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Worst band you've ever seen?

"Worst band" is one of the few traumatic experiences that, fortunately, I've managed to forget. And I'm not foolish enough to try and remember it, either..:)

No worries. I'm sure that "worst bands" are still around, and sometimes, necro-threads are still perfectly pertinent. So sure, in fact, that I'll even quote myself...:whistle:
 
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I saw Nick Guilder (Hot Child in the City) open up for the Outlaws in the late 70's, early 80 s and he made it through two or three songs before he was chased from the stage. They were bombarded with cans, bottles. and towards the end chairs.
 
I went to see the Metal Mayhem festival at Edwards No.8 in 2006 (it burnt down a week later). I was a big Orange Goblin fan at the time and was there mainly to see them and a couple of other bands.

They go on stage to start their set, but where's Ben Ward? He staggers on stage as they start the first song, looking like he drank the band's rider on his own. Slurs his way through a few lyrics, stops to take a swig from his pint glass, which he spits out again into the crowd. Then passes out. The rest of the band are forced to jam a set before calling it an early night after half hour or so. They didn't look happy.

I saw Judas Priest in 2009. I'd seen them before and I've seen them since - top class. This time though, the performance was OK but somebody monumentally cocked up FOH. The bass drum overpowered everything else. You couldn't hear the guitars and it was difficult even to hear Rob Halford. Come Painkiller all you hear in the solos is 3,000,000mph double kicks. So disappointing.
 
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Pantera - They were piss drunk and Phil kept going on and on about how they were the "kings of metal". Such a disappointment.
Limp Bizkit - Their stage prop was a giant toilet bowl. Definitely not a sign of good things to come.
Blonde Redhead - Three people took the stage. Some sounds happened. I don't know if any one person was aware or concerned with the sounds emanating from the other persons on the stage. Occasionally, someone muttered something into a microphone. Sound stopped. Repeat a few times. Then they left.
 
Saw a band named "Cock Robin" or however you write it open for Richard Marx in the late 80s. HORRIBLE. I never wanted to jab a screwdriver in my ear more in my life before or since.

Saw Kiss on the reunion tour back in 96. The opening act was The Deftones. I hadnt heard of them but my wife's cousin who was about 15 at the time was a fan and talked them up. They didnt do anything to make me want to hear them a second time.

REO Speedwagon back in the 90s. They just didnt sound like the big years I grew up with. Gary Richrath was already gone by then. He made that band sound like they did when they were good.

I actually played in one of the worst local bands I have ever heard. I quit because i couldnt take it anymore. Draggy tempos, playing songs in keys that didnt work, a "boom-boom-chi-chi-boom-boom-chi-chi" beat for every song. You get the idea. I filled in once for a show with them about two years after I had left and it hadnt gotten any better.

BnB
 
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I'm not sure what the worst band I've ever seen was, but the funniest (unintentionally) performance I ever saw was at an open mic. There was a nerdy keyboardist doing the 'one-man band' thing. He was kind of dressed like a guy that knocks on your door on a Sunday morning, wearing short-sleeved white shirt with black dress pants and tie. He gets in the mood by pressing... the "Swing 1" button on his Casio, to get everyone groovin' to that repetitive cheesy hi-hat pattern. Then he started to play... an organ! Not a jazzy organ, but he had on a full Phantom of the Opera cathedral organ patch which he used to fullest effect, playing doomy and dissonant (dare I say random?) chords over the Swing 1 pattern.

When he was finished, there was not exactly a huge response from the crowd. The punchline came as he was packing up, when he muttered at a passive-aggressive volume, "I guess nobody here appreciates jazz."
 
I went to see the Metal Mayhem festival at Edwards No.8 in 2006 (it burnt down a week later). I was a big Orange Goblin fan at the time and was there mainly to see them and a couple of other bands.

They go on stage to start their set, but where's Ben Ward? He staggers on stage as they start the first song, looking like he drank the band's rider on his own. Slurs his way through a few lyrics, stops to take a swig from his pint glass, which he spits out again into the crowd. Then passes out. The rest of the band are forced to jam a set before calling it an early night after half hour or so. They didn't look happy.

I had many a good (i think) night in Edwards No.8 :)
 
Fiona Apple. Just terrible performance and constant f-bombs.

The Wallflowers. We saw one of the first shows of the tour and they did great. Then we saw a show near the end of tour... They were horrible. High, drunk, something. The road really got to them, I guess.

- John
 
A group in Portland, OR called cherrybomb13. Saw them once at the Copper Penny. They sounded awful, (and still do), and the bass player chick twice stepped on her instrument cable, ripping it right out. It was sad and funny at the same time.
 
Hands down worst was seeing Genesis when they played the New Haven Coliseum in 1982. God awful blasting distortion. So bad you couldn't make out actual notes or understand a single word of Phil Collins incessant stage banter or long winded stories in between songs. (I'm not complaining about not being able to hear much of the second part.) Phil was being more boring than usual that night. Only frontman with stage banter worse than Phil's is Ian Anderson of Tull - who is legendary for jokes that fall flat and a higher than normal level of drivel.)

GF and I walked out about a half hour into it. And we were still in our 20s and living in an era of loud bands at that point - so that probably tells you something.
 
A group called Nasty Savage in about 1983. The highlight of the show was the lead singer repeatedly throwing a 19" television into the air and letting it bounce off his chest. The "music" was secondary to the "show".
 
A few years ago I took my son to see Billy Talent. They were great, highly recommend them.

Sum41 opened for them. They absolutely sucked. I guess the band played ok, but they were stupid loud and the singer was a little full of himself. He spent 20 minutes getting highschool girls up on the stage. Was creepy, seeing this guy is no spring chicken anymore.

Ruined an otherwise good night.
 

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