Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Worst thing to happen during a gig
- Thread starter balton4
- Start date
I'd go to their next gig and find a way to knock out the house power in their first song.
Payback is a bitch.
well, battle of the bands is on friday. wish me luck i suppose. loving the stories! half will probably not happen to me though lol, as i am (usually) a mellow well tempered person.
My worst gig experience. My band plays the biggest bar in my hometown. During the set I break my A string, and I'm playing my Atlansia 2-string bass...
Another time while studying away for teacher a band from my hometown plays in a bar near where I study. I used to sit in with the band from time to time. This night I had been out partying for quite a while and the band wanted me to come on stage, the problem was that I had passed out. They got the whole bar shouting for me. My friends woke me up and sendt me on stage, I got the bass strapped on and asked what we where playing; Black Night by Deep Purple. I could not remember the song at all, not the intro or the riff. A total disaster... I have to tell you that I played bass in a Deep Purple tribute band at that time, but was totaly wasted. I guess I have played that song hundreds of times, but could not remember a thing...
Cheers
Tore
Another time while studying away for teacher a band from my hometown plays in a bar near where I study. I used to sit in with the band from time to time. This night I had been out partying for quite a while and the band wanted me to come on stage, the problem was that I had passed out. They got the whole bar shouting for me. My friends woke me up and sendt me on stage, I got the bass strapped on and asked what we where playing; Black Night by Deep Purple. I could not remember the song at all, not the intro or the riff. A total disaster... I have to tell you that I played bass in a Deep Purple tribute band at that time, but was totaly wasted. I guess I have played that song hundreds of times, but could not remember a thing...
Cheers
Tore
Now that's funny. I am 54, but the memory of being sixteen is clearer than my memory of this morning.
Maybe this should be under most embarrassing ,
High School Spring concert in their Auditorium circa 1974. I was bassist in our Jr. High's Jazz ensemble. We played in the orch pit basically same level as the house seating. 2nd song, We struck up 'Windy' by the Association.
Me and the piano start the intro. As the rest of the band joins in, this lady in a Minnie Pearl hat and typical flowery dress from like the 50s comes down the aisle right up to me and yells in my ear:
"Can you turn that thing down?!"
I yelled back : " Sure " and did the ole fake knob twist !
All pleased with herself, she stormed back up to her seat.
High School Spring concert in their Auditorium circa 1974. I was bassist in our Jr. High's Jazz ensemble. We played in the orch pit basically same level as the house seating. 2nd song, We struck up 'Windy' by the Association.
Me and the piano start the intro. As the rest of the band joins in, this lady in a Minnie Pearl hat and typical flowery dress from like the 50s comes down the aisle right up to me and yells in my ear:
"Can you turn that thing down?!"
I yelled back : " Sure " and did the ole fake knob twist !
All pleased with herself, she stormed back up to her seat.
Not anything spectatular but uh...
Drummer dropped his sticks during a show and had to stop...luckily we got through it.
My E string popped off, took it off then put it back on, during the national anthem no less
Um messed up going back to a head and worse than that i made a "oh, i'm 100% sure i'm right, this couldn't go wrong at all"
Drummer dropped his sticks during a show and had to stop...luckily we got through it.
My E string popped off, took it off then put it back on, during the national anthem no less
Um messed up going back to a head and worse than that i made a "oh, i'm 100% sure i'm right, this couldn't go wrong at all"
Maybe the most worst for bodily harm:
You can't make this s**t up !
1987 Was guitar/ bass tech of the Plasmatics, Yep, you know em well Wendy O and Co. As they rehearsed for the upcoming tour , Rod the manager and Wendy's man, came up to me and said .
"Hey Stu when we hit the cities You need to hunt down some cheap junk guitars so Wendy can cut them up onstage."
I said 'Sure i know her deal' and it would give me a reason to get away for an hour from the monotony of load in set up etc.
We did the first show Wendy cranked up the chainsaw and shredded the guitar to bits Crowd goes nuts etc etc.
Next gig Wendy & Rod come up to me and says We got an idea. I was all ears:
During song "x" and "y" you set the coffin up on end onstage. We have been draggin this coffin around and now i know why !
Then you get into a doctors white lab coat wearing a black executioners mask and hold the guitar while standing inside the coffin .
I am wondering what will come out of Wendy's mouth next cause this is getting bizarre enough. She continues:
'I'll throw the lid open, you step out and hand me the guitar and stand there while I cut it up '
"Okay " was all I could manage, hey I'm getting paid right ?!
That night the chosen song comes up and I get into the gag and step out. The crowd is going berserk Wendy cranks up the chain saw -FOR REAL !- thrashin about the stage she takes the guitar and puts it into the stand and grinds the saw thru all the strings bridge wood etc.
I must add that at the same time this is all happening the lead guitarist is in a wheelchair onstage with a old electrode strap cap on his head and a sign on the chair saying "Lobotomy Patient" shredding leads like no tomorrow wheeling back and forth with his feet! Wendy was good at talking people into doing crazy things !
Back to the sacrifice: Band is blazin away at full speed and high volume, I am standing with my arms folded and next thing ya know i feel pieces of guitar shrapnel hitting my legs, Yikes ! then I see the lead guitarist is bleeding from his arm and he's still playing ! Wendy throws the chainsaw right past him to floor: ITS" STILL RUNNING ! I hold my own, Song ends we retreat behind the amps for a moment
Wendy tells the crowd "we' re gonna take a short break". In shock we indulge in homemade road triage.
Before we know it, we're back into gig mode and continue / finish the show.
Afterwards me and the guitarist have a chat with Rod as Wendy was hounded by local press etc. He understood our concerns and injuries and said he'd talk to her and maybe tone it down a notch.
We were like "Yeah it got pretty dangerous out there !"
Next night was slightly better not so much chain saw swinging and i had removed the bridge and just screwed a few strings on the sacrificial axe.
BUT THEN :
Me and the Rhythm guitarist had gotten pretty good at tossin back and forth for 'on the fly' guitar changes onstage.but then me jumping off the side of the drum riser to catch a badly thrown guitar during a quik axe change in mid song Twist my ankle turns black and blue all over and here comes load out UGH!
Needless to say after numerous nightmares and the end of the first leg of the schedule,
I left the tour. Only time I ever left a band or tech gig !
You can't make this s**t up !
1987 Was guitar/ bass tech of the Plasmatics, Yep, you know em well Wendy O and Co. As they rehearsed for the upcoming tour , Rod the manager and Wendy's man, came up to me and said .
"Hey Stu when we hit the cities You need to hunt down some cheap junk guitars so Wendy can cut them up onstage."
I said 'Sure i know her deal' and it would give me a reason to get away for an hour from the monotony of load in set up etc.
We did the first show Wendy cranked up the chainsaw and shredded the guitar to bits Crowd goes nuts etc etc.
Next gig Wendy & Rod come up to me and says We got an idea. I was all ears:
During song "x" and "y" you set the coffin up on end onstage. We have been draggin this coffin around and now i know why !
Then you get into a doctors white lab coat wearing a black executioners mask and hold the guitar while standing inside the coffin .
I am wondering what will come out of Wendy's mouth next cause this is getting bizarre enough. She continues:
'I'll throw the lid open, you step out and hand me the guitar and stand there while I cut it up '
"Okay " was all I could manage, hey I'm getting paid right ?!
That night the chosen song comes up and I get into the gag and step out. The crowd is going berserk Wendy cranks up the chain saw -FOR REAL !- thrashin about the stage she takes the guitar and puts it into the stand and grinds the saw thru all the strings bridge wood etc.
I must add that at the same time this is all happening the lead guitarist is in a wheelchair onstage with a old electrode strap cap on his head and a sign on the chair saying "Lobotomy Patient" shredding leads like no tomorrow wheeling back and forth with his feet! Wendy was good at talking people into doing crazy things !
Back to the sacrifice: Band is blazin away at full speed and high volume, I am standing with my arms folded and next thing ya know i feel pieces of guitar shrapnel hitting my legs, Yikes ! then I see the lead guitarist is bleeding from his arm and he's still playing ! Wendy throws the chainsaw right past him to floor: ITS" STILL RUNNING ! I hold my own, Song ends we retreat behind the amps for a moment
Wendy tells the crowd "we' re gonna take a short break". In shock we indulge in homemade road triage.
Before we know it, we're back into gig mode and continue / finish the show.
Afterwards me and the guitarist have a chat with Rod as Wendy was hounded by local press etc. He understood our concerns and injuries and said he'd talk to her and maybe tone it down a notch.
We were like "Yeah it got pretty dangerous out there !"
Next night was slightly better not so much chain saw swinging and i had removed the bridge and just screwed a few strings on the sacrificial axe.
BUT THEN :
Me and the Rhythm guitarist had gotten pretty good at tossin back and forth for 'on the fly' guitar changes onstage.but then me jumping off the side of the drum riser to catch a badly thrown guitar during a quik axe change in mid song Twist my ankle turns black and blue all over and here comes load out UGH!
Needless to say after numerous nightmares and the end of the first leg of the schedule,
I left the tour. Only time I ever left a band or tech gig !
Wow, great story. I was just thinking about this yesterday due to a post in another thread. My brother and I went to see the plasmatics and he was friends with the venue owner's son so they let us in a side door and we stood right up against the stage for the best "seat" in the house. When the whole chainsaw the guitar act (les paul copy) started up, we were just feet away and we were being pelted with shrapnel like crazy. It was loud and dangerous and just unbelievable. My brother ended up with the bridge of the guitar, which he has to this day as a souvenir. I've seen a lot of stuff in my life, but I've never seen any show as reckless and dangerous as that one. There were fire marshalls posted in side too because they were afraid the band was going to burn the place down. That's one show I'll never forget. You must have seen some crazy stuff on that tour.
I went to see D'Generation a few years back and I met my friend at a "strip" bar in Trenton. I was walking back to the bathroom and some dude coming the other way planted a lit cigar in my arm accidentally. Hurt like hell. So we get to the Bowery Ballroom in NYC and there's a band called The Toilet Boys opening. Well the lead guitar player pulls a Gene Simmons where he put flammable liquid in his mouth and blows flames. He spits a big gob of that stuff right onto my shirt and sets my shirt on fire. It burned a hole right through my shirt. So now I'm standing there with a big nasty cigar burn in my arm and smoldering hole in my shirt and my friends look at me and basically ask, you sure you want to stay for the main act?
I played a country gig on a really small stage and not once but twice had people fall into the mic stand which then hit my bass and snapped the G string right in half.
had a drunk very large guitar player drop his pick and bend over to pick it up and couldn't stand back up.
have had my bass fall off the strap midsong before learning about straplocks
have had an amp completely die in the middle of a gig.
I had a hemmie surgery and within a few days was playing and realized that I had developed the runs WHILE I was onstage, the drummer started his drum solo and I ran to the bathroom, the toilet just had a very small board and no door so I would have had to poop in front of any joker that came in because the door didn't lock, so I drove home as fast as I could...opened the gates of hell for what seemed like 10 minutes, broke out in a cold sweat, drove back, waddled in quickly and the now sweaty pissed off drummer was furious with me.
have had to pee so bad that I actually went out the back door of a bar while still playing and peed
smoked something in a bar bathroom w/ some guy that was so strong, I went back out, put my bass on and had to lean against my rig to stand up straight because I was so dizzie.
had panic attacks years ago and had to lean against my rig onstage acting like everything was cool while on the inside I was pretty sure death was imminent...while playing my 3rd gig with a really good band
wore spandex that some guys mom sewed in a metal band, we wore no undies, the crotch ripped causing my boys to partially peak out so I had to stand still with legs together and sweating for the next 30 minutes...its' hard to look like a cool metalhead that way
while wearing spandex had no appropriate shoes so made the genius decision to wear some old black baseball spikes which were SLIPPERY on the floor we were on.
began dating some sketchy gorgeous girl and her older rich ex-boyfriend who had bought her a car came back around and let it be known he had a gun so I had to keep my eye on him all night wondering at what point I was going to die.
had a drunk very large guitar player drop his pick and bend over to pick it up and couldn't stand back up.
have had my bass fall off the strap midsong before learning about straplocks
have had an amp completely die in the middle of a gig.
I had a hemmie surgery and within a few days was playing and realized that I had developed the runs WHILE I was onstage, the drummer started his drum solo and I ran to the bathroom, the toilet just had a very small board and no door so I would have had to poop in front of any joker that came in because the door didn't lock, so I drove home as fast as I could...opened the gates of hell for what seemed like 10 minutes, broke out in a cold sweat, drove back, waddled in quickly and the now sweaty pissed off drummer was furious with me.
have had to pee so bad that I actually went out the back door of a bar while still playing and peed
smoked something in a bar bathroom w/ some guy that was so strong, I went back out, put my bass on and had to lean against my rig to stand up straight because I was so dizzie.
had panic attacks years ago and had to lean against my rig onstage acting like everything was cool while on the inside I was pretty sure death was imminent...while playing my 3rd gig with a really good band
wore spandex that some guys mom sewed in a metal band, we wore no undies, the crotch ripped causing my boys to partially peak out so I had to stand still with legs together and sweating for the next 30 minutes...its' hard to look like a cool metalhead that way
while wearing spandex had no appropriate shoes so made the genius decision to wear some old black baseball spikes which were SLIPPERY on the floor we were on.
began dating some sketchy gorgeous girl and her older rich ex-boyfriend who had bought her a car came back around and let it be known he had a gun so I had to keep my eye on him all night wondering at what point I was going to die.
I saw them in 81 and that train wrecked within a couple of weeks after I saw them:
Today In Crime History
Invalid Link Removed
I was setting up at a private event for the reunion of a bomber squadron from WW2 several years ago. It was at a banquet hall with a big, old fashioned stage, (curtains, back stage dressing rooms, etc), and a huge wooden dance floor. So there I am, having just loaded in, setting up my amp and putting guitars on the stands and these two old timers come up to the stage to talk to me. I walked to the front of the stage and bent down on one knee to get close enough to hear them and one of them says, " Are you the tuba player?".
The band I was in back in '95 had booked a gig in Visalia Ca. We live in Sacramento. Steve and Sandy booked the gig on Prom night, thinking this teens only club called Shadracks was going to be jumping and maybe we could pimp some of our CD's during the show to make some extra cash and help pay for the trip. Well we have a long but uneventful trip up. It was memorable only in that it was the first time I had an In and Out burger. Yeah. It was good.
We get to the club and it looks fantastic. The owner really had a great place with a big projection screen for viewing movies a great stage where we would set up and excellent house sound. We get set up, do a sound check, make sure all our ducks are in a row bing bang boom. It was all too perfect. Time for the doors to open. ANNNNNnnd.... nada. Not a soul showed up. We wait for 3 hours and then said aw to heck with it and did our set. We were there, the owners and their kids were there. We rocked an empty house. We actually killed too. It was sorta surreal playing to an empty place as Jurassic Park was rolling on the projection screen.
It was a huge let down from the time we got there and were blown away with how professional the place looked to the way it ended. This resulted in the drummer no showing us when we played Sac State the next time out. We changed it to an acoustic set and rocked that gig too. Of course, I didn't have an acoustic bass, but it was all good
I liked how intimate ( for an open air gig ) it felt.
I even have a pic from the Sacramento Bee of that Sac State gig. HA! Yeah memories!
We get to the club and it looks fantastic. The owner really had a great place with a big projection screen for viewing movies a great stage where we would set up and excellent house sound. We get set up, do a sound check, make sure all our ducks are in a row bing bang boom. It was all too perfect. Time for the doors to open. ANNNNNnnd.... nada. Not a soul showed up. We wait for 3 hours and then said aw to heck with it and did our set. We were there, the owners and their kids were there. We rocked an empty house. We actually killed too. It was sorta surreal playing to an empty place as Jurassic Park was rolling on the projection screen.
It was a huge let down from the time we got there and were blown away with how professional the place looked to the way it ended. This resulted in the drummer no showing us when we played Sac State the next time out. We changed it to an acoustic set and rocked that gig too. Of course, I didn't have an acoustic bass, but it was all good
I liked how intimate ( for an open air gig ) it felt.I even have a pic from the Sacramento Bee of that Sac State gig. HA! Yeah memories!
At my last gig, the singer was swinging his mic stand around (think Axl Rose), and went full extension up into the air, and directly down onto the neck of my bass around the 7th fret. Fortunately, my left hand wasn't occupying that space right then; but it was a hell of a surprise since I was paying attention to that section of the song, and suddenly had a mic stand base come out of nowhere and break my concentration (but fortunately, not my bass).
Out of pure luck, I happened to be playing a section that required heavy muting, so the impact didn't generate any audible sound through the amp.
Out of pure luck, I happened to be playing a section that required heavy muting, so the impact didn't generate any audible sound through the amp.
well, battle of the bands was yesterday and it went off without a hitch. The auditorium was only half full ( about 500 people) compared to last year (over 1000 people). I had a great time and cannot wait to go out in the world and do more gigs! (although i still need to work on my screams
) Rocked the stage with know you enemy by green day, bring me to life by evenessence (thats where i screamed), lonely boy by the black keys, keep on rocking in the free world by neil young, bassically and paranoid by black sabbith. fun night!
) Rocked the stage with know you enemy by green day, bring me to life by evenessence (thats where i screamed), lonely boy by the black keys, keep on rocking in the free world by neil young, bassically and paranoid by black sabbith. fun night!
Breaking the fifth string during soundcheck, a couple of hours before playing my first show (I was 18 at the moment). Of course, I had no experience, so I didn't have another set of strings. Had to borrow a 4 string bass from one of the other bands that was playing that night, tune to drop B and basically learn all the songs in their new position. Of course, I messed up a lot. Not the best introduction to live shows...
Now I wonder if that's why I'm back to playing 4 strings...
Now I wonder if that's why I'm back to playing 4 strings...
