Embarrassing Live Stories

[Lillub85]

Don't know if this thread has been done before but anyways, what are some embarrassing stories you guys have from live performances? My most embarrassing moment was when I played a set with old guitar strings. My guitar was out of tune for every song. I tried tuning them in between songs, but they still went out of tune. So yeah, what's happened to you guys?

 

[Darknut]

I have the perfect story, I was a stand in for a mediocre local band whose lead guitarist had just quit right after they booked a bunch of shows. I learned all their stuff in my bedroom shortly before the first gig, and was confident in the notes but I was curious to see how the live chemistry would play out. Half way through the set we were doing ok, but the crowd wasn't into it and I could tell we needed to step it up. The song we were playing had this big build up before going into a solo, and I saw it as a good opportunity to liven up an otherwise boring set. I totally anticipated rocking this solo like a G, I was waiting until the last few bars right before my queue to get my self ready, and then I stepped up onto the stage monitor to unleash the cracken. I go to pick the first note of the solo and my singer steps on my pedal cord unplugging it, and my amp goes completely silent.

True ....ing story, I don't think I've never felt more like a jackass in my life. My singer frantically crawled around on the ground and managed to plug it back in before he had to start singing again, but this made things look even sillier. Crowd ended up feeling bad for us and gave us pity moshes for the last few songs.

All I can do when I play the memory over in my head is just ....ing laugh.. haha.

 

[Lillub85]

Oh man that sucks. I would have lost it

 

[ScurrilousNerd]

One time my band played a house show, and we unleashed a bunch of new material that we were confident in. People seemed like they liked it and were moshing, and then suddenly everyone left. And I mean everyone. There was literally no one left in the house except our singer's girlfriend.

I guess it was hot in there or everyone was drunk - or we just sucked.

Needless to say, we were super bummed and I made the executive decision to cut the set short and end it.

 

[Darknut]

Oh man that sucks. I would have lost it

When its not your fault it is easier to deal with, but yeah my head was still red as a tomato up there in front of everyone, lol.

I guess it was hot in there or everyone was drunk

I read to here and immediately understood the circumstances

 

[Edoris]

My band was once playing a halloween show (which is already embarrassing enough) and our rhythm guitarist managed to step back during our 2nd song and snap his lead off in the amp... which didn't even belong to him

Needless to say the owner of the amp wasn't too impressed and spent the rest of our set on stage while trying to fix his amp by pushing pliers in to the amp to get bits of lead out of it. Fortunately it was fixable but our rhythm guitarist bought the owner of the amp a box of beer to apologize which he gladly accepted haha

That was quite embarrassing but more just an example of muppetry

 

[The Hiryuu]

I had to play a set while soaked in dog piss once.

Also, I've stepped on my own cord and unplugged myself right at solo time too. Granted, I covered it by singing the first couple of lines of the solo while I plugged myself back in.

 

[Necky379]

I was doing sound for a cover band. They play a lot of popular cover tunes, SRV, Doobie Bros, Boston, etc. All songs people can easily recognize. I had been out doing sound for them a few times before and they got some positive feedback once I had started. I was doing a good job for not having done it before and would bust ass setting up and tearing down. It payed well and although it was a bit stressful I enjoyed it for the most part.

This one night they had a bigger gig and the guitar player who had been doing double duty before, mixing from stage and playing, decided we should bring out the graphic eq that he had wanted to use before but couldn't because it was to much to worry about while playing the songs. So they begin the first half of the set, eq is on. Things are going great. People are into the band, filling up the dance floor, buying me beers, giving compliments. I was a little worried because it was an important gig but everything is going smooth. The first set ends and the guitar player comes over to me to look over the settings I was using. He starts going over some of the controls, just explaining some functions. One thing he pointed out was the high pass on the eq. It was just a casual conversation, neither of us were really paying close attention. He had turned the high pass on and we didn't didn't notice it was left on when the conversation ended. The band went back onstage.

The band starts, people come back to the dance floor and I receive another Heineken at random because I had been doing good up until this point. Shortly it becomes clear that something is not right. They sound like shit. At this point people start giving me pointers and complaints. I'm frantic trying to get things right, I know the eq is fvcked i just don't know why. I start raising levels to compensate which results in ringing feedback from out front. People begin turning on me and band, who at this point know that I'm blowing it. I can't get it right again. I'm getting harassed by the crowd, hearing nothing but complaints:
"Hey I can't hear the singer!"
"Have you done this before?"
"Turn it down!"
"Turn it up!"
The set ends and the band is pissed. The house DJ/sound guy, who offered me no help but obviously knew how to mix tells the band how bad I botched the sound and that they NEED to find a pro (like they don't know). I tear down with them and when we get to the mixing equipment the guitar player and I are looking at the settings unable to figure out what the hell happened besides the fact that the eq settings looked ridiculous (remember I had been jacking up levels to try and compensate). Then we see it, the high pass. We both had a "slap your own forehead" moment.

After everything is packed we drove home and unloaded. I got paid and was never asked back. There was no hard feelings between me and the guitar player but I'm sure the band hated me for it because I was never asked back. Felt so low that night.

 

[Nats]

My bass kept cutting out because my input jack was toast. No one cares about the bass player though.

 

[Blasphemer]

I had just gotten my new amp, and was playing maybe our second show since I got it. The footswitch runs to the amp VIA XLR (which is actually a pretty nice feature), but I didn't have a spare at the time, so I used one from the venue. The one they gave me was old and ratty as all hell, so it would randomly ground and/or lose connections during the set, which means that my reverb would randomly turn on or off, and my clean channel would turn on in the middle of a heavy song. I wasn't too happy about it.

 

[SnoozyWyrm]

Couple of years ago, there was a big folksy fair (4-5 bands, dancing squads, lotsa food/alcohol...the works) where I was playing acoustic guitar/lute with 2 bands.

This was taking place in a decrepit amphitheater at my home-town. Half an hour before the show was starting I felt something disagreeing with my stomach violently. Due to the place being really crowded I had to use the chem wcs.

After ten excruciating/cleansing minutes,feeling ready to play the show, I get up
and proceed to break the lock handle without unlocking the door.

The first band played without me, at which point someone wanted to take a crap and I was rescued.

 

[ScurrilousNerd]

Ooh I just remembered one -

November, last year. CD release show and our first headlining show. We were all jazzed about the amount of people there and the crowd movement so far.

3rd song of our set kicks in and it's our best song that starts all doom-y and then transitions to a drum lead jazzy bit and then series of breakdowns of increasing intensity. The whole band is doing our best to flip out as much as possible (while not ....ing up our parts too bad) and suddenly my amp cuts out completely during *the* most intense part of the song. I scramble to check chords, amp power, guitar still plugged in, until someone hands me a 9v battery and it clicks.

I was throwing my guitar around so hard that the battery compartment exploded, including the little door. By the time I had it all fixed the song was done and the drummer and bassist were confused as all hell, as I was supposed to end the song with a guitar-only bit.

 

[Anders Petersen]

I have the perfect story, I was a stand in for a mediocre local band whose lead guitarist had just quit right after they booked a bunch of shows. I learned all their stuff in my bedroom shortly before the first gig, and was confident in the notes but I was curious to see how the live chemistry would play out. Half way through the set we were doing ok, but the crowd wasn't into it and I could tell we needed to step it up. The song we were playing had this big build up before going into a solo, and I saw it as a good opportunity to liven up an otherwise boring set. I totally anticipated rocking this solo like a G, I was waiting until the last few bars right before my queue to get my self ready, and then I stepped up onto the stage monitor to unleash the cracken. I go to pick the first note of the solo and my singer steps on my pedal cord unplugging it, and my amp goes completely silent.

True ....ing story, I don't think I've never felt more like a jackass in my life. My singer frantically crawled around on the ground and managed to plug it back in before he had to start singing again, but this made things look even sillier. Crowd ended up feeling bad for us and gave us pity moshes for the last few songs.

All I can do when I play the memory over in my head is just ....ing laugh.. haha.

Ouch! Must have been painful to go through!

 

[Draceius]

So a couple years back, I went to a weekend performing arts college, and at the end of every year, you do like a final piece type performance thing, and we chose to do moonlight sonata, then switch it up into a metal version halfway through, and like I nailed it on all the practise run throughs we did prior, not messing up my solo or anything, but then I wasn't playing in front of any one but my peers. So on the night, as usual, I get shaky, and so when I came round to my turn, I was ultra nervous (I still find it hard to play in front of some people). And so I managed to get through the classical intro fine, but when it kicked into the metal bit, that's when shit hit the fan, I proceeded to hit the wrong pedal when I started my lead, then again, when I went back to rhythm for my friends lead, whilst messing up both my solo and the rhythm parts.

It sticks with me even now, even though it was minor, and I've played shows since and not had the same issue.

 

[JohnColter1212]

I had just joined a band and they were really jazzed on my ability, not the best player but better than their previous lead guitarist. As we were setting up the lead singer was telling the crowd about how great this new guitarist was and needless to say I was pretty stoked to be playing live. During the very first song the solo section came up for me. I stepped on my wah and out of my amp this high shrill squeal started coming through and completely killed my guitar signal. I was horrified. I wasn't sure what possibly could've done this. I quickly turned off my wah and looked to my amp. everything looked good. I followed the cord down to my pedals and my cord was only 3/4 of the way plugged into the wah pedal. I shoved it the rest of the way in, by the time the solo section was over and had no problems afterwards. Not sure how I was getting audio prior to the mishap but needless to say I was a little hesitant to use the pedal the rest of the night haha.

 

[Darknut]

Couple of years ago, there was a big folksy fair (4-5 bands, dancing squads, lotsa food/alcohol...the works) where I was playing acoustic guitar/lute with 2 bands.

This was taking place in a decrepit amphitheater at my home-town. Half an hour before the show was starting I felt something disagreeing with my stomach violently. Due to the place being really crowded I had to use the chem wcs.

After ten excruciating/cleansing minutes,feeling ready to play the show, I get up
and proceed to break the lock handle without unlocking the door.

The first band played without me, at which point someone wanted to take a crap and I was rescued.

Locked in the toilet, wow I can only imagine.