Well over the years I've had a number of gigs where various things have gone sideways
, hard to call any of them worst
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
, 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
. 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
. 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.