What's Your Worst Night Ever?

DMFJ03 · Post by **DMFJ03** » Sunday Apr 04, 2004

Sweet baby Jesus on a pogo stick! Could anything else have gone wrong?! My band, Ever Since Yesterday, played at Legends last night (4/3) and it seemed like everything that could have gone wrong did, and things that hadn't gone wrong were shortly going to. Our singer even made the comment that we were going to change our name to Technical Difficulty. It was just insane!

We forget our back-up microphones, all mic cables all started to go bad, Matt's amp died for some odd reason before comming back on, Jason broke the chain on his double-bass pedals... and that is just a handful of the barrel.

So, come on, it's time again to fess up - share what you or your band's worst night was. I am sure we all have stories.

(P.S. - Thanks again Tony for the use of your lights, that was awesome. )

grimmbass · Post by **grimmbass** » Sunday Apr 04, 2004

Worst night ever? God, there have been so many:). A few years ago, I was playing for a 1950's tribute....rockabilly, early rock standards, very beat/dance oriented stuff....and our drummer didn't show up! We had to play three sets of 1950's dance music without a drummer! Talk about pressure for a bass player! We pulled off the show and wrote it up as a low-volume "unplugged" gig!

Not the worst night in the world, but not great either!

Kent

FatVin · Post by **FatVin** » Sunday Apr 04, 2004

One time in Virginia Beach, the PA head went down about an hour before showtime, no music stores are open, there's no one we can call, the owner's breakin our balls (tryin to get out of payin us) we end up takin what money we did have down to radio shack and we get some cheap ass DJ pa (all they had) and the thing distorted and cut out intermittantly all night, what a nightmare, well the guy grudgingly paid us, and when we finaly got back home, we ended up getting the PA fixed, some internal fuse that cost us all of $11 and we got our money back from radio shack, but ugh! what a night mare.

songsmith · Post by **songsmith** » Monday Apr 05, 2004

Oh man... In '94, the country band I played in did a national contest battle-of-the-bands deal, absolutely killed on the local level (really, total luck... most flawless show I ever played, and we were being judged!) so we went on to the Mid-Atlantic regionals at Hersheypark Amphitheatre. I had been involved in a car accident 2 weeks before this show, intensive care, still had the bandage on my head, the whole nine, but we rehearsed every night for weeks, and stood a really good chance of winning. At Hersheypark, you can't take vehicles into the park, so they come pick you and your gear up in the parking lot in a Cushman, which is sort of a golfcart with a pickup truck bed on it. The first trip was stage gear, then the college-age girl driver came back and picked up about 6 of us to go in. It was September, her last day of work there ever, and she was in a "fun" mood, so she drove that cart like she stole it. We were going up on 2 wheels going around corners, and we were way overloaded. At the first gate, I decided to get the hell out of Dodge, and walk the rest of the way. She didn't see me getting out of the back, and attempted to squeal the tires, while I had one foot firmly on the ground , and one foot still on the cart. I heard my ankle snap, and so did everyone else... one guy almost puked from that sound.
At least Hershey Med Center, and some of the top emergency osteopaths in the state were only a mile away. I got the cast on a 1/2 hour before we went on. I landed a crutch on the back curtain and slipped, dropping all my weight on my newly-broken ankle, and bit my lip to keep from being heard screaming by the standing-room crowd of 3500. It bled.
Then, the sound guys "forgot" to un-mute the monitor sends, and we played the whole segment using only slap-back from the amphitheatre as monitor. The guitar player was pissed because we dropped his song at the last minute, and he scowled the whole time. I had a 30lb plaster cast up to my hip, that was still drying, and I almost fell of the #!*&%## bar-stool they set up for me because I'm short, and my feet didn't touch.
We didn't win.----->JMS

tom · Post by **tom** » Monday Apr 05, 2004

My brother and I were running sound & lights for a band at Fiddlestyx in Milton (our first time at the club)...... My brother went into the kitchen to hook up our power distribution, found a Range Plug on the wall, and was just getting ready to plug in...... The owner warned him to check the plug with a meter because he wasn't sure how it was wired.... My brother smiled, and nodded to the owner, then plugged in .... Seconds later I watched in horror as the Bulbs in our lights started popping like flash cubes............. We lost one dimmer pak, and half of our lights. This was a lesson learned the hard way!!!!

DMFJ03 · Post by **DMFJ03** » Tuesday Apr 06, 2004

SongSmith, you win.

*Slides over the throphy*You made a sound come out of my body that was close to the effect of "wawbih;klnh;alkhdf;aifbbvcvmspruijf"

*Bows down*

songsmith · Post by **songsmith** » Tuesday Apr 06, 2004

Hey it's an exhibition, not a competition... please, no wagering. (Old Letterman joke)

I'm telling you, I'm a total Bad-luck Schlepprock. (If you get that reference, you are old.) Why do you think I play the blues... bad luck and misery follow me all my days. From nosebleeds onstage, to pissed-off bikers with hot girlfriends, to people trying to set the club on fire, hell, New Year's Eve 1992, we didn't even count in the New Year because there was a huge barroom brawl going that looked like a moshpit. And we were playing a ballad!

My point is, enjoy yourselves boys and girls. Twenty years from now, you won't remember the money, or the infighting, or the nasty bathrooms, or most of the hassles. You'll remember how g-damn cool it was to play music with your brothers, how good it felt to express yourself, and all the good friends you made along the way. Every night has the potential to be the best night of your life, or at least a treasured memory. Forgive me for waxing philosophical, but we musicians have something a lot of people never have... a dream that pushes us, whether we achieve it or not. Have fun... you'll have some kickass stories to tell.---->JMS

lonewolf · Post by **lonewolf** » Tuesday Apr 06, 2004

I'd have to say last Saturday, when I had to sing for three+ hours with freshly bruised ribs. Well, they might be cracked...I don't know.

The show must go on.

thedoctor · Post by **thedoctor** » Tuesday Apr 06, 2004

Way back in the summer of '93 the band I was in had already released our first CD independently and was in the process of recording our second. Two weeks earlier we had captured interest of Japanese label Alpha Records(which fizzled out weeks later). Pittsburgh hard rock station The Force( which is now the "X") was playing the hell out of several songs off our already released CD and everything was going our way. We had a ex-marine turned buisness man from the state of Indiana who was buying 500 Cd's off of us at a pop to send overseas (Europe, Britain and Japan) to buisness partners there to sell as imports. Thanks to The Force we were asked to open for Kansas at the Rib Cook-Off in Three Rivers Stadium's parking lot. Full stage, lights and sound just like you would see at any professional show. They say there was 10,000 people I do not know for sure but at least 6,000 I thought. Marian Chizem from Channel 11 Pittsburgh news intoduced us and away we went. Probably the biggest moment of my career
The down part is we played Thursday night in Ohio, Friday in Greensburg, PA and partied a little too much both nights. We did not get to sleep till 8am Saturday morning and had to be at Three Rivers at 2pm for set-up and soundcheck. Needless to say we hit the stage at 7pm playing nothing but originals. Halfway thru our second song our singer blew his voice out. That was pretty much the end. We managed to do a few more of our own songs with me helping on lead vocals when I could. We then ended up playing some easy covers (covers opening for a national band...UGH!)and finally ending with "Enter Sandman". We had the stage for an hour and only ended up playing 40 minutes. Earlier in the day Kansas' crew finished early and let us do a full soundcheck(which is very unusual for a national act) and everything was leaning our way and we blew it. I still cringe till this day when I think about it and vowed that I would never put myself in that position again. We never had an opportunity to break out like that again. I left the band 2 1/2 years later.

str8h8 · Post by **str8h8** » Tuesday Apr 06, 2004

Every night that the monitor mix sucks and I can't hear on stage....which lately is all the time!

daveb · Post by **daveb** » Tuesday Apr 06, 2004

Worst night. Well, I feel kinda like a wuss relating a tale with no broken bones (youch!). One night in '92 or '93 Ask a Stranger was playing out at Quaker Steak and Lube in Sharon. I was on the far right hand side of the stage. People had to squeeze by the neck of my guitar to go to the crapper, there was a television just in my periphery on the left, and patrons exiting the john would have to stand between me and my amp while other people got out of their way. I was so distracted and pissed that I started making mistakes. I started two songs in the wrong key. One was a 1/2 step off making it really hard to modulate into the right key. I totally blew at least 3 lead breaks in the first set. Finally, our sound teck said through the talk back " Hey, Dave. I have you turned off out front in case you were wondering" I gotta tell you, I was just plain relieved when he said that. Lucky for me, the other cats in the band thought the whole thing was funny. I've fallen down steps in Erie, while playing. Been shocked, punched, ripped off. But I think that night in Sharon was my worst ever.

Chevelle7982 · Post by **Chevelle7982** » Thursday Apr 08, 2004

I remember a night in June of '03, when we were basically playing in the backwoods. We had all of 30 people there. Everyone in the band was drunk as hell. Mistakes were made the entire night. The bar owner paid us our money early. Our bass player ended up putting the cash in his zipper. We finally got the money away from croch. By the end of the night, somebody was under the influence of some strong drugs, pissed off the rest of the audience, came up on stage and ruined many songs because we couldn't get him out of there. Our lead guitarist ended up fighting him outside the bar. People threatend to call the police. Our drummer and I wre playing there underage at the time. Luckily we were able to book another show there earlier this year. Then at the end of this past April we played a show at the Log Cabin in Lewistown. We invited Frayed to join us as the opening act. Needless to say, we didn't have our monitors for one reason or another, we had our sound great for them, set up perfectly. We didn't need a sound guy at that point, we had a great mix going. When we got on stage a drunken freind of the bands' took to the sound board and caused us to lose all volume and power to our vocals. It was horrible. And to think that I was originally upset about the lack of attendance due to someone/persons stealing our flyers/posters for the show that were posted in it's usual spots throughout the area and bar.

tornandfrayed · Post by **tornandfrayed** » Thursday Apr 08, 2004

I think the worst night I ever had was the night my Uncle Jim died. I was working in New York at the time and he was very sick. He had actually drank himself to death with his kidneys and liver giving out. He was only 50 years old and I was very close to him. Anyway I was working in New York when I got the phone call that he had passed away, it was a bit unexpected and I had to drive home. The drive was about three hours and it gave me a lot of alone time to think about it. Needless to say I cranked the tunes and drove. As you can see this has nothing to do with playing music other then my choice of disks on the drive home. I consider it a true blessing to be able to play in a band. I feel honored by my bandmates and I feel honored to be part of this musio community. You can give me crappy sound, no monitors, only a kick drum and I would still be honored to play! An acoustic 6 string and the stars! I mean, It's rock'n'roll man! And by the way the disks were Metallica ( kill'em all), Pink Floyd ( Wish you were here ) Rage ( Renegades ) and U2 ( All that you can't leave behind )

GUITARII · Post by **GUITARII** » Thursday Apr 08, 2004

This one time, at band camp....... Seriously, one night we played a benefit and my dad's band went on before us... I was onstage with his band and during one of the tunes my dad collapsed on stage. The ambulance came to take him to the hospital and my dad made me promise to continue on with the show for this little boy we were playing for. So there I was, wondering if my dad was even alive at that point, playing the night out because of the committment he made to the family and I made to him. It was pretty nuts.... turns out dad's blood sugar was just really low.

Then there was this one time this guy sat in on bass with us.... but that's a whole other story!!

Dan

DMFJ03 · Post by **DMFJ03** » Friday Apr 09, 2004

Hey, hey! Careful there!

bassist_25 · Post by **bassist_25** » Friday Apr 09, 2004

GUITARII wrote:Seriously, one night we played a benefit and my dad's band went on before us... I was onstage with his band and during one of the tunes my dad collapsed on stage. The ambulance came to take him to the hospital and my dad made me promise to continue on with the show for this little boy we were playing for. So there I was, wondering if my dad was even alive at that point, playing the night out because of the committment he made to the family and I made to him. It was pretty nuts.... turns out dad's blood sugar was just really low.

Dan

I remember that gig. In addition to your father collasping on stage, I remember that beer got spilled on top of your amp.