Worst injury received while playing bass

[Dave Siff]

Actually playing, I’ve been lucky to have ‘injuries’ limited to blood blisters that exploded mid-gig.
Overall bass-wise, threw my back out lifting a cabinet.

 

[scott sinner]

Outdoor festival had made a makeshift rain tarp roof to cover the band, just a little drizzle so the show went on. Stage diver bumped a pole and it fell on my head. In the adrenaline fueled moment of playing a hardcore/metal set, I barely noticed. It was the sheer amount of blood, after our set was done, that made me get it looked at. 6 stitches.

 

[turf3]

I broke my foot once trying to help some move a Hammond organ. Does that count?

(Moral of the story: never try to move a heavy, awkward piece of equipment while wearing sandals.)

Ah geez, I remember the gig with the Hammond in the basement club, down the long flight of stairs...

I was a lot stronger and more durable in those days and it was still a chore with four guys to get that sumbitch down and back up. Of course, down is harder, but taking it back up was no cakewalk either especially since beers had been consumed.

We never did THAT again. The keys player found a patch he could use (this was back when dinosaurs ruled the earth and synths had actual patch cords).

 

[Deleted member 394181]

Ego.

 

[micahwc]

Those guns are very loud. I don't know how you can hear anything after that. My one exposure left me deaf for hours.

As for playing, permanent tinnitus is by far the worst. Early on, there were plenty of physical injuries as fights between band members used to break out on stage during shows. I often think people came to see us because of the craziness on stage rather than the music, but it was punk music after all.

What!?

 

[Baloo Pasquariello]

I was just saying something witty.

lol... so was I!

 

[JazznFunk]

I don't have pain with hyperacusis, but I do react to speaking voices that are too loud. And I get distortion with certain frequencies. And cymbals and other high frequencies can really annoy my ears. Cymbals sound awful unless I have earplugs in. I wear earplugs without fail for rehearsals, gigs, and attending concerts. Like you, my hearing is great.

My sympathies. I also can't be near cymbals without plugs in. Even a quiet drummer can still cause issues for me.

 

[RhinoBass]

Only to my ego.

 

[TexasHeat]

I missed a note once and bruised my ego.

(I didn't read all the replies, I bet that joke was used already)

 

[Anthony White]

Back in the day, I was in a band in San Francisco. We booked a weekend of gigs in Pasadena, LA, Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday afternoon. We drove down Friday during the day, played the Friday night gig. At the Friday gig, someone somehow booked an additional gig for Sunday night, after the Sunday afternoon gig. We duly played the Sunday night gig. Good gigs, great weekend. And then we had to drive back to San Francisco, because band-mates had work on Monday morning. We’d originally planned to finish the Sunday afternoon gig and head north at about 6pm. We left Pasadena at midnight. At about 2am, I was taking a stint driving, and I just fell asleep at the wheel. Woke to a thump on the head and the steering wheel wrenching out of my hands as we went off the road. Fortunately, I seemed to be going pretty slow. Car was mostly okay, and we were able to drive back onto the road. I got away with a bump on the head and a sore thumb, but it could have been much worse.

 

[mdlewis]

Hmmm...my band is contemplating new ways in which we can attract an audience.

I wouldn't recommend it as a strategy as the injuries impaired future performances (mild sarcasm here).

One time, after a particularly nasty bout of 'artistic differences' the guitar player slugged the keyboard player/lead singer and broke his own arm while doing so. He had to try to play guitar in a cast for subsequent shows.

 

[BlueTalon]

One time, a very drunk individual did a slow motion fall into my mic stand, and it punched me right in the mouth with my microphone.

 

[SemiDriven]

I missed a note once and bruised my ego.

(I didn't read all the replies, I bet that joke was used already)

Shoot, I missed a bunch of notes at a corporate gig this afternoon.

Ego duly bruised.

Saving grace is that our we had major sound issues today and everyone was missing notes/chords/pitch/timing, etc.

We blamed it on inadequate power (it was in a private park).

However, I'd like to drop-kick certain individuals in our band into the next-county when we subsequently learned that it may not have been power issues after all. Just operator error.

rant over.

 

[T748]

Back in the early '80's... Our band was doing good and life was fine. The singer tells us he has a "Pyrotechnic guy with all his stuff. We try him for a gig and it went ok. Next gig is in a parking lot in the middle of the day. The show is going good and a bunch of our regulars are there. Why the pyro guy is even there for a daytime show I have no idea. He sets all the flashpots off at once to a humunguss explosion! I'm still playing but I can't hear the singer or either of the guitarists. I look over and the lead guitarist is on his knees. The rythem guitar player looks like he's yelling at me but I can't hear him. I lost 90% of my hearing for part of the evening. The pyro guy ran off and disappeared. The Lead guitar players speakers blew along with his side of the PA. Needless to say the show was over. The singer talked with pyro guy later and got his story. His thought was to double charge each pot to make up for the show being in daylight and then adding one more charge on top of that because we were in a big open parking lot. It was crazy that no one in the band or in the crowd got ruptured ear drums. -Tom.

 

[Marko 1]

Reading some of these posts, I'm so glad I didn't gig as a young person...

God I was a complete idiot, I don't know how I'm still alive.

Nowadays I don't do anything tricky (not that I could anyways).

 

[Marko 1]

Sometime once told me that my tone sucked. Worst injury received in any occupation.

Man, that's one comment that would NOT bother me...

I'd put that on his lack of taste.