-dancing back and forth across the stage. Thing is, we were a jam-band, so this version of the tune went on for a good 20 minutes. Dancing guy went through every move in the book, and was determined to keep going as long as we kept jamming. Had me giggling.