Miscellaneous > Gigs - Live Talk

Your worst gig

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Dante:

--- Quote from: tomy on January 12, 2018, 08:19:42 AM ----no guitar flip, ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever...

--- End quote ---

^^ That's how I broke the headstock on my Explorer

rnolan:
Well over the years I've had a number of gigs where various things have gone sideways  :facepalm: , hard to call any of them worst  :dunno: but here's a few incidents from over the years (not in any particular order):
The bass (which I'd built for a friend) had the peg head snap because it was lent against the amp the wrong way and took a hit, so had to do the rest of the gig with no bass, and then I performed my first (IIRC) peg head repair, solid as a rock after that..

Playing away (fortunately running in stereo with 2 amps with my new stereo chorus pedal) and the drummer is making eyes and twitching his head toward my amp(s), finally looked around to see a cloud of smoke coming from my Marshall 1972/3 50, blew the output trany  :facepalm: , so finished the night through the Roland Cube I'd purloined as a 2nd amp

Raging into a solo and the strap lets go and my Anderson hits the deck, lands on the jack, makes a great bang, bends the jack etc.  The crowd loved it so I picked up my spare to finish the night and bounced it off the stage a few times, they went more wild..  I didn't mind mashing my spare a bit, it's my 3rd ever guitar (very early 70's MIJ Anson strat copy) which I've highly modified over the years, but the Anderson  :facepalm: . The jack plate on the Anderson has never been quite the same..

We're playing support for the Angels, our drummer decided to smoke cones with their roadies and is off his scon, he totally lost it in one song and the bass player stood next to him yelling 1, 2, 3, 4 etc.  Though overall was a great gig

Other guitarist is in a really shit mood, his pedal board/collection didn't work right so he looses it and kicks it off the stage.  So the bass player takes him away to chill out while I sort it out and get it all working for him, after the gig we're loading out and he's still really angry (I think with his wife, she was our main singer) so he drop kicks a small road case (a wooden one) and it breaks his toe and it misses my head by inches.  I still have the case but it's not in great shape...

We are playing in the main road/shops pubs etc (back of a truck) of a country town for their cherry picking festival, the sound and lighting guys are driving the hired PA/truck.  They drink a case of (Australian) beer (24 cans) on the way, so are maggoted when they get there, so I have to set the PA up as the sound guy was off with the fairies, other band members helped with the lights (I don't like working on lights, they are hot, sharp, often dirty and dangerous), but the gig went surprisingly well and the organisers gave us a box of cherries and a tour of a cherry farm.

First gig with my brand new MP-2 and it just dies in sound check  :facepalm: .  Luckily I'd sold my MP-1 to MikeB and he was at the gig and lived very close, he raced home and got it for me so I could do the gig, the shop replaced the MP-2 for another new unit which is still in my live rig.

Playing on generator power, middle of solos (seems to be when it happens most) my MP-2 goes loopy, display is all hieroglyphics, can't change programs, sounds shit and the only fix is to power cycle it. So now I use a UPS whenever there is a generator involved.

Zilthy:
My worst gig was so bad, it almost made me quit playing.   It was actually worse than the gig that led to that gig.

It started with some drunk leaping over a balcony and taking out our drummer.  According to the police who
carted him off, he was just trying to jump down, be friendly and jam.  From my view, it looked like he was
trying to do some insane flying scissors suplex sunset flip takedown.  Yeah, that makes no sense, but that's
what it looked like.  Drummer's down and out, and hurt so bad, out for following night.   That's when bassist
goes "Oh, didn't I tell you, cannot make it tommorow"  That would have been nice to know.

So we do the following night with a substitute drummer AND substitute bassist.  The bassist played, although
a bit boring with no energy.  Unfortunately, we let him sing a song.  Just one song.  He wanted to sing more. 
Nope.  The drummer could play, just couldn't keep tempo.  At all.  By the end of the night I was hoping songs
would stay within 60bpm between beginning of a verse and end.  I should have just canceled the second
night and walked away from the money.

Since that wasn't the worst gig I ever played, that should tell you just how bad it was.  I don't even want to
go in to that, it is so traumatic.

I *did* learn things again though.  I never, ever, ever got a substitute bassist again.  That was the final straw
and I just filled out the gigs on the books.  If I needed a bassist, I played bass, and got a sub guitarist.  It went
a *lot* better.  It probably helped that I actually do play bass too.  There is a world of difference between an
actual bassist, and someone just playing the same root notes from a guitar on a bass.

Okay, I said I wasn't going to say it since it was so traumatic, but that substitute bassist was *so* bad, I forgot
the words to Johnny B Goode and just had to go "Da da da da" the whole song.   Never wanted to step on
stage again.

Fortunately, I learned lessons.  Hard lessons.  But, have not been aggravated to anywhere near that degree since.

Granted, I did stop clubbing since then, but I've had some great and fun gigs and experiences.

gb:
LOL.. everything above is sooo rock n roll!! it made me laugh. I have nothing that compares to the above!! and you're all talking gigs in the 80s.. while i was dreaming of being a rockstar at 10yo watching and loving any hairband with neon lights.

The only thing i had was my first gig as a fill in with this tribute band, with no rehearsal or rundown before hand to get a feel of how songs start finish or even how they might specifically play them (long versions, short.. extended etc). I was told before hand.. bahh you'll be right theres not much to it .. *facepalm*.. umm yes. To make it worse i was setting up my rack (MP1 via Lexicon G2 with R1 midi controller) on stage and i was getting no comms between R1 and the rack. Powered but no data being transmitted. So off/on it went and unplugging re-plugging at least 15 times as it was intermittent. I had 2 old guys sitting at a table next to where i was on the stage (like the 2 old guys in the muppets up in the balcony) watching me panic and trying to get the stupid thing working. (was midi cable, ,which i replaced)

First gig, gear not working, completely unprepared. 2 cover songs in the support list i swore id never play again which leads me onto Summer of 69 the song i swore id never play again.. its cursed and overplayed in my books. Anyway, i start, pedalling on the D waiting for the singer to start.. cant sit on the D for any longer as its losing musical purpose.. i looked at the drummer like "wtf is the singer waiting for" .. so i thought fk it, Im changing to the A and he can come back in on the D .. but of course he starts singing in the middle of the A *facepalm and made me sound like "I" was playing the wrong thing so i had to fumble to the D to follow him.. killed me.

That gig was soo all over the place.. yet after.. i had those guys and bunch of girls express how much they loved it. I kept thinking you must be drunk cause it was crap on my part lol.

another .. not so circus like. I was filling in a Poison tribute show. I was in my element. dream come true (dont laugh). big gig. I had the bc rich gunslingers out with crackle finish, mp1 doing its thing... 3 songs in and the drummers snare broke (or was it his tom?).  the singer says to me - do you know such and such (which i did luckily) - and we played a duo while the drummer replaced the skin. The drummer finished fixing and as we nearly got to the part of the song where the drummer would jump in and all the lights turn on i broke a string and being floating floyd rose the whole thing went out of tune.. the song was soo impromptu and was going sooo well all unplanned and then that, FML. I had to change guitars and we just continued with the set as per normal.

Then just as everything started to fall in place and everything going well with the other band i was in, no more issues, everything gelling.. the band splits *facepalm

on the plus side.. the mp1 really sings at loud volumes. eg. factory patch 1 sounds somewhat avg at home volumes.. adjust a bit of the builtin eq for the venue with the power amp cranked all the way and youre in hot rodded marshall with clarity territory. I was blown away how good it sounded.

vansinn:
Geez, the life I've missed out on by not doing that band stuff  :facepalm:
But then again, regarding the action sports stuff, I could tell a thing or two..  :o :crazy: 8)

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