Your "oh crap!!" moment...

[AndyMopley]

We've all been there...the amp that suddenly dies on stage...the snapping of a string with no replacement ...the moment you realize you've driving and taken the wrong turn getting to a gig...

When / what was your "Oh crap!" moment??

 

[DWBass]

Got my dates messed up. Loaded up and drove and hour to find another band setting up. Looked at my phone again and my gig was actually the next evening!!

 

[MrAB4003]

I was recording the bass line for an original song a few years ago... only to realize that the bass part was a half step out of tune! I listened to the song back and something didn't sound right. I had recently tuned my basses from standard down to D Standard. I realized it was because my strings (tapewounds) were too floppy.

I had to get new strings and I couldn't re-record the bass line until I had new strings on my bass. That delayed progress on that song for several days.

 

[bass12]

À couple come to mind.

About ten years ago I had a New Years Eve gig with my corporate events band. It was a roughly ten hour drive away and there had been a snow storm. So driving was slow and stressful (part of the drive took my girlfriend and I through a mountainous park with no cell phone reception - fun!). Approximately seven hours into the drive I realized that I'd forgotten my suit. I freaked out. This was a small town we'd be playing in: would there be a shop where I could get what I needed - and would it be open New Year's Eve. Luckily there was and they were. The gig paid well but I still ended up having to spend the majority of my pay on a new suit for the show.

Several years before that I was on tour with a comedy revue (Just For Laughs) as part of the band. One night my amp stopped working in the middle of a show. I panicked for a second but the stage techs didn't miss a beat. They immediately put me into the monitors and that was that. I did the rest of the tour ampless and it was fine.

Last summer I had a paid rehearsal supporting a seventy member choir. During one of the songs my amp (different amp from the tour) went dead. I felt really bad ("Well this looks unprofessional!" I told myself) until I realized that the choir director (and probably most of the choir) hadn't even noticed the missing bass.

 

[A Bass And Its Boy]

We drove to a gig at a venue in another town about an hour away. We’d played the venue before as well as some of the owner’s other clubs in other towns, so we were surprised to show up and find that the club had permanently closed and nobody had called us to let us know. Thankfully there was a restaurant down the street where another band was playing the whole night, and they let us play the middle of three sets. We all became friends and one of those guys is still one of my closest friends almost 30 years later.

 

[Nebadon2000]

Never had Amp, Bass or String failure but once got to Gig and realized I forgot my Bass had to call my Wife to bring it

 

[HMZ]

I got to a gig about an hour away from my house. I pull my combo amp out of the back of my car and dropped it on the ground. The amp was DOA. I was fracking out, but we were able to put me though the PA with a monitor so I could hear myself.

 

[Big Feet]

Thought I had a gig in downtown Phoenix at the Hyatt Regency, but no band members were there. Called my wife, and she said I was supposed to be at the Registry way-out in Scottsdale! Drove like a bat-out-of-hell and made it just as the downbeat of the first song hit!!

 

[KohanMike]

1. Before covid, the leader of my uke group taught beginners at Boulevard Music in Culver City. She asked me to play bass for the final recital. I brought my bass uke that was modified a couple months before, Eric's Guitar Shop in Van Nuys replaced the semi adjustable floating wood bridge and wonky saddle piezo pickup with a high mass fully adjustable metal bridge and neck mini humbucker pickup. He also added a battery on/off switch for the active electronics.

I get to the music store an hour before the recital, about 10am, so I could setup using the amp in the recital room. I tune up the bass and plug in, NOTHING... CRAP! I test everything, change the battery, nothing. I run downstairs and ask the owner if I can use one of the displayed bass ukes, he lets me use a Kala. Whew, got through the recital with no other issues.

As I'm driving home, I wracking my brain for what the hell went wrong with my recently modified bass, when it hit me like a ton of bricks, I forgot about the battery on/off switch, which was in the off position. I never did that again with any of my fifteen of the same model with the same mods.

2. Two weeks ago my group had one of our regular rehearsal in the backyard of a member. I brought recently purchased Phil Jones Bass Double Four Plus and my Lekato wireless pods. Got setup, tested the amp, nothing. I changed to a cable, nothing, the other bass player brought over his bass uke that he practices with when I'm the designated bass player. Nothing. Luckily, I keep an amp and mic there for open mic. That one worked fine.

I get home and test the Phil Jones, works perfectly. I have no idea what I did wrong at the rehearsal. I used it again a few days ago, and it worked.

 

[pb9717]

Here’s a few I’ve been through.

I was doing a bar gig at a club about half an hour from my house. Near the end of the first set, my amp goes dead. Behind the bandstand was a mirror. A large wall mirror where you could see the entire band stand in the mirror. And I realize my amp is on fire. There are flames shooting out of the back of the head. Something had shorted. I quickly unplugged it, and we took a break. Fortunately, I was close enough to Home to run back and get another head and complete the night

Scenario number two; I had a wedding about an hour from my house. The guitar player and I always rode together. He would come down from Rockland County and meet me in the Bronx. We head to the venue and as we are unloading the minivan with the PA, Guitar and Bass rig, I see there is no Bass guitar in the van. I had left it back in the Bronx. He quickly took all the gear inside and began setting up. He told the band leader that I had broken my bass and had to go home for a spare. What a pal. Made it back in time to catch the first dance. Keyboard player handled some left-hand Bass until I arrived back.

 

[klyph]

I’ve had too many to count, but two come immediately to mind:
I was playing with my original band in the mid nineties to a big crowd (1500+-) in a local band showcase at the local arena. We start playing our first song, and the very first note I played broke my A string- my middle finger just ripped right through it! I was able to get through the set singing and playing, but definitely not the A game I was hoping to bring! Oh well…
The second was at an outdoor street fair type of gig. I had two cabs with me, a 2x10 and a 2x15. I wasn’t necessarily going to stack them, I wasn’t even sure I was going to use both of them (the band WAS quite loud) but while getting everything in order and setting up the PA I did stack them… and then, because I live on an island stuck out in the Atlantic, a huge, unexpected gust of wind knocked over the stack. The 2x10 tumbled over, got some light cosmetic damage but was basically fine. The 2x15 slammed face first into the pavement so hard that it destroyed the top driver- the magnet actually dented the metal grill outward- savage! It sounded like a shotgun. Needless to say, I struggled a little bit hearing myself through just the 2x10, and replacing that driver was an expensive PITA, but I made it through the gig.

 

[Hawk256]

Mine happened when I decided I wanted to be front man and have given up the bass for a little while. Sick as dog bus showed up to a huge show in Atlanta. Strugging through the vocals but the crowd was getting into it. Start slinging my mic in a circle and off it goes flying into the crowd. Had to wait for it to the handed back to the front of the house. A piece of duct tape would have been nice.

This was after I had the band to an instrumental because I had taken in too much water and couldn't hold my pee any longer. If I had a wireless mic I would have just taken it with me.

 

[prndltech]

Coming in on the big intro, hit that giant note, no sound. Looked down, tuner is on. I played the right note, but no one could hear it!

 

[EdwardofHuncote]

Got my dates messed up. Loaded up and drove and hour to find another band setting up. Looked at my phone again and my gig was actually the next evening!!

I've committed this one too, only it was the wrong weekend instead of the wrong evening. (it was their weekend at this joint..., ours was next.. we alternated) Worse yet, I knew the other band. Some of them really well.

Oh man, there's been so many little mishaps over almost 40 years I wouldn't know where to start.

 

[definenredefine]

Coming in on the big intro, hit that giant note, no sound. Looked down, tuner is on. I played the right note, but no one could hear it!

I did that during the one set I played with my cover band on guitar. It was during the intro of Great Cop by Fugazi, which has guitar hits, and which I had just taken a minute to introduce and dedicate to my wife...

My real "oh CRAP" moment, though, was a show that my band in college played sometime after we put out our second record, which was one 24 minute song. Within the first 5 minutes, the foot board of the primary of my double kick drum pedal snapped in half. Since our 24 minute song/set didn't really allow for a break, I was stuck playing the rest of it using my left foot and the secondary pedal. It went...okay, not bad, I'll say. Someone brought a spare kick pedal up to the stage right as we were finishing up.

 

[bassfran]

We've all been there...the amp that suddenly dies on stage...the snapping of a string with no replacement ...the moment you realize you've driving and taken the wrong turn getting to a gig...

When / what was your "Oh crap!" moment??

Too many to list and I’m sure there’s another coming up soon.

 

[2saddleslab]

Arriving at the gig, opening the trunk, & finding NOTHING there!

Luckily I was only 5 minutes from home.

 

[FightMilk]

Played a college concert and the amp was working great at sound check. Curtains open and nothing…. Someone was sitting on the extension cord near the wall and unplugged it!!!

 

[dougjwray]

My band had a fairly prestigious residency (every Friday night for a month) at a club in NYC's East Village, called Fez. One night I was driving down from Stamford, Connecticut and running very late for the soundcheck. At the juncture in the Bronx where you make a right to go into Manhattan on the FDR Drive, or go straight into Queens on the Triboro Bridge, I spaced out and found myself going into Queens. This was before GPS, so I had to figure out where to turn around somewhere. Now, the soundcheck was in something like 40 minutes. Miraculously, I got to the club, actually found a parking space, and was set up in time.
Years later, I had a duo gig with a singer/songwriter at a theater in the Lincoln Center neighborhood. It was about a week before Christmas, and I had completely forgotten about the annual performances of "The Nutcracker" by the New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center. Again, it was very close to soundcheck. I drove to four or five parking garages within a 10-block radius of the venue before I finally found one that wasn't 100% full. Frantically rolled my combo amp down the sidewalk for several blocks, found the theater, got onstage, and the singer was standing there just about to open his mouth for the first song.

 

[Relsom]

In the 1990's, Line Dancing/Boot Scootin' era in full swing. Our first time at "THE" club to play in this city about an hour from home. In the day's when I brought only 1 bass to a gig. This would be the last time I did that. Brand new Spector USA NS-4. Back in the hotel room with time to kill before downbeat, I decided that would be a good time bring my neck relief in some. As I backed off of the nut a little as I customarily do, the whole thing just let loose and would not tighten down after that. My heart sunk and I could feel the walls closing in around me as panic set in. Needless to say, my left hand got a workout like never before on that gig. And never again did I not carry a backup.