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Share your onstage trainwrecks!


edhunter
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We've all had them. Onstage screwups for the ages. Spill the beans!

 

2012 Club 90 Utah, playing Addicted To Love for the 2nd time. Our singer misses his entrance, which was fine. Just wait for the progression to come back around right? WRONG! He comes in midway through the progression. Because of the bouncy bass line, I have no way to shift gears that fast. The song is completely off-kilter till the "you like to think that you're immune to the stuff" line. Afterward, singer says, "I knew I was coming in early, but you guys should've adjusted" ASSHOOOOOOOLE!

 

2 years earlier, same club playing "I'll Never Let You Go" by whoever it was. I've been steaming all night because lead guitarist is loud as hell with an ugly, brittle tone. Finally look over at him and yell "Turn the f**k DOWN!" and completely blow the middle vocal section of the song, leaving us all flubbing for 8 bars or so.

 

2016 in Hartford CT playing She's So High. I've adapted to how my guitarist plays the little arpeggio intro and again before the last verse, because he doesn't quite play it right. At the end I usually let him go through it once before I start singing. This time I came in right with him because I'd figured out the timing. But he was so used to me waiting he panicked and skipped to the next section of the verse. We're literally looking at each other onstage trying to see who will make the next move so the other can try to adjust. Utter disaster.

 

Your turn...

Edited by edhunter
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No big disasters like that, but we used to play a hole in the wall owned by a tune-deaf-Grizzy-Adams-Vietnam-Vet whose policy was that if you played his shack, he got to sing a couple of songs with the band. This is what that hell sounds like:

 

http://youtu.be/LhtOCK33Yak

 

Make sure you watch up to about 2:17 so you can see Charlie wonder where the hell I'd disappeared to. :)

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^^^ Ouch.

 

My band had a big gig, Friday night in our high school auditorium. Big stage, full lighting rig, full house, people actually paying for tickets, the whole deal. As big time as a high school garage band could get.

 

Someone was nice enough to sneak up onstage and de-tune the D string on my guitar right before show time. Curtain goes up, intro music finishes (Firebird Suite -- fancy!), and I kick off the opening power chords to Boston's "Rock and Roll Band"...but instead of hearing that nice and heavy B-major, we hear a very dissonant BLAGHFRAPPG!!! My first thought was I was playing it wrong, but I wasn't. The guys in the band all gave me the WTF? look, and my look in return was, "I have no f*cking idea."

 

We got through the song with me trying to retune on the fly. Rest of the show went pretty well, though.

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Starting the first song of a gig (Owner of a Lonely Heart), which we started with the guitar riff rather than the little drum sample - bass guitar joins in but no drums. Turn to see that the drummer hasn't got his drum sticks at the kit...
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Starting the first song of a gig (Owner of a Lonely Heart), which we started with the guitar riff rather than the little drum sample - bass guitar joins in but no drums. Turn to see that the drummer hasn't got his drum sticks at the kit...

 

We once started a big outdoor gig with American Band, and one of the drummer's sticks went flying out of his hands right during the drum solo intro and he had to slap them with his hand.

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I played an outdoor twilight gig at a golf course once. I set up the gig through golf course management, who were buddies of mine. Midway through the first set the sprinklers came on, soaking the patio and my guitarist's gear. Needless to say, that was the end of the show. And my time with the band. And the friendship, for that matter.
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Playing a graduation party in high school heavily attended by the music class kids that actually had lessons and were trained while my band was definitely not. Drummer gets drunk and decides the vocalist isn't hyping the crowd up enough (they were snobs so it wasn't going to get hype) and he crawls under the kit to try to talk into the microphone we set up for his kit. Being that drunk yiu can imagine how his playing went.
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Usually my trainwrecks were just walking onto the stage!

 

Considering some of the bands I was in... I was going to post something like this. :P

Edited by stoopid
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No big disasters like that, but we used to play a hole in the wall owned by a tune-deaf-Grizzy-Adams-Vietnam-Vet whose policy was that if you played his shack, he got to sing a couple of songs with the band. This is what that hell sounds like:

 

http://youtu.be/LhtOCK33Yak

 

Make sure you watch up to about 2:17 so you can see Charlie wonder where the hell I'd disappeared to. :)

If you were on wireless, you should have kept walking until you were out in the parking lot. :D Edited by HemiBeers
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I played my stepdaughters wedding about 5 years and put some things together on guitar. Mind you, I hadn't played in front of any significant audience in about 30 years since I'm a 'basement only' player.

 

For the bridesmaid procession, I put together Pachabel's Canon in D using a Boss Loop Station to sample 2 beginning sections and then solo on top of it. I was sweating bullets not to screw up the samples, but they went off fine as well as the rest of the song (other than the bridesmaids sprinting in and killing the last 2 minutes I had planned). Whew...hard song was done.

 

For the bridal procession, I did a simple version of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. Simple simple chords with the melody in the middle of the chords...piece of cake. But I developed a habit of playing a Am instead of the last C major chord....and I beefed it again with the wrong Am chord. Anyway, I snuck in the the '...and the meek shall inherit the earth' chord arpeggios at the end since he was a Rush fan. She looked at me strangely but he was smiling. :D

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No big disasters like that, but we used to play a hole in the wall owned by a tune-deaf-Grizzy-Adams-Vietnam-Vet whose policy was that if you played his shack, he got to sing a couple of songs with the band. This is what that hell sounds like:

 

http://youtu.be/LhtOCK33Yak

 

Make sure you watch up to about 2:17 so you can see Charlie wonder where the hell I'd disappeared to. :)

If you were on wireless, you should have kept walking until you were out in the parking lot. :D

That would've been a hoot! He was so lost up there!

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No big disasters like that, but we used to play a hole in the wall owned by a tune-deaf-Grizzy-Adams-Vietnam-Vet whose policy was that if you played his shack, he got to sing a couple of songs with the band. This is what that hell sounds like:

 

http://youtu.be/LhtOCK33Yak

 

Make sure you watch up to about 2:17 so you can see Charlie wonder where the hell I'd disappeared to. :)

If you were on wireless, you should have kept walking until you were out in the parking lot. :D

That would've been a hoot! He was so lost up there!

...after the show....

 

Charlie: why the hell did you walk out to the parking lot?

you: because that was the only place where your singing didn't sound like shit. :D

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The first gig I ever did in which I sang in addition to playing the guitar was a Halloween show at a bar where the locals apparently preferred background music ..

 

Having never sang in public before - or through a decent PA for that matter - most of my thoughts were put to how my voice would sound singing -- I had given absolutely no thought to talking or saying anything between songs ..

 

Our first three songs ran together ala The Ramones, and after the 3rd song ended, there was silence .. Immediately the thought of "wow, I didn't prepare for this" went thru my mind ... But there was also next to no appreciation from the crowd, which added to the uncomfortable vibe ..

 

just be yourself .. being that it was Halloween show, I remember being struck at how disconnected I felt hearing my own speaking voice loud and clear saying "wow, there are a lot of people here tonight dressed like dead people"

 

Needless to say, we got no new names on the mailing list that night

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I was in 8th grade and playing bass in a high school talent show. We had two songs: Breaking the Law and an original tune. During the drum break down in breaking the law I managed to step on my cable and pull it out of the amp jack. Got it all fixed before the next song started but in the chaos, I must have hit the headstock on something and took my E string down a few steps. Started the next song out of tune.

 

2nd one was playing an acoustic thing with a friend at a bar and we started with Patience by GNR. I was supposed to do the whistling part but I was so nervous my mouth was dry and I couldn't whistle for shit.

Edited by rushfanNlv
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^^^ Ouch.

 

My band had a big gig, Friday night in our high school auditorium. Big stage, full lighting rig, full house, people actually paying for tickets, the whole deal. As big time as a high school garage band could get.

 

Someone was nice enough to sneak up onstage and de-tune the D string on my guitar right before show time. Curtain goes up, intro music finishes (Firebird Suite -- fancy!), and I kick off the opening power chords to Boston's "Rock and Roll Band"...but instead of hearing that nice and heavy B-major, we hear a very dissonant BLAGHFRAPPG!!! My first thought was I was playing it wrong, but I wasn't. The guys in the band all gave me the WTF? look, and my look in return was, "I have no f*cking idea."

 

We got through the song with me trying to retune on the fly. Rest of the show went pretty well, though.

you're lucky it was only one string they de-tuned.
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The first gig I ever did in which I sang in addition to playing the guitar was a Halloween show at a bar where the locals apparently preferred background music ..

 

Having never sang in public before - or through a decent PA for that matter - most of my thoughts were put to how my voice would sound singing -- I had given absolutely no thought to talking or saying anything between songs ..

 

Our first three songs ran together ala The Ramones, and after the 3rd song ended, there was silence .. Immediately the thought of "wow, I didn't prepare for this" went thru my mind ... But there was also next to no appreciation from the crowd, which added to the uncomfortable vibe ..

 

just be yourself .. being that it was Halloween show, I remember being struck at how disconnected I felt hearing my own speaking voice loud and clear saying "wow, there are a lot of people here tonight dressed like dead people"

 

Needless to say, we got no new names on the mailing list that night

sounds like my first singing experience in public. It was amatuer night at the local pizza place. First prize...a large one item (ooo ahhh). For a stupid high senior it sounded pretty good and my buddy talked me into it. he was my 'manager' (probably just wanted some free pizza). So i did a crap version of 'Lucky man' and then did my comedy routine of bad pun jokes in the middle of playing some guitar (think henny youngman, but with a guitar). Well there was probably 6 people in the place. A couple clapped when i was done. Then a girl singer got up and sang some folky stuff way off key. Just awful. But she won the pizza and I lost (she was kinda cute which was her saving grace). Welp...guess I'm done with this singing and comedy shit.
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I have an amp switcher for clean parts of songs and if I wanna throw a clean layer on top of a dirt sound. The catch is that if the pickups aren't split on my guitar, it sounds really bad and the clean amp comes in way too loud. I forget to slpit the pickups sometimes. Also with the switcher, I can't tell which channel it's on when I double it up so if I forget what channel it was set to before I double it up I may accidentally switch to the wrong channel.
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OK, maybe not in the same vein as your guys'...I don't play in a band. But technically I was up on stage...

 

Rushcon 2014

 

Forgot the opening lyrics to Closer to the Heart while up on stage playing the lyric karaoke game, in front of a couple hundred people.

 

In my defense, I'd never sung solo in front of an audience before, never done karaoke before, and this was one of the first songs they gave me...my mind just went blank. I mean, who the hell forgets the words to Closer to the Heart?! It's the one song other than maybe Tom Sawyer or The Spirit of Radio that's marked indelibly on a Rush fans' mind! But what can I say, my mind just went blank. Totally and completely blank. I did better the farther into the game I got...won second place. But it would've been sweeter in I hadn't forgot the opening lyrics of that particular song. Still makes me cringe thinking about it.

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First solo acoustic performance.

 

Started with an acappella intro to Some Nights by fun. Realized I was in the wrong key and had to give up on the song. Then tried to switch off to Help by The Beatles, again couldn't find the right key in the moment.

 

Struggled the urge to give up as I conceded to playing through Good Riddance (The Time Of Your Life) by Green Day since I knew I couldn't screw that one up. A couple songs later I'd regained enough confidence from the audience's reaction I played an original I'd recently finished, and they really enjoyed it.

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Oh it was terrible..

 

It was back when I was either 19 or 20 (in the early-mid 90s) and we were going to do a gig at a town hall benefit. We practiced for weeks for the show and were really ready for it. Then for whatever reason during the soundcheck I decided to whip out my 6 string bass because A) It was brand new and B) It was very cool-looking and I wanted to show off because I was a young idiot and there were hot chicks there.

 

HUGE MISTAKE

 

I hadn't properly practiced enough with it on the side, and due to my screw ups it also made me screw up many of my vocals where I'd forget lines and etc. On top of that I'd often apologize to whatever semblance of the audience that we had at various points in the show.

 

After the show, the guitarist's dad told me that you should NEVER apologize to your audience- as not only does it look like amateur hour many people won't notice small mistakes even if you do. The only thing good to come out of that show was this piece of advice, which I still carry with me to this day.

Edited by Del_Duio
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^^^ Ouch.

 

My band had a big gig, Friday night in our high school auditorium. Big stage, full lighting rig, full house, people actually paying for tickets, the whole deal. As big time as a high school garage band could get.

 

Someone was nice enough to sneak up onstage and de-tune the D string on my guitar right before show time. Curtain goes up, intro music finishes (Firebird Suite -- fancy!), and I kick off the opening power chords to Boston's "Rock and Roll Band"...but instead of hearing that nice and heavy B-major, we hear a very dissonant BLAGHFRAPPG!!! My first thought was I was playing it wrong, but I wasn't. The guys in the band all gave me the WTF? look, and my look in return was, "I have no f*cking idea."

 

We got through the song with me trying to retune on the fly. Rest of the show went pretty well, though.

 

Holy shit, high school is hard enough without SABOTAGE!

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