whats your best band moment

[plankspanker13]

Opening for Grand Funk

A memorable night in Arizona City; the best moments were post-gig

A great night at the Auld Dubliner where we could do no wrong with instant requests

...and a rehearsal, in the back room of a "head shop," back in the day, wherein the all-white band was complemented as "authentic-sounding" by multiple people of color, who promptly offered us some "refreshements," outside.

 

[Sleeq]

My old band is on hiatus, but in 2008 we won 3rd place in the Middle East regional battle of the bands in Dubai, UAE.

 

[Joe Nerve]

Playing Winter NAMM with my band, and looking out into the crowd and seeing Megadeth smiling and bobbing their heads. It put the biggest smile on my face.

Had the same experience w bootsy standing in the doorway. not my greatest moment, but would be hard to pin that down. had a lot of great moments.

Thinking about it... I don't think my greatest moment was with the greatest band, nor in the biggest place. I think it was a neighborhood gig, totally packed with people we didn't know (got the gig as a last minute fill in), and having the crowd go completely nuts for us after the first song. Kinda like the first time having sex. But there was no crowd there to go nuts. Just me.

 

[SuperFineLin9]

on tour we found a dollar store that sold a six pack of beer for $1
you read that right.

we awoke the next morning with 10 of our dollars gone and the worst hangovers you could ever imagine

 

[the byronic man]

too many to count with my old group. being 19 and (likely) coming as close to "making it" as i will in this life made a lot of those moments stick with me. meeting and speaking with people i grew up listening to, touring, the feeling of playing on a stage in a strange city in front of hundreds of people, the entire process of dealing with labels and recording. it was all very exciting and an important part of my development as a musician and a person.

 

[Evilpenguin556]

Being unplugged and disqualified from a battle of the bands with my old hip hop group. They just weren't ready for us, I guess. *sigh*

 

[HolmeBass]

1983. Seal Beach, Ca. i lived in a duplex with this tiny garage we jammed in. we had heard stories that Bill Ward of Black Sabbath was staying (on occasion) with the couple that stayed in the apt. downstairs. we were all starstruck as Black Sabbath was a hugely influential band for all of us. turns out to be true and in the following weeks we would see him coming and going and say "hi Bill" like starstruck knuckleheads. one day we are jamming away when the door opens and there is Bill Ward in a wifebeater, tennis headband, a towel around his shoulders and drumsticks in his hands. he very politely asks if he could sit in for a song or two. we all mumbled yes nearly incoherently except for our drummer who practically falls off his set sayng what an honor it would be for Bill to play on his set. he sits down and hits a couple of bass and snare notes then looks at us one by one and in his thick cockney accent says "no guitar solos, no bass solos and no drum solos......lets just f&ckin jam!"
we jam and actually do a great job keeping up with him, playing miles above ourselves for a brief moment in time. he takes a moment and compliments us individually on our playing and thanks the drummer for letting him use his set. he then heads back out the door. leaving some very stoked teenagers asking themselves if that really just happened.

very sweet!

 

[HolmeBass]

Well playing music is lots of fun, so it's hard to narrow down a single "best". I've played some big stages, actually enough to turn in a few great sets on those stages. Great party gigs, club gigs, seen some amazing stuff. But I think the best moment was playing, just jamming really, with my first serious band just out of college. It was summer, and we were downtown in area with lots of students and drifters. We played with the windows open, because we had no AC, and played with the total abandon of youth- completely lost in the music. When I finally looked at the clock, we'd been playing straight for almost 3 hours.

I set my bass down to head to the kitchen to grab some water to drink. I noticed there were some people hanging around in our dining/living room, which adjoined the unoccupied bed room we were set up in. These people were strangers, young folks and a few old, drinking from plastic cups in our dining room. They had been listening to us for some time, unknown to me. I went into the kitchen, where there were at least another 15 or so people, and a keg! I grabbed a beer. No one was saying anything to me or even really acknowledging me, so it was a bit surreal. I went out back behind the kitchen and outside there and over in our parking lot, right outside of the jam room, where another 30 people or so, sipping beers and talking. So someone had just brought a keg over to our place and a spontaneous mini-block party of students, homeless people, and other scenesters had formed around our rehearsal. I felt like a pied piper or something. But really the memory of that jam itself stays with me too, it was such an elemental, surrendering, trusting and freeing jam.

 

[kapaauguy]

this story wins the award for best band moment for sure...

the really cool thing about this was he was going through a really tough time. trying to get his life back together. he had pretty much lost everything. he didn't come and play with us because we were such fantastic musicians, he took some time because we were huge fans. i was always struck by how humble and gracious this guy was that we absolutely idolized. the same guy who played in front of half of California at Cal Jam 1 had no problems jamming with some kids in a 10x16 sweatbox. it still brings a big smile to my face when i think of it.