My worst story didn't come from a gig, just from a small jam session at a bar, the kind of thing where you write down your name and get called up to play a song or two with people you don't know. You don't get a lot of time to figure out what you're going to play beforehand, so we had to settle for just a few chords over and over again without much variation. As we start playing the song, it quickly becomes clear that the drummer is a little off. He would stay on beat for 10-15 seconds, then try a fill and lose the rhythm, causing all of us to stumble. Regardless, we were still keeping it together for the most part, but after about 2-3 minutes of the same 3 chords the audience was losing interest. The bassist and I noticed this and wanted to close out the tune, but every time we tried the drummer just kept going, so we had to keep playing along with him. The bassist repeadly tried to talk to the drummer and tell him to finish up, but it was useless, he wouldn't acknowledge us at all. At this point, the song had overstayed its welcome by at least 2 minutes, and we were getting as bored as the audience, so the bassist and I just completely stopped playing. Instead of taking this as a signal that the song was over, the drummer apparently thought that this was his chance in the spotlight, and proceeded to take the loudest, most ridiculous drum solo I have ever heard in my life. This goes on for 30 seconds.... and then another 30.... and then another, and the guy is showing no signs of stopping, despite the fact that at least 3 different people are yelling at him to wrap it up. I can't stress enough how oblivious this guy was, literal armageddon could be happening outside and he would still be wailing on the kit like it owed him money. After TWO AND A HALF MINUTES of uninterrupted drums, the people running the jam had to drag him off the kit and kick him out of the bar, and I've never seen him again.
Yeah, I've seen this kind of thing before... a musician gets his one chance that year to play to an audience and, in his enthusiasm, proceeds to ruin the experience for themselves... and everyone else. Leave the audience wanting more would be the appropriate behaviour but that, sadly, isn't always the outcome.
I once got a call at 7am asking me if I could fly to [a country] without a visa because their drummer had pulled out literally the night prior to do another gig. I had no visa restrictions holding me back, so by noon, I get sent a flight ticket and I'm heading out that evening to play a 7 or 8 hour long gig the next day - no rehearsal and I've never met the rest of this band. It's already an absolute nightmare as I'm listening to this playlist on the plane, making cheat notes for all the songs I'd never played before. So we get to the venue and sort of out in this field in the hills. Absolutely stunning, but it's like an OSHA nightmare. I mean, it was a birthday party for some wealthy individual so I wasn't really expecting a professional set up, but I was concerned about the stage collapsing. No bother, we had a brief run through some specifics at sound check and start our set. It's going relatively OK considering the complete lack of preparation and playing with an entirely new band. The guitarist, the band leader, was cueing me into all their hits and things were going swimmingly. As the night progressed, people are getting really into it and also very very inebriated. We had people jumping on the stage and dancing, hanging out behind the stage and so on. At some point though this really really drunk guy walks up to me from behind the stage and starts trying to have a conversation with me in broken english whilst I'm playing. He asks me to play - I can't remember if it was "Summer of 69" or "When you Say Nothing at All" but it was one of those types of songs. Now we're playing funk, Motown, reggae and some top of the charts type of stuff because that's what we were hired to do, so I politely decline, but he was tenacious. I asked him to go speak to the band leader to get him off my back. The gig is hard enough as it is. He goes away for a bit and then as I'm playing, I feel something prodding my back and I turn around and notice that this gentleman's got a pistol pressed at my back. The band leader's cueing me into the next song and I'm eagerly yelling "Let's play Summer of 69 (or whatever his request was)!" and he looks at me incredulously and starts the next song. The guy behind me starts yelling "where the fuck is my song? WHy are you not playing my song!??!?" I still have a gun pointed at me whilst the gentleman was getting worked up and luckily for me, the bassist happened to walk up to the drum kit to see what the commotion was all about, saw this and yeah we played his song after seamlessly blending what we started with into that. That guy's drunken, off-key voice was echoing in the hills, as he sang at the top of his lungs. Turns out, the wealthy guy who hired us was actually either some sort of Mafia person or affiliated with them. One gig I will never ever forget.
My grandparents had a gospel group. They played easy 3 chord songs. We got a gig at a restaurant playing for a bunch of ANCIENT people. No one there under 80. And what does my teenage self bring to play on this gig? A neon yellow ibanez shred guitar, a 5 watt tube half stack amp, and this big digitech multi effects pedal. We started playing ONE song which was Amazing Grace and the people kept telling us TURN IT DOWN TURN IT DOWN and finally we were so quiet we could barely hear ourselves play and after the song was over they finally just told us to leave. We didn't get paid.
Imagine having long hair! Man I have been in several instances where people told me to cut my hair and I'd be more talented or more refined. I never paid them any attention and I'm still touring to this day. I feel ya, been there man!
bro ive done a fusian gig at an old folks home for charity and i had to set my guitar so low that the sound of me hitting the strings was louder than what was coming out of the amp
My nightmare gig only happened a few months ago. Our singer had a stroke right at the outro of our last song. Saw him sat on the floor next to the drums, and could barely speak. I called 911. He was in the ICU for 2 weeks and eventually died 😢. I didn’t know him for too long. It was only our 3rd gig, but it was still really sad
My fave gig moment was playing to a bunch of Mormons (when I was one). This dude gets on stage expecting a great reaction to jumping into the crowd. As he jumped off, the crowd parted in fear and he landed squarely on all the plastic chairs. This was over 20 years ago and still one of the funniest moments on stage ever.
@@haleyconant Do you know who Alex Boye is? Cuz that's who I was playing with which, to me, makes it so much funnier. We were literally playing R&B versions of hymns.
I once volunteered with some friends to sing Christmas carols at an adult daycare center for dementia and Alzheimer’s patients. I played guitar and we sang about 7 or so carols before asking for requests of songs we had not yet played. I’m not joking when I say we played a couple songs 2-3 times that day! That part was funny, but I did enjoy seeing those folks sing along!
I was playing in a hockey arena at a college about 10 miles from the college I was going to. They were trying to do a festival-type thing with all the local college bands. It started off nightmarish from the get go. Our drummer always used to carry around a handheld tape recorder because he wanted samples of sounds for his own thing. We were hanging back stage with a few of the other bands when our drummer walked in and was like, "Check this shit out..." and pressed play. The tape played and we heard him walking up to the sound guy, who was just some college kid with a dollop of power, but he was going to make sure we all tasted it. Our drummer starts up by saying, "Hey man, just wanted to check to see how long our set will..." and before he could finish the sentence, the sound guy POUNCED on him, "I'VE HEARD ABOUT YOU GUYS, AND I HEARD YOU'RE GOING TO PULL SOME SHIT, SO I'M WATCHING YOU. YOU HAVE 20 MINUTES AND THEN YOU'RE DONE, AT 21 MINUTES WE'RE CUTTING YOUR AUDIO, YOU GOT THAT?" Our drummer stuttered out some, "I don't know what you think you heard, but we're not like that..." but they guy just yelled more. So already we hated this guy, and so did all the other musicians back stage. So we get to our set. They were trying to be all professional, so they had a crew set up all our gear for us. We had to go over our pedals, amps, etc with them ahead of time. I hit the stage, we start our first song, and I can't hear shit. I'm fiddling with my volume on my guitar, my amp, nothing. Finally at the end of the song, I kneel down to check the pedals. One of the patch cables was 1/4" out. I pushed it in *POP hummmmm* FUCK. Finally, they had us up on a stage about 5 feet up from the floor. The sound guy set up his gear about 10 feet from the front of the stage. All the sound from the speakers was going right over his head, so everything sounded like GARBAGE for every band. We were pissed. The monitor mix sucked, the main mix sucked, there was a heatwave of hate coming from the sound guy, and we were sending it right back. Finally, for our last song, my buddy who was singing just looked at me and shouted, "SONIC DESTRUCTION!" I stomped on every pedal I had and took my guitar off and started humping the amp with it. My buddy was just abusing his guitar. Our bassist was slapping all the strings. The keyboardist knocked his keyboard to the floor and started mashing it. The drummer kicked over his kit. I leaned my guitar up against the amp and we all walked off stage to ear-piercing squeals. Fuck that guy. Fuck that show.
Here's mine: I was hired for $500 to play 2 hours on a birthday. Day itself, guests loved it so much and many came up to sing (terribly) while I accompanied them on the guitar. Husband of the birthday lady saw everybody having fun and said he wanted to double the duration of the performance. I told him that it'd cost another $400 which he agreed to. Party's over, guy's piss drunk and when it came time to pay up, he said he didn't remember me saying it'd be a total of $900. He then tried to pick a fight and threw $700 on the table and told me to take it or leave it. Proceeded to make a scene at venue until the wife came over to check out what was happening. After I told her what happened, she sheepishly handed me another $200 while the husband was shouting to the entire restaurant that he'd ruin my reputation and tell everybody he knows never to engage me for musical services.
I'm a drummer. My worst gig was outdoors at a private party in rural Louisiana. It was spring and a quick thunderstorm turned into a wind storm with 80 kph gusts. My crash cymbals flew off the stage, the Marshall half stack tipped over and the keyboard stand was swaying. I ended up asking a couple of guests to hold the cymbal stands for a few songs until we had to stop due to a tornado watch. On top of that, they refused to pay us the full amount because we only played 45 minutes of the 2 hour set.
A friend of mine had a band going when he was about 18. They won a battle of the bands at one of the larger venue/hotels in the area and part of the prize was four well paid Sunday afternoon gigs. I went to their first one and helped them set up and I was a bit excited for them. Time came around for them to start and they blazed int their first song, Born To Be Wild, absolutely killed it and when they finished the song there was no applause, they did get a response though, some old bloke yelled out. "Fair enough fellas, we're trying to watch the golf on the TV"
I used to play with a band where our singer and guitar player was also touring as a solo act. When we were together the three of us performed as a hard rock band. One day we got booked for a lunch room gig. We were VERY mismatched for the room (it was a café somewhere around my home town). Also, during our show, there was a world cup match going on. So they put the game on while we were playing. There was no stage, so we ended up standing in front of a big TV, playing a set that was way to loud for the room, to maybe 5 people wo just wanted to watch a football game.
In the 80s I was in a soft-ish rock band in which we did covers. We got gigs by dropping into bars during the day and letting the manager listen to a demo tape we'd made. The tape was truly representative of what we did live. So we got this gig in some bar none of us had ever heard of, got all set up, and started playing. The crowd was polite at first, then everyone was completely talking over us and ignoring us. We were a decent little group and had never been completely ignored before. During the first break, the manager comes up and says "Ya know, this is a country bar, and people want to hear country music". We were like WTF??? Collectively, we kinda knew (but had never rehearsed) a few country songs - like maybe 6. We stumbled through the second set, making up the playlist on the fly. At the end of the second set, we packed up. The crowd seemed to be perfectly fine with that. The manager paid us for the 4 sets we'd planned to do.
@@Bacopa68 In 1973 I played a bar in northern Wyoming that had chicken wire across the front of the stage, we needed it. And yes we were a hard rock band in a country bar. We muddled our way through every Credence Clearwater song we could think of, never played them before. Rough night.
My worst gig was when my then band and I played the 2007 Queen's Christmas Ball in a 5 star hotel for the UK Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. We were hired because we were the only expat band in town. We had rehearsed quite a bit, building a big setlist as were supposed to play for 2 or 3 hours, including an intricate medley of Xmas pop songs. The plan was to play some bluesy jazzy tunes while 200 or so diplomats in tuxedos and fancy gowns were having diner for which they had all paid like 300£. We would then kick off the party by turning it up and get people dancing. Which worked well. For about 10 minutes. As I strummed the very first chord of that Xmas medley, I saw the DJ opening his laptop and hitting play. I never got to the second chord. I asked the DJ what the fuck he was doing and he told me "let me just play one song!" I thought "fuck that" and slammed my (cheap copy) Strat on the ground and storm off the stage in a fury. We were so pissed we just destroyed the conference room that we were using as a backstage. A few moments later, the DJ, a diplomat himself, came to me, apologising profusely. Turned out the British Ambassador thought the party was running a bit behind and ask him to start his set right away. The poor guy had nothing he could to but follow his boss's order. Terrible gig but such a great memory.
My worst gig was at a fair near my hometown. We got the gig because the dad of our singer had some connections with the organisers. We were pretty inexperienced and had only played 2 shows so far (One was only for friends in our rehearsal room), but her dad told us it was alright. They wanted to give a newly formed band a chance. We would play for half an hour and the next band would come up. Because we were so inexpierenced we wanted to show up really early for soundcheck. The problem was that the guy setting up the PA was not there yet. So we had to wait for him and set up in 10 min while the crowd was already in front of the stage. For an experienced band, this wouldn´t be that bad, but for us it was horrible. We had no idea where to plug in our cables our even get power for the amps. When the Soundguy finally showed up he wasn´t around all that much. We had to go off the stage and ask him questions all the time, because he didn´t just stay with us throughout the process. So anyway, we were already stressed out and started to play our songs. At that moment I realized that our choice of songs wasn´t the best to put it lightly. We played some RocknRoll stuff and that was alright, but we also had some Goth Metal stuff. You know, heavy, distorted, kind of depressing. Not the right mood for a fair where everyone was drunk and expecting folk and Pop songs. We played alright but the crowd clearly wasn´t into the metal stuff (Can´t blame them). At that point the organiser came up and told us we had only time for one song, because the next band needed time for the soundcheck. We were shocked by this, because we were 20min in our set and had three more songs. After some discussion we decided we would play the last song on our setlist. It was a blues song in Open G. I had already prepared a spare guitar so I wouldn´t have to retune, but our second guitarist didn´t and had to retune. So, i started the song and a little later he joined in. That´s when we both realised his guitar was out of tune. And by out of tune i mean he tuned it a half step up. We looked at each other in shock and all i could do was just keep going. So i just played the song and he tried his best to just improvise on the high E string. For some reason he wasn´t even standing, but sitting on the stage. I can´t remember why, maybe his strap broke. I couldn´t even hear what he was playing and neither could the audience. So we clumsily finish our set and get of the stage as fast as possible to make way the the other band. Seemed like they really needed the time to soundcheck, if we had to finish our set early,right? Yeah, they showed up after 15mins and didn´t start to soundcheck after 15 more. Naturally we were pretty pissed. I figured they just wanted us off the stage. I mean yeah, our song choices weren´t that fitting, but if you say you want to support young bands and get them some stage experience you should follow up on that promise. Prepare for the worst or let it be. We were told we would get free drinks at the bar, so dissapointed as i was, i went there and ordered a drink and the bartender said it was 4 Euros. I told him i was part of the band. He looked at me and said 5 Euros. Well...maybe i deserved that one.
Well. This sounds like a pretty good learning experience in all honesty. :) I get why you were pissed but this is how we learn to not make the same mistakes.
By no means a nightmare gig- just a quirky recurring character but I used to busk with a jazz quartet and this man who was homeless would sometimes come with a walking stick that he would bang on the ground next to us repeatedly. He wasn’t very good and people watching us would slowly start to walk away when he joined. We learned that the only way to get him to leave was to play songs that were too fast for him to tap along to. Turns out playing a bit of Tenor Madness at 250bpm was a good way to bring back the crowd anyways
Played a faux Victoria's Secret-esque show with a 20m runway so I was told to "bring a big cable". They changed the set time with no advance warning so I dashed there with no rehearsal and just in time to go on, no soundcheck or anything. I wasn't even sure if I'd have an amp. It was at that point I realised we had no monitors or amps because it ruined the 'aesthetic,' but our drummer was on an electric kit! We were literally listening to the echo coming back off this large hall for timing, it was horrifically out of time. Then they ushered me down the walkway so I went with my massive cable giving it some rockstar 101 poses. It was at that moment they sent all the models down the catwalk, a catwalk that couldn't fit them and me on it. I had to squeeze past them all as my cable dragged behind and caught all their heels. Models flying everywhere, music out of time, singer saw the writing on the wall and just started shouting random Scottishisms, set cut to one song. We didn't get paid.
My highschool talent show, full auditorium. I'm using someone else's gear. I'm playing the live version of Eruption and the cord fell out of my guitar not once but twice. 25 years later, my buddy still brings it up.
My worst gig experience is my only gig experience; which was last year. I have a friend who I like to jam with, and he got a gig renovating a space his friend had just leased for a restaurant and venue spot. My friend would invite me over to help out with stuff, since I'm a carpenter, and to jam in the stage area when all was said and done each day. One day his friend walks in and hears me playing, then starts to reminisce about the days when he had a 90's rock cover band. He said he was actually considering reviving the band for his new restaurant/venue spot, and would I be interested. 90s rock is where started my guitar journey, so I naturally agreed. Why not? I meet the band and throughout practice sessions it becomes quite clear that none of them have done this in quite a while; around five years, in fact. The drummer was still on top of his game. Everyone thought I was the most talented person in the group (which should already be a sign of bad things to come), but the drummer could literally listen to a track on his phone and then just have it down, beat for beat. He was incredible. If Joe didn't know - or hadn't even heard a certain song - he could have it in the 3-5 minutes it takes to listen to the song. The man was a phenomenon. I LOVED just playing with Joe. The rhythm guitarist/singer/frontman - the friend of the friend, the one who leased the gig space - played "by ear". And when I quote "by ear" I mean that he played what he thought was going on. Is it a C, is it a G? It's whatever he wants it to be. God forbid we drop an extension on a chord. When I would play the song to my very exacting standards, he would stop the song and ask me what **I** was playing. To his credit, he acknowledged that I actually learned the songs, and would then try to teach himself to play those chords; but his chords were so cemented in his mind that it was difficult for him to learn the correct way. He had a lyric book. A giant binder for all of the lyrics, so that he wouldn't forget them; though that didn't stop him from doing so. His wife played bass, and she hadn't touched a bass since their last performance five years prior; literally. She not only had to relearn their songs, but had to relearn how to play the bass. I mean not to dismiss the frontman or bassist, though. They were very welcoming people, though I don't believe then was the correct time to start up their old band with everything else going on in their private lives; which was a lot. We practiced only once a week for maybe an hour or two. Not nearly enough time for me to get to know them nor them to get to know me. Not nearly enough time for us to get these songs together as a cohesive unit. We were expected to learn the songs individually and then just have them down for performance night. So we practiced about 8-10 times before show time. A total of maybe 15 hours of practice. Also throughout all of this time I was trying to establish a live sound. I had never played for an audience. My "rig" was a Crate amp head and a friggin 15" bass speaker cabinet. At home, I just played through amp modelling software on my PC. The head and cab I just had because sometimes I wanted to play loud; even though the tone was terrible. So I sank $2,000 into searching for a decent live rig; which finally boiled down to installing my amp modelling software on a laptop I had bought specifically for playing with the band, and buying a foot controller/IO combo to run to the house mixer board. It still sounded great, but it was not what they were used to with a traditional amp-based guitarist. Show day comes, and no sound check. WE DIDN'T DO A SOUNDCHECK. I asked if we would, and they were like "No, it's fine." WE WERE ADJUSTING SOUND DURING "MAN IN THE BOX" DURING THE SHOW BECAUSE NO ONE COULD HEAR MY GUITAR, AND GUESS WHAT WAS THE ***ONLY*** THING PEOPLE COULD HEAR FOR THE *REST* OF THE SHOW AFTER ADJUSTMENTS; ME. And my sound is very Mick Mars-y. So people were being blasted with a bass/treble, chug/grind, left/right mix with hardly anything else audible but the mic on the bass drum. The singer was still missing chords and forgetting lyrics, even though he had his giant lyric binder in front of his microphone. And all of his downtime banter was falling flat. Into the second half of the first verse of the first song, the singer looks at me and makes a talking motion with his hand, implying I should be singing with him. First off, none of these songs were duets, and, secondly, how am I to play lead AND sing? Who do you think I am? If you wanna call me talented, whatever; that's, like, your opinion, man. But, I'm sure as hell not talented enough to run lead lines AND sing. PLUS, my mic would cut in and out throughout the night anyway (which really sucked for "Man In the Box", because he butchered those choruses, and my mic just happened to have cut out for that entire song - which also rendered my Talk Box useless. Wah saved the day). Throughout all of our practice sessions I would lament my solo for "Sweet Child O' Mine" because I'm honestly just not that good. I had every part completely down except for the second half of the solo where Slash just rips. I'm not that good, I'm not at all fast, and I'm sure as hell not Slash. I like to play electric, but a lot of my focus is on acoustic. I have pretty much no lead chops outside of widdling on some scales, and ZERO improv skills on lead. I am most definitely a rhythm guitarist. NO ONE saw my MANY cues to end the solo, and I'm getting quite embarrassed at my lackluster pentatonic widdling until finally Joe brings us back to the chorus. Several times throughout the night the bassist wasn't even playing because she would get so lost in where we were and where she was at. Poor girl should have never been thrown in the ring like that, but her husband pushed her. Joe, of course, was on top of everything. That man was a clock. I feel so bad for him, because he was easily the most talented person on stage that night. To me, I feel we failed him; though I tried my greatest not to let him down. We have an intermission. No one seems to care to talk to anyone in the band. We come come back, and over half of the people are just gone. I count 13 people in the audience. I couldn't help but laugh. We play a few songs, and I rush into the last three because it was my job to start them anyway. I just wanted to be done and out of there. If that's live performance, then I never want to do it again. Additionally, the only person who told me personally that they would definitely be there never showed up. I even saved them a table right by the stage like they asked me to. Constantly looking over at that empty table all night was a huge bummer. And, lastly, we were supposed to have more shows, so I left a lot of my stuff there in the storage areas for future practices and shows. We never had another practice or show. When I came back to finally grab all of my stuff, roughly $500 worth of my stuff had disappeared. Terrible experience. 3/10. Do not recommend.
My worst gig… 1987 I was in the military stationed in North Carolina and was in a cover band that play classic rock & hard rock, we were hired to open a brand new “club” that we had never heard of. We had a local following so people knew what music we played. We must’ve driven 10 miles of country dirt roads to get to “the club.” We arrived to find a corrugated metal barn like structure, and three big farm tractors parked around it. We went to set up in the“ club “ and it was nothing but dirt floor, and hay bales all around for seats, the stage was a bunch of pallets with plywood put on top up. All I could think about was chicken wire bar scene from the Blues Brothers movie when they played the theme from the TV show Rawhide over and over. To the side of the building three guys were dressing, a deer that had been killed earlier, not creepy at all… Four songs into our set (classic 60/70/80s rock) An enormous guy wearing overalls and no shirt stood in front of the stage screaming play FREEBIRD! We stopped mid song because overalls guy got the 40 or so other people in the crowd to start a FREEBIRD chat. None of us knew FREEBIRD, but we knew Molly Hatchet, 38 Special, ZZ Top and some Hank Williams Jr. The owner who hired us ran to the stage and told us to play every southern rock song we knew, so we played every song we knew twice (no breaks) packed up our gear as quickly as possible and left.
My worst gig story was pretty recent, my band was booked to play on a bill with 2 other bands, we were told we'd be playing second and seeing as two of my bandmates had work beforehand and i had severely injured my ankle a few days prior, it sounded perfect. Fast forward to about 5min before the opener, we get a message that the headliner messed up the set times and both us and the next band were told we were on second. To make matters worse neither us or the other band had all their members at the venue yet. So our bassist and drummer improv for about 5-10min (the set times got pushed back already) before I hobble in the door on crutches and set up my guitar and amp as fast as humanly possible, no time to tune, I strum an Emaj, it sounds close enough, and we launch into a 30min set played in only 10. To say our bassist was pissed would be the understatement of the year, but at least we got free beer.
There was a billiards hall/arcade that did live music and had a tiny closed off bar area in one corner, I got kicked out for being "too young" as a 19 year old right after set with band i was playing with ended. Most of the people in that place were younger than me as it was mainly an arcade. they also refused to pay the $200 whole dollars they were supposed to give band for playing. couple months later they were shut down for underage drinking.
This was the worst pre gig thing that happened to me was two years ago. My band got asked to play a 30 minute set with three other bands on Halloween night at a new up and coming venue. That was only the second time in my 30 years of live performing that I had a chance to play on Halloween so I was stoked. We decided to rehearse one last time a few hours before the show. The drummer who we had problems with already after 30 minutes hadn't shown up to rehearsal yet. I called and he had had a fight with his girlfriend and he said he wouldn't do the show. The bass player and I went through the set list and picked six songs the two of us could do without a drummer. We were just getting ready to go to the bar and drummer called and said he could play so I was relieved. The bass player and I got to the bar and the drummer called again and said he couldn't play. We did the set and it went well and the crowd loved us. We had another gig at the same bar booked a month and half later which our drummer did play but then he pushed us too far with his antics a month after that and we finally fired him.
This is legit a true story. Back in 2000-2001, I was living in Ohio and met a local band. After a couple of ham sessions, I somehow ended up their lead singer and lead guitarist... except that I don't consider myself much of a singer, and I only play rhythm guitar. So I'm having to learn different lead riffs, by ear as I can't read music all that well. Stuff like Free Bird and Black Magic Woman. We somehow started getting gigs, and with all my gigs, I always had three different bottles with me on stage. One was vodka/OJ, one was Crown Royal/Coke, and the other was plain water. Now, most shows went off without a hitch, as far as I knew... until our last gig together. I got laryngitis day of the show, so my buddy suggests something he called a hot toddy - 4oz of Crown Royal, lemon juice and honey, nuked for 40 seconds in the microwave, and then you'd chug the whole thing in one shot. It actually worked but I needed a nap. Wake up, make my bottles as usual, do the show... and it's starts being obvious I'm slurring a little/lot. Next thing I remember is waking up in the van with everyone in the band giving me shit for getting drunk on stage... and this is when I was told... during an AA charity gig.
Nightmare gig was through my music school. They had a rockband class and the last time I took the class it was a horrible time. I signed up as the guitarist, and was asked to move to the drums to allow space for others with the understanding that I’d get to trade off for one or two songs. I was the only one who really made much of an effort to communicate via email. The singer was absent for the first three classes. The guitarist held us back because they never cast their votes for songs until they were in the rehearsal studio, meaning nobody had the chance to look at the music sheets before coming in. Because the instructor wasn’t familiar with drums I was on my own to figure out the songs. Come show time, we’re the opening act, and we open for one of the school’s introductory bands (who don’t normally play the rockband shows). For a while I thought of just starting the set by counting the band in and then walking off stage in front of everyone. I figured if they were going to make this miserable for me, I’d ruin the rockband experience for the rest of the band
Great video idea, cool seeing all those anecdotes! I also have a retirement-home story. Had a student in her 60s who kept asking me to play at the home where she worked. Eventually I relented, only to find this was a retirement home for the mentally infirm, which frankly was putting it mildly. So I went through a set of soothing classical pieces, my wedding gig repertoire. Now my student had brought along a friend, who frankly also had seen better years mental-health-wise. She started heckling me, demanding something more upbeat. Then she wanted Christmas tunes. It wasn't Christmas. Someone found a Christmas fake-book and I died a little inside, but hosted a Christmas singalong. Ever see that movie "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest? Yeah . . . The heckling got worse, she started making racist comments which I tried to sidestep, which only made her more belligerent. There's more, but this is a family channel. Ultimately she was banned from the rest-home, I kid you not. Total dollars earned, zero, but at least I have a story.
Heeeyyy Sammy G! I was (and am) so happy to have met you in person at NAMM. Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts and hanging for a bit afterwards. And as I said, give us a read here in the comments, and don't give the haterz the power to get you down. The rest of us (the majority, btw) definitely love and appreciate what you do!!
My gig horror story took place around the late 2000's at a battle of the bands thing. I subbed for a drummer at a punk band. I never really got the feel of playing punk (or drums for that matter), so I wasn't really comfortable. We nonetheless decided it was a good idea to get totally drunk and high (I was around 17 so I wasn't able to set boundaries for myself). Anyway, we started the punk gig and only halfway through the first song I noticed there was no tension on the snare drum. I tried to signal the stagehand to come switch the lever on the snare (while I was playing), but I managed to hit him on the head really hard with my drum sticks while he was fiddling with the lever. He then fell face first in my crotch and rolled down to my feet, obstructing the pedals and preventing me from playing. He got up, slapped me in the back of the head, the band stopped playing and didn't help whatsoever, and we tried to resume the song without proper counting in. I was still very drunk/high and full of fearful adrenaline, which didn't improve my drumming. I quit drumming soon after that Anyway, i play jazz/funk bass now and all is well.
10th grade I threw together a band for the upcoming school jazz concert and I was the singer I had my mic and my guitar hooked up to a looper hooked to the mixer through the same chord. Sound check went amazingly, I even tested the mic and volume of the guitar right before we started playing with the signature "test test". Needless to say as soon as the first song started one of my chords fried itself as soon as sound went through it. I was yelling the lyrics and strumming my silent guitar like a madman.
Lol, my wife and I work in a nursing home. We’ve often talked about playing for the residents, me guitar and her vocals. I could definitely see some of our residents behaving similar to the one in your story. Great video, keep it up.
Worst gig experience by far was back when I was 19. I was a big fan of Black Label Society at the time and I wore a hoody with their logo on the back for a gig we did in a pretty rough venue with a very rowdy audience. Gig went well and we were at the bar afterwards getting beers when a guy came up to me and asked if he could speak to me outside. My first thought was that he wanted to tell me he was psyched on our music but when we got outside it turned out he was in some biker gang that apparently were upset with Black Label Society as they thought they'd ripped off their logo. He then told me that unless I took the hoody off he was going to stab me! Some other dudes overheard and got involved, it all got a bit messy and we ended up throwing all our gear into the van and beat a very hasty retreat. I then heard a few weeks later that another gang had heard about it and I was told that the guy 'wouldn't be bothering me again'. Definitely don't want to repeat that one again!
Our nightmare gig was when we showed up early and set up to find out that the sound guy didn't have any cables for sound, kept hitting on our singer and pissed everyone off. We named him, "Craig." (Whenever anything bad happens, it's Craig's fault).
I'm in a Bruno Mars style cover band. Shiny suits, horn section, dance steps, all that. We do a private party out on a farm. They brought a flat bed trailer as the stage and put it about 100 yards from the closest power source...in July...in Florida. We get set up and do a sound check. We start our dance moves, and the trailer starts rolling away. They didn't put brakes or chocks to keep it in place. Abandon ship. Get makeshift chocks and no dance steps that night. Then an unexpected hurricane-esque storm comes in and ends the gig early. Thank God though, the gear didn't get wet because the woman running the party came up mid song and said, "Y'all need to stop NOW. Storm's coming." We did the fastest load up of all time, and 1/2 mile down the road driving, the storm hit like crazy.
My worst gig: Pumpkinfest in Waterford, On. Playing a family festival at 5pm while being a punk band is brutal. Craziest gig: the first time playing a biker gang club house. We played 3 45min sets, and when we finished they made us play them all again. At one point we were doing Santeria and a full patch H.A. comes on stage and starts singing along/dancing and making us all super uneasy (anyone else would have been kicked in the ass or hip bumped off stage but not really an option in this situation). Luckily one of his clubmates came and escorted him off... after another 2 songs.
My nightmare gig..big open air festival. Huge stage. Our slot came up, hit into 1st song and we couldn't hear a thing on stage! Played the whole 30 minute slot without being able to hear what the others were playing. It turned out that a member of the audience went up to the sound booth and claimed he was our sound guy and proceeds to play around with the faders and eq!!! 😮
My worst gig was when my old band played a gig in August of 2017. We played over our stop time to the point I had nearly lost my voice, and the owner docked our pay by $100 because there was no crowd at the bar. I was so upset that I had to pull over because I started crying on the drive home.
I did an almost two hour celtic rock gig standing up behind a sited drunken guy who had pulled out his johnson and was using it as a guitar. Despite our best efforts, it was impossible to kick him out of stage. But I guess that's a common risk when you play in a rugby festival. So we ended up playing anyway, and that was a pretty fun gig. My new unwanted pedalboard was really wierd tough, as the bass player mentionned.
Played a show once at a 400 capacity venue where the only people there were the staff, the other band, and our one friend (we were very young and it was our first tour so we didn't do a great job with the booking process). Partway through our set, one of the owners drunkenly walks in and sits down on a barstool. We have a song about cat calling, and as soon as we started playing it he started yelling at us "I can call you whatever the hell I want" and "don't tell me what I can or can't say" and then proceeded to actively cat call us for the rest of the set, until he became so drunk that he actually fell off of his barstool and had to be rushed out to an ambulance. YIKES.
My worst "gig" was in a wedding. I am a violinist and was hired to play the Wedding March for the bride. They had hired an entire team and whatever (whom we had no relation to, we were just there to play the March), and mind that it was a catholic family so it was taking placing in a church. I got there with my friend who was going to accompanny me in a electric keyboard, and he bought with him a small amp, just for his keyboard as we didn't know the team that was working there. We where the first ones to get there; the team and the priest hadn't arrived yet, so he plugged the amp in and turned it on, and we started practicing a bit. Then, the priest and the team arrived - the priest was fuming because there were people playing very loudly in the church (us), started screaming with the sound engineer because he entered running into the church and because we had "disrespected" him by bringing that gear, which resulted in him not wanting to give the keys for the place where the churche's sound system was kept. The manager of the team that was organizing the wedding was very angry with us; but the sound engineer was very understanding and also very angry too because he knew that we had no bad intentions. He fought with his manager and with the priest, and it was a very bad night all around. We played the March, took our things, apologized again and left.
When my band was still a duo, we got regular gigs at a coffee shop downtown, playing about every other week, two hour sets, decent money coming in. Once we got a full band together, we were told at least once every performance that we were too loud. There was one gig where they finally didn't tell us to turn it down, so we thought that was a good sign. Day of the next gig, we found out that we were fired for being too loud.
Sammy! We played a show in Derby, UK once where there was a dead dog "buried" in the drywall of the venue, which was run by ex-circus folk (who I caught having intercourse in the hallway post-show) and we spent the night "sleeping" in a dilapidated room packed with old pint bottles which were filled with piss and mold and it was all topped off by that dead dog smell. Jeez. It sounds extra weird when I type it all out like that.
My worst gig was a graded gig for school. The drummer didn't turn up and didn't tell anyone. I also had a hard time finding a suitable guitar for my guitarist that would stay in tune. Still passed, though. I have quite good on-stage charisma, so I think that helped saved the band's ass. Edit: After that, I left the band. However, I had to rejoin it for my grade.
Not really a nightmare, but a great memory: the first gig I ever played, when I was 15 or so. A friend and I wanted to form a band, he played piano, I played the bass. And we knew a few musicians, with whom we jammed and finally, we got a gig. At a youth dance of our local church. So we called up a drummer friend and a guitarist, met on that afternoon and "rehearsed" our songs. When it was time for us, we started playing and I guess we were awful. By the third song the audience had left the room and during the 4th song they shut us down. The guitarists told us not to call him ever again, when he left but we managed to get a real band together over time, which existed for a few years. And we got a good laugh of this - one of the worst things that can happen already had happened to us, so it could only go up. 😁
My last gig with my former band went like this: small stage, new equipment (used my helix for the first time live, plus in ear system for the first time too). My knowledge was severely lacking about technical stuff, got no signal from my Helix, also couldn't hear anything through my in ear. We were already running late on time, the whole gig was 20 minutes, and the soundcheck was only 20 minutes too. Needles to say we needed significantly more time than that, we had to cut out one song from our 3 song setlist, and i had to play without my in ear.
My first proper gig I was asked to come along and play even though I’d never had the opportunity to rehearsal with the band. The keyboardist assured me he would bring all the music and I was happy enough to play rhythm with the odd lick on the guitar here and there. Anyway I turn up on the night, setup, I’m ready to go and then I asked about the music, turned out the keyboardist had forgotten it the gig started and I didn’t have a single sheet of music or a clue about any of the songs. Some were easy to figure out chord progression wise but after a while I got fed up, turned the volume down on my guitar and mimed the whole night apart from one song, Johnny Be Goode where I pissed the singer off when I ripped right into an improvised solo which thankfully went down really well with the crowd stealing his thunder. At the end of the night I wasn’t going to take any money but then I thought why not, you put me in this awkward position so I got paid for a gig In which the volume on my guitar was turned down for 90% of the time.
I've had two nightmare gigs. Gig #1 I was trying to put together a group to play cover songs of classic rock. I met up with this guy named Turk and we seemed to have the same vision about the type of music. Mind you we hadn't even practiced just a meet up. A couple of days later he calls me up and tells me he got us a gig on Saturday at this outdoor bar called La Tuna. I kept saying we arent ready and he insisted that the crowd will be drunk and nobody will care. We dont even have a drummer or bass player and most of the songs required both. The day before, Turk says he found another guitar player who was a college student in the music dept. So we have a practice. It turns that the guitarist, though good, didn't know any of the songs and Turk couldnt play an instrument and couldnt sing at all. So we go to this gig and I'm dreading really bad things. We start off with an instrumental piece I wrote on the keyboards. I can tell the crowd of about 30 people were bored as can be. So we play Smoke on the water (no drums no bass and the other guitarist didnt know what was going on), Turk starts singing and after the verse, he forgets the lyrics and starts doing summersalts on the ground. Slowly people get up and start walking out. One even shouted "go back to your garage and practice" all I could say was "thank you". When we took our first break, I told Turk eiether we quit or I will pack up my shit and leave because I was so embarassed. Just after that the manager came over told us that he was going to pull the plug because people were leaving and he was losing money. I've never been so happy in my life. Gig#2 The other gig occured when I was with my cover band (full band this time)). We get to the venue a small bar. Exicited because the previous night they had a one of the more popular cover bands and the place was pack. well e go to setup and there is PA system there, but nobody knew how to use it. So we hooked up the bands PA and start the first set. The place is dead. The only people that showed up were my parents a few friends of the band. Other than that it was us and the 2 bar tenders. halfway through the set, the PA decided to quit working. We ended up playing mostly instrumentals and occasionally would have to scream the vocals to be able to hear ove the band. It was a nightmare. We did get paid, almost decided to give the money back because of the horrible experience.
A gig I remember pretty vividly was one of my first shows with my last band. I had taken my guitar in for a repair prior to this gig and was borrowing an Ibanez our then drummer had at his place for the show. Midway through the first song in our set, I stopped hearing sound from my end and I was freaking out because I thought something messed up with either the guitar's jack or the amp we were using. It turned out the volume knob was super sensitive and turned down and that's why I wasn't hearing anything.
I think the worst I've had is when I couldn't figure out why only the kick, snare, and hihat were working on my electronic drum set. I was playing on a float in a Christmas parade, and didn't really have time to figure out the issue, so I played the entire set with what I had. I later figured out I had set the drums to the wrong kit (marching band kit), and literally all I had to do to get it to the right kit was press one button. I felt like such an idiot afterwards.
My friend Mike played bass in a band. On a gig around Halloween in this little basement bar in Staten Island, his strap broke at one end. The drummer hands him some gaffer tape, as he’s fixing it, the OTHER end breaks. The guitarist and Moog/Organ guy both start making ghost sounds! Mike starts doing Scooby Doo, “it’s the ghost of old man Withers! Zoinks!” At the end of the gig the band smashed everything (not something they usually did, but probably because they had way too much beer that night) and the clutch from the high hat snapped off and flew out into the crowd and smashed the girl behind my left shoulder in the face, giving her a nosebleed. She just went “fuck you, I’m taking this” and left holding a tissue over her nose (tiny bar, the stairs were right behind us). The drummer was like, “where’d the high-hat clutch go?”
Related: Last minute tech disasters at a gig. In the 80s, there was the Tom Scholz Rockman, that had built in FX to get a "Boston" sound - clean, distorted, and chorus, with various combinations. But, it was a small box, and all the controls were little slide switches. It was absolutely not intended for a live gig, but for recording. I wanted a stompbox, so an electronics-savvy friend reversed engineered it, made a box with several stomp switches, and a thick cable attached to another (metal) box that had the electronics from the original device, plus his mods. It was all done literally the day of the gig I wanted it for. He came to the gig, and it was a good thing. 5 minutes before curtain, the whole thing just cuts out. Two big metal boxes, one with switches, and a power plug. My friend jumped on stage, pulls a soldering iron from somewhere, and fixes the damn thing with literally 30 seconds to spare. We do the gig, it all works. And that may have been the very first Scholz stomp box version of that device to ever be used on a live gig. Also the 80s. I'm in Florida, running sound in a large, live theater production (1500 seats, all filled). They had some huge, 8-foot long, antiquated sound board. For the first time, they're trying all wireless mics, on every cast member. Everything was checked and ready. Again, 5 minutes to curtain, when the entire left side of the sound goes out completely. A quick analysis showed it was most likely the board -- sound amplification was still live in the room. So... this time it's me with the soldering iron, creating a Y cable so the working channel could go to both sides. Luckily, there was no need for actual stereo. In retrospect, there may have been some way to do that routing with the board, but I'd literally com into the booth 1 hour before, did mic and sound checks, and that's all I knew about that board. But, once again, literally with less than a minute to curtain, we started. And, if the actors had actually understood the instruction to turn off their mic when off stage, I wouldn't have ended up having to turn on/off 18 mics based on cues in the script. And I missed a few, like the time the guy goes off stage and immediately exclaims, "F**K, I BLEW THE LINE!", loudly and clearly to all 1500 audience members.
My worst gig: A gospel fest in my small hometown. I was in a youth worship band in junior high and high school that was decent. We played about a dozen gigs while I was in it on top of the weekly Wednesday night performances. I was playing keys in this band. And I very much was a backing player with the two guitars being the main focus. I didn’t have solos and mostly played chords. The group that performed before us at this gospel fest was more of a traditional gospel choir. And their keyboard was the main musical instrument. I don’t know if the sound guy accidentally forgot to change to our settings from our sound check or maybe was concerned that he wasn’t hearing the keys in the first couple of measures, but my sound was CRANKED. My entrance into the first song was a couple of measures in and when I played the first chords, it could have blown up the sound system. We had to stop the song and quickly get the EQ balanced. When the song abruptly stopped, somebody from the crowd was yelling “Hot Keys! Hot Keys!” I still say that to some of my former band mates to this day and it always cracks us up. Thankfully we got it fixed enough for this short gig and everybody was nice. But I’ll never forget it.
Showed up to our first gig. The venue was supposed to supply the PA. There was no PA. Played the show anyway. Guitar player got so drunk he fell off his chair and the bar threw us out.
As a professional gigging musician for well over 40 years, I have a near-endless supply of stories. Some were funny at the time, others only funny with the passage of time, still others were nightmarish, or simply bewildering. I suspect most of us old guys who've been on the road forever have such stories.
@@raven_of_zoso455 - I'd long thought about writing a book back when people read those things. Who knows, maybe a podcast could in my future... One of my sidelines is as a voice over artist, so it's not an impossible thing.
@@MarcCoteMusic oh, then absolutely go for it, mate! I think, maybe even if you run out of stories yourself, you could get maybe guests to interview (like callers, just try and find a way to check if their stories are genuine). I would definitely tune in for that! Concerts and touring are often such a chaotic mess as it is, and then some jerks, or just sheer bad luck can turn them into proper bizarre turmoil. And I think there's a lot of crazy stories from this than what the Bob Wier's, Joe Walsh's, and Ozzy Osborne's of the industry has to tell (and that isn't mainly about just extreme use of hard drugs and destruction). I think there's definitely enough interest for this topic, even though maybe particularly narrowed down to an audience mainly of musicians to start with. But I think if you can just keep it down to earth and respect the time of your listener (no minute long intro song, and constant interruptions of adolescent nonsense) you have a good chance that more people will tune in for a good story. Not saying I think you will use a minute long intro song and what-not, but I just find so many podcasts that does do interesting content, but I find them just revolting to listen to for such reasons, and their numbers seems to state the same. So, just a little heads up if you're new to making content like that. I have even done some freelance work with a few content creators, and of those it seems like the less bs they add, the more popular they become. And yes, sadly the humble format of a book is dying. I mean, I love reading, and despite being "only 32" and have read and collected an above average amount of books, I do find it increasingly harder to gather the motivation for beginning a new one now, with the Internet right in my pocket.
@@raven_of_zoso455 - Hey, you never know. My former songwriting partner does a podcast (History of North America... he has a Ph.D in history) so it's not out of the question. And I think your advice is sound. It might not be for a while, though, as I'm busy with two large-ish shows as well as with my own solo stuff and a bit of graphics work and audio engineering (live and studio) along with some video editing.
here we go lol. my worst gig ive every played. i was in a punk band at the time, and it was of course at someones back yard, we loaded our gear up and headed on over to the house. we where supposed to be playing with this punk band from Germany or something and the band wound up no even showing lol. we get to the house and start to load in. as we get our first amp through the gate walking up to the patio we soon found out there was ZERO light. not even a porch light lol. we had to set up in the dark using only our phone lights. FINALLY we set up and begin our set and there was (and im not exaggerating) 3 people posted up on the back of the fence. (decent amount of people in the from yard). the only way i knew we even had 3 people watching was because of the phone light reflecting off their faces as we were playing. we got through the set and dipped so fast lol. we have played for a small crowd before (like most bands) but the fact not a single person seemed like they wanted us there mixed with playing in the complete dark was prettty ass lol. weve had some wild shows (like playing the AREA 51 raid or a warehouse show with this folk punk band called days n daze) and some mishaps on stage but that one will always stand out.
My drums were set up on a moving blanket on uneven dirt. Everything was tilted in a different direction. On the other side of the wall behind me was an angry horse, kicking the wall with his back feet. Making my way through the best I could and the guitarist takes a request for Come Together. We'd never rehearsed it and I couldn't hear the song in my head, complete blank. Pre internet, so no way to just pull it up on YT. Rewrote a new drum part for Come Together on the fly, that was not good. 🤘🧙♂️🤘 Rich the Ancient Metal Beast
Not a gig, but auditioned as a singer for an established wedding band. Didn’t like them much, decided to tell them I prepared Better Off Without a Wife by Tom Waits. Killed it, no job.
Haven't had many gigs, but I was blessed with a bizarre experience at one. I was supposed to play an acoustic set at a bar I had seen being advertised a lot but I hadn't been to. Friday night, my friend and I get there and it's in a baaad scary area downtown, this is Mexico we're talking about. My friend comes from a bad neighborhood and he's getting nervous, saying things like, "I'm normally the one with the bad ideas, and I'm telling you, THIS IS A BAD IDEA, LET'S GO HOME!" haha. I ask him to chill and we go in, we look for the guy who got me the gig and he's surprised we actually showed up because... No one did... It's a bar downtown, regardless of who's playing, people go there to get drunk, but there isn't a single soul. Funny thing about the bar, it was call The Underground, but it was located on a second floor haha we go in through this other bar that's on the first floor which is like straight out of Scarface or something. We avoid eye contact and run directly upstairs to get ready to play... For my friend alone, I guess hahaha! I decided to get a beer to make time, hoping someone would show up, but since there's nobody, the bar's closed! So, we have to go downstairs for beers... We walk to the bar, and this big lady who was clearly a 'woman of the night' comes out of the bathroom, completely hammered and falls flat on her back! Then this nasty drunk guy comes outta nowhere and picks her up just to start making out with her right there on the bar! So, we get the beers and go upstairs, no one shows up, I play 3 songs and we LEAVE! A friend calls me later saying he was gonna go, but the police was taking some lowlife that were throwing bottles outside the bar, so... It was good I got to play only 3 songs in front of 1 person and left early
the piano gal with the C-note pervert should memorize the number for Dial-A-Prayer or something like that. so when the perv hands her his phone, she puts a number in and says, “Buh Bye!”
Me and like 3 other bands were playing a gig on a pub on Saturday Morning until evening. First band playing, mid-set, a little tremor starts, then it got stronger, and stronger. Pretty sure it was something like 7.0 magnitude. The band stop their song, everyone looked at each other, and said "ok, it's gone now". We finished the gig. Just an average day in Chile tbh 😅
My punk bands first gig. Our vocalist had been drinking for few days and we found him on a pub. Passed out at The car. On the venue we woke him up and made him eat & drink lots of water before the gig. First 4 songs were great, but then he got tangled on mic cable, falled down and pass out. I tryed to wake him but no luck. So me and the drummer decide to play the gig with him sleeping on stage. I was playing guitar with a split signal & octaver to guitar & bass cabined and tryed to sing something. For few song we give the mic to somebody from the crowd and nod to him when to shout just something 😂😂😂
I played bass in a metal band called “Spang” in high school. We got a set together, practiced a lot and we were pretty tight. I learned to play bass while playing in this band so my knowledge of the instrument was limited. First show we played was at a coffee shop with a band that opened for us for some reason. First song. I broke the low E string on the bass. There wasn’t another string and the opening band had left (or laughed). Anyway, we played the set anyway without my low E string. 😂
Last show I played. One Guy on the crowd was so drunk he had a fight with all the security staff while We were playing he was kicked out of the venue. Funny thing i didn't notice anything because the lights on the stage and everything happened in the middle of our set. But my wife told me it was crazy and he even broke one of the guards nose. 🤣🤣🤣
Great concept! The stories made me realize that perhaps I haven't had my 'worst gig ever' yet...scary, but intriguing . I recognized most of all musicians shown, so it seems there is a lot of crossover between the viewers of each channel. More collabs in the future, perhaps? Keep up the good work Sammy G.
I’m a venue tech, our nightmare gig was due to 2 drummer both in support bands. One drummer was on coke and started getting confrontational because his set was cut short because no one could find him he spat in my face (during covid) and security did nothing. The other drummer was hammered by 8pm and he was meant to go on and he broke one of our overhead mics (SE X1A) which brought down another one. Totalling around £700 in damages
Not sure if everyone counts church worship music as a "gig," but one night me, another guitar player/singer, and a drummer were supposed to lead the congregational song time. The drummer didn't show up for rehearsal, but instead rolled in about an hour before the service. I asked the other guy to take him through the songs and left (other church responsibilities) and when I came back 5 minutes till go-time the drummer had set up a rack of metal orchestral wind chimes. We normally didn't use any auxiliary percussion, but when I asked my partner he said it went okay during their run-through. It did NOT go okay during the service. Cue the drummer repeatedly and LOUDLY dragging a wooden drumstick through chimes at inappropriate times during quiet songs. I avoided all eye contact the rest of the night. No one sang with us, but they were very entertained.
My nightmare gig story was one of the worst nights of my life. At the end of our last set the apartment complex beside the venue caught fire. We stopped the set and killed the power so the venue didn’t catch fire. The apartment complex was a government funded building for the elderly and developmentally delayed. Band members and people in the crowd were pulling people out of their homes and we ended up losing an open mic regular who had a developmental delay because he ran back inside for his phone. Just a truly horrific night that’s stuck with me for a long time
Mine happened 2 weeks ago it was a verity show and about 45 min before our set I looked at my bass and realized the pickup had fallen out of the casing it is in. Like the black part of the pickup was still in the correct spot but the actual pickup part like the little dots that stick up and the magnetic part fell down into the body of the bass. Luckily I had a screw driver and I found some electrical tape and was able to loosen the strings and take the pickup out and tape it back into the casing and get it back together before the show.
I went to college in New Orleans, and would occasionally play gigs on Bourbon Street. Generally, a mix of rocky versions of the Nola canon, some basic standards (Brown Eyed Girl, Don't Stop Believing, and things like that), and maybe one or two random song we liked. One weekend, I was playing with a group of friends. They'd recruited me the week prior, since their drummer backed out of the gig last minute, so we kept the set list pretty basic. We get to the bar, Friday night, play a few songs. The bar had a sign next to the stage (permanent fixture): "Requests $1, Nola Standards: $4, Saints: Your life's savings". LSU was playing Florida, and people kept tipping $1 and demanding we play their fight songs. None of us knew either. Like, we sort of knew what LSU's sounds like, but didn't go there, and couldn't have picked Florida's out of a lineup. The drunk crowd was just super angry that we kept taking their tips and not playing their requests. Another time, I was dating girl who was in a band. We were both drummers, which was how we'd bonded. She broker her arm and had a couple shows coming up, and she guilted me into filling in until she could play again, since, you know, I was her boyfriend and should clearly have at least paid enough attention to her music to be able to figure it out. And, well, sure, I sort of knew their songs. But, not the names. So, I get the set list before the first gig. We'd rehearsed twice, but they never told me the names, and we didn't rehearse in any particular order. So, first song apparently is supposed to start with a big drum fill, and I didn't realize it, and am just sitting there waiting for a hint to what we're supposed to be playing (yes, I know, the band is supposed to take their cues from me, but, like, it was a messy situation). Another time, I was playing in a summer camp band. I was a counselor, and had decided to play a set with a couple other counselors for the big end of summer camp music festival. Except, it had rained the night before, and the field was super muddy, and they'd set my drum set up with just a couple layers of cardboard under it. A couple other sets had gone before us, so the cardboard was soaked through. I hit the opening crash on the second song, and just send my cymbal flying forward, straight into the mud.
Not really a gig. But when I was 13 I got signed up to be apart of Karaoke night at school and I had no clue I was signed up. Please note: the two bands I listened to at the time were Metallica and Slayer. I got to the Karaoke night, and they were like ‘okay (BeastieRocker) it’s your turn to come up!’ And I was like ‘oh no, I don’t know ANY of todays pop music’. Lo and behold, Kelly Clarkson’s Breakaway starts playing and I didn’t know a single note or lyric. BUT I STILL FINISHED THE SONG!!! Got a lot of kudos but I am still ashamed lol 😅😅😅
huh. Either the time my acoustic duo nearly got caught in a tornado while playing outside on a flatbed truck, or when my '65 Champ fell off of a flatbed truck and got pushed out of shape during halftime of a college football game, or the Christian/non-Christian biker rally(we named the creek running through the field separating them the river Styx) on a flatbe-...I'm sensing a theme here.
Not a nightmare gig, but certainly memorable: Thursday night jam at a now long closed blues club in Humble, Tx….I knew a lot of the people there, including the owners (who had a wide definition of what Blues was) and everyone who knew me also knew that I played guitar. They finally talked me into getting up with the host band for a song or two….then, one night, a now ex friend decided that he wanted in on it BUT would only do one song: FREEBIRD. This is where the memorable part comes in at: I was playing my now long destroyed Lotus telecaster copy (not destroyed by me at the jam, by the way) and did Pete Townshend’s “windmill” move (note to self: keep not wearing a watch) when - WHAM! - I hit one of the knobs on the guitar and bruised my wrist! Another friend, who was working the door there as usual, saw it and busted out laughing at what happened…then he realized that I didn’t have a clue about what I did!
Thankfully my gig was over, and wifey and I were loading the car when an SUV pulled into the intersection, stops, 3 guys with guns rush out and into the bar. I don’t think they were expecting the amount of people that were in there, so they threatened a few people, and left. Thankfully, I got their plate, and they were arrested shortly after. That was fun.
My first ever gig. Small festival, we're the only metal band amongst a lot of hippie folk stuff and bluegrass so already we're the odd guys out. We get told they're running behind so they're cutting our sound check. Not only did they cut our sound check, but the guy running sound just disappeared ten seconds after we get on stage. We started playing and immediately realized we couldn't hear each other at all. Some of our songs ran samples and/or a drum track, totally mistimed those. Pure chaos. Right before our last song the guy returns, we get the monitors up and I'm thankful we saved the 10 minute song for the end.
Played a gig at an incredibly posh yacht club for someone's wedding reception once. Everyone dressed in fancy suits and dresses, celebrating happily until the groom discovered (too late!) that the bride was having a long term passionate affair with someone else in the room and a full on bar fight broke out, complete with furniture flying around, stabbing each other with broken glasses, etc. We just kept playing until the police arrived as we knew if we stepped off stage we'd probably end up in an ambulance. I was splattered in blood by the end of the night, I still found spots of dried blood that I missed on my Strat months later. Thought we wouldn't get paid, but our singer got full payment in the mail a few days later with a bonus on top and a note reading "Terribly sorry about all that, have some drinks on me" hahaha.
![[Live สด] การออกรางวัลสลากกินแบ่งรัฐบาล งวดวันที่ 16 พฤศจิกายน 2567](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/wPd7VFfWHIA/mqdefault.jpg)
Hearing Paul Davids cursing hit me like a truck I wasn’t ready for that 😂😂😂
he's so lovely
I was gonna say 😂😂😂
Yeah it's like thinking about Bob Ross cursing as he tells a story about painting. You just don't expect it. LMAO
Ikr it was a weird moment, he’s usually just so soothing
@@elisabethherzog9369 I think he was extremely soothing to hear talk regardless. Paul David's for life, lol.
My worst story didn't come from a gig, just from a small jam session at a bar, the kind of thing where you write down your name and get called up to play a song or two with people you don't know. You don't get a lot of time to figure out what you're going to play beforehand, so we had to settle for just a few chords over and over again without much variation. As we start playing the song, it quickly becomes clear that the drummer is a little off. He would stay on beat for 10-15 seconds, then try a fill and lose the rhythm, causing all of us to stumble. Regardless, we were still keeping it together for the most part, but after about 2-3 minutes of the same 3 chords the audience was losing interest. The bassist and I noticed this and wanted to close out the tune, but every time we tried the drummer just kept going, so we had to keep playing along with him. The bassist repeadly tried to talk to the drummer and tell him to finish up, but it was useless, he wouldn't acknowledge us at all.
At this point, the song had overstayed its welcome by at least 2 minutes, and we were getting as bored as the audience, so the bassist and I just completely stopped playing. Instead of taking this as a signal that the song was over, the drummer apparently thought that this was his chance in the spotlight, and proceeded to take the loudest, most ridiculous drum solo I have ever heard in my life. This goes on for 30 seconds.... and then another 30.... and then another, and the guy is showing no signs of stopping, despite the fact that at least 3 different people are yelling at him to wrap it up. I can't stress enough how oblivious this guy was, literal armageddon could be happening outside and he would still be wailing on the kit like it owed him money. After TWO AND A HALF MINUTES of uninterrupted drums, the people running the jam had to drag him off the kit and kick him out of the bar, and I've never seen him again.
Thats hilarious. Im sure it wasnt back then, but reading this is definetly hilarious
That drummer sounds like one I know, although he hasn't ever been THAT bad that I've seen.
Yeah, I've seen this kind of thing before... a musician gets his one chance that year to play to an audience and, in his enthusiasm, proceeds to ruin the experience for themselves... and everyone else. Leave the audience wanting more would be the appropriate behaviour but that, sadly, isn't always the outcome.
Totally worth it, I'll do it again.
@@NedJeffery YOU
I once got a call at 7am asking me if I could fly to [a country] without a visa because their drummer had pulled out literally the night prior to do another gig. I had no visa restrictions holding me back, so by noon, I get sent a flight ticket and I'm heading out that evening to play a 7 or 8 hour long gig the next day - no rehearsal and I've never met the rest of this band. It's already an absolute nightmare as I'm listening to this playlist on the plane, making cheat notes for all the songs I'd never played before.
So we get to the venue and sort of out in this field in the hills. Absolutely stunning, but it's like an OSHA nightmare. I mean, it was a birthday party for some wealthy individual so I wasn't really expecting a professional set up, but I was concerned about the stage collapsing.
No bother, we had a brief run through some specifics at sound check and start our set. It's going relatively OK considering the complete lack of preparation and playing with an entirely new band. The guitarist, the band leader, was cueing me into all their hits and things were going swimmingly. As the night progressed, people are getting really into it and also very very inebriated. We had people jumping on the stage and dancing, hanging out behind the stage and so on.
At some point though this really really drunk guy walks up to me from behind the stage and starts trying to have a conversation with me in broken english whilst I'm playing. He asks me to play - I can't remember if it was "Summer of 69" or "When you Say Nothing at All" but it was one of those types of songs. Now we're playing funk, Motown, reggae and some top of the charts type of stuff because that's what we were hired to do, so I politely decline, but he was tenacious. I asked him to go speak to the band leader to get him off my back. The gig is hard enough as it is.
He goes away for a bit and then as I'm playing, I feel something prodding my back and I turn around and notice that this gentleman's got a pistol pressed at my back. The band leader's cueing me into the next song and I'm eagerly yelling "Let's play Summer of 69 (or whatever his request was)!" and he looks at me incredulously and starts the next song. The guy behind me starts yelling "where the fuck is my song? WHy are you not playing my song!??!?" I still have a gun pointed at me whilst the gentleman was getting worked up and luckily for me, the bassist happened to walk up to the drum kit to see what the commotion was all about, saw this and yeah we played his song after seamlessly blending what we started with into that. That guy's drunken, off-key voice was echoing in the hills, as he sang at the top of his lungs.
Turns out, the wealthy guy who hired us was actually either some sort of Mafia person or affiliated with them. One gig I will never ever forget.
lol I’m from New Jersey and I’m in a band I’m terrified this will happen to me someday.
Thanks for posting my story! :)
@@polcat79 lol. I would be inviting people to sing those same 3 songs (since that was my whole repertoire)
Fun video man! Thanks for letting me be like the one nonguitarist! 😅
My grandparents had a gospel group. They played easy 3 chord songs. We got a gig at a restaurant playing for a bunch of ANCIENT people. No one there under 80. And what does my teenage self bring to play on this gig? A neon yellow ibanez shred guitar, a 5 watt tube half stack amp, and this big digitech multi effects pedal. We started playing ONE song which was Amazing Grace and the people kept telling us TURN IT DOWN TURN IT DOWN and finally we were so quiet we could barely hear ourselves play and after the song was over they finally just told us to leave. We didn't get paid.
Why didn't you just turn down somewhat? Serious question. Just to a moderate volume I guess.
Been there , Done that several times. There is nothing worse. We had a Gospel Group managed by my Father and he was always booking Gigs like that.
@@darrelferns8969. If you read the comment he says they turned everything down and they still complained.
Imagine having long hair! Man I have been in several instances where people told me to cut my hair and I'd be more talented or more refined. I never paid them any attention and I'm still touring to this day. I feel ya, been there man!
bro ive done a fusian gig at an old folks home for charity and i had to set my guitar so low that the sound of me hitting the strings was louder than what was coming out of the amp
My nightmare gig only happened a few months ago. Our singer had a stroke right at the outro of our last song. Saw him sat on the floor next to the drums, and could barely speak. I called 911. He was in the ICU for 2 weeks and eventually died 😢. I didn’t know him for too long. It was only our 3rd gig, but it was still really sad
WTF. I broke a string once right after stepping on my cord and unplugging my guitar. So... you win!
@@sdpnz yea, I just plugged my guitar back in and started the song over.
ah I love these funny stories aha
You win.
@@drumboarder1that’s a kinda weird reaction to have to someone dying on stage but ok I guess
My fave gig moment was playing to a bunch of Mormons (when I was one). This dude gets on stage expecting a great reaction to jumping into the crowd. As he jumped off, the crowd parted in fear and he landed squarely on all the plastic chairs. This was over 20 years ago and still one of the funniest moments on stage ever.
Haha, I hope I get to see that one day. 😂
As someone who is very familiar with Mormon culture, I can picture this perfectly. 😆
@@haleyconant Do you know who Alex Boye is? Cuz that's who I was playing with which, to me, makes it so much funnier. We were literally playing R&B versions of hymns.
@Secily Anderson wow, that's amazing but so cringy at the same time.
I once volunteered with some friends to sing Christmas carols at an adult daycare center for dementia and Alzheimer’s patients. I played guitar and we sang about 7 or so carols before asking for requests of songs we had not yet played. I’m not joking when I say we played a couple songs 2-3 times that day! That part was funny, but I did enjoy seeing those folks sing along!
I once had to repeat my name to an Alzheimer patient every 15 minutes for days on end. I feel you, all that matters is that they enjoy it. ❤
I was playing in a hockey arena at a college about 10 miles from the college I was going to. They were trying to do a festival-type thing with all the local college bands. It started off nightmarish from the get go.
Our drummer always used to carry around a handheld tape recorder because he wanted samples of sounds for his own thing. We were hanging back stage with a few of the other bands when our drummer walked in and was like, "Check this shit out..." and pressed play. The tape played and we heard him walking up to the sound guy, who was just some college kid with a dollop of power, but he was going to make sure we all tasted it. Our drummer starts up by saying, "Hey man, just wanted to check to see how long our set will..." and before he could finish the sentence, the sound guy POUNCED on him, "I'VE HEARD ABOUT YOU GUYS, AND I HEARD YOU'RE GOING TO PULL SOME SHIT, SO I'M WATCHING YOU. YOU HAVE 20 MINUTES AND THEN YOU'RE DONE, AT 21 MINUTES WE'RE CUTTING YOUR AUDIO, YOU GOT THAT?" Our drummer stuttered out some, "I don't know what you think you heard, but we're not like that..." but they guy just yelled more.
So already we hated this guy, and so did all the other musicians back stage.
So we get to our set. They were trying to be all professional, so they had a crew set up all our gear for us. We had to go over our pedals, amps, etc with them ahead of time. I hit the stage, we start our first song, and I can't hear shit. I'm fiddling with my volume on my guitar, my amp, nothing. Finally at the end of the song, I kneel down to check the pedals. One of the patch cables was 1/4" out. I pushed it in *POP hummmmm* FUCK.
Finally, they had us up on a stage about 5 feet up from the floor. The sound guy set up his gear about 10 feet from the front of the stage. All the sound from the speakers was going right over his head, so everything sounded like GARBAGE for every band. We were pissed. The monitor mix sucked, the main mix sucked, there was a heatwave of hate coming from the sound guy, and we were sending it right back. Finally, for our last song, my buddy who was singing just looked at me and shouted, "SONIC DESTRUCTION!" I stomped on every pedal I had and took my guitar off and started humping the amp with it. My buddy was just abusing his guitar. Our bassist was slapping all the strings. The keyboardist knocked his keyboard to the floor and started mashing it. The drummer kicked over his kit. I leaned my guitar up against the amp and we all walked off stage to ear-piercing squeals.
Fuck that guy. Fuck that show.
Here's mine: I was hired for $500 to play 2 hours on a birthday. Day itself, guests loved it so much and many came up to sing (terribly) while I accompanied them on the guitar. Husband of the birthday lady saw everybody having fun and said he wanted to double the duration of the performance. I told him that it'd cost another $400 which he agreed to. Party's over, guy's piss drunk and when it came time to pay up, he said he didn't remember me saying it'd be a total of $900.
He then tried to pick a fight and threw $700 on the table and told me to take it or leave it. Proceeded to make a scene at venue until the wife came over to check out what was happening. After I told her what happened, she sheepishly handed me another $200 while the husband was shouting to the entire restaurant that he'd ruin my reputation and tell everybody he knows never to engage me for musical services.
I’m glad you got paid😊
genuine question bc I don't know how pricing gigs work, why did you charge that much?
I'm a drummer. My worst gig was outdoors at a private party in rural Louisiana. It was spring and a quick thunderstorm turned into a wind storm with 80 kph gusts. My crash cymbals flew off the stage, the Marshall half stack tipped over and the keyboard stand was swaying. I ended up asking a couple of guests to hold the cymbal stands for a few songs until we had to stop due to a tornado watch. On top of that, they refused to pay us the full amount because we only played 45 minutes of the 2 hour set.
A friend of mine had a band going when he was about 18. They won a battle of the bands at one of the larger venue/hotels in the area and part of the prize was four well paid Sunday afternoon gigs. I went to their first one and helped them set up and I was a bit excited for them. Time came around for them to start and they blazed int their first song, Born To Be Wild, absolutely killed it and when they finished the song there was no applause, they did get a response though, some old bloke yelled out. "Fair enough fellas, we're trying to watch the golf on the TV"
I used to play with a band where our singer and guitar player was also touring as a solo act.
When we were together the three of us performed as a hard rock band.
One day we got booked for a lunch room gig.
We were VERY mismatched for the room (it was a café somewhere around my home town).
Also, during our show, there was a world cup match going on.
So they put the game on while we were playing.
There was no stage, so we ended up standing in front of a big TV, playing a set that was way to loud for the room, to maybe 5 people wo just wanted to watch a football game.
In the 80s I was in a soft-ish rock band in which we did covers. We got gigs by dropping into bars during the day and letting the manager listen to a demo tape we'd made. The tape was truly representative of what we did live. So we got this gig in some bar none of us had ever heard of, got all set up, and started playing. The crowd was polite at first, then everyone was completely talking over us and ignoring us. We were a decent little group and had never been completely ignored before. During the first break, the manager comes up and says "Ya know, this is a country bar, and people want to hear country music". We were like WTF??? Collectively, we kinda knew (but had never rehearsed) a few country songs - like maybe 6. We stumbled through the second set, making up the playlist on the fly. At the end of the second set, we packed up. The crowd seemed to be perfectly fine with that. The manager paid us for the 4 sets we'd planned to do.
rawhide !
@@williamwilson-ks7vn Yes! I was thinking this was similar to a scene from the Blues Brothers. Only thing missing was the chain link cage.
@@Bacopa68 In 1973 I played a bar in northern Wyoming that had chicken wire across the front of the stage, we needed it. And yes we were a hard rock band in a country bar. We muddled our way through every Credence Clearwater song we could think of, never played them before. Rough night.
My worst gig was when my then band and I played the 2007 Queen's Christmas Ball in a 5 star hotel for the UK Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. We were hired because we were the only expat band in town. We had rehearsed quite a bit, building a big setlist as were supposed to play for 2 or 3 hours, including an intricate medley of Xmas pop songs. The plan was to play some bluesy jazzy tunes while 200 or so diplomats in tuxedos and fancy gowns were having diner for which they had all paid like 300£. We would then kick off the party by turning it up and get people dancing. Which worked well. For about 10 minutes. As I strummed the very first chord of that Xmas medley, I saw the DJ opening his laptop and hitting play. I never got to the second chord. I asked the DJ what the fuck he was doing and he told me "let me just play one song!" I thought "fuck that" and slammed my (cheap copy) Strat on the ground and storm off the stage in a fury. We were so pissed we just destroyed the conference room that we were using as a backstage. A few moments later, the DJ, a diplomat himself, came to me, apologising profusely. Turned out the British Ambassador thought the party was running a bit behind and ask him to start his set right away. The poor guy had nothing he could to but follow his boss's order. Terrible gig but such a great memory.
Paul davids' video quality is always good no matter where he appears, that's phenomenal 😂
My worst gig was at a fair near my hometown. We got the gig because the dad of our singer had some connections with the organisers. We were pretty inexperienced and had only played 2 shows so far (One was only for friends in our rehearsal room), but her dad told us it was alright. They wanted to give a newly formed band a chance. We would play for half an hour and the next band would come up.
Because we were so inexpierenced we wanted to show up really early for soundcheck. The problem was that the guy setting up the PA was not there yet. So we had to wait for him and set up in 10 min while the crowd was already in front of the stage. For an experienced band, this wouldn´t be that bad, but for us it was horrible. We had no idea where to plug in our cables our even get power for the amps. When the Soundguy finally showed up he wasn´t around all that much. We had to go off the stage and ask him questions all the time, because he didn´t just stay with us throughout the process.
So anyway, we were already stressed out and started to play our songs. At that moment I realized that our choice of songs wasn´t the best to put it lightly. We played some RocknRoll stuff and that was alright, but we also had some Goth Metal stuff. You know, heavy, distorted, kind of depressing. Not the right mood for a fair where everyone was drunk and expecting folk and Pop songs. We played alright but the crowd clearly wasn´t into the metal stuff (Can´t blame them). At that point the organiser came up and told us we had only time for one song, because the next band needed time for the soundcheck. We were shocked by this, because we were 20min in our set and had three more songs. After some discussion we decided we would play the last song on our setlist. It was a blues song in Open G. I had already prepared a spare guitar so I wouldn´t have to retune, but our second guitarist didn´t and had to retune. So, i started the song and a little later he joined in. That´s when we both realised his guitar was out of tune. And by out of tune i mean he tuned it a half step up. We looked at each other in shock and all i could do was just keep going. So i just played the song and he tried his best to just improvise on the high E string. For some reason he wasn´t even standing, but sitting on the stage. I can´t remember why, maybe his strap broke. I couldn´t even hear what he was playing and neither could the audience.
So we clumsily finish our set and get of the stage as fast as possible to make way the the other band. Seemed like they really needed the time to soundcheck, if we had to finish our set early,right? Yeah, they showed up after 15mins and didn´t start to soundcheck after 15 more. Naturally we were pretty pissed. I figured they just wanted us off the stage. I mean yeah, our song choices weren´t that fitting, but if you say you want to support young bands and get them some stage experience you should follow up on that promise. Prepare for the worst or let it be. We were told we would get free drinks at the bar, so dissapointed as i was, i went there and ordered a drink and the bartender said it was 4 Euros. I told him i was part of the band. He looked at me and said 5 Euros. Well...maybe i deserved that one.
The bartender had no chill bruuuuuuuh😭😭😭😭
Well. This sounds like a pretty good learning experience in all honesty. :) I get why you were pissed but this is how we learn to not make the same mistakes.
By no means a nightmare gig- just a quirky recurring character but I used to busk with a jazz quartet and this man who was homeless would sometimes come with a walking stick that he would bang on the ground next to us repeatedly. He wasn’t very good and people watching us would slowly start to walk away when he joined. We learned that the only way to get him to leave was to play songs that were too fast for him to tap along to. Turns out playing a bit of Tenor Madness at 250bpm was a good way to bring back the crowd anyways
Jazz artists , always gatekeeping... lol!
Played a faux Victoria's Secret-esque show with a 20m runway so I was told to "bring a big cable". They changed the set time with no advance warning so I dashed there with no rehearsal and just in time to go on, no soundcheck or anything. I wasn't even sure if I'd have an amp. It was at that point I realised we had no monitors or amps because it ruined the 'aesthetic,' but our drummer was on an electric kit! We were literally listening to the echo coming back off this large hall for timing, it was horrifically out of time.
Then they ushered me down the walkway so I went with my massive cable giving it some rockstar 101 poses. It was at that moment they sent all the models down the catwalk, a catwalk that couldn't fit them and me on it. I had to squeeze past them all as my cable dragged behind and caught all their heels. Models flying everywhere, music out of time, singer saw the writing on the wall and just started shouting random Scottishisms, set cut to one song.
We didn't get paid.
My highschool talent show, full auditorium. I'm using someone else's gear. I'm playing the live version of Eruption and the cord fell out of my guitar not once but twice. 25 years later, my buddy still brings it up.
My worst gig experience is my only gig experience; which was last year. I have a friend who I like to jam with, and he got a gig renovating a space his friend had just leased for a restaurant and venue spot. My friend would invite me over to help out with stuff, since I'm a carpenter, and to jam in the stage area when all was said and done each day. One day his friend walks in and hears me playing, then starts to reminisce about the days when he had a 90's rock cover band. He said he was actually considering reviving the band for his new restaurant/venue spot, and would I be interested. 90s rock is where started my guitar journey, so I naturally agreed. Why not?
I meet the band and throughout practice sessions it becomes quite clear that none of them have done this in quite a while; around five years, in fact. The drummer was still on top of his game. Everyone thought I was the most talented person in the group (which should already be a sign of bad things to come), but the drummer could literally listen to a track on his phone and then just have it down, beat for beat. He was incredible. If Joe didn't know - or hadn't even heard a certain song - he could have it in the 3-5 minutes it takes to listen to the song. The man was a phenomenon. I LOVED just playing with Joe.
The rhythm guitarist/singer/frontman - the friend of the friend, the one who leased the gig space - played "by ear". And when I quote "by ear" I mean that he played what he thought was going on. Is it a C, is it a G? It's whatever he wants it to be. God forbid we drop an extension on a chord. When I would play the song to my very exacting standards, he would stop the song and ask me what **I** was playing. To his credit, he acknowledged that I actually learned the songs, and would then try to teach himself to play those chords; but his chords were so cemented in his mind that it was difficult for him to learn the correct way.
He had a lyric book. A giant binder for all of the lyrics, so that he wouldn't forget them; though that didn't stop him from doing so.
His wife played bass, and she hadn't touched a bass since their last performance five years prior; literally. She not only had to relearn their songs, but had to relearn how to play the bass.
I mean not to dismiss the frontman or bassist, though. They were very welcoming people, though I don't believe then was the correct time to start up their old band with everything else going on in their private lives; which was a lot.
We practiced only once a week for maybe an hour or two. Not nearly enough time for me to get to know them nor them to get to know me. Not nearly enough time for us to get these songs together as a cohesive unit. We were expected to learn the songs individually and then just have them down for performance night. So we practiced about 8-10 times before show time. A total of maybe 15 hours of practice.
Also throughout all of this time I was trying to establish a live sound. I had never played for an audience. My "rig" was a Crate amp head and a friggin 15" bass speaker cabinet. At home, I just played through amp modelling software on my PC. The head and cab I just had because sometimes I wanted to play loud; even though the tone was terrible. So I sank $2,000 into searching for a decent live rig; which finally boiled down to installing my amp modelling software on a laptop I had bought specifically for playing with the band, and buying a foot controller/IO combo to run to the house mixer board. It still sounded great, but it was not what they were used to with a traditional amp-based guitarist.
Show day comes, and no sound check. WE DIDN'T DO A SOUNDCHECK. I asked if we would, and they were like "No, it's fine." WE WERE ADJUSTING SOUND DURING "MAN IN THE BOX" DURING THE SHOW BECAUSE NO ONE COULD HEAR MY GUITAR, AND GUESS WHAT WAS THE ***ONLY*** THING PEOPLE COULD HEAR FOR THE *REST* OF THE SHOW AFTER ADJUSTMENTS; ME. And my sound is very Mick Mars-y. So people were being blasted with a bass/treble, chug/grind, left/right mix with hardly anything else audible but the mic on the bass drum.
The singer was still missing chords and forgetting lyrics, even though he had his giant lyric binder in front of his microphone. And all of his downtime banter was falling flat.
Into the second half of the first verse of the first song, the singer looks at me and makes a talking motion with his hand, implying I should be singing with him. First off, none of these songs were duets, and, secondly, how am I to play lead AND sing? Who do you think I am? If you wanna call me talented, whatever; that's, like, your opinion, man. But, I'm sure as hell not talented enough to run lead lines AND sing. PLUS, my mic would cut in and out throughout the night anyway (which really sucked for "Man In the Box", because he butchered those choruses, and my mic just happened to have cut out for that entire song - which also rendered my Talk Box useless. Wah saved the day).
Throughout all of our practice sessions I would lament my solo for "Sweet Child O' Mine" because I'm honestly just not that good. I had every part completely down except for the second half of the solo where Slash just rips. I'm not that good, I'm not at all fast, and I'm sure as hell not Slash. I like to play electric, but a lot of my focus is on acoustic. I have pretty much no lead chops outside of widdling on some scales, and ZERO improv skills on lead. I am most definitely a rhythm guitarist. NO ONE saw my MANY cues to end the solo, and I'm getting quite embarrassed at my lackluster pentatonic widdling until finally Joe brings us back to the chorus.
Several times throughout the night the bassist wasn't even playing because she would get so lost in where we were and where she was at. Poor girl should have never been thrown in the ring like that, but her husband pushed her.
Joe, of course, was on top of everything. That man was a clock. I feel so bad for him, because he was easily the most talented person on stage that night. To me, I feel we failed him; though I tried my greatest not to let him down.
We have an intermission. No one seems to care to talk to anyone in the band. We come come back, and over half of the people are just gone. I count 13 people in the audience. I couldn't help but laugh. We play a few songs, and I rush into the last three because it was my job to start them anyway. I just wanted to be done and out of there. If that's live performance, then I never want to do it again.
Additionally, the only person who told me personally that they would definitely be there never showed up. I even saved them a table right by the stage like they asked me to. Constantly looking over at that empty table all night was a huge bummer. And, lastly, we were supposed to have more shows, so I left a lot of my stuff there in the storage areas for future practices and shows. We never had another practice or show. When I came back to finally grab all of my stuff, roughly $500 worth of my stuff had disappeared.
Terrible experience. 3/10. Do not recommend.
My worst gig… 1987 I was in the military stationed in North Carolina and was in a cover band that play classic rock & hard rock, we were hired to open a brand new “club” that we had never heard of. We had a local following so people knew what music we played. We must’ve driven 10 miles of country dirt roads to get to “the club.” We arrived to find a corrugated metal barn like structure, and three big farm tractors parked around it. We went to set up in the“ club “ and it was nothing but dirt floor, and hay bales all around for seats, the stage was a bunch of pallets with plywood put on top up. All I could think about was chicken wire bar scene from the Blues Brothers movie when they played the theme from the TV show Rawhide over and over. To the side of the building three guys were dressing, a deer that had been killed earlier, not creepy at all… Four songs into our set (classic 60/70/80s rock) An enormous guy wearing overalls and no shirt stood in front of the stage screaming play FREEBIRD! We stopped mid song because overalls guy got the 40 or so other people in the crowd to start a FREEBIRD chat. None of us knew FREEBIRD, but we knew Molly Hatchet, 38 Special, ZZ Top and some Hank Williams Jr. The owner who hired us ran to the stage and told us to play every southern rock song we knew, so we played every song we knew twice (no breaks) packed up our gear as quickly as possible and left.
damn, Aimee Nolte's story is actually chilling...
He was probably just lonely and out of touch but yeah definitely creepy
@@Benry1 that is textbook serial killer...
My worst gig story was pretty recent, my band was booked to play on a bill with 2 other bands, we were told we'd be playing second and seeing as two of my bandmates had work beforehand and i had severely injured my ankle a few days prior, it sounded perfect. Fast forward to about 5min before the opener, we get a message that the headliner messed up the set times and both us and the next band were told we were on second. To make matters worse neither us or the other band had all their members at the venue yet. So our bassist and drummer improv for about 5-10min (the set times got pushed back already) before I hobble in the door on crutches and set up my guitar and amp as fast as humanly possible, no time to tune, I strum an Emaj, it sounds close enough, and we launch into a 30min set played in only 10. To say our bassist was pissed would be the understatement of the year, but at least we got free beer.
There was a billiards hall/arcade that did live music and had a tiny closed off bar area in one corner, I got kicked out for being "too young" as a 19 year old right after set with band i was playing with ended. Most of the people in that place were younger than me as it was mainly an arcade. they also refused to pay the $200 whole dollars they were supposed to give band for playing. couple months later they were shut down for underage drinking.
This was the worst pre gig thing that happened to me was two years ago. My band got asked to play a 30 minute set with three other bands on Halloween night at a new up and coming venue. That was only the second time in my 30 years of live performing that I had a chance to play on Halloween so I was stoked. We decided to rehearse one last time a few hours before the show. The drummer who we had problems with already after 30 minutes hadn't shown up to rehearsal yet. I called and he had had a fight with his girlfriend and he said he wouldn't do the show. The bass player and I went through the set list and picked six songs the two of us could do without a drummer. We were just getting ready to go to the bar and drummer called and said he could play so I was relieved. The bass player and I got to the bar and the drummer called again and said he couldn't play. We did the set and it went well and the crowd loved us. We had another gig at the same bar booked a month and half later which our drummer did play but then he pushed us too far with his antics a month after that and we finally fired him.
This is legit a true story. Back in 2000-2001, I was living in Ohio and met a local band. After a couple of ham sessions, I somehow ended up their lead singer and lead guitarist... except that I don't consider myself much of a singer, and I only play rhythm guitar. So I'm having to learn different lead riffs, by ear as I can't read music all that well. Stuff like Free Bird and Black Magic Woman.
We somehow started getting gigs, and with all my gigs, I always had three different bottles with me on stage. One was vodka/OJ, one was Crown Royal/Coke, and the other was plain water. Now, most shows went off without a hitch, as far as I knew... until our last gig together. I got laryngitis day of the show, so my buddy suggests something he called a hot toddy - 4oz of Crown Royal, lemon juice and honey, nuked for 40 seconds in the microwave, and then you'd chug the whole thing in one shot. It actually worked but I needed a nap. Wake up, make my bottles as usual, do the show... and it's starts being obvious I'm slurring a little/lot. Next thing I remember is waking up in the van with everyone in the band giving me shit for getting drunk on stage... and this is when I was told... during an AA charity gig.
The irony, oh the irony.
That toddy recipe is an abomination. I don't know whats worse using a microwave or crown.
@@terrancat It was pretty nastyadmittedly BUT it did work lol
Nightmare gig was through my music school. They had a rockband class and the last time I took the class it was a horrible time. I signed up as the guitarist, and was asked to move to the drums to allow space for others with the understanding that I’d get to trade off for one or two songs. I was the only one who really made much of an effort to communicate via email. The singer was absent for the first three classes. The guitarist held us back because they never cast their votes for songs until they were in the rehearsal studio, meaning nobody had the chance to look at the music sheets before coming in. Because the instructor wasn’t familiar with drums I was on my own to figure out the songs. Come show time, we’re the opening act, and we open for one of the school’s introductory bands (who don’t normally play the rockband shows). For a while I thought of just starting the set by counting the band in and then walking off stage in front of everyone. I figured if they were going to make this miserable for me, I’d ruin the rockband experience for the rest of the band
Great video idea, cool seeing all those anecdotes! I also have a retirement-home story. Had a student in her 60s who kept asking me to play at the home where she worked. Eventually I relented, only to find this was a retirement home for the mentally infirm, which frankly was putting it mildly. So I went through a set of soothing classical pieces, my wedding gig repertoire. Now my student had brought along a friend, who frankly also had seen better years mental-health-wise. She started heckling me, demanding something more upbeat. Then she wanted Christmas tunes. It wasn't Christmas. Someone found a Christmas fake-book and I died a little inside, but hosted a Christmas singalong. Ever see that movie "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest? Yeah . . .
The heckling got worse, she started making racist comments which I tried to sidestep, which only made her more belligerent. There's more, but this is a family channel. Ultimately she was banned from the rest-home, I kid you not. Total dollars earned, zero, but at least I have a story.
Heeeyyy Sammy G! I was (and am) so happy to have met you in person at NAMM. Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts and hanging for a bit afterwards. And as I said, give us a read here in the comments, and don't give the haterz the power to get you down. The rest of us (the majority, btw) definitely love and appreciate what you do!!
My gig horror story took place around the late 2000's at a battle of the bands thing. I subbed for a drummer at a punk band. I never really got the feel of playing punk (or drums for that matter), so I wasn't really comfortable. We nonetheless decided it was a good idea to get totally drunk and high (I was around 17 so I wasn't able to set boundaries for myself). Anyway, we started the punk gig and only halfway through the first song I noticed there was no tension on the snare drum. I tried to signal the stagehand to come switch the lever on the snare (while I was playing), but I managed to hit him on the head really hard with my drum sticks while he was fiddling with the lever. He then fell face first in my crotch and rolled down to my feet, obstructing the pedals and preventing me from playing. He got up, slapped me in the back of the head, the band stopped playing and didn't help whatsoever, and we tried to resume the song without proper counting in. I was still very drunk/high and full of fearful adrenaline, which didn't improve my drumming. I quit drumming soon after that Anyway, i play jazz/funk bass now and all is well.
10th grade I threw together a band for the upcoming school jazz concert and I was the singer I had my mic and my guitar hooked up to a looper hooked to the mixer through the same chord. Sound check went amazingly, I even tested the mic and volume of the guitar right before we started playing with the signature "test test". Needless to say as soon as the first song started one of my chords fried itself as soon as sound went through it. I was yelling the lyrics and strumming my silent guitar like a madman.
Lol, my wife and I work in a nursing home. We’ve often talked about playing for the residents, me guitar and her vocals. I could definitely see some of our residents behaving similar to the one in your story. Great video, keep it up.
Worst gig experience by far was back when I was 19. I was a big fan of Black Label Society at the time and I wore a hoody with their logo on the back for a gig we did in a pretty rough venue with a very rowdy audience. Gig went well and we were at the bar afterwards getting beers when a guy came up to me and asked if he could speak to me outside. My first thought was that he wanted to tell me he was psyched on our music but when we got outside it turned out he was in some biker gang that apparently were upset with Black Label Society as they thought they'd ripped off their logo. He then told me that unless I took the hoody off he was going to stab me! Some other dudes overheard and got involved, it all got a bit messy and we ended up throwing all our gear into the van and beat a very hasty retreat. I then heard a few weeks later that another gang had heard about it and I was told that the guy 'wouldn't be bothering me again'. Definitely don't want to repeat that one again!
My old man had his strap slip off of the Les Paul my mom gave him while on stage. Still got the dent in the headstock.
Our nightmare gig was when we showed up early and set up to find out that the sound guy didn't have any cables for sound, kept hitting on our singer and pissed everyone off. We named him, "Craig." (Whenever anything bad happens, it's Craig's fault).
Loving these stories 😆Ol' Sammy G keeping the connection with our favorite yt'ers on a relatable level is such a relief.
Seeing Zach here was such a surprise! Family family family
FAMILY
It surprised me too! We got zilly zonkad
I'm in a Bruno Mars style cover band. Shiny suits, horn section, dance steps, all that. We do a private party out on a farm. They brought a flat bed trailer as the stage and put it about 100 yards from the closest power source...in July...in Florida. We get set up and do a sound check. We start our dance moves, and the trailer starts rolling away. They didn't put brakes or chocks to keep it in place. Abandon ship. Get makeshift chocks and no dance steps that night. Then an unexpected hurricane-esque storm comes in and ends the gig early.
Thank God though, the gear didn't get wet because the woman running the party came up mid song and said, "Y'all need to stop NOW. Storm's coming." We did the fastest load up of all time, and 1/2 mile down the road driving, the storm hit like crazy.
My worst gig: Pumpkinfest in Waterford, On. Playing a family festival at 5pm while being a punk band is brutal.
Craziest gig: the first time playing a biker gang club house. We played 3 45min sets, and when we finished they made us play them all again. At one point we were doing Santeria and a full patch H.A. comes on stage and starts singing along/dancing and making us all super uneasy (anyone else would have been kicked in the ass or hip bumped off stage but not really an option in this situation). Luckily one of his clubmates came and escorted him off... after another 2 songs.
Well that's what you get for killing chickens, don't mess with voodoo🔮
We love Zach and his weird superstitions. We need more of him
My nightmare gig..big open air festival. Huge stage. Our slot came up, hit into 1st song and we couldn't hear a thing on stage! Played the whole 30 minute slot without being able to hear what the others were playing. It turned out that a member of the audience went up to the sound booth and claimed he was our sound guy and proceeds to play around with the faders and eq!!! 😮
My worst gig was when my old band played a gig in August of 2017. We played over our stop time to the point I had nearly lost my voice, and the owner docked our pay by $100 because there was no crowd at the bar. I was so upset that I had to pull over because I started crying on the drive home.
There's no crying! There's no crying in baseball!
I did an almost two hour celtic rock gig standing up behind a sited drunken guy who had pulled out his johnson and was using it as a guitar. Despite our best efforts, it was impossible to kick him out of stage. But I guess that's a common risk when you play in a rugby festival. So we ended up playing anyway, and that was a pretty fun gig. My new unwanted pedalboard was really wierd tough, as the bass player mentionned.
Played a show once at a 400 capacity venue where the only people there were the staff, the other band, and our one friend (we were very young and it was our first tour so we didn't do a great job with the booking process). Partway through our set, one of the owners drunkenly walks in and sits down on a barstool. We have a song about cat calling, and as soon as we started playing it he started yelling at us "I can call you whatever the hell I want" and "don't tell me what I can or can't say" and then proceeded to actively cat call us for the rest of the set, until he became so drunk that he actually fell off of his barstool and had to be rushed out to an ambulance. YIKES.
My worst "gig" was in a wedding. I am a violinist and was hired to play the Wedding March for the bride. They had hired an entire team and whatever (whom we had no relation to, we were just there to play the March), and mind that it was a catholic family so it was taking placing in a church. I got there with my friend who was going to accompanny me in a electric keyboard, and he bought with him a small amp, just for his keyboard as we didn't know the team that was working there. We where the first ones to get there; the team and the priest hadn't arrived yet, so he plugged the amp in and turned it on, and we started practicing a bit.
Then, the priest and the team arrived - the priest was fuming because there were people playing very loudly in the church (us), started screaming with the sound engineer because he entered running into the church and because we had "disrespected" him by bringing that gear, which resulted in him not wanting to give the keys for the place where the churche's sound system was kept. The manager of the team that was organizing the wedding was very angry with us; but the sound engineer was very understanding and also very angry too because he knew that we had no bad intentions. He fought with his manager and with the priest, and it was a very bad night all around. We played the March, took our things, apologized again and left.
When my band was still a duo, we got regular gigs at a coffee shop downtown, playing about every other week, two hour sets, decent money coming in. Once we got a full band together, we were told at least once every performance that we were too loud. There was one gig where they finally didn't tell us to turn it down, so we thought that was a good sign. Day of the next gig, we found out that we were fired for being too loud.
Sammy! We played a show in Derby, UK once where there was a dead dog "buried" in the drywall of the venue, which was run by ex-circus folk (who I caught having intercourse in the hallway post-show) and we spent the night "sleeping" in a dilapidated room packed with old pint bottles which were filled with piss and mold and it was all topped off by that dead dog smell. Jeez. It sounds extra weird when I type it all out like that.
It was weird as soon as you mentioned the dead dog.
@@NedJeffery 😂
@@NedJeffery True lol, probably shoulda saved that for the big finale.
7:51 The moment Sammy G just explodes with laughter made my day :-D Pls never change!
I love Steve Vai's sick as hell in boiling New Mexico Zappa gig story.
My worst gig was a graded gig for school. The drummer didn't turn up and didn't tell anyone. I also had a hard time finding a suitable guitar for my guitarist that would stay in tune. Still passed, though. I have quite good on-stage charisma, so I think that helped saved the band's ass.
Edit: After that, I left the band. However, I had to rejoin it for my grade.
Not really a nightmare, but a great memory: the first gig I ever played, when I was 15 or so. A friend and I wanted to form a band, he played piano, I played the bass. And we knew a few musicians, with whom we jammed and finally, we got a gig. At a youth dance of our local church. So we called up a drummer friend and a guitarist, met on that afternoon and "rehearsed" our songs.
When it was time for us, we started playing and I guess we were awful. By the third song the audience had left the room and during the 4th song they shut us down. The guitarists told us not to call him ever again, when he left but we managed to get a real band together over time, which existed for a few years. And we got a good laugh of this - one of the worst things that can happen already had happened to us, so it could only go up. 😁
My last gig with my former band went like this: small stage, new equipment (used my helix for the first time live, plus in ear system for the first time too). My knowledge was severely lacking about technical stuff, got no signal from my Helix, also couldn't hear anything through my in ear. We were already running late on time, the whole gig was 20 minutes, and the soundcheck was only 20 minutes too. Needles to say we needed significantly more time than that, we had to cut out one song from our 3 song setlist, and i had to play without my in ear.
My first proper gig I was asked to come along and play even though I’d never had the opportunity to rehearsal with the band. The keyboardist assured me he would bring all the music and I was happy enough to play rhythm with the odd lick on the guitar here and there. Anyway I turn up on the night, setup, I’m ready to go and then I asked about the music, turned out the keyboardist had forgotten it the gig started and I didn’t have a single sheet of music or a clue about any of the songs. Some were easy to figure out chord progression wise but after a while I got fed up, turned the volume down on my guitar and mimed the whole night apart from one song, Johnny Be Goode where I pissed the singer off when I ripped right into an improvised solo which thankfully went down really well with the crowd stealing his thunder. At the end of the night I wasn’t going to take any money but then I thought why not, you put me in this awkward position so I got paid for a gig In which the volume on my guitar was turned down for 90% of the time.
I've had two nightmare gigs.
Gig #1
I was trying to put together a group to play cover songs of classic rock. I met up with this guy named Turk and we seemed to have the same vision about the type of music. Mind you we hadn't even practiced just a meet up. A couple of days later he calls me up and tells me he got us a gig on Saturday at this outdoor bar called La Tuna. I kept saying we arent ready and he insisted that the crowd will be drunk and nobody will care. We dont even have a drummer or bass player and most of the songs required both. The day before, Turk says he found another guitar player who was a college student in the music dept. So we have a practice. It turns that the guitarist, though good, didn't know any of the songs and Turk couldnt play an instrument and couldnt sing at all.
So we go to this gig and I'm dreading really bad things. We start off with an instrumental piece I wrote on the keyboards. I can tell the crowd of about 30 people were bored as can be. So we play Smoke on the water (no drums no bass and the other guitarist didnt know what was going on), Turk starts singing and after the verse, he forgets the lyrics and starts doing summersalts on the ground. Slowly people get up and start walking out. One even shouted "go back to your garage and practice" all I could say was "thank you".
When we took our first break, I told Turk eiether we quit or I will pack up my shit and leave because I was so embarassed. Just after that the manager came over told us that he was going to pull the plug because people were leaving and he was losing money.
I've never been so happy in my life.
Gig#2
The other gig occured when I was with my cover band (full band this time)). We get to the venue a small bar. Exicited because the previous night they had a one of the more popular cover bands and the place was pack. well e go to setup and there is PA system there, but nobody knew how to use it. So we hooked up the bands PA and start the first set. The place is dead. The only people that showed up were my parents a few friends of the band. Other than that it was us and the 2 bar tenders. halfway through the set, the PA decided to quit working. We ended up playing mostly instrumentals and occasionally would have to scream the vocals to be able to hear ove the band. It was a nightmare. We did get paid, almost decided to give the money back because of the horrible experience.
A gig I remember pretty vividly was one of my first shows with my last band. I had taken my guitar in for a repair prior to this gig and was borrowing an Ibanez our then drummer had at his place for the show. Midway through the first song in our set, I stopped hearing sound from my end and I was freaking out because I thought something messed up with either the guitar's jack or the amp we were using. It turned out the volume knob was super sensitive and turned down and that's why I wasn't hearing anything.
I think the worst I've had is when I couldn't figure out why only the kick, snare, and hihat were working on my electronic drum set. I was playing on a float in a Christmas parade, and didn't really have time to figure out the issue, so I played the entire set with what I had. I later figured out I had set the drums to the wrong kit (marching band kit), and literally all I had to do to get it to the right kit was press one button. I felt like such an idiot afterwards.
@DR_samuraiguitarist Lol, okay then.
My friend Mike played bass in a band. On a gig around Halloween in this little basement bar in Staten Island, his strap broke at one end. The drummer hands him some gaffer tape, as he’s fixing it, the OTHER end breaks. The guitarist and Moog/Organ guy both start making ghost sounds! Mike starts doing Scooby Doo, “it’s the ghost of old man Withers! Zoinks!” At the end of the gig the band smashed everything (not something they usually did, but probably because they had way too much beer that night) and the clutch from the high hat snapped off and flew out into the crowd and smashed the girl behind my left shoulder in the face, giving her a nosebleed. She just went “fuck you, I’m taking this” and left holding a tissue over her nose (tiny bar, the stairs were right behind us). The drummer was like, “where’d the high-hat clutch go?”
I love this!!! Sorry everyone had to go through these things, but Sammy G you’re a real one for bringing it together
Related: Last minute tech disasters at a gig.
In the 80s, there was the Tom Scholz Rockman, that had built in FX to get a "Boston" sound - clean, distorted, and chorus, with various combinations. But, it was a small box, and all the controls were little slide switches. It was absolutely not intended for a live gig, but for recording. I wanted a stompbox, so an electronics-savvy friend reversed engineered it, made a box with several stomp switches, and a thick cable attached to another (metal) box that had the electronics from the original device, plus his mods. It was all done literally the day of the gig I wanted it for.
He came to the gig, and it was a good thing. 5 minutes before curtain, the whole thing just cuts out. Two big metal boxes, one with switches, and a power plug. My friend jumped on stage, pulls a soldering iron from somewhere, and fixes the damn thing with literally 30 seconds to spare. We do the gig, it all works. And that may have been the very first Scholz stomp box version of that device to ever be used on a live gig.
Also the 80s. I'm in Florida, running sound in a large, live theater production (1500 seats, all filled). They had some huge, 8-foot long, antiquated sound board. For the first time, they're trying all wireless mics, on every cast member. Everything was checked and ready. Again, 5 minutes to curtain, when the entire left side of the sound goes out completely.
A quick analysis showed it was most likely the board -- sound amplification was still live in the room. So... this time it's me with the soldering iron, creating a Y cable so the working channel could go to both sides. Luckily, there was no need for actual stereo. In retrospect, there may have been some way to do that routing with the board, but I'd literally com into the booth 1 hour before, did mic and sound checks, and that's all I knew about that board.
But, once again, literally with less than a minute to curtain, we started. And, if the actors had actually understood the instruction to turn off their mic when off stage, I wouldn't have ended up having to turn on/off 18 mics based on cues in the script. And I missed a few, like the time the guy goes off stage and immediately exclaims, "F**K, I BLEW THE LINE!", loudly and clearly to all 1500 audience members.
We had a knife fight break out during a set once. Except they weren't polite enough to take it outside. And I think only one person had a knife..
My worst gig: A gospel fest in my small hometown. I was in a youth worship band in junior high and high school that was decent. We played about a dozen gigs while I was in it on top of the weekly Wednesday night performances. I was playing keys in this band. And I very much was a backing player with the two guitars being the main focus. I didn’t have solos and mostly played chords. The group that performed before us at this gospel fest was more of a traditional gospel choir. And their keyboard was the main musical instrument.
I don’t know if the sound guy accidentally forgot to change to our settings from our sound check or maybe was concerned that he wasn’t hearing the keys in the first couple of measures, but my sound was CRANKED. My entrance into the first song was a couple of measures in and when I played the first chords, it could have blown up the sound system. We had to stop the song and quickly get the EQ balanced. When the song abruptly stopped, somebody from the crowd was yelling “Hot Keys! Hot Keys!”
I still say that to some of my former band mates to this day and it always cracks us up. Thankfully we got it fixed enough for this short gig and everybody was nice. But I’ll never forget it.
Showed up to our first gig. The venue was supposed to supply the PA. There was no PA. Played the show anyway. Guitar player got so drunk he fell off his chair and the bar threw us out.
As a professional gigging musician for well over 40 years, I have a near-endless supply of stories. Some were funny at the time, others only funny with the passage of time, still others were nightmarish, or simply bewildering. I suspect most of us old guys who've been on the road forever have such stories.
Make a podcast out of it!
@@raven_of_zoso455 - I'd long thought about writing a book back when people read those things. Who knows, maybe a podcast could in my future... One of my sidelines is as a voice over artist, so it's not an impossible thing.
@@MarcCoteMusic oh, then absolutely go for it, mate! I think, maybe even if you run out of stories yourself, you could get maybe guests to interview (like callers, just try and find a way to check if their stories are genuine). I would definitely tune in for that! Concerts and touring are often such a chaotic mess as it is, and then some jerks, or just sheer bad luck can turn them into proper bizarre turmoil. And I think there's a lot of crazy stories from this than what the Bob Wier's, Joe Walsh's, and Ozzy Osborne's of the industry has to tell (and that isn't mainly about just extreme use of hard drugs and destruction). I think there's definitely enough interest for this topic, even though maybe particularly narrowed down to an audience mainly of musicians to start with. But I think if you can just keep it down to earth and respect the time of your listener (no minute long intro song, and constant interruptions of adolescent nonsense) you have a good chance that more people will tune in for a good story.
Not saying I think you will use a minute long intro song and what-not, but I just find so many podcasts that does do interesting content, but I find them just revolting to listen to for such reasons, and their numbers seems to state the same. So, just a little heads up if you're new to making content like that. I have even done some freelance work with a few content creators, and of those it seems like the less bs they add, the more popular they become.
And yes, sadly the humble format of a book is dying. I mean, I love reading, and despite being "only 32" and have read and collected an above average amount of books, I do find it increasingly harder to gather the motivation for beginning a new one now, with the Internet right in my pocket.
@@raven_of_zoso455 - Hey, you never know. My former songwriting partner does a podcast (History of North America... he has a Ph.D in history) so it's not out of the question. And I think your advice is sound. It might not be for a while, though, as I'm busy with two large-ish shows as well as with my own solo stuff and a bit of graphics work and audio engineering (live and studio) along with some video editing.
Wow! Amazing recollections of sonic journeys gone awry! Thank you everyone for sharing!
here we go lol. my worst gig ive every played. i was in a punk band at the time, and it was of course at someones back yard, we loaded our gear up and headed on over to the house. we where supposed to be playing with this punk band from Germany or something and the band wound up no even showing lol. we get to the house and start to load in. as we get our first amp through the gate walking up to the patio we soon found out there was ZERO light. not even a porch light lol. we had to set up in the dark using only our phone lights. FINALLY we set up and begin our set and there was (and im not exaggerating) 3 people posted up on the back of the fence. (decent amount of people in the from yard). the only way i knew we even had 3 people watching was because of the phone light reflecting off their faces as we were playing. we got through the set and dipped so fast lol. we have played for a small crowd before (like most bands) but the fact not a single person seemed like they wanted us there mixed with playing in the complete dark was prettty ass lol. weve had some wild shows (like playing the AREA 51 raid or a warehouse show with this folk punk band called days n daze) and some mishaps on stage but that one will always stand out.
My drums were set up on a moving blanket on uneven dirt. Everything was tilted in a different direction. On the other side of the wall behind me was an angry horse, kicking the wall with his back feet.
Making my way through the best I could and the guitarist takes a request for Come Together. We'd never rehearsed it and I couldn't hear the song in my head, complete blank. Pre internet, so no way to just pull it up on YT. Rewrote a new drum part for Come Together on the fly, that was not good.
🤘🧙♂️🤘
Rich the Ancient Metal Beast
Not a gig, but auditioned as a singer for an established wedding band. Didn’t like them much, decided to tell them I prepared Better Off Without a Wife by Tom Waits. Killed it, no job.
Haven't had many gigs, but I was blessed with a bizarre experience at one. I was supposed to play an acoustic set at a bar I had seen being advertised a lot but I hadn't been to. Friday night, my friend and I get there and it's in a baaad scary area downtown, this is Mexico we're talking about. My friend comes from a bad neighborhood and he's getting nervous, saying things like, "I'm normally the one with the bad ideas, and I'm telling you, THIS IS A BAD IDEA, LET'S GO HOME!" haha. I ask him to chill and we go in, we look for the guy who got me the gig and he's surprised we actually showed up because... No one did... It's a bar downtown, regardless of who's playing, people go there to get drunk, but there isn't a single soul. Funny thing about the bar, it was call The Underground, but it was located on a second floor haha we go in through this other bar that's on the first floor which is like straight out of Scarface or something. We avoid eye contact and run directly upstairs to get ready to play... For my friend alone, I guess hahaha! I decided to get a beer to make time, hoping someone would show up, but since there's nobody, the bar's closed! So, we have to go downstairs for beers... We walk to the bar, and this big lady who was clearly a 'woman of the night' comes out of the bathroom, completely hammered and falls flat on her back! Then this nasty drunk guy comes outta nowhere and picks her up just to start making out with her right there on the bar! So, we get the beers and go upstairs, no one shows up, I play 3 songs and we LEAVE! A friend calls me later saying he was gonna go, but the police was taking some lowlife that were throwing bottles outside the bar, so... It was good I got to play only 3 songs in front of 1 person and left early
the piano gal with the C-note pervert should memorize the number for Dial-A-Prayer or something like that. so when the perv hands her his phone, she puts a number in and says, “Buh Bye!”
Me and like 3 other bands were playing a gig on a pub on Saturday Morning until evening. First band playing, mid-set, a little tremor starts, then it got stronger, and stronger. Pretty sure it was something like 7.0 magnitude. The band stop their song, everyone looked at each other, and said "ok, it's gone now". We finished the gig.
Just an average day in Chile tbh 😅
My punk bands first gig. Our vocalist had been drinking for few days and we found him on a pub. Passed out at The car. On the venue we woke him up and made him eat & drink lots of water before the gig. First 4 songs were great, but then he got tangled on mic cable, falled down and pass out. I tryed to wake him but no luck. So me and the drummer decide to play the gig with him sleeping on stage. I was playing guitar with a split signal & octaver to guitar & bass cabined and tryed to sing something. For few song we give the mic to somebody from the crowd and nod to him when to shout just something 😂😂😂
I played bass in a metal band called “Spang” in high school. We got a set together, practiced a lot and we were pretty tight. I learned to play bass while playing in this band so my knowledge of the instrument was limited. First show we played was at a coffee shop with a band that opened for us for some reason. First song. I broke the low E string on the bass. There wasn’t another string and the opening band had left (or laughed). Anyway, we played the set anyway without my low E string. 😂
Last show I played. One Guy on the crowd was so drunk he had a fight with all the security staff while We were playing he was kicked out of the venue. Funny thing i didn't notice anything because the lights on the stage and everything happened in the middle of our set. But my wife told me it was crazy and he even broke one of the guards nose. 🤣🤣🤣
Great concept! The stories made me realize that perhaps I haven't had my 'worst gig ever' yet...scary, but intriguing . I recognized most of all musicians shown, so it seems there is a lot of crossover between the viewers of each channel. More collabs in the future, perhaps? Keep up the good work Sammy G.
Great video. My favorite question whenever I meet a touring musician is " What is your Spinal Tap story? "
I’m a venue tech, our nightmare gig was due to 2 drummer both in support bands. One drummer was on coke and started getting confrontational because his set was cut short because no one could find him he spat in my face (during covid) and security did nothing. The other drummer was hammered by 8pm and he was meant to go on and he broke one of our overhead mics (SE X1A) which brought down another one. Totalling around £700 in damages
17:55 "I mean, who throws a shoe? Honestly."
Omg Zach Lewis!!!! I'm so glad you interviewed him!!! 😁😁😁
Not sure if everyone counts church worship music as a "gig," but one night me, another guitar player/singer, and a drummer were supposed to lead the congregational song time. The drummer didn't show up for rehearsal, but instead rolled in about an hour before the service. I asked the other guy to take him through the songs and left (other church responsibilities) and when I came back 5 minutes till go-time the drummer had set up a rack of metal orchestral wind chimes. We normally didn't use any auxiliary percussion, but when I asked my partner he said it went okay during their run-through.
It did NOT go okay during the service. Cue the drummer repeatedly and LOUDLY dragging a wooden drumstick through chimes at inappropriate times during quiet songs. I avoided all eye contact the rest of the night. No one sang with us, but they were very entertained.
I played for a graduation party and the bassist and I were shocked through our guitars by a lightning strike about 1/4 of a mile away.
My nightmare gig story was one of the worst nights of my life. At the end of our last set the apartment complex beside the venue caught fire. We stopped the set and killed the power so the venue didn’t catch fire. The apartment complex was a government funded building for the elderly and developmentally delayed. Band members and people in the crowd were pulling people out of their homes and we ended up losing an open mic regular who had a developmental delay because he ran back inside for his phone. Just a truly horrific night that’s stuck with me for a long time
Which is why a guitar is aka an axe, because sometimes the performer’s stage is a battlefield
Zach Louis jump scare lmfao love that guy
Mine happened 2 weeks ago it was a verity show and about 45 min before our set I looked at my bass and realized the pickup had fallen out of the casing it is in. Like the black part of the pickup was still in the correct spot but the actual pickup part like the little dots that stick up and the magnetic part fell down into the body of the bass. Luckily I had a screw driver and I found some electrical tape and was able to loosen the strings and take the pickup out and tape it back into the casing and get it back together before the show.
I went to college in New Orleans, and would occasionally play gigs on Bourbon Street. Generally, a mix of rocky versions of the Nola canon, some basic standards (Brown Eyed Girl, Don't Stop Believing, and things like that), and maybe one or two random song we liked. One weekend, I was playing with a group of friends. They'd recruited me the week prior, since their drummer backed out of the gig last minute, so we kept the set list pretty basic. We get to the bar, Friday night, play a few songs. The bar had a sign next to the stage (permanent fixture): "Requests $1, Nola Standards: $4, Saints: Your life's savings". LSU was playing Florida, and people kept tipping $1 and demanding we play their fight songs. None of us knew either. Like, we sort of knew what LSU's sounds like, but didn't go there, and couldn't have picked Florida's out of a lineup. The drunk crowd was just super angry that we kept taking their tips and not playing their requests.
Another time, I was dating girl who was in a band. We were both drummers, which was how we'd bonded. She broker her arm and had a couple shows coming up, and she guilted me into filling in until she could play again, since, you know, I was her boyfriend and should clearly have at least paid enough attention to her music to be able to figure it out. And, well, sure, I sort of knew their songs. But, not the names. So, I get the set list before the first gig. We'd rehearsed twice, but they never told me the names, and we didn't rehearse in any particular order. So, first song apparently is supposed to start with a big drum fill, and I didn't realize it, and am just sitting there waiting for a hint to what we're supposed to be playing (yes, I know, the band is supposed to take their cues from me, but, like, it was a messy situation).
Another time, I was playing in a summer camp band. I was a counselor, and had decided to play a set with a couple other counselors for the big end of summer camp music festival. Except, it had rained the night before, and the field was super muddy, and they'd set my drum set up with just a couple layers of cardboard under it. A couple other sets had gone before us, so the cardboard was soaked through. I hit the opening crash on the second song, and just send my cymbal flying forward, straight into the mud.
Not really a gig. But when I was 13 I got signed up to be apart of Karaoke night at school and I had no clue I was signed up.
Please note: the two bands I listened to at the time were Metallica and Slayer.
I got to the Karaoke night, and they were like ‘okay (BeastieRocker) it’s your turn to come up!’ And I was like ‘oh no, I don’t know ANY of todays pop music’. Lo and behold, Kelly Clarkson’s Breakaway starts playing and I didn’t know a single note or lyric. BUT I STILL FINISHED THE SONG!!! Got a lot of kudos but I am still ashamed lol 😅😅😅
huh. Either the time my acoustic duo nearly got caught in a tornado while playing outside on a flatbed truck, or when my '65 Champ fell off of a flatbed truck and got pushed out of shape during halftime of a college football game, or the Christian/non-Christian biker rally(we named the creek running through the field separating them the river Styx) on a flatbe-...I'm sensing a theme here.
Hats off to Aimee Nolte. I like the end of that story.
Sammy G has blessed us with an upload! Thank you!
Not a nightmare gig, but certainly memorable: Thursday night jam at a now long closed blues club in Humble, Tx….I knew a lot of the people there, including the owners (who had a wide definition of what Blues was) and everyone who knew me also knew that I played guitar. They finally talked me into getting up with the host band for a song or two….then, one night, a now ex friend decided that he wanted in on it BUT would only do one song: FREEBIRD. This is where the memorable part comes in at: I was playing my now long destroyed Lotus telecaster copy (not destroyed by me at the jam, by the way) and did Pete Townshend’s “windmill” move (note to self: keep not wearing a watch) when - WHAM! - I hit one of the knobs on the guitar and bruised my wrist! Another friend, who was working the door there as usual, saw it and busted out laughing at what happened…then he realized that I didn’t have a clue about what I did!
Great content. I sympathise with one or two of those...
10:36 That’s actually terrifying. ALSO YOU CANT TAKE FROM THE TIP JAR
Thankfully my gig was over, and wifey and I were loading the car when an SUV pulled into the intersection, stops, 3 guys with guns rush out and into the bar. I don’t think they were expecting the amount of people that were in there, so they threatened a few people, and left. Thankfully, I got their plate, and they were arrested shortly after. That was fun.
My first ever gig. Small festival, we're the only metal band amongst a lot of hippie folk stuff and bluegrass so already we're the odd guys out. We get told they're running behind so they're cutting our sound check. Not only did they cut our sound check, but the guy running sound just disappeared ten seconds after we get on stage. We started playing and immediately realized we couldn't hear each other at all. Some of our songs ran samples and/or a drum track, totally mistimed those. Pure chaos. Right before our last song the guy returns, we get the monitors up and I'm thankful we saved the 10 minute song for the end.
Played a gig at an incredibly posh yacht club for someone's wedding reception once. Everyone dressed in fancy suits and dresses, celebrating happily until the groom discovered (too late!) that the bride was having a long term passionate affair with someone else in the room and a full on bar fight broke out, complete with furniture flying around, stabbing each other with broken glasses, etc. We just kept playing until the police arrived as we knew if we stepped off stage we'd probably end up in an ambulance. I was splattered in blood by the end of the night, I still found spots of dried blood that I missed on my Strat months later. Thought we wouldn't get paid, but our singer got full payment in the mail a few days later with a bonus on top and a note reading "Terribly sorry about all that, have some drinks on me" hahaha.
Aimee's story sounds actually creepy and dangerous..
Interviews with all these amazing musicians & I'm just like whoa that guys on H3H3
love these stories!!!!