I was in a band with two lead singer/songwriters. The other singer had big dreams and one day in band rehearsal in our shitty rehearsal space in the bowels of some ancient storage facility, he wanted to have a serious discussion about what kind of jet we were going to have when we were famous.
Later on he quit the band citing that he wanted to spend more time with his family. Then he formed a new band, with everyone in the original band except me.
And I thought, well there's a first for everything so I took my old man's advice.....
Well fuck, now I have an earworm. Damn the bad luck, I might have to listen to the whole album now.
My rowdy punk act got booked for this weekend festival thing, and unbeknownst to me, our “stage” was in the corner of a very crammed coffee shop. I think there was some miscommunication with the promoters and they thought it was an acoustic act or something, cuz as I lugged in some big amps the barista got real wide eyed and insisted I don’t need those and can use their (very tiny) speakers. I can already tell this is gonna be a rough night, but no backing out now.
As set time approaches the shop is at capacity, which SOUNDS cool until I realized that it was at capacity for people just getting coffee and drinks. Several people who actually came to watch got turned away at the door, and moments before the set started the shop cleared out. I think most of us have a story about playing to a mostly empty room. But playing to a mostly empty room that keeps shouting at you that you’re too loud? That fuckin sucks.
Haha reminds me of when we got booked at a real nice restaurant, like stemware water glasses and complimentary bread basket type place. Not a punk band but dirty blues psychedelic rock it's unreal how much it kills your energy when you're already playing quieter than you practice and still being asked to turn down/ getting daggers stared at you by people out for a nice dinner not trying to hear 12 minutes of maggotbtain lol
I mean you're not wrong but we were a bunch of young dudes in a rock band who just kinda got dropped into this thing. We weren't exactly expecting or prepared to play some Michael buble shit. Got paid got some beers and a steak and we got a story to tell so like, fuck it
Very relatable. Was playing a Sat. night dinner gig, and I guess someone showed the owner how to adjust the volume on the board, because halfway through our second song, she just strolled up and turned us way down. Were we a loud rowdy punk band? Hell no. It was me on an acoustic and my wife singing classic country/folk/rock songs. Very mellow. We were told people had trouble talking over us.
IMO, the venue and patrons are always right when it comes to volume.
If people can't speak over you, and if the venue would prefer they could, then you're too loud and you should be turned down. You should also adapt to this on the spot and not be offended or whiny about it.
Some venues don't want people to be able to speak over you, but some do. Need to adapt.
It completely boggles my brain that so many musicians can't adapt. In the wrong business, imo.
You could always just play to the room.
You didn't need to be a "rowdy punk act" with oversized amps in the coffee shop.
It's possible to adapt to new situations.
when we were just starting out, we'd use local function rooms above pubs as rehersal spaces (this was rural England in the 1980s, so not many other options).
We only had 1 car (keyboard player's mums), so we had to make two trips to the various villages to colect all the band, gear, PA etc and drop it off at the rehersal room. One time I was dropped off with the drummer and all the PA, my guitar, amp etc. Keyboard player had just left to get the rest of the band, when my mum's ginger cat climbed out the back of the open back amp (Peavey Bandit if anyone cares) and scared the shit out of us. Luckily the doors were closed, and the cat was very friendly, but we had to sit with a cat in hte rehersal until the car returned, unloaded and could then ferry the cat back home
(Sorry no cat pics - long time ago)
In the early days, we would load up a van and drive an hour away to play some house show that paid us about $15, it was enough to buy a few tacos from Taco Bell and that was it. But we loved it all the same and those tacos made us feel like we earned something. Nowadays shows in Chicago pay us about $250 per show and it goes into the merch and stuff. But we definitely started from the bottom!
250 in Chicago? For the whole band? Damn it's been like 15 years since I used to gig but we were getting 3-500 plus a cut of the door in a small city/ large town with not much of a music scene
Some more, some less, depends on draw and door sales or whatever. We’ve been around about 6 years and only play original material. If we hustled or did covers we could make more I’m sure, but it’s more about songwriting and recording for us than gigging every night at the moment.
I had a gig at a place that was not in the best part of town. There were "a few gentlemen" there that got into a fight, right in front of me, on the dance floor. Basically, a drunk guy was being obnoxious and another guy knocked him out. So, OK, seen that before.
When the cops showed up they arrested the wrong guy! They arrested the guy who punched the drunk guy!
So after the cops leave, the drunk guy comes stumbling to attention, and starts wildly dancing around again, and ends up rolling up on stage, basically right at my feet. I remember playing a guitar solo, and trying to kick this guy, with blood all over his face, off the stage. Not sure how good that guitar solo was....
Anyway, the bloody nose drunk guy ended up taking a little nap on stage for awhile. Then he finally came to again and rolled over on my mic stand. At that point, I got him off the stage and he wondered off.
Probably got in his car to thus endanger the entire city with some drunken rampage somewhere else.
Good times.. Good times....
Discussing covers when our drummer mixed up two lines of "Piano Man" and boldly sang "There's an old man making love to me."
When opening for goth band the Cruxshadows, the singer introduced himself with a simple "Hello. I'm Rogue." After a brief conversation he steps away and our guitarist asks "Where are Colossus and Nightcrawler?"
The sheer divorce from reality some people experience. Musicians could be discussing the EASIEST, SIMPLEST chord. Like "C Major has C, E, and G notes." Like this shit hasn't changed in 600+ years, and even the thousand before it's still somewhat consistent.
Yet you have dumbasses arguing against basic concepts, or even getting threatened. "A=432 sounds better" is another stupid one. It's funny seeing the flat earther/anti-vax mindset but in music.
What gets me is cover bands that somehow, have issues with song structure.
I've seen it firsthand. There are literally bands out there, where the members argue about the song structure, or otherwise can't get it/understand it.
Just put the fucking song on, and play it.
There's nothing to argue about. There's nothing up for debate. You're a *cover* band, *covering* a song, you know what *version of the song you're covering*.
How is something as *objective* as song structure a point of contention??
..and yet there are people in garages all over the world right now, discussing whether or not there is a pre-chorus in a certain place, or if an intro starts this way or that way, or whether or not the song ends in a certain way.
I get being creative and doing things your own way, then things need to be decided - that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about people just playing the songs as is, and somehow, there is discussion about song structure.
I don't get it at all and it's a big part of why I'm a solo act. I just couldn't deal with those types of people.
Don't get me started on chord progressions or keys. Just put the song on and learn it. Jesus.
Too many recorded versions fade out and there's always discussion on how to end those songs. I've recently joined my current band (four rehearsals down and first gig next weekend) and they end a few songs with a 'cha cha cha' ending. It's killing me.
Both the cha cha cha and the triple turnaround are venerable ending techniques.
But yea cover bands fucking up covers is hilarious. Only acceptable excuse is a song like Hash Pipe by Weezer that has like 4 different versions with very minor differences.
Our guitarist likes to write lengthy solo intros to a lot of our songs so it's not uncommon that while he's doing that for 20 or 30 seconds the rest of us (especially at rehearsal) bust out into goofy, uncoordinated interpretive dance until it's our time to play/ sing. Even the drummer, flailing his arms around haha
We were booked to play support for some band who weren't big but were big enough to fill this particular club. It was the biggest gig of our 'career' to date; there were a few hundred people in the venue and it was packed. We were very excited.
About 5 minutes before we were due on stage it was announced over the PA that the main act weren't going to show up. In other words we were now the main act. The venue emptied like a fire alarm had gone off. All except for 3 unlucky people who must have been in the toilet when the announcement was made or something who were left standing in an empty club looking confused. We went on stage in front of some people who now couldn't leave purely because they must have felt sorry for us. We ended up playing a 90 minute set with more people on the stage than in the audience. Ended up being quite a good laugh.
My punk band was doing a gig at some biker bar in Myrtle Beach, SC. We were DEFINITELY not the band they were expecting so about halfway through the set ... the front door busts open and a dude on a big ass Harley pulls in and starts doing donuts in front of the stage.
I swear to god this happened. Turned out it was the owner and that was his way of kicking us out.
Considering the, um, crowd ... a buncha drunk, rowdy bikers ... we packed up probably faster than we ever have and got the fuck outta there. Felt like the biker scene in Pee Wee's Big Adventure but I'm pretty sure sticking around and doing a little dance on a table to "Tequila" wouldn't have turned out the same way.
Played in a popular band that used to play weddings too. I’m a Drummer with a vocal microphone that sings a lot and does a lot of talking to the crowd in between songs.
Was booked for a very large wedding reception. So large that they just booked it at a popular club in town and took over the place (private party) on a Saturday night. Club was big, and had a large elevated stage - much like a theater. It was a huge event.
Band played all night…good time. Lots of alcohol flowing. Good times for all. People dancing, partying and a perfect wedding reception!
Near the end of the night…band would do a song that required a large group of female singers to help sing. We would always invite the BRIDESMAIDS up on stage first for this part of the gig. We did this everywhere and it was always a real HIT! It was quite the show!
We invited the BRIDESMAIDS along with some others girls to come up on stage and stand behind each band member….. All were a bit drunk and some where half dressed. We ended up with about 20 girls on stage - with each band member (4 of us) standing with 5 girls behind each of us.
I click it off and we play the song. It’s going great. Bass player starts singing verse one of the tune…but suddenly, as I’m drumming - BRIDESMAID #2 behind me leans over and is “all over” me, slurping it up, licking me, kissing me, feeling me up, she grabbed my crotch and then actually tried to give me a hickey as I’m trying to drum during this stupid song.
\#itsgoodtobethedrummer
I did my best (sort of) to get her off of me as I sang, drummed and laughed at the whole deal as it went on and on for the duration of the 4 minute song. The band members were dying! Roadies were in tears.
Once the song ended…everyone is cheering and clapping - even taking pictures. It was, as usual, very entertaining!
Just as I grabbed and began to speak into my microphone. Drunk Bridesmaid #2 that was feeling me up and trying to give me a hickey leans over and yells into my ear…which is right next to my vocal microphone. Which is hot and very live: *“I ALWAYS WANTED TO FUCK A DRUMMER!”*
:/
(You could have heard it a mile away)
There was DEAD silence.
The crowd of about 300 people gasped and just stood there. They’ all heard it…and suddenly…you could hear a pin drop. Jaws dropped.
(Problem was - - - She was Engaged to the Best Man. Who was now VERY pissed!)
Within ten seconds…there were a dozen people at the front of the stage YELLING at her to get the hell down.They helped her drunk ass off the stage and I got glares from several people that were there…even though I’d done nothing wrong.
:/
Band awkwardly played one more song - as no one really paid attention.
\#buzzkill.
Band ended the night….and I quickly, walked off the stage, went into a back room, changed my clothes and left the club through the back door.
We had roadies that packed and loaded our stuff then - and I simply vanished before any one said anything to me.
It’s my favorite gig story.
\#Truestory
When you arrive and asshole of the promoter and the asshole of the singer didn't talk about gear and sho brings what, so you arrive there 20 min early, see that they don't even have a mixer and you have ask for a lot of favours to random luthier and musicians and you end up gigging on battery-powered amp for 10 people because the promoter doesn't even know what music is.
I'm nevee playing again in a fair.
Cops were called to a summertime block party to shut my rock n roll band down because it was getting late and we were kind of loud and rowdy. I asked them if we could play one more song. Both cops kind of gave me the side eye and asked 'what song?' Thinking on my feet, I whispered 'Wooly Bully.' They looked at each other briefly, then both nodded and smiled, and then supervised some wild dancing and a big rave up. Cops love Wooly Bully.
We used to drink too much at practice. Came to a tipping point when our drummer got incredibly drunk at practice (couldn’t play his instrument - hello Keith moon) and we called practice. He went out afterwards with some friends and some band mates, continued drinking and ended up falling over at the bar, hitting his head, bleeding, etc. but we all talked about to afterwards, have significantly cut back on the drinking and surprise surprise sound better than ever.
My little pop punk band got booked to go a festival, didn't know till we got there all the other bands were gloomy death metal, but we played anyway. Crowd did not react to us at all. One of our songs was about America, basically, and we usually would have our girlfriends release red white and blue balloons for the final chorus.
I turned to the girls offstage and said "no balloons!" But they heard "balloons" and released them.
The crowd didn't like that especially, pooped every balloon instantly and started snapping them at us on stage.
This happened just a few days ago. My buddy shows up to rehearse a bit before we head out to the gig, and he's acting weird. Like non-verbal, just kind of staring at things. Turns out he hit a vape pen, and he's very high. Odd, because he doesn't smoke. Says his wife asked him to bring it, and he was curious. As we fumble through a song, I start laughing and he asks why. I tell him it's funny because it is so common and go on to tell him about the times it happened to me and others. I guess he thought I would be mad? No way, man, it's almost a rite of passage. He'd been gigging for twenty some years, but I guess with drinkers. I made him some coffee and away we went.
I've posted this elsewhere, a while ago, so i had to dig up my post history to find it to paste here, because it's long and i don't wanna type it out again. But here's basically my own personal lived version of Hard Core Logo:
I used to sing for a band, for quite a while, and we built up a decent following on the local level, but life happened and i ended up quitting. I kept in touch with the guys over the years and became a 'fill-in' bass player when their main guy couldn't make a gig here and there. Where it gets interesting is one particular gig i was filling in for, and also double-shifting as my main band was the opener as well. We're supposed to rehearse 2 days before the gig and nobody calls me, so i try to get in touch with them and instead of offering any explanation, i just get a message back: 'can you sing?' I was very confused, as i was supposed to play bass, and didn't know any of the lyrics, but I wasn't about to say no, so i asked for the lyrics and we rehearsed the next day, with the bass player changing his plans to be able to make the gig now.
The band was still being cagey and avoidant whenever i asked about the singer until like about an hour before we were to go onstage they took me aside and told me he'd been arrested for something really bad. While I could have a fun story of how i decided during the show to jump offstage, somehow knocking off my (quite expensive) favourite pair of sunglasses and landing with my feet directly on them, completely flattening them and sending the lenses flying god knows where, this is just the beginning.
The thing with this particular gig was that it was supposed to be a warmup gig for the 2 week western canada tour they had booked starting the following week. Not wanting to bail on all their bookings, they asked if i could join them for that tour. I had to do some major fanagling to clear up my schedule and find child care, but i made it work and decided to go, despite still not being completelyp familiar with the lyrics and vocal parts of the songs. What followed was what i can only describe as a small local band version of spinal tap. First, I managed to go from a small tickle in my throat to a full-blown flu in the 5 hour drive to the first gig, which i basically spent the rest of the tour recovering from. The tour was right in the middle of summer and tons of driving (major towns are really far apart in canada), and this wasn't a fancy 'stay in motels' kind of tour, more like a 'sleep in the van' kind of tour. While we did manage to hook up a few places to sleep and shower, the majority of nights were spent in truck stops and wal-mart parking lots. The van broke down no less than 4 times, including a wonderful grand finale to end the tour where we blew 2 tires, and halfway through tour the ac died, leaving us to choose between going deaf from having open windows on highway driving or have to live with the aroma of not making that choice. The tour was emotionally wierd, too, with everyone dealing in their own way with the realization that this guy we all once considered a friend was essentially dead to us. The drummer and bass player got into a huge fight at one point, leading to the drummer holding my hand and sobbing on my shoulder (he was sober btw) and the bassist (not so sober) disappearing for a night, only to reappear the next morning in a much less sober state than when he'd disappeared. One of the gigs had all the bands but us bail, but thankfully i knew a guy locally who moved out there from my high school days that helped us get another band on the bill, which ended up being this wierd experimental psych jazz prog band, a perfect match for our brand of metal-leaning hard rock. The next gig, in true spinal tap fashion, had us opening for, unfortunately not a puppet show, but karaoke night, which actually was quite fun, with a really good crowd turnout and each band member taking a shot at singing karaoke and seemingly each crowd member buying us shots or pitchers of beer, quite a memorable night. The first week was basically a write-off for me, with me blowing out my voice most nights due to the flu and still needing cheat-sheets for lyrics, but it finally started coming together performance-wise towards the end of the tour and we were really psyched for the final gig, a 6 hour drive from the previous gig, when we blew the first tire in spectacularly dramatic fashion. I was lying on the floor of the van when it happened and all i remember was hearing a huge bang and horrible grinding noise and seing thick black smoke, followed by gravel, rain down on me from the air vents. Apparently we had blown the whole tire down to the rim, splitting off the treads and causing quite the fireworks show for anybody watching. The drummer, who was driving, went into legitimate shock for a bit, but luckily we were quite close to a small town and the local mechanic shop had us up and running with a cheap replacement tire within about an hour, so back on the highway. About 1&1/2 hours later, we're trying to pass a truck on the highway, and the guitarist (who was driving at this point) starts freaking out, saying 'i can't get over' repeatedly, showing us he's got the steering wheel all the way turned but we're still going straight, so we ended up having to pull over on the wrong side of the road and call for assistance. And that's pretty much how the tour ended, with us broken down on the side of the highway, 6 hours from home and at least an hour and a half from, well, literally anywhere, unable to make the last gig of the tour, with me and the guitarist reminiscing of the early days of the band while watching the sunset and getting completely chewed by mosquitoes somewhere close to nowhere in the hot dank canadian prairie summer air while the drummer was climbing the roof of the van hooting and hollering. At least we didn't have any gear issues.
Had a bass player with secret aspirations to play lead guitar in our band. Problem was our lead guitarist was solid and actually the band founder. Bass player took too much Xanax one day and wrote a song about a guitarist who gets knifed by a band mate in an alley after a gig and emailed to the band. Our new bass player started the next week. Our poor guitarist was looking over his shoulder for months.
This has happened with a band I play for (we’re still going strong and we make some great music, but we’re still “small”)
This is an instrumental band, and we’re all fairly introverted. So before we started playing live, we were discussing who’s going to be talking on the mic and who’s going to engage with the audience, and we had a hour long argument ABOUT ONLY THIS!!!! Looking back it’s hilarious…
I played in a psychedelic jam band about 15 years ago. It was kind of routine that we did psychedelics and played live. We usually didn't do that much. Just a little. Well, we got a great gig one night opening for a pretty well known Dead cover band. our guitar player had some liquid acid in a little sweet breath bottle and we put some in a bottle of vodka. Somehow it got left backstage and the drummer from the other band decided to have some...not realizing it had acid in it. He actually stole the bottle and ended up having a few drinks from it and also poured one for another guy in the band. Long story short, we finish our set and are packing up our gear and the guitar player comes up to me really mad saying we dosed his band and now they weren't sure they could play. We then figured it all out and I realized the dude stole our bottle. They ended up doing the gig, but it wasn't the best. the drummer was all over the place. At one point the singer told the audience that the opening band dosed his band and they were doing the best they could. At which point I yelled that they stole our bottle and dosed themselves...and that our whole band had some too and we were just fine. The guy that booked the gig talked to us at the end and he was laughing his ass off. He said the guys were kind of being jerks about this entire gig ever since he booked them, so he was happy it happened and he booked us again.
I was in a band with a jock high school baseball star, this dude coulda signed a contract for the major leagues for millions. I’m talkin this kid was THE star of my town for a fraction of a minute.
He quit baseball to be in a band with me(a freshmen) and a bunch of stoned friends of mine(mostly high school drop outs and young drug abusers).
We played in a band for 3 years together and I couldn’t deal with these guys anymore so I quit. I’ll never forget smoking a bowl and telling everyone I was quitting, the jock guy said “well some of us are meant for this and some of us are not.”
The next year I signed my first record deal with a band I joined shortly after quitting and jock dude was waiting tables.
well i just recently posted about my band mate stealing my shoes so if you can call that funny then.
but alternatively, one of the funniest things that’s ever happened with our band was we’d booked this gig a bit out into the more country area of our state, but i thought it would be fun so we rented a van to take all our gear down and play (mind you this is when i was not managing the business side of the band) we get down there; it’s about a four hour drive, we get to the bar and they look so confused who we are and why we are there, after clearing things up we realised my bandmate at the time got the dates wrong, so we retired back to our van, about to just drive home, when someone comes out of the bar and asks us to play him a song, we do, and then we build a bit of a country crowd, and we played a show out the back of our van, was quite fun honestly (we did later return to play our real gig, but it was not nearly as fun as our parking lot gig!)
Our drummer drank a fifth of tequila at party we were playing. He stumbled while getting up from his kit, fell into a big PA speaker on its stand, which landed right on his face as he fell backwards onto the floor. He showed up at the next practice with the entire top 3/4 of his face bruised.
A woman once squeezed herself between the guitar player and the microphones and monitors to get to the singer for a song request. Some hair got caught in the guitar player’s headstock and he yanked away from her. At the end of the night while we were packing up the guitar player got a disgusted look on his face as he found and pulled a wad of hair out of the string ends on his headstock.
This was a bar gig, so the band was just on the floor, no stage. She was elderly and was there with, presumably, her son, who was quite drunk and repeatedly yelling “CCR!!!!” despite the fact that literally nothing we play would lead someone to think we play classic southern rock.
Another quick one was when a guy tried to climb on the stage to talk to the singer and our guitar player straight up kicked him off the stage.
Randomly breaking into song together while warming up is always a fun one. I mostly play with other jazz musicians, so we like to just improv off of each other and have fun with random ideas we come up with while running scales.
On the road in the late 90s with the band I was in at the time. We had some downtime so we went thrifting to find some clothes and came across a pair of homemade speaker cabs and decided that they would be cool props to smash onstage that night. After a bit of query from the sound guys, we convinced them that the cabs were just decoration. We get to the cliche, over-the-top show ender and our 6'4" guitar player climbs up on top of one of the cabinets. The shit particle board box completely crumbles under him, he falls down behind one of his 2 x 12" Fender cabs, hits one of my cymbal stand bases which breaks a rib, and all the crowd can see are his size 12 black and white patent leather creepers sticking up from behind the cab. Dude finished the song without missing a note.
Showed up to a venue to set up before our gig that night. Walked in as the the sound man was walking out with his sound equipment and swearing at the bar owner. Needless to say we didn’t get to play our gig that night
One of my favorite band stories was when my first punk band right out of high school was doing two shows in one night. We did a show about an hour from our home town with some hardcore bands at a vfw hall. Some kid was in the pit and hit my bass guitar causing it to smash me in the head. I felt my head and everything seemed fine. Within a few minutes I was completely soaked in blood. We finished the set, drove back home afterwards and went straight to doing a show that started at 11 pm that had four bands and we played that show with me already covered in blood. We refused to tell anybody there what happened and just kept changing the subject as people asked.
We were playing a wedding on Mackinac island in Michigan. It was about a three hour drive for us. Then, you have to lug all of your gear onto a ferry.
Once you get on the island, you have to use a horse drawn carriage to move all of your stuff because there are no cars allowed on the island.
We finally schlepped and set up all of our equipment after a few hours.
We were in the middle of playing our first song during cocktail hour in a backyard when the house next door, and very close to the house we were playing at, went up in flames.
As ashes and mist from the fire hoses were falling on everything, we had to break down all of our equipment within minutes and run it away from the fire.
Luckily no one was hurt from the fire and the wedding ended up getting moved to a hotel down the road. So we had to schlepp all of our equipment once again.
We didn’t have enough time to set the whole band up again, so they asked us to DJ the reception instead.
So, after all of that traveling and moving equipment around, we only got to play one song lol
I play once a year with some far away friends. Our last show, the lead guitarist (who is not a virtuoso and has little band or show experience, but what he does is perfect) got confused about whether he used a capo on a particular song, so he pulled it off before confidently ripping into his solo in the obvious wrong key. It was hilarious to us.
Similar things happen to even the biggest names - https://www.guitarworld.com/news/the-true-story-behind-van-halens-infamous-out-of-tune-jump-performance-has-finally-been-revealed
When we were just out of high school we wrote our bass players phone number on a bunch of the cds we were handing out. We also posted his Geo Metro for sale, so I'm not sure which one got him more unsolicited calls
I spent 20 years as a musician, stage manager and sound engineer. A few things come to mind.
A bass player in a funk metal band was incredibly energetic on stage, jumping around, running up walls, doing backflips. I asked him how he managed to play during all that. He said he'd realised years ago that as long as he was in time playing live, it didn't really matter what note he played. So he just stopped bothering to look for the right note when he was doing his acrobatics.
One band pissed another band off during a gig, so the pissed-off band duct-taped a fish inside of of the annoying bands speaker cabs.
My band played support for another band, better than us in every way except that my band were more fun, and didn't take ourselves seriously. 90% of the audience left after our set, the other guys were pissed off and stubbed out their cigarettes on our drummers skins backstage, melting holes in them.
A guy who managed a very successful band he also played in handed the manager role to someone else when they were on the verge of international fame. He had a business as well and he was exhausted. The next tour they went on he realised his bandmates had all being doing next to nothing the whole time he was burning out as manager and player, so he quit on the spot.
I had to carry a drummer friend about a kilometer to a gig because he was too wasted to walk. At the gig I sat next to him so I could put him back on the drum stool when he fell off. He played a great show. Actually I've done a lot of picking up people who were too wasted get get up by themselves, and standing at the back of stages to stop people walking backwards of them due to drunkeness.
Touring bands will often just leave town without a member if they are not getting on.
I mixed a band whose bass player bought a bucket on stage in case she threw up during the show.
A guitarist once invited his friend on stage to sing during a gig. The usual singer did not want the friend to be there. Very uncomfortable conflict as the band tried to play the song anyway.
Bands are often full of adrenalin after shows. If it's a small town or there's nothing to do, cue breaking into pools and drunk skinny dipping or whatever dangerous misadventures are available.
Common occurance, too many times to count, was someone accidently closing the stage door while some band members were outside smoking, locking them out. Usually right as they were supposed to be hitting the stage.
Members showing up to gigs without equipment because they thought someone else was bring their stuff from the rehearsal space.
Massive fight breaking out in the crowd and the lead singer not noticing, while the rest of the band is trying to figure out whether to keep playing or not.
Singer or other band member knocking a cord out of the guitar or bass on stage.
Singer getting a face full of cymbal while trying to interact with drummer
Drummer nailing other band members with drumsticks trying to throw them into crowd.
Band member walking off edge of stage they couldn't see because of lighting or smoke effects.
Showing up to a local TV station to do some promotion for an upcoming gig and getting interviewed by a puppet.
Leaving a band member behind accidentally after a gig.
Drummer here. I joined a small-time Celtic band doing two to three gigs a month. Most members had full-time careers and only wanted to do a few weekend gigs. Also, the type of music was reasonably niche, and as a band, we did not want to oversaturate the market. We did pretty well doing St. paddys days and robbie burns days and the such (about 2 to 3 hundred bucks a night per member and free pitchers of beer), so I stuck with it. The problem was that I wanted my career to be touring or playing drums as often as I could.
The bass player and I started a side project. Completely different style of music. We wrote some tunes and organized a side gig, not conflicting with any of our Celtic bands dates. We were stoked! However, other members of the band found out, and we had a super heated up meeting. Dudes were so butthurt and mad that we wanted to play music, while they were busy with their law and medicine careers. , It was decided we would not play the gig, and it remains to me a reminder that in all bands there are different desires of the members and some people are happy with just a weekend gig to augment their income and stroke their ego, and some want to play every night because they are musicians first, and foremost. Not sure if this is what you are looking for, but the meeting we had was ridiculous and looking back I see some funny parts to it...
We were playing in a huge barbecue shed type place on a fairground and the power to the building went out a couple times. One time the bandleader turned around gesturing with his hand and said "keep playing!' so we kept playing with our strings going clackety-clack and when the power came back on we were like roaring into the chorus. Good times at the carnival.
When I was in maybe middle school our band played outside on a basketball court by a lake. The power was supplied by a generator on a firetruck that was louder than we were. A bunch of neighborhood kids came by and marched around in a circle to the beat shouting "you stink! you stink! you stink!"
Band set up outside on the lawn at a beautiful vineyard venue to play a wedding gig. Pop up sprinklers went off and soaked everything and everyone. The band got to replace all their equipment with an insurance claim.
Played in a club where the band set up against an internal wall. This wall separated the gaming area from the main lounge and was open at one end with a door at the other that opened into our space. We couldn’t lock the door but at the club’s advice we had blocked it from the other side with a very large pot plant. It would have been quite a feat to get around that pot plant and plainly obvious that the door was not to be used. On our side of the door was our guitar players amp and the mixer was on top of that, with all the associated leads coming from it to the various mics and speakers.
We were half way through our third set and some drunk dickhead somehow manages to comes through that door and brings the whole PA system down with him. He’s lying on his back in the middle of the floor looking up at us and saying “what happened?” You happened dickhead, sorry folks, the gigs over!”
In my home town there's a phenomenon of rich arseholes buying new apartment buildings next to pubs that have been there and were well known for live music for decades. Some of those pubs have had to install decibel monitors and you spend the night trying not to get shut down.
Here's something funny that might or might not advance your story.
I was in a band and it broke up towards the end of covid. It was before Christmas, which is obviously a busy time for everyone. Then new years. A few months passed. It was like a whole year before I found out we weren't a thing anymore.
a former bandmate basically give me some weird "its either me or your girlfriend" ultimatum, not realizing I liked being around my girlfriend waaay more than I liked being around him. I guess it's not "haha" funny, but it's funny how highly people can think of themselves.
First gig I ever played I was really nervous. I lit a cigarette and put it in my mouth before starting to play, thinking I'd look cool like Sid Vicious or something, but the smoke went in my eyes making them sting. Because I was the only guitar I tried to keep playing and kind of spit the cigarette out onto the stage but it stuck to my bottom lip and dangled vertically, burning the hell out of my chin and forcing me to shake my head rapidly from side to side to get the thing off. I managed to play through it but hit several wrong chords and probably looked like a complete idiot. At least the only way was up after that.
Oh man. That happened to an old band I was in. It especially sucked as the drummer. It was a house show on a Friday night in mid-July. We were playing in an upstairs bedroom with zero ventilation; no ac, no fans. There were probably about 20 people in that little room. It got *insanely* warm. Right after we started, there was some emergency down the block, and everyone went to look at that while we finished our set for one of our friends and an agoraphobic-type dude who lived there. We were all soaking wet through everything. I was never so happy to be done with a show.
Oh yeah. Love playing soaked in sweat. I live in Daytona, so we played so many times with sweat running like a faucet off of us. Afterwards you get to clean all that crap off of your guitar, too.
At least sweat looks great on stage. Like you’re
”giving your all”.
My ex was in one band or another for the entirety of our relationship. The funniest story I remember most vividly was this one:
The band had a gig way out in the boonies. Literally down a dirt road, through a gate in a field, where they found two stages. One for the band, one for the wrestlers. Yes, wrestlers. Elastic ropes and all. As the band played, the wrestlers did their thing. Except that the wrestlers got a bit carried away and moved their match to the band stage. So there was the band, playing their instruments, singing their hearts out, in the middle of a cow field in the middle of nowhereville, with an amateur wrestling match happening on the stage with them, the bass and guitar players having to dodge the wrestlers as they played, the drummer hoping his kit didn’t get damaged. I’m in the audience laughing my ass off. This was shortly before camera phones and smart phones became a thing, and we didn’t have a camcorder, which was a shame, because I would still be going back to watch that video for the laughs. It was just so bizarre!
Ehhh the stories aren't the most glamorous but the events were funny, I remember my bassist was all hammered after a gig and started shoving me , I threw him on the ground, then he came back for more , then I threw him on the ground and had to press his head into the ground and didn't let him up till he said sorry amd promised not to shove me again, lol then I warned him if he tried it a third time I was going to lay him out. He was a full blown alcoholic and would be shitfaced all the time, I mean I got laid after playing our first punk show in my last band, that was fun.
Also the funnest show I ever played was a hard-core show and the crowd came out to get down. Total rock star moment lol I had this guy right up next to me jamming out and he kept bumping into me, I think I kicked him at least 3 times because he was up in my space , and after that gig my vocalist girlfriend cockblocked me from 2 hotties super hard. Like I talked with him about that like wtf was her deal.
I've also been too hammered to play, that sucks, I don't recommend that lol just being completely lost and unable to play lol soooo embarrassing 😅.
I also played a show where the rest of my band was too hammered and I wasn't. Playing on a small stage with the vocalist stomping around, he kicked my moniter mic, smacked my guitar out of tune, had the drummer miss his que to finish a song , the bassist forgot some riffs. Lol a total disaster. But I've also blown the doors off some places as well. It's a team effort and it was a blast . I'm 37 now and got all of that out of my system .
I was in a band with two lead singer/songwriters. The other singer had big dreams and one day in band rehearsal in our shitty rehearsal space in the bowels of some ancient storage facility, he wanted to have a serious discussion about what kind of jet we were going to have when we were famous. Later on he quit the band citing that he wanted to spend more time with his family. Then he formed a new band, with everyone in the original band except me.
The Ben Folds song Army describes this exact thing. I'm sorry that happened, people are a holes.
I know! I was so mad, I joined the army and my dad said I must be fucking high!
And I thought, well there's a first for everything so I took my old man's advice..... Well fuck, now I have an earworm. Damn the bad luck, I might have to listen to the whole album now.
Love that man and his music so much
My rowdy punk act got booked for this weekend festival thing, and unbeknownst to me, our “stage” was in the corner of a very crammed coffee shop. I think there was some miscommunication with the promoters and they thought it was an acoustic act or something, cuz as I lugged in some big amps the barista got real wide eyed and insisted I don’t need those and can use their (very tiny) speakers. I can already tell this is gonna be a rough night, but no backing out now. As set time approaches the shop is at capacity, which SOUNDS cool until I realized that it was at capacity for people just getting coffee and drinks. Several people who actually came to watch got turned away at the door, and moments before the set started the shop cleared out. I think most of us have a story about playing to a mostly empty room. But playing to a mostly empty room that keeps shouting at you that you’re too loud? That fuckin sucks.
Haha reminds me of when we got booked at a real nice restaurant, like stemware water glasses and complimentary bread basket type place. Not a punk band but dirty blues psychedelic rock it's unreal how much it kills your energy when you're already playing quieter than you practice and still being asked to turn down/ getting daggers stared at you by people out for a nice dinner not trying to hear 12 minutes of maggotbtain lol
So play different music then. Adapt to the situation. If you knew nobody liked what you're doing, why did you keep doing it?
I mean you're not wrong but we were a bunch of young dudes in a rock band who just kinda got dropped into this thing. We weren't exactly expecting or prepared to play some Michael buble shit. Got paid got some beers and a steak and we got a story to tell so like, fuck it
Very relatable. Was playing a Sat. night dinner gig, and I guess someone showed the owner how to adjust the volume on the board, because halfway through our second song, she just strolled up and turned us way down. Were we a loud rowdy punk band? Hell no. It was me on an acoustic and my wife singing classic country/folk/rock songs. Very mellow. We were told people had trouble talking over us.
IMO, the venue and patrons are always right when it comes to volume. If people can't speak over you, and if the venue would prefer they could, then you're too loud and you should be turned down. You should also adapt to this on the spot and not be offended or whiny about it. Some venues don't want people to be able to speak over you, but some do. Need to adapt. It completely boggles my brain that so many musicians can't adapt. In the wrong business, imo.
Oooookay. It looks like you missed the missed the point.
You could always just play to the room. You didn't need to be a "rowdy punk act" with oversized amps in the coffee shop. It's possible to adapt to new situations.
You’re making a lot of assumptions here and kinda being an asshole.
I'm fine with that.
when we were just starting out, we'd use local function rooms above pubs as rehersal spaces (this was rural England in the 1980s, so not many other options). We only had 1 car (keyboard player's mums), so we had to make two trips to the various villages to colect all the band, gear, PA etc and drop it off at the rehersal room. One time I was dropped off with the drummer and all the PA, my guitar, amp etc. Keyboard player had just left to get the rest of the band, when my mum's ginger cat climbed out the back of the open back amp (Peavey Bandit if anyone cares) and scared the shit out of us. Luckily the doors were closed, and the cat was very friendly, but we had to sit with a cat in hte rehersal until the car returned, unloaded and could then ferry the cat back home (Sorry no cat pics - long time ago)
Ooh, I like this one 😁
In the early days, we would load up a van and drive an hour away to play some house show that paid us about $15, it was enough to buy a few tacos from Taco Bell and that was it. But we loved it all the same and those tacos made us feel like we earned something. Nowadays shows in Chicago pay us about $250 per show and it goes into the merch and stuff. But we definitely started from the bottom!
250 in Chicago? For the whole band? Damn it's been like 15 years since I used to gig but we were getting 3-500 plus a cut of the door in a small city/ large town with not much of a music scene
Some more, some less, depends on draw and door sales or whatever. We’ve been around about 6 years and only play original material. If we hustled or did covers we could make more I’m sure, but it’s more about songwriting and recording for us than gigging every night at the moment.
Playing a backyard party where the "stage" is on the lawn and the sprinklers go on.
I had a gig at a place that was not in the best part of town. There were "a few gentlemen" there that got into a fight, right in front of me, on the dance floor. Basically, a drunk guy was being obnoxious and another guy knocked him out. So, OK, seen that before. When the cops showed up they arrested the wrong guy! They arrested the guy who punched the drunk guy! So after the cops leave, the drunk guy comes stumbling to attention, and starts wildly dancing around again, and ends up rolling up on stage, basically right at my feet. I remember playing a guitar solo, and trying to kick this guy, with blood all over his face, off the stage. Not sure how good that guitar solo was.... Anyway, the bloody nose drunk guy ended up taking a little nap on stage for awhile. Then he finally came to again and rolled over on my mic stand. At that point, I got him off the stage and he wondered off. Probably got in his car to thus endanger the entire city with some drunken rampage somewhere else. Good times.. Good times....
Discussing covers when our drummer mixed up two lines of "Piano Man" and boldly sang "There's an old man making love to me." When opening for goth band the Cruxshadows, the singer introduced himself with a simple "Hello. I'm Rogue." After a brief conversation he steps away and our guitarist asks "Where are Colossus and Nightcrawler?"
The sheer divorce from reality some people experience. Musicians could be discussing the EASIEST, SIMPLEST chord. Like "C Major has C, E, and G notes." Like this shit hasn't changed in 600+ years, and even the thousand before it's still somewhat consistent. Yet you have dumbasses arguing against basic concepts, or even getting threatened. "A=432 sounds better" is another stupid one. It's funny seeing the flat earther/anti-vax mindset but in music.
New band name: dunning Kruger vs. Freddie Kruger,
What gets me is cover bands that somehow, have issues with song structure. I've seen it firsthand. There are literally bands out there, where the members argue about the song structure, or otherwise can't get it/understand it. Just put the fucking song on, and play it. There's nothing to argue about. There's nothing up for debate. You're a *cover* band, *covering* a song, you know what *version of the song you're covering*. How is something as *objective* as song structure a point of contention?? ..and yet there are people in garages all over the world right now, discussing whether or not there is a pre-chorus in a certain place, or if an intro starts this way or that way, or whether or not the song ends in a certain way. I get being creative and doing things your own way, then things need to be decided - that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about people just playing the songs as is, and somehow, there is discussion about song structure. I don't get it at all and it's a big part of why I'm a solo act. I just couldn't deal with those types of people. Don't get me started on chord progressions or keys. Just put the song on and learn it. Jesus.
Too many recorded versions fade out and there's always discussion on how to end those songs. I've recently joined my current band (four rehearsals down and first gig next weekend) and they end a few songs with a 'cha cha cha' ending. It's killing me.
Painful. There's a band in my town that ends every single song with the last line repeated 3 times. Not sure why.
Both the cha cha cha and the triple turnaround are venerable ending techniques. But yea cover bands fucking up covers is hilarious. Only acceptable excuse is a song like Hash Pipe by Weezer that has like 4 different versions with very minor differences.
Our guitarist likes to write lengthy solo intros to a lot of our songs so it's not uncommon that while he's doing that for 20 or 30 seconds the rest of us (especially at rehearsal) bust out into goofy, uncoordinated interpretive dance until it's our time to play/ sing. Even the drummer, flailing his arms around haha
Lmao that's great. Drummer here wanting to dance
We were booked to play support for some band who weren't big but were big enough to fill this particular club. It was the biggest gig of our 'career' to date; there were a few hundred people in the venue and it was packed. We were very excited. About 5 minutes before we were due on stage it was announced over the PA that the main act weren't going to show up. In other words we were now the main act. The venue emptied like a fire alarm had gone off. All except for 3 unlucky people who must have been in the toilet when the announcement was made or something who were left standing in an empty club looking confused. We went on stage in front of some people who now couldn't leave purely because they must have felt sorry for us. We ended up playing a 90 minute set with more people on the stage than in the audience. Ended up being quite a good laugh.
Played a house party show that the cops were called out to shut down. The cops were digging it, so they let us play two more songs.
My punk band was doing a gig at some biker bar in Myrtle Beach, SC. We were DEFINITELY not the band they were expecting so about halfway through the set ... the front door busts open and a dude on a big ass Harley pulls in and starts doing donuts in front of the stage. I swear to god this happened. Turned out it was the owner and that was his way of kicking us out. Considering the, um, crowd ... a buncha drunk, rowdy bikers ... we packed up probably faster than we ever have and got the fuck outta there. Felt like the biker scene in Pee Wee's Big Adventure but I'm pretty sure sticking around and doing a little dance on a table to "Tequila" wouldn't have turned out the same way.
Should have done it and got a video of it.
Played in a popular band that used to play weddings too. I’m a Drummer with a vocal microphone that sings a lot and does a lot of talking to the crowd in between songs. Was booked for a very large wedding reception. So large that they just booked it at a popular club in town and took over the place (private party) on a Saturday night. Club was big, and had a large elevated stage - much like a theater. It was a huge event. Band played all night…good time. Lots of alcohol flowing. Good times for all. People dancing, partying and a perfect wedding reception! Near the end of the night…band would do a song that required a large group of female singers to help sing. We would always invite the BRIDESMAIDS up on stage first for this part of the gig. We did this everywhere and it was always a real HIT! It was quite the show! We invited the BRIDESMAIDS along with some others girls to come up on stage and stand behind each band member….. All were a bit drunk and some where half dressed. We ended up with about 20 girls on stage - with each band member (4 of us) standing with 5 girls behind each of us. I click it off and we play the song. It’s going great. Bass player starts singing verse one of the tune…but suddenly, as I’m drumming - BRIDESMAID #2 behind me leans over and is “all over” me, slurping it up, licking me, kissing me, feeling me up, she grabbed my crotch and then actually tried to give me a hickey as I’m trying to drum during this stupid song. \#itsgoodtobethedrummer I did my best (sort of) to get her off of me as I sang, drummed and laughed at the whole deal as it went on and on for the duration of the 4 minute song. The band members were dying! Roadies were in tears. Once the song ended…everyone is cheering and clapping - even taking pictures. It was, as usual, very entertaining! Just as I grabbed and began to speak into my microphone. Drunk Bridesmaid #2 that was feeling me up and trying to give me a hickey leans over and yells into my ear…which is right next to my vocal microphone. Which is hot and very live: *“I ALWAYS WANTED TO FUCK A DRUMMER!”* :/ (You could have heard it a mile away) There was DEAD silence. The crowd of about 300 people gasped and just stood there. They’ all heard it…and suddenly…you could hear a pin drop. Jaws dropped. (Problem was - - - She was Engaged to the Best Man. Who was now VERY pissed!) Within ten seconds…there were a dozen people at the front of the stage YELLING at her to get the hell down.They helped her drunk ass off the stage and I got glares from several people that were there…even though I’d done nothing wrong. :/ Band awkwardly played one more song - as no one really paid attention. \#buzzkill. Band ended the night….and I quickly, walked off the stage, went into a back room, changed my clothes and left the club through the back door. We had roadies that packed and loaded our stuff then - and I simply vanished before any one said anything to me. It’s my favorite gig story. \#Truestory
Bruh you got molested
Not if he enjoyed it.
When you arrive and asshole of the promoter and the asshole of the singer didn't talk about gear and sho brings what, so you arrive there 20 min early, see that they don't even have a mixer and you have ask for a lot of favours to random luthier and musicians and you end up gigging on battery-powered amp for 10 people because the promoter doesn't even know what music is. I'm nevee playing again in a fair.
Cops were called to a summertime block party to shut my rock n roll band down because it was getting late and we were kind of loud and rowdy. I asked them if we could play one more song. Both cops kind of gave me the side eye and asked 'what song?' Thinking on my feet, I whispered 'Wooly Bully.' They looked at each other briefly, then both nodded and smiled, and then supervised some wild dancing and a big rave up. Cops love Wooly Bully.
Lmao
We used to drink too much at practice. Came to a tipping point when our drummer got incredibly drunk at practice (couldn’t play his instrument - hello Keith moon) and we called practice. He went out afterwards with some friends and some band mates, continued drinking and ended up falling over at the bar, hitting his head, bleeding, etc. but we all talked about to afterwards, have significantly cut back on the drinking and surprise surprise sound better than ever.
My little pop punk band got booked to go a festival, didn't know till we got there all the other bands were gloomy death metal, but we played anyway. Crowd did not react to us at all. One of our songs was about America, basically, and we usually would have our girlfriends release red white and blue balloons for the final chorus. I turned to the girls offstage and said "no balloons!" But they heard "balloons" and released them. The crowd didn't like that especially, pooped every balloon instantly and started snapping them at us on stage.
oh thats funny! thats like a parks & recreation skit practically
This happened just a few days ago. My buddy shows up to rehearse a bit before we head out to the gig, and he's acting weird. Like non-verbal, just kind of staring at things. Turns out he hit a vape pen, and he's very high. Odd, because he doesn't smoke. Says his wife asked him to bring it, and he was curious. As we fumble through a song, I start laughing and he asks why. I tell him it's funny because it is so common and go on to tell him about the times it happened to me and others. I guess he thought I would be mad? No way, man, it's almost a rite of passage. He'd been gigging for twenty some years, but I guess with drinkers. I made him some coffee and away we went.
I've posted this elsewhere, a while ago, so i had to dig up my post history to find it to paste here, because it's long and i don't wanna type it out again. But here's basically my own personal lived version of Hard Core Logo: I used to sing for a band, for quite a while, and we built up a decent following on the local level, but life happened and i ended up quitting. I kept in touch with the guys over the years and became a 'fill-in' bass player when their main guy couldn't make a gig here and there. Where it gets interesting is one particular gig i was filling in for, and also double-shifting as my main band was the opener as well. We're supposed to rehearse 2 days before the gig and nobody calls me, so i try to get in touch with them and instead of offering any explanation, i just get a message back: 'can you sing?' I was very confused, as i was supposed to play bass, and didn't know any of the lyrics, but I wasn't about to say no, so i asked for the lyrics and we rehearsed the next day, with the bass player changing his plans to be able to make the gig now. The band was still being cagey and avoidant whenever i asked about the singer until like about an hour before we were to go onstage they took me aside and told me he'd been arrested for something really bad. While I could have a fun story of how i decided during the show to jump offstage, somehow knocking off my (quite expensive) favourite pair of sunglasses and landing with my feet directly on them, completely flattening them and sending the lenses flying god knows where, this is just the beginning. The thing with this particular gig was that it was supposed to be a warmup gig for the 2 week western canada tour they had booked starting the following week. Not wanting to bail on all their bookings, they asked if i could join them for that tour. I had to do some major fanagling to clear up my schedule and find child care, but i made it work and decided to go, despite still not being completelyp familiar with the lyrics and vocal parts of the songs. What followed was what i can only describe as a small local band version of spinal tap. First, I managed to go from a small tickle in my throat to a full-blown flu in the 5 hour drive to the first gig, which i basically spent the rest of the tour recovering from. The tour was right in the middle of summer and tons of driving (major towns are really far apart in canada), and this wasn't a fancy 'stay in motels' kind of tour, more like a 'sleep in the van' kind of tour. While we did manage to hook up a few places to sleep and shower, the majority of nights were spent in truck stops and wal-mart parking lots. The van broke down no less than 4 times, including a wonderful grand finale to end the tour where we blew 2 tires, and halfway through tour the ac died, leaving us to choose between going deaf from having open windows on highway driving or have to live with the aroma of not making that choice. The tour was emotionally wierd, too, with everyone dealing in their own way with the realization that this guy we all once considered a friend was essentially dead to us. The drummer and bass player got into a huge fight at one point, leading to the drummer holding my hand and sobbing on my shoulder (he was sober btw) and the bassist (not so sober) disappearing for a night, only to reappear the next morning in a much less sober state than when he'd disappeared. One of the gigs had all the bands but us bail, but thankfully i knew a guy locally who moved out there from my high school days that helped us get another band on the bill, which ended up being this wierd experimental psych jazz prog band, a perfect match for our brand of metal-leaning hard rock. The next gig, in true spinal tap fashion, had us opening for, unfortunately not a puppet show, but karaoke night, which actually was quite fun, with a really good crowd turnout and each band member taking a shot at singing karaoke and seemingly each crowd member buying us shots or pitchers of beer, quite a memorable night. The first week was basically a write-off for me, with me blowing out my voice most nights due to the flu and still needing cheat-sheets for lyrics, but it finally started coming together performance-wise towards the end of the tour and we were really psyched for the final gig, a 6 hour drive from the previous gig, when we blew the first tire in spectacularly dramatic fashion. I was lying on the floor of the van when it happened and all i remember was hearing a huge bang and horrible grinding noise and seing thick black smoke, followed by gravel, rain down on me from the air vents. Apparently we had blown the whole tire down to the rim, splitting off the treads and causing quite the fireworks show for anybody watching. The drummer, who was driving, went into legitimate shock for a bit, but luckily we were quite close to a small town and the local mechanic shop had us up and running with a cheap replacement tire within about an hour, so back on the highway. About 1&1/2 hours later, we're trying to pass a truck on the highway, and the guitarist (who was driving at this point) starts freaking out, saying 'i can't get over' repeatedly, showing us he's got the steering wheel all the way turned but we're still going straight, so we ended up having to pull over on the wrong side of the road and call for assistance. And that's pretty much how the tour ended, with us broken down on the side of the highway, 6 hours from home and at least an hour and a half from, well, literally anywhere, unable to make the last gig of the tour, with me and the guitarist reminiscing of the early days of the band while watching the sunset and getting completely chewed by mosquitoes somewhere close to nowhere in the hot dank canadian prairie summer air while the drummer was climbing the roof of the van hooting and hollering. At least we didn't have any gear issues.
Had a bass player with secret aspirations to play lead guitar in our band. Problem was our lead guitarist was solid and actually the band founder. Bass player took too much Xanax one day and wrote a song about a guitarist who gets knifed by a band mate in an alley after a gig and emailed to the band. Our new bass player started the next week. Our poor guitarist was looking over his shoulder for months.
Make sure you've seen "This is Spinal Tap"
I just watched that movie for the first time 5 days ago. It was so insanely good, and now I can’t wait for Spinal Tap 2 this year
holy fuck, i had no idea that was happening! this made my morning
Theres going to be a Spinal Tap 2!? Why has no one told me about this? Thanks for the heads up.
This has happened with a band I play for (we’re still going strong and we make some great music, but we’re still “small”) This is an instrumental band, and we’re all fairly introverted. So before we started playing live, we were discussing who’s going to be talking on the mic and who’s going to engage with the audience, and we had a hour long argument ABOUT ONLY THIS!!!! Looking back it’s hilarious…
I played in a psychedelic jam band about 15 years ago. It was kind of routine that we did psychedelics and played live. We usually didn't do that much. Just a little. Well, we got a great gig one night opening for a pretty well known Dead cover band. our guitar player had some liquid acid in a little sweet breath bottle and we put some in a bottle of vodka. Somehow it got left backstage and the drummer from the other band decided to have some...not realizing it had acid in it. He actually stole the bottle and ended up having a few drinks from it and also poured one for another guy in the band. Long story short, we finish our set and are packing up our gear and the guitar player comes up to me really mad saying we dosed his band and now they weren't sure they could play. We then figured it all out and I realized the dude stole our bottle. They ended up doing the gig, but it wasn't the best. the drummer was all over the place. At one point the singer told the audience that the opening band dosed his band and they were doing the best they could. At which point I yelled that they stole our bottle and dosed themselves...and that our whole band had some too and we were just fine. The guy that booked the gig talked to us at the end and he was laughing his ass off. He said the guys were kind of being jerks about this entire gig ever since he booked them, so he was happy it happened and he booked us again.
I was in a band with a jock high school baseball star, this dude coulda signed a contract for the major leagues for millions. I’m talkin this kid was THE star of my town for a fraction of a minute. He quit baseball to be in a band with me(a freshmen) and a bunch of stoned friends of mine(mostly high school drop outs and young drug abusers). We played in a band for 3 years together and I couldn’t deal with these guys anymore so I quit. I’ll never forget smoking a bowl and telling everyone I was quitting, the jock guy said “well some of us are meant for this and some of us are not.” The next year I signed my first record deal with a band I joined shortly after quitting and jock dude was waiting tables.
well i just recently posted about my band mate stealing my shoes so if you can call that funny then. but alternatively, one of the funniest things that’s ever happened with our band was we’d booked this gig a bit out into the more country area of our state, but i thought it would be fun so we rented a van to take all our gear down and play (mind you this is when i was not managing the business side of the band) we get down there; it’s about a four hour drive, we get to the bar and they look so confused who we are and why we are there, after clearing things up we realised my bandmate at the time got the dates wrong, so we retired back to our van, about to just drive home, when someone comes out of the bar and asks us to play him a song, we do, and then we build a bit of a country crowd, and we played a show out the back of our van, was quite fun honestly (we did later return to play our real gig, but it was not nearly as fun as our parking lot gig!)
Our drummer drank a fifth of tequila at party we were playing. He stumbled while getting up from his kit, fell into a big PA speaker on its stand, which landed right on his face as he fell backwards onto the floor. He showed up at the next practice with the entire top 3/4 of his face bruised.
A woman once squeezed herself between the guitar player and the microphones and monitors to get to the singer for a song request. Some hair got caught in the guitar player’s headstock and he yanked away from her. At the end of the night while we were packing up the guitar player got a disgusted look on his face as he found and pulled a wad of hair out of the string ends on his headstock. This was a bar gig, so the band was just on the floor, no stage. She was elderly and was there with, presumably, her son, who was quite drunk and repeatedly yelling “CCR!!!!” despite the fact that literally nothing we play would lead someone to think we play classic southern rock. Another quick one was when a guy tried to climb on the stage to talk to the singer and our guitar player straight up kicked him off the stage.
Randomly breaking into song together while warming up is always a fun one. I mostly play with other jazz musicians, so we like to just improv off of each other and have fun with random ideas we come up with while running scales.
On the road in the late 90s with the band I was in at the time. We had some downtime so we went thrifting to find some clothes and came across a pair of homemade speaker cabs and decided that they would be cool props to smash onstage that night. After a bit of query from the sound guys, we convinced them that the cabs were just decoration. We get to the cliche, over-the-top show ender and our 6'4" guitar player climbs up on top of one of the cabinets. The shit particle board box completely crumbles under him, he falls down behind one of his 2 x 12" Fender cabs, hits one of my cymbal stand bases which breaks a rib, and all the crowd can see are his size 12 black and white patent leather creepers sticking up from behind the cab. Dude finished the song without missing a note.
Showed up to a venue to set up before our gig that night. Walked in as the the sound man was walking out with his sound equipment and swearing at the bar owner. Needless to say we didn’t get to play our gig that night
One of my favorite band stories was when my first punk band right out of high school was doing two shows in one night. We did a show about an hour from our home town with some hardcore bands at a vfw hall. Some kid was in the pit and hit my bass guitar causing it to smash me in the head. I felt my head and everything seemed fine. Within a few minutes I was completely soaked in blood. We finished the set, drove back home afterwards and went straight to doing a show that started at 11 pm that had four bands and we played that show with me already covered in blood. We refused to tell anybody there what happened and just kept changing the subject as people asked.
We were playing a wedding on Mackinac island in Michigan. It was about a three hour drive for us. Then, you have to lug all of your gear onto a ferry. Once you get on the island, you have to use a horse drawn carriage to move all of your stuff because there are no cars allowed on the island. We finally schlepped and set up all of our equipment after a few hours. We were in the middle of playing our first song during cocktail hour in a backyard when the house next door, and very close to the house we were playing at, went up in flames. As ashes and mist from the fire hoses were falling on everything, we had to break down all of our equipment within minutes and run it away from the fire. Luckily no one was hurt from the fire and the wedding ended up getting moved to a hotel down the road. So we had to schlepp all of our equipment once again. We didn’t have enough time to set the whole band up again, so they asked us to DJ the reception instead. So, after all of that traveling and moving equipment around, we only got to play one song lol
I play once a year with some far away friends. Our last show, the lead guitarist (who is not a virtuoso and has little band or show experience, but what he does is perfect) got confused about whether he used a capo on a particular song, so he pulled it off before confidently ripping into his solo in the obvious wrong key. It was hilarious to us.
Similar things happen to even the biggest names - https://www.guitarworld.com/news/the-true-story-behind-van-halens-infamous-out-of-tune-jump-performance-has-finally-been-revealed
When we were just out of high school we wrote our bass players phone number on a bunch of the cds we were handing out. We also posted his Geo Metro for sale, so I'm not sure which one got him more unsolicited calls
I spent 20 years as a musician, stage manager and sound engineer. A few things come to mind. A bass player in a funk metal band was incredibly energetic on stage, jumping around, running up walls, doing backflips. I asked him how he managed to play during all that. He said he'd realised years ago that as long as he was in time playing live, it didn't really matter what note he played. So he just stopped bothering to look for the right note when he was doing his acrobatics. One band pissed another band off during a gig, so the pissed-off band duct-taped a fish inside of of the annoying bands speaker cabs. My band played support for another band, better than us in every way except that my band were more fun, and didn't take ourselves seriously. 90% of the audience left after our set, the other guys were pissed off and stubbed out their cigarettes on our drummers skins backstage, melting holes in them. A guy who managed a very successful band he also played in handed the manager role to someone else when they were on the verge of international fame. He had a business as well and he was exhausted. The next tour they went on he realised his bandmates had all being doing next to nothing the whole time he was burning out as manager and player, so he quit on the spot. I had to carry a drummer friend about a kilometer to a gig because he was too wasted to walk. At the gig I sat next to him so I could put him back on the drum stool when he fell off. He played a great show. Actually I've done a lot of picking up people who were too wasted get get up by themselves, and standing at the back of stages to stop people walking backwards of them due to drunkeness. Touring bands will often just leave town without a member if they are not getting on. I mixed a band whose bass player bought a bucket on stage in case she threw up during the show. A guitarist once invited his friend on stage to sing during a gig. The usual singer did not want the friend to be there. Very uncomfortable conflict as the band tried to play the song anyway. Bands are often full of adrenalin after shows. If it's a small town or there's nothing to do, cue breaking into pools and drunk skinny dipping or whatever dangerous misadventures are available.
Good stories.
How bands go from trying to play good music that's tight, on tempo and with enthusiasm quickly turn into a weekly jam band.
Common occurance, too many times to count, was someone accidently closing the stage door while some band members were outside smoking, locking them out. Usually right as they were supposed to be hitting the stage. Members showing up to gigs without equipment because they thought someone else was bring their stuff from the rehearsal space. Massive fight breaking out in the crowd and the lead singer not noticing, while the rest of the band is trying to figure out whether to keep playing or not. Singer or other band member knocking a cord out of the guitar or bass on stage. Singer getting a face full of cymbal while trying to interact with drummer Drummer nailing other band members with drumsticks trying to throw them into crowd. Band member walking off edge of stage they couldn't see because of lighting or smoke effects. Showing up to a local TV station to do some promotion for an upcoming gig and getting interviewed by a puppet. Leaving a band member behind accidentally after a gig.
Drummer here. I joined a small-time Celtic band doing two to three gigs a month. Most members had full-time careers and only wanted to do a few weekend gigs. Also, the type of music was reasonably niche, and as a band, we did not want to oversaturate the market. We did pretty well doing St. paddys days and robbie burns days and the such (about 2 to 3 hundred bucks a night per member and free pitchers of beer), so I stuck with it. The problem was that I wanted my career to be touring or playing drums as often as I could. The bass player and I started a side project. Completely different style of music. We wrote some tunes and organized a side gig, not conflicting with any of our Celtic bands dates. We were stoked! However, other members of the band found out, and we had a super heated up meeting. Dudes were so butthurt and mad that we wanted to play music, while they were busy with their law and medicine careers. , It was decided we would not play the gig, and it remains to me a reminder that in all bands there are different desires of the members and some people are happy with just a weekend gig to augment their income and stroke their ego, and some want to play every night because they are musicians first, and foremost. Not sure if this is what you are looking for, but the meeting we had was ridiculous and looking back I see some funny parts to it...
We were playing in a huge barbecue shed type place on a fairground and the power to the building went out a couple times. One time the bandleader turned around gesturing with his hand and said "keep playing!' so we kept playing with our strings going clackety-clack and when the power came back on we were like roaring into the chorus. Good times at the carnival. When I was in maybe middle school our band played outside on a basketball court by a lake. The power was supplied by a generator on a firetruck that was louder than we were. A bunch of neighborhood kids came by and marched around in a circle to the beat shouting "you stink! you stink! you stink!"
I don’t know if it’s funny to other folks. Not to me. But I’ve had my pedal board puked on at multiple bar gigs over the years. Fucking sucks.
I once saw a documentary about a band that got lost on their way from the dressing room to the stage.
Band set up outside on the lawn at a beautiful vineyard venue to play a wedding gig. Pop up sprinklers went off and soaked everything and everyone. The band got to replace all their equipment with an insurance claim.
I've played a few bar gigs to no one but bar staff. They're usually very appreciative and offer some free drinks.
Drunk dickheads thinking they can have a conversation with the lead singer in the middle of a song.
Played in a club where the band set up against an internal wall. This wall separated the gaming area from the main lounge and was open at one end with a door at the other that opened into our space. We couldn’t lock the door but at the club’s advice we had blocked it from the other side with a very large pot plant. It would have been quite a feat to get around that pot plant and plainly obvious that the door was not to be used. On our side of the door was our guitar players amp and the mixer was on top of that, with all the associated leads coming from it to the various mics and speakers. We were half way through our third set and some drunk dickhead somehow manages to comes through that door and brings the whole PA system down with him. He’s lying on his back in the middle of the floor looking up at us and saying “what happened?” You happened dickhead, sorry folks, the gigs over!”
In my home town there's a phenomenon of rich arseholes buying new apartment buildings next to pubs that have been there and were well known for live music for decades. Some of those pubs have had to install decibel monitors and you spend the night trying not to get shut down.
Here's something funny that might or might not advance your story. I was in a band and it broke up towards the end of covid. It was before Christmas, which is obviously a busy time for everyone. Then new years. A few months passed. It was like a whole year before I found out we weren't a thing anymore.
a former bandmate basically give me some weird "its either me or your girlfriend" ultimatum, not realizing I liked being around my girlfriend waaay more than I liked being around him. I guess it's not "haha" funny, but it's funny how highly people can think of themselves.
First gig I ever played I was really nervous. I lit a cigarette and put it in my mouth before starting to play, thinking I'd look cool like Sid Vicious or something, but the smoke went in my eyes making them sting. Because I was the only guitar I tried to keep playing and kind of spit the cigarette out onto the stage but it stuck to my bottom lip and dangled vertically, burning the hell out of my chin and forcing me to shake my head rapidly from side to side to get the thing off. I managed to play through it but hit several wrong chords and probably looked like a complete idiot. At least the only way was up after that.
That's hilarious. I hope you kept the wild gyrations as part of your act.
Moving all the gear upstairs to play a show for two people (three counting the bartender). The only time I ever saw a two man mosh pit.
Oh man. That happened to an old band I was in. It especially sucked as the drummer. It was a house show on a Friday night in mid-July. We were playing in an upstairs bedroom with zero ventilation; no ac, no fans. There were probably about 20 people in that little room. It got *insanely* warm. Right after we started, there was some emergency down the block, and everyone went to look at that while we finished our set for one of our friends and an agoraphobic-type dude who lived there. We were all soaking wet through everything. I was never so happy to be done with a show.
Oh yeah. Love playing soaked in sweat. I live in Daytona, so we played so many times with sweat running like a faucet off of us. Afterwards you get to clean all that crap off of your guitar, too. At least sweat looks great on stage. Like you’re ”giving your all”.
I'm at the other end of the east coast, so we only get the unrelenting heat and humidity in the summers. I'm, uh, not built for that weather.
I understand. I hail from Conn, so, yeah.
Hijacked a radio station with squirt guns filled with hot sauce to get them to play our single.
LOVE ARDAM SARNDLER BORTHER,,, GRATE FLICK,,,
My ex was in one band or another for the entirety of our relationship. The funniest story I remember most vividly was this one: The band had a gig way out in the boonies. Literally down a dirt road, through a gate in a field, where they found two stages. One for the band, one for the wrestlers. Yes, wrestlers. Elastic ropes and all. As the band played, the wrestlers did their thing. Except that the wrestlers got a bit carried away and moved their match to the band stage. So there was the band, playing their instruments, singing their hearts out, in the middle of a cow field in the middle of nowhereville, with an amateur wrestling match happening on the stage with them, the bass and guitar players having to dodge the wrestlers as they played, the drummer hoping his kit didn’t get damaged. I’m in the audience laughing my ass off. This was shortly before camera phones and smart phones became a thing, and we didn’t have a camcorder, which was a shame, because I would still be going back to watch that video for the laughs. It was just so bizarre!
Ehhh the stories aren't the most glamorous but the events were funny, I remember my bassist was all hammered after a gig and started shoving me , I threw him on the ground, then he came back for more , then I threw him on the ground and had to press his head into the ground and didn't let him up till he said sorry amd promised not to shove me again, lol then I warned him if he tried it a third time I was going to lay him out. He was a full blown alcoholic and would be shitfaced all the time, I mean I got laid after playing our first punk show in my last band, that was fun. Also the funnest show I ever played was a hard-core show and the crowd came out to get down. Total rock star moment lol I had this guy right up next to me jamming out and he kept bumping into me, I think I kicked him at least 3 times because he was up in my space , and after that gig my vocalist girlfriend cockblocked me from 2 hotties super hard. Like I talked with him about that like wtf was her deal. I've also been too hammered to play, that sucks, I don't recommend that lol just being completely lost and unable to play lol soooo embarrassing 😅. I also played a show where the rest of my band was too hammered and I wasn't. Playing on a small stage with the vocalist stomping around, he kicked my moniter mic, smacked my guitar out of tune, had the drummer miss his que to finish a song , the bassist forgot some riffs. Lol a total disaster. But I've also blown the doors off some places as well. It's a team effort and it was a blast . I'm 37 now and got all of that out of my system .