What was the funniest moment youv'e ever had at a Gig

[Waffles]

Many things can go wrong with a gig especially for a guitar player, what are some of your most emberassing accidents up on stage, or something you regret doing!

[rob2001]

Too many to list.... I went over backwards once. I was just kinda walking back towards my amp and I hit the drum riser....up and over! But I got up in time to do the lead!


A funny thing was when a drunk hit my bass players mic stand, ramming the mic into his teeth not once, but several times. Before security got there, when the guy was tipping in for another shot, my bass player met him with a boot to the gut! The guy just stood there like he couldn't believe it, then security grabbed him up and out he went to a cheer from the crowd! Now, the funny part is that my bass player is a super nice, mild mannered dude. To see him ready to kick ass was priceless!

[dantedayjob]

Bear in mind this was all for a 30 minute set...

'91, in a new band we have our 1st gig booked, opening for Babes In Toyland... about 2 weeks before the show is to happen bass player calls me one night and asks "Do you want to gig tonight?" "Huh? When? Where?" "About an hour from now, battle of the bands in a dorm cafeteria"... I call the drummer, rush to his house, pack our gear and drive like lunatics to get to the show...

meantime the bass player has arranged a later slot for us so we have a little time. We are told to drive up to the back door to unload, drummer's car gets burried in the mud up to the front bumper... we schlep the drums up the hill, through the mud, to the caf. Whe we set up we find there are a) no monitors and b) the guitar amps have to be situated in front of the drummer, ergo, he can't hear $hit.

We get ready to start and the singer/bass player tells me he has bad strep throat and is in a lot of pain. I look over at him in the first song and I'm blinded as the vocal mic arcs in a blue flash and burns his lip.... shortly, his bandana slides down over his eyes, effectively blinding him... as he screams into thin air about a foot away from his mic... shakes his head and the bandana slides down over his neck.

Drummer is trying to keep up and some of the tunes have an odd tempo...

I find that my pic is slipping in my fingers and look down to find I have shaved the tip off my pick hand index finger, there's a lot of blood... glance over to the singer to see blood splatters coming from his mouth and tricking down his chin.

suddenly the drums stop, we turn around to see the drummer, still in a seated position, being toted off the riser by two campus cops... they're going to arrest him for vandalism (tearing up the dorm lawn when he got his car stuck).... we unplug our guitars and run after them to calls of "one down, two to go" from some frat-boy types... we convince the cops not to arrest him, but he got a $120 ticket... we finished the show, and it took about 6 guys to get his car unstuck

[bynt]

Originally Posted by dantedayjob

Bear in mind this was all for a 30 minute set...

'91, in a new band we have our 1st gig booked, opening for Babes In Toyland... about 2 weeks before the show is to happen bass player calls me one night and asks "Do you want to gig tonight?" "Huh? When? Where?" "About an hour from now, battle of the bands in a dorm cafeteria"... I call the drummer, rush to his house, pack our gear and drive like lunatics to get to the show...

meantime the bass player has arranged a later slot for us so we have a little time. We are told to drive up to the back door to unload, drummer's car gets burried in the mud up to the front bumper... we schlep the drums up the hill, through the mud, to the caf. Whe we set up we find there are a) no monitors and b) the guitar amps have to be situated in front of the drummer, ergo, he can't hear $hit.

We get ready to start and the singer/bass player tells me he has bad strep throat and is in a lot of pain. I look over at him in the first song and I'm blinded as the vocal mic arcs in a blue flash and burns his lip.... shortly, his bandana slides down over his eyes, effectively blinding him... as he screams into thin air about a foot away from his mic... shakes his head and the bandana slides down over his neck.

Drummer is trying to keep up and some of the tunes have an odd tempo...

I find that my pic is slipping in my fingers and look down to find I have shaved the tip off my pick hand index finger, there's a lot of blood... glance over to the singer to see blood splatters coming from his mouth and tricking down his chin.

suddenly the drums stop, we turn around to see the drummer, still in a seated position, being toted off the riser by two campus cops... they're going to arrest him for vandalism (tearing up the dorm lawn when he got his car stuck).... we unplug our guitars and run after them to calls of "one down, two to go" from some frat-boy types... we convince the cops not to arrest him, but he got a $120 ticket... we finished the show, and it took about 6 guys to get his car unstuck

Good god, what a terrible gig. I would love to have heard a tape of it or seen some pics though. I'm glad you made it out alive. Sounds like it could have gone the other way any second.

[dantedayjob]

Originally Posted by bynt

Good god, what a terrible gig. I would love to have heard a tape of it or seen some pics though. I'm glad you made it out alive. Sounds like it could have gone the other way any second.

I wish someone HAD video taped it, that would have been awesome!

By the end of the night we were able to laugh about it... I think me more than the other two... singer disowned the gig and continued to call the Babes In Toyland show our first gig... I kind of let him slide on it because it was BOOKED first... LOL

Even though the circumstances sucked, we had a lets have fun/take no prisoners attitude which I think was our saving grace... a lot of people hated us, but anough (maybe 1/5?) of the crowd loved it... A friend of mine who was a big punk music junky said he was walking through the dorm lobby and heard "this insane music, I had to go see what was going on and... OH MY GOD! THAT'S GEORGE! YEAH!" He and a couple others were pogoing/slamming and that was cool.

On the upside, when we did the show with Babes In Toyland, we had already had our trial by fire and we came out like a steam roller (think Ramones with shreddy solos)... They really dug us and were very kind and encouraging.

We had several wacky things happen to that band, but that show was the topper. On our last gig, we drove from Kalamazoo to Hamtramck... my car broke down on the way and it cost all of our earninings to fix it... that was kind of funny... another time we had a similar PA setup to the one mentioned above, we were doing a cover of 867-5309 and the singer came out of a chorus early (we figured this out later because someone had taped it), because we couldn't hear to clearly we didn't know what was going on.... drummer and I kept with what we were doing (we were sync), but the singer/bass player stayed where he was, drummer and I looked at each other and kind of mouthed "f**k it" and we just started playing faster and faster, it got like uber-hardcore fast and the bass player was going WTF?, but never let it visably shake him, some how we all stopped together and the drummer clicked 4 for us to all come back in and finish the tune.... the crowd went NUTS!!!! The guys we were opening for were going OMG, what was that song? that was insane! awesom! hahahhahaha Oh man, I wish I knew where the tape of that one was...

The ONLY times I have ever broken a string while gigging was with that band and both times occurred when for some reason I didn't have a back up available... the worst was when I was using a Floyd and it was the first chord of the first song.. hahhaha OOOPS!

[eronson]

Got drunk with the drummer. Handing him my singer's acoustic he drops it headstock first onto the cement in front of the line of people going into the club. I felt sick to my stomach and he was pissed he had to pay for that. Then the singer invites some random jamacan guy to come rap on stage while we were playing. I puked off the side of the stage. I can't stand rap.

[Waffles]

LOL! Beer and Gigs make great stories

[chucke99]

Last one (though they're coming back to me now in waves):

We played a gig (circa 1985/86) to a literally empty bar. Halfway through our set, a single guy comes up to the stage and starts slam dancing -- with nobody. He's banging around and starts crashing into our monitors, spilling his beer on stage, etc. We had to ask him to stop.

[franksguitar]

Originally Posted by chucke99

Last one (though they're coming back to me now in waves):

We played a gig (circa 1985/86) to a literally empty bar. Halfway through our set, a single guy comes up to the stage and starts slam dancing -- with nobody. He's banging around and starts crashing into our monitors, spilling his beer on stage, etc. We had to ask him to stop.

Geez Chucke99 I used to play the CT circuit when I lived in Norwalk in the same timeframe. All my funny stories happened here in GA when I moved here in 1991. I remember one bar ironically you mentioned in Ansonia where the club owner pulled a gun on us over a pay dispute. Smith & Wesson won that round.

[Waffles]

If you have any pics of your stories you should post them, it makes it a better expirience

[TBIRD Phil]

My band played at Sturgis a few years back. We had a late night show at The Buffalo Chip and while we were playing this woman comes on stage in between songs and whips out her boob and asks me if she could play my guitar with it. Naturally my response was "OF COURSE!" We were all cracking up at the time it was happening. Probably the best moment on stage I've ever had:AOK

[tiptone]

Originally Posted by Waffles

If you have any pics of your stories you should post them, it makes it a better expirience

You first.

[Roodyrocker]

Funniest happened fairly recently actually, within last 4-5 years. I'm in an 80's cover band and my bass player has REALLY long hair. He came over to my side of the stage and was kneeling down and flinging his hair everywhere when it wrapped around the headstock of my Jackson Rhoads. I had no choice during my guitar solo part but to rip it right out since I couldn't get him untangled and keep playing at the same time The show MUST go on as they say

[mad dog]

Speaking of beer ... I was frantically packing up on stage after the gig, Friday. Bent way over to zip up the pedal case and felt something really COLD going down the back of my pants. Jumped up and spun around, there's the promoter, who'd just poured a bear down my butt, and the other guitarist from my band. They were falling down laughing. Have to admit, it was pretty funny.

[jumpnblues]

I did the "play a whole set with your fly open thing". I was wondering why the girls were all pointing and laughing.


Tom