Gigs from hell

elephantlugs · #1 03-25-2006, 09:33 PM

it's half 2 in the morning............i've just got back from a gig. the worst gig ever. if it could go wrong it did. the bassist strap snapped (yeah !!!!) and he dropped the guitar. the drummer dropped a stick. the other guitarist snapped a string and when i came to do a solo i kicked in the distortion for a lead tone and got nothing. it's reallt got me in a downer. just wonder if any of you guys have had similar experinces that you could share to help ease these mentals scars. i aint lookin forward to practicing again never mind gigging. doh

ibanezcollector · #2 03-25-2006, 09:58 PM

its part of the business its bound to happen and will happen again..

Just got to keep pushing forward and let it go, make it up on the next gig with the best performance..

friends band had same thing happen, first the drummer broke a snare head and basically didnt have a extra, so played pretty much with out a snare all night, then to top it off the guitarists tube amp shorted out and basically turned into a pyrotechnics display with sparks shooting everywhere... Now that was bad luck, but 2 days later they rocked the house like it never happened...

**elcid** · #3 03-25-2006, 10:07 PM

Reminds me of when I went to see a friends band and the guitar player went to twirl his guitar a la Yngwie (although they were more of a punk band) and it came off the strap and hit my friend in head. He finished the song and did 2 more before going to the hospital to get his head stapled back together.

ibanezcollector · #4 03-25-2006, 10:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by elcid

Reminds me of when I went to see a friends band and the guitar player went to twirl his guitar a la Yngwie (although they were more of a punk band) and it came off the strap and hit my friend in head. He finished the song and did 2 more before going to the hospital to get his head stapled back together.

hahah Elcid not laughing that your friend got cranked in the dome, but the fact he kept playing..

damo7v · #5 03-25-2006, 10:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ibanezcollector

tube amp shorted out and basically turned into a pyrotechnics display with sparks shooting everywhere...

repair costs aside, that sounds like a real showstopper!

i would've picked up the amp and written my name in the air.

ibanezcollector · #6 03-26-2006, 02:11 AM

Here is a perfect example I know alot may not like this band but there one of my favorites, but being one of the most successful touring bands in the world even seasoned veterans can make terrible mistakes..

This is a performance of the dave matthews band song rapunzel.. That just goes sour to say the least. No one band has ever played 100% perfect shows.

Enjoy the trainwreck LOL

Please Right Click and Save its a big file.. 20 megs
http://www.ibanezcollectorboxes.com/rapunzel.mp3

This song was doomed from the get go since they had a little mishap during the intro and the frustrations carry over to the song. Around the 3 min mark things take a terrible turn and progressivly get even worse.. LOL its not funny but its a part of being musicians.. Now the key is they have to get out of this somehow so they go to what made them who they are and slowly turn it into a freestyle jam vamping on a theme till everyone gets there heads together and finish the song LOL. Guest guitarist on this song is Tim Reynolds. You can hear at the end when Dave Matthews says Thanks that he is upest and humiliated.

Now imagine your playing a sold out show at giants stadium and this happened makes your night seem not so bad at all..

fettouhi · #7 03-26-2006, 04:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by elcid

Reminds me of when I went to see a friends band and the guitar player went to twirl his guitar a la Yngwie (although they were more of a punk band) and it came off the strap and hit my friend in head. He finished the song and did 2 more before going to the hospital to get his head stapled back together.

He takes his work serious I see

.

Regards

André

**elcid** · #8 03-26-2006, 04:52 AM

It was great, they wore suits to play and his was just covered with blood.

mi2tom · #9 03-26-2006, 05:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by elephantlugs

it's half 2 in the morning............i've just got back from a gig. the worst gig ever. if it could go wrong it did. the bassist strap snapped (yeah !!!!) and he dropped the guitar. the drummer dropped a stick. the other guitarist snapped a string and when i came to do a solo i kicked in the distortion for a lead tone and got nothing. it's reallt got me in a downer. just wonder if any of you guys have had similar experinces that you could share to help ease these mentals scars. i aint lookin forward to practicing again never mind gigging. doh

don't get discouraged.. this crap will happen once a while... I used to watch professional musicians playing like crap once a while cos of hardware failure

Al's garden · #10 03-26-2006, 09:51 AM

i was in a band a few years ago in my home town, we just got a demo sorted and a load of gigs booked and had made a fair amount of money in only 2 weeks and one gig, selling the ep etc. and we played this gig, at which the singer/rhythm guitarist decided he would have a few beers then a ****load of tamazipan(dunno if thats a correct spelling), nice mix. appart from missing cues in songs, missing verses and chouses in songs, singing verses and choruses over each other. he decided it would look really cool if he started kickng the mic stand around, throwing his brand new MH100 into his new amp (both of which i had worked my ass of to get him a good deal at the shop i worked in). for a grand finish, he started throwing pool balls around the pool table to stop people from playing so they would "listen to the band" and started several fights with members of the audience.

needles to say that the moment the gig finished my jem7v went straight in the case and i never played in that band again.

Pleuvra · #11 03-26-2006, 09:55 AM

This wasn't so bad, but anyway...I was playing the end of a song in a school concert. It was the last the last song of the whole thing and I was waving my guitar about all over the place with the whammy bar. It was all fine until one of my friends, who was working as a stage hand started to pull the curtains closed. I was standing directly on the curtain line, and it flapped around my leg, I turned to see what it was, and somehow it managed to envelop my face! I then tried to pull it out, but it was caught on my guitar and wrapped around my body.

I'm no sure what it looked like fom the front, but I was falling sideways with the curtain, trying to rip it off. I eventually got free and ended up twirling down the middle of the stage into a mic stand. My jem got numerous dents all over the headstock where it hit the stand, which was badly placed, so I dented the grill of a teacher's mic!

It was more funny than anything, though.

fettouhi · #12 03-26-2006, 11:30 AM

My old band in high school did a real bad gig once, this was after I left. They all got drunk before the show and then the show started and they started playing (I think a track from Sepultura) and of course it sounded like a mess not in time etc. The guitarist was playing a beautiful Les Paul Custom with a purple quilt top (gorgeous simply) and he was so drunk that he didn't notice that the bass player stepped on his cable and unplugged him. When he finally realised it he got pissed and threw his guitar on the ground (hence breaking the neck) and got off stage. A few backstage convinced him to get back up on stage and continue the show. Well, he got back up on stage and picked up his guitar and haven't noticed that the neck was broken and just realised it sounded out of tune

. So he got pissed again and smashed the guitar into the ground once more and left

. He was actually quite a good guitarplayer when he pulled his sh*t together which he almost never did instead he was being a jack*ss most of time and acting like he was the greatest

.

Regards

André

andy7jem · #13 03-26-2006, 12:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by elephantlugs

....i aint lookin forward to practicing again never mind gigging. doh

You will look back on that night one day and it will all seem funny,over a few beers with friends

Just put it down to experience,thankfully that sorta stuff only happens rarely.I once had my amp make horrible farting noises before dying altogether,this was only a pub gig but during soundcheck not long before going on.Luckily some-one new some-one locally with an amp i could borrow,but when it aint ya own gear it don't feel rite!! I hated the whole night,but got through it.Also had a gig where i broke a string on the first song!!! No spare guitar so i had to do a pretty quick change,with double locking trem!!! Was ready & tuned by the end of the song

s**t happens sometimes

sanitarium · #14 03-26-2006, 05:40 PM

My record of snapping 3 E strings a an A string in 3 weeks when I was on bass in a thrash metal band. Only in practice though.
Worst gig I ever had: we played fine but no one, and I mean no one was there but the other bands. You really do feel like cutting your wrists and watching your self bleed to death when that happens.

elephantlugs · #15 03-27-2006, 07:48 AM

thanks guys. you've made me feel loads better and a couple of days have passed now so i'm starting to get over it. suppose it could've been worse.

practicng tomorrow night so hopefully we'll rock and morale will be raised.

thanks andy7jem as well................i'm sitting on my own but you've just made me laugh out loud like a nutter when i read about your farting amp.

thanks again guys and i hope these kinda things don't happen to any of us too often

LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL