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Worst thing to happen during a gig

#162
^^

Been there, man. :rollno:

We were playing a local telethon being televised locally, while the annual stomach bug was making its rounds. I was sick for the previous two days, just a spewing fountain of yuck from both ends. I was so weak, they carried my gear in for me, and just let me sit in the corner until showtime. We go on, and halfway through the set, my fever breaks, I start sweating profusely, but I AM feeling yards and miles better. The TV audience must've thought I was a heroin addict going through a bad jones.
 
#164
Mid size festival. Promoter said "yeah just bring your amp, we will have a cab" well the cab was a 210 combo w. no DI to the front of the house. The sound guys didn't know what to do. Plus my guitar players 60's Tube amp died so he was all frazzled and wouldn't stop in between songs long enough for me to throw a mic on the bass cab for the FOH. I was so embarrassed for months. Learned a very important lesson. Bring your own stuff!
 
#165
Floridabwoy said:
Mid size festival. Promoter said "yeah just bring your amp, we will have a cab" well the cab was a 210 combo w. no DI to the front of the house. The sound guys didn't know what to do. Plus my guitar players 60's Tube amp died so he was all frazzled and wouldn't stop in between songs long enough for me to throw a mic on the bass cab for the FOH. I was so embarrassed for months. Learned a very important lesson. Bring your own stuff!
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Throwing a mike on the cab should've been a no-brainer for the sound crew. You're busy, fer chrissakes.. I bet he's got one guy to help load in and out just standing around, chewing gum- Just about the most brain-damaged burnout can put a mike in front of a cab and run a cable. I'd have shot someone by the end of that gig. :eyebrow:
 
#167
Late 70s, for two weeks one summer, 4 nights a week, played a strip club with 2 rooms of strippers upstairs, dance hall downstairs. The girls came down to watch us and dance with each other during their breaks. We went upstairs to watch them during our breaks. Nobody else ever came down to the dance hall. We were actually a pretty good band, too.... LOL
 
#168
Well, after playing out for close to 25 years, something I never thought would happen did - I forgot my bass head.
Yep.

I was asked last minute to fill in with my guitar player for an acoustic act opening for Melvin Seals and JGB and it wasn't close to home for me. Had to play through an acoustic guitar amp..I missed the oomph!
 
#170
jeffbrown said:
Late 70s, for two weeks one summer, 4 nights a week, played a strip club with 2 rooms of strippers upstairs, dance hall downstairs. The girls came down to watch us and dance with each other during their breaks. We went upstairs to watch them during our breaks. Nobody else ever came down to the dance hall. We were actually a pretty good band, too.... LOL
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Thats a bad thing?:D
 
#171
sturoc said:
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 !
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Despite the danger factor one he'll of a cool story, being part of the crew for a legend.

If you know any of the songs I would love to learn as I haven't really figured out any plasmatics songs yet.
 
#174
The very worst thing to happen on a gig was to be asked by the bride of whose wedding reception we were playing to stop playing and just put on some CD's instead!

We made the fatal mistake (I say we, but mean drummer) of letting the bride to be see our entire reportoire and have carte blanche say over our set list. She picked tunes she liked (a few rock tunes, and some older classics) but not a lot of her friends - the people who generally dance at weddings - liked them.

We learned 2 things that evening:
1 - never let the client have complete control over the set list and kindly explain that in our professional experience, we know what does and doesn't work at functions.
2 - research into the age group of the prospective dance floor fillers and play to them - they're the ones that are likely to keep dancing all night, not the grannies, aunts and uncles.


Oh, the second worst thing to happen, at a different wedding, was the groom and bridesmaids to rush the (small) stage to join in 'Mustang Sally' and stand on my pedal board power cable - a daisy chain type. Power cut out and came back in but couldn't hear myself. Our singer was on her knees jiggling the cables for me whilst I was playing but to no avail. So had to play the remainder of the gig without any pedals - inc my much needed compression. Worked out afterward that my Boss V-wah powers up in an 'on' state, not bypassed. So all I had coming through was top end as the treadle was pressed forward. Doh!
 

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