Your most embarrassing moments on stage?

grimtraveller said:
For a Christmas concert in the late 90s or early 2000s, I'd worked on a song with my friend, a singer. It was just her and I, me playing bass, her singing. We had it down to a tee and when it came time to perform it, it was all going swimmingly and sounded pretty unique, when suddenly, there was a loud voice in a foreign language coming from my amp ! We looked at each other, then the voice went. But not long after, it came back and stayed for the rest of the song. It was loud and excitable, almost as though there was some political debate going on, except we couldn't understand a word. It was louder than my bass !
We joked afterward that it was Radio Bulgaria trying to interfere as revenge for me dissing Sofia, the capital, when I was there.
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That made me laugh. Lets hope the audience took it as a new experimental Avant Garde attempt and loved it.
 
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60's guy said:
Eventually she abandoned not just me but more importantly she also chose to abandon her 3 daughters. I put my emotions aside for years on end and focused on being a Dad. Someone my daughters could always depend on.
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Although my selfish ex didn't cheat on me, she tried to screw me out of being a dad.
I beat her ass in court and was a landmark case for 50/50 custody in B.C.
Funny cuz she worked for a family lawyer and they lost.
Moral... never lose hope, and never put up with what people/lawyers think is the norm. Fuck them. I went through 3 lawyers before I found one that would help me.
All the others said I should just put up with 70/30 (not in my favor) custody and like it.
Bullshit.
 
Pinky said:
I played one show as bassist for a gospel band. We rehearsed a couple times, but I was willfully ill prepared (this was 1998, long before having the ability to casually record sessions for practice later). On top of that, they decided to walk around the church/audience during one of the last songs and I refused, staying on stage alone. I didn't find Jesus, and you better believe at the end of the show I got the hell out of there and never came back.

Fast forward a couple years, again playing bass for now a hard rock band, but doing an acoustic set at a local low key spot. Midway through the first song my low E string breaks. It wouldn't have been so bad but I had given my spare set of bass strings to a band that had gone on prior (and had left), thinking my strings were plenty new and never having one break during a gig (ever). Anyway, I managed to transcribe everything to the remaining strings and pulled off the set, honestly much to my and bandmate's surprise. Not that the bass parts in a hard rock band are particularly complicated.
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One night with the pool stick story band, the bass player didn't show up. I had my 335 and the ampeg VT22. We had a rhythm guitar player. So I set the bridge pickups tone control to low end and played bass on that and when the leads came up would flip to the neck pickup for the leads. I didn't play any fills. Somehow we pulled off the gig and didn't get any complaints. I would rib the bass player about it now and then about how we didn't need him. That was the only gig he ever missed and he had a good reason, he went to see Johnny Winter instead lol. If we had cell phones back in those days we would have known. Well, someone would have known, I have never had one.
 
Almost the most embarassing moment. In Abu Dhabi at the F1. Crazy coach driver got lost and took us to the wrong gate, very late, got into stage gear on the bus, grabbed guitars, and the drummer had his sticks. Got off the bus, loads of screaming, woman with walkie talkie in black says - thank God you're here. We walk up the slope to the stage - but something isn't quite right. At the top we're just about to go on. We're a Beach Boys tribute band, white trousers, hawaiin shirts - summer vibe and the keyboards don;t look right, and all black drapes and stuff. I ask her who she thinks we are? Jay -Z's band she says. Back to the bus, quick.

We found our stage and did the gig, but never found out where Jay-Z's band were. If we hadn't noticed and walked out in front of his fans, I wonder what he would have said? A load of white guys in colourful shirts.
 
After a very nice gig at a large philanthropic event, I had another at an “art show.”

It was only 10 people, 7 of them were special (not that there’s anything wrong with that. It’s just, they clearly didn’t have the mental capability to appreciate any kind of music whatsoever. The 3 non special people were the ones who made the art. Only one of those pieces was any good. I left midway through the show, which was way too fucking long to begin with.

That, and one time at battle of the bands my strap came off. Had to sit down and finish the song.

You can see it here at the end of the video

 
60's guy said:
Eventually she abandoned not just me but more importantly she also chose to abandon her 3 daughters. I put my emotions aside for years on end and focused on being a Dad. Someone my daughters could always depend on.
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Well she gave you 3 awesome daughters and they know who loved and cared enough about them to stick around and raise em.. That deal at the concert totally blows but in the end you got the win.
 
Not embarrassing but definitely the craziest most surreal minute and half in my 45+ years of playing

This happened last year at our 911 concert in apple Valley...

That Flag had been the backdrop of the stage for the first set...There was break...an awards ceremony for a bunch of local vets and it was time for us to go stage...As we were walking it up the flag slowly floats over the drum riser and then snags a mic stand and Brent's $12K custom 12 string Taylor...the rest in misery... Happy ending we were able to get the guitar pieced back together albeit you can see where the wood has been fixed...Plays beautifully again...
 
TAE said:
Not embarrassing but definitely the craziest most surreal minute and half in my 45+ years of playing

This happened last year at our 911 concert in apple Valley...

That Flag had been the backdrop of the stage for the first set...There was break...an awards ceremony for a bunch of local vets and it was time for us to go stage...As we were walking it up the flag slowly floats over the drum riser and then snags a mic stand and Brent's $12K custom 12 string Taylor...the rest in misery... Happy ending we were able to get the guitar pieced back together albeit you can see where the wood has been fixed...Plays beautifully again...
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LOOK! UP IN THE SKY! IT'S A BIRD, IT'S A PLANE, IT'S A GUITAR! Damn bro.
 
Back in about '82 - '83 the band I was in had an outdoor gig. Beautiful location by a lake, maybe a couple thousand people. We were doing the whole long haired eyeliner ripped jeans or leather trouser bit. Given it was outdoors our light guy had loaded the pots pretty good. The very first song leads in with the drums, then we come in. Woosh! I was so anxious to give the crowd what they wanted that I had stepped right to the front of the stage. When it went off the flame went above my head. It missed me, for the most part. Some of the flame went right across my headstock, my hand position was around the 5th fret. It melted my 1st string, gone. The rest went all zoinky and wet noodle, totally not in tune, totally. A bit rattled, but the show must go on. I cut volume and let the rhythm guitar player struggle through covering as well as he could. We took an early break so I could restring. The headstock was in pretty good shape, Fender logo still intact with a slight barely noticable burned bottom edge of the wood. My hand was fried, an immediate huge blister on my index finger. The crowd was a bit confused, but we went back on and it was a great show. As long as I was playing I didn't really feel a thing, until I stopped. I had thoughts of taking a vote to fire our light guy. But he was an otherwise good guy, everybody makes mistakes. I guess he was anxious to give the crowd what they wanted as well, and the flashpot thing was his big moment to shine.
 
Mick Doobie said:
That's mean and unnecessary, man.

It's probably a true story, huh? Yeah, tell us more about the awesome cave days, the brotherly love and such a cooler crowd back then.
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I was there...it was horrible... :eek:

QQ was there too.

I remember hangin out at the Hot Tub with the Beeze n Betty Rumble..

TBH 60's guy very generously provided all attendees with the coolest unofficial Jamfest Hat ever albeit the only one ever. I got one there and he mailed me another one FOR FREE! What a cool cat!

To have been able to be part of that experience was a BLAST...I actually did not get a chance to actually jam but I can at least say "I was there" and here's the proof of the pudding! Tattered n torn but still worn!

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Cool.

Wonder what ever happened to beezebub? Man, I fucking hated that guy when I first got here. Well, thought he was a sleeze ball....which he would probably take as a compliment! But after knowing him, he was alright, I grew to like him. He used to make unpretentious oddball instruments, which was cool. And he liked beer. How can you hate a guy who likes beer.
 
We had a keyboard player in a band who did the fire breathing trick. One night he set his arm on fire.
With the all original band we were playing this huge party. They brought in a tractor trailer flat bed for us to play on and were setting it up at
the top of a small hill. Well, it got loose and there was a pond at the bottom of the hill and right in the pond she went. They got some trucks and
and had to winch her out of there. It was so damned hot that day, and some of my tunes have long lyrical sentences in them where I had to take deep
breaths before I started them. There were times I was all dizzy and seeing stars, but as we all know, the show must go on.
I knew these guys in another band that decided they were going to do fireworks on stage at the very end of the last tune. They didn't take into account
the mics being on and blew out there PA lol.
 
We had a keys player way back, played a B3 I guess it was that weighed a fucking ton. Leslie cab as well. He had a nervous condition of some sort, lived with his elderly mother and took medication. Stayed medicated. Kind of sad, really. One night we were rehearsing and come to end of the song and all goes quiet except the B3. He had gone out with his head resting on the keys. I mean out cold. One night at a gig between songs he kept trying to get my attention, he sometimes talked with a stutter. M, m , mick, I gotta pee. "Set's almost over man!" The fucking drummer was a slave driver, oddly it was pretty much his band. There was no stopping for anyone had didn't foresee having to piss halfway through a set. Between each number, m, m, Mick, I gotta pee! "Set's almost over man!" Right before the last song, m, m, Mick, I pissed myself. Man, I felt so sorry and bad for the guy. Pitiful cat, but he could play. Actually wore a cape on a few occasions! That was the end, we never saw him again after that night.
 
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