Band Horror Stories!

[foreverburn]

I thought it would be fun if we all shared some of the less than amazing moments we've had in our music careers. This can range from trying to start a band, anything that happened during the course of the band (studio, live, etc), replacing members, breaking up, etc.

I know everyone has at least one good story, so lets hear 'em!

 

[JohnIce]

Nothing too horrible in my case. I did lend my guitar to a band that was playing before us one night, and when I got it back afterwards the guy had managed to rip off the ground wire in the spring cavity so it hummed like hell for our whole set. That kinda sucked, cause we had a lot of clean passages that really didn't sound very clean that night.

 

[sami]

One time on the day of a show, my singer from 4-6 years ago accidentally used BACTINE instead of Contact Lens solution. He put it directly into his eye even.... He was rushed to the hospital. No major damage which was awesome. He said it felt like someone was shooting a flamethrower directly on his eyeballs.

 

[JeffFromMtl]

I've gone through the usual. Losing money, fights, break-ups, etc. In my last serious band, the other guitarist broke (completely destroyed) 2 guitars live, one in Quebec City and one somewhere in Ontario. Then he somehow forgot a guitar in London and the girl that found it was supposed to ship it to him but it never arrived. Somehow, he's incredibly indifferent about it all A few of my friends have some pretty ridiculous stories from their tours, though. One of them was texting shit about anal sex to a girl and it turned out it was her dad's phone and he threatened to kill the guys in the band. In response, two of the guys in the band double-teamed the girl in her shower and jizzed in her dad's shampoo bottle

... Somehow I have a feeling that JJ would approve

 

[Bloody_Inferno]

Oh man where do I begin....

One of my old bands decided to sign up for a local show that was organised by the local Police at some skating joint. They said backline provided so we didn't bring any amps. But when we rocked up, there was only a drumkit. I was a bass player at the time so I didn't care as much, but our guitarist had to plug into a distortion pedal through the PA, and we all know what that sounds like = .

While I did my stint in a Gospel/RnB band, we had a massive gig at the Melbourne Town Hall, so there was a lot of preparation and even managed to gather a big band out of it (horn section and all) so it was a massive gig. Just as the lights went black before we started, I became so nervous I got sick and vomited on my guitar. I managed to wipe the whole stain clean just before the light went on to play our first song. And as if that was bad (yes it got worse ), one of the keyboards had a bad chord line that caused an entire power blackout onstage. This happened 3 times until we found the source. Great massive gig with a few painful costs.

Another gig, but this time with the metal band (during the Metallica tribute gigs), we played in this place called DV8, which doubled as a nightclub/SnM club etc. We decided to play Unforgiven in our set and got my Acoustic w/stand for the gig. Unfortunately my friend who brought the guitar up onstage was wasted and the guitar fell into the audience! My heart sank so low, but thankfully the audience were gracious enough to catch the guitar intact and push it back up the stage. And if that wasn't bad enough, that very same gig, the carpark I parked in was closed at 2am, and I ended up loosing my phone that night. For the rest of the night I spent panicking and looking for my phone around a bunch of people dry humping, while I was losing my mind. My drummer made 2 trips back to the city that day, and I had my mum to drive me to the city to get my car back. I will never play in DV8 ever again.

Another Metallica tribute show was booked in a country town up about 2 1/2 hours away from where we all lived. We took a daytrip down the Highway, except my singer took a wrong turn and we ended up 2 hours late to load/setup time. But at least that was the first gig with my Triple XXX so the sound was sweet. Afterwards wasn't though. My friends all wanted some girls and there were no lookers in the entire town and my drummer was getting desperate. Unfortunatly my singer wasn't keen on one of the girls trying to go for him so he told me to stand guard in our room the whole night until they go away. I told her to go to our drummer's room but she decided no and left (that was easy). And since my singer really wanted to go home, we had 2 hours sleep, packed up our gear in the van next morning (including our bass player and drummer who were still asleep) and left.

That's all I can think of at the moment... and I'm pretty sure there was a gig involved a washing machine that flooded the afterparty house, and then was set on fire.

 

[mlp187]

... In response, two of the guys in the band double-teamed the girl in her shower and jizzed in her dad's shampoo bottle

... Somehow I have a feeling that JJ would approve

Wow dude. Your friends are hardcore.

 

[Prydogga]

Wow dude. Your friends are hardcore.

I thought the same, although I don't approve of double teaming, there's a little too much closeness.

 

[Scar Symmetry]

A few of my friends have some pretty ridiculous stories from their tours, though. One of them was texting shit about anal sex to a girl and it turned out it was her dad's phone and he threatened to kill the guys in the band. In response, two of the guys in the band double-teamed the girl in her shower and jizzed in her dad's shampoo bottle

Sounds like a regular weeknight for the guys I know

 

[MF_Kitten]

i´ve gone through the usual "singer throws tantrums" type problems, which are always shitty. the guy was always the reason why none of his/our projects ever worked out. when things were really bad with the band, he saw nothing but progress and awesomeness. when things were really stable and working out, he saw immense failure, and yelled at all of us for not being adequate.

and of course, he was all illusion of grandeur in the head. guy thought we had a huge fanbase, because people at this one social networking site were all coming to his profile to leave positive comments about how much they loved our stuff and our gigs, etc. somehow a few people coming in from random corners meant there were hundreds of others around too. of course, the fanbase was really just a few bunch of people, namely the people he had already friended on the site, and friends of friends. and that was it.

so he gets all "we´re making t-shirts and shit, TONS of people are dying to get that!". of course, he would´ve sold like 10 at most.

anyways, i dumped him out of my life, and so the band. following that, he took over the role as the songwriter, and suddenly the style was totally different, and it was all more catchy-hooky made-for-vocals type music. the guitarist replacing me (single guitarist band) is all cannibal corpse/tech death, and stuff he makes is all monotonous and shapeless, but with lots of fast notes. then the bass player was kicked, and now they´re a different band playing my songs alongside other songs that have no resemblance to the ones i made, as well as new songs that don´t resemble other new songs stylistically. very inconsistent.

they are also using my logo designs and myspace page coding and designing of course, which i barely got to finish and upload before the guy decided i was the worst friend ever for "abandoning him and my musical side", meaning i moved to another town to study for a couple years.

guy is still pissed at me for not having forgiven him for being verbally abusive and treating me and my fiancé like utter shit when he was staying with us for a few days, even though we provided him with food and a bed, and took him out.

he´s the kinda guy i have nothing but outmost hatred towards. i really despise him now that i see what he´s really like.

blech, bad memories!

 

[JeffFromMtl]

Wow dude. Your friends are hardcore.

I'm sure they think they're hardcore too. It's a funny story, but I would be ashamed of myself if I ever did anything that disrespectful.

 

[Scar Symmetry]

I'm sure they think they're hardcore too. It's a funny story, but I would be ashamed of myself if I ever did anything that hilarious.

Fixed

 

[Varcolac]

Oh, our first drummer. He was a nightmare wrapped in a horror story drowned in a can of Super Tennants. I used to dread coming to practices because half the time we'd just have to plug my laptop into the PA and use Guitar Pro MIDI drums because he wouldn't turn up. The other half of the time, he'd turn up drunk. One time he turned up an hour late with a creepy Belgian man. The other time, he decided he'd be playing a ragga beat. All the time. In a seven-minute death metal song with a funeral doom outro. He kept forgetting how songs went. In about four months we managed to get... three songs.

Basically, he was trying to live the life of John Bonham, but without being A) successful; B) a very good drummer; or C) able to hold his drink. Good riddance.

 

[JeffFromMtl]

One time he turned up an hour late with a creepy Belgian man.

Fixed

 

[Scar Symmetry]

 

[Bloody_Inferno]

Oh, our first drummer. He was a nightmare wrapped in a horror story drowned in a can of Super Tennants. I used to dread coming to practices because half the time we'd just have to plug my laptop into the PA and use Guitar Pro MIDI drums because he wouldn't turn up. The other half of the time, he'd turn up drunk. One time he turned up an hour late with a creepy Belgian man. The other time, he decided he'd be playing a ragga beat. All the time. In a seven-minute death metal song with a funeral doom outro. He kept forgetting how songs went. In about four months we managed to get... three songs.

Basically, he was trying to live the life of John Bonham, but without being A) successful; B) a very good drummer; or C) able to hold his drink. Good riddance.

That's gold. That's better than my old singer waking up in an alleyway and taking a bum out for a drink and shooting pool.

 

[foreverburn]

I'm sure they think they're hardcore too. It's a funny story, but I would be ashamed of myself if I ever did anything that disrespectful.

I know right? Threatening to kill guys because your daughter is a whore? What the fuck?

Oh, our first drummer. He was a nightmare wrapped in a horror story drowned in a can of Super Tennants. I used to dread coming to practices because half the time we'd just have to plug my laptop into the PA and use Guitar Pro MIDI drums because he wouldn't turn up. The other half of the time, he'd turn up drunk. One time he turned up an hour late with a creepy Belgian man. The other time, he decided he'd be playing a ragga beat. All the time. In a seven-minute death metal song with a funeral doom outro. He kept forgetting how songs went. In about four months we managed to get... three songs.

Basically, he was trying to live the life of John Bonham, but without being A) successful; B) a very good drummer; or C) able to hold his drink. Good riddance.

I am about to piss myself from laughter over the last part. HAHAHAHA!

Here is a fun one. This isn't mine, but I recount a story that my friend Rick told me once. Rick was in a few decently successful bands in the 1970s... At some point he hooked up with Tom Waits and went out drinking with him. He said they stayed up all night drinking and talking about relationships gone wrong. The next day he woke up, bleeding, and Tom Waits was nowhere to be found.

That's some funny shit.

I'll post some stories here soon, seeing how I started this thread.

 

[Vstro]

Two main things come to mind. The first wasn't horrible for us but the home owner wasn't pleased to find out our vocalist pooped in her shower.. The worst thing that has ever happened to me in 3-4 years of pretty non stop touring is blowing a transmission in the middle of Nebraska. We were stuck in a motel that the 500 or so native locals thought was condemned. During that week with no A/C and only eating Taco Johns (no other food in the town) the locals decided we looked like freaks so told us maybe we shouldn't leave our room during the day.. Luckily there were plenty of cockroaches to keep us company!

Being in TJ Mexico while the police and military were in a little feud was pretty scary. I think trying to get in the UK without work permits was the scariest though. Somehow the lady didn't believe we were going to the UK for a month with $500 US dollars without working while we were there.

 

[signalgrey]

Two main things come to mind. The first wasn't horrible for us but the home owner wasn't pleased to find out our vocalist pooped in her shower..

hahahahaha. that is awesome.

 

[Esp Griffyn]

Oh, our first drummer. He was a nightmare wrapped in a horror story drowned in a can of Super Tennants.

Good thing he stuck to Super Tenants and not Carlsberg Special Brew, or worse, Co-op super strength lager!

 

[Dusty201087]

I've gone through the usual. Losing money, fights, break-ups, etc. In my last serious band, the other guitarist broke (completely destroyed) 2 guitars live, one in Quebec City and one somewhere in Ontario. Then he somehow forgot a guitar in London and the girl that found it was supposed to ship it to him but it never arrived. Somehow, he's incredibly indifferent about it all A few of my friends have some pretty ridiculous stories from their tours, though. One of them was texting shit about anal sex to a girl and it turned out it was her dad's phone and he threatened to kill the guys in the band. In response, two of the guys in the band double-teamed the girl in her shower and jizzed in her dad's shampoo bottle

... Somehow I have a feeling that JJ would approve

I have to say, while I probably wouldn't have topped off the dudes shampoo bottle, him getting upset because his daughter is a whore is kind of just asking someone to do shit like that. I would've if given the opportunity