Live performance train wrecks.....

[spideyjg]

There is always something in any live performance the audience may not notice but the performers will.

Wanda said after tonights chamber performance there were a couple of flubs but I'm not familiar with the piece so I didn't hear anything. I was noticing the clarinet player never blinking at all during large sections of the hour long performance. Wanda said it is a real challenging piece for clarinet. He looked like this at times. The man has eyes of steel. I digress but it was funny in a way.

Now going to the opposite side of the spectrum sometimes there are train wrecks were nobody misses the problem.

So let's hear the stories..

What is the biggest train wreck you have seen happen?

I went and saw Bad Religion 2 nights in a row here in San Diego and they had nothing but sound problems both nights. The first night Jay Bentley kept having his bass cut out on him. Throughout the show he would switch basses, bypass his wireless and all kinda of stuff with his tech but to no avail at the end of the show he is doing backing vocal on the finale and begins to

and burst out at the end, "somebody fix this fucking amp!" He jammed the headstock of his bass into the speakers and walked off stage.

The next night Greg's vocal mic started cutting out and he unplugged it and smashed it to the stage, he then began trying to find a mic that worked while the band played on. After dismantling half the mics onstage the song finishes and the soundmen begin to put everything back. Jay's began to work and like a kid teasing on the playground says "I got one that works". Greg came over and took it.

Jim

 

[Timewarrior2001]

Me falling off the stage because I was so drunk I couldnt stand up.

Got sacked form the band for that, they said I wasnt professional. I just told em to go fuck emselves, told them I was not ready for a gig and they went and booked it anyway. I am bad with my nerves and hate being in crowded places, and they wondered why I started to drink heavily?

 

[Jeff Milne]

At a 2004 charity event not allowed to be named on this forum, I was playing guitar on the Sabbath song Neon Knights. The vocalist [who I won't name] completely messed everything up and we actually ended up stopping and restarting the song. The vocalist was still terrible and eventually one of the organizers of the event jumped on stage to do the rest of the vocals.

At the 2003 version of that event, another person I won't name did a drunken and unrehearsed version of another Sabbath song which was pretty painful to watch.

 

[nlukes]

My worst train wreck?... That is easy. A few years ago I played a jobbing gig without any rehearsal with the band. Also I didn't bother comfirming song keys before the gig for all of the songs. That can be a problem and a very embarrassing train wreck !!.....Learned a lesson that night tho..........Some very "bad jazz" indeed!!

 

[Metallicat180]

I've never witnessed anything too bad...

James Hetfield slipping and fallling therefore missing a line in Leper Messiah in Dubin last year. Also seen him make a fuck up right in front of me during Master Of Puppets - the face he made was hysterical!!!

The PA blowing up after the line "Lonely solider, unknown grave" during Paschendale in Glasgow on the DOD tour.

That's all I can think of.

 

[Red Shirt]

How about Rosanne Barr's singing of the National Anthem. I think the whole country knows that was a disgrace to the song and the country. About a year ago I saw her interviewed on tv and that subject came up. What happened was quite unfortunate and certainly not planned to be like that. Sadly, she will be tainted for life (she did say her career has suffered from it) for that and there will probably be no way to fix it. She explained that she was asked to sing it with not much warning, hence very little practice time. When she starting singing on game day, she started singing it at too high of a key and didn't realize it until it was too late. She was doomed. She knew she had one of two choices, either drop down a key (which you know would ruin the whole vibe), or try and hope you can continue to sing in the same key. Well, we all know what happened.
She regrets it and wishes she could undo or fix it, but like I said, tainted for life.

 

[Puckfiend]

Other than Sharon attacking Maiden @ Ozzfest, the only other one I can think of is Motorhead @ The Coach House losing bass & guitar amps right in the middle of a song. Lemmy's looking around wondering what happened & then he excused the band while they fixed the problem and were back rocking out a few minutes later.

 

[Archmagician]

Two weeks ago we played at Angel's sports bar in Corona. I used a Vocal effects processor on the first song to get some chorus effect, the problem was the damn thing had issues. It kept changing from "chorus" mode into this stupid megaphone mode. No matter how many times I stamped on it, stomped it, and kicked it (while still trying to sing the lyrics in time), it wouldnt stay in chorus mode for more than 1-2 seconds. After the song I told the sound engineer to get it away from me! LOL He cut it out of the PA line and voila no more technical problems!

 

[peterp]

At a Cheap Trick Concert one time.

Rick Nielson the guitarist starts playing one thing, the rest of the band starts playing another song.

A few seconds in, Rick Nielson stops playing and just goes to the mic and his kind of nerdy way of saying things. He just says 'Somebody f***ed up'

 

[Stone]

I don't really think that Sharon doing what she did was a train wreck for Maiden, I consider it more of a train wreck for Ozzy. The following year at Ozzfest when it was just Ozzy and not Sabbath, there were not as many people there as the year before. So if anything, Sharon train wrecked Ozzy. Plus, that same following year, it was difficult for Ozzy to get the crowd into the show. He had to ask the crowd like 4 times if they wanted for him to continue. Any headliner should not have to ask the crowd 4 different times if they want the person or group to continue.