Weirdest thing that's broken/gone wrong mid gig?

Dontgiveupyourdayjob · August 2023

I'm sure we've all broken strings, had guitar electrics go wrong, had a pedal/amp/speaker PA crap out on on us at one point or another. That's almost to be expected. However, had a 'first' for our band last night.

Half way through a song in our first set yesterday I noticed the crash cymbal wasn't coming in. Turned round and saw that the cymbal was on the floor. Oops, figured he hadn't tightened on to the top properly, silly boy. No big deal.

End of the song I found out that he'd actually broken the cymbal stand when he hit the cymbal. I don't mean the cymbal cracked and fell off. I don't mean one of the clamps had worked loose/failed. I don't mean one of the leg mechanisms failed/went wonky. I mean the actual metal of the post/shaft of the stand itself had sheared straight through and snapped off!

Dunno what they're made of (steel? aluminum?), but seemed pretty remarkable to snap like that. It was a Pearl stand as well, so not exactly something cheap and dodgy. Never seen it before personally, and the drummer is pushing 60 and has been drumming live since he was 15 and he's never known it happen!

What's the weirdest breakage you/your band has had at a gig?

Sporky · August 2023

At my very first gig a glass bottleneck shattered in my hand during the soundcheck.

There was quite a lot of blood, though only a few very small holes in me.

I like to think it looked proper rock & roll.

Tannin · August 2023

The stage.

Yep, really. (I had left the band by this time and was on the mixing desk.)

The scene: a country pub in Victoria.

The stage, planks over milk crates, covered in mats.

The singer: Our bass player, who for this one number only handed his bass to the 2nd guitarist, put on a straight jacket (nobody knows why, he just did that every gig) and sang lead vocals. With his arms tied behind his back, the only dancing he could do was jumping up and down. So he did that. He's 6 foot 3 and a big bloke. Wooden planks can only take so much.

The song: Chuck Berry's It Wasn't Me.

The drummer, going chink chink boom, chink chink boom. (As drummers do.) Reaching for the ride cymbal. Reaching a little further for it. Reaching quite a long way, further and further ... as it slowly collapsed into the gradually spreading hole in the middle of the stage ... soon followed by some of the toms, and eventually the drumstool.

The singer: WTF just happened?

The drummer? I'm sure I had a drum kit here just now!

The lead guitarist, the second guitarist (currently playing bass), Simon on the lights and me on the desk - all pissing ourselves laughing.

Lestratcaster · August 2023

It was a dep show for my mate's band at a festival, I was using my mate's rig (Line 6 pod pro) and a Laney head for the power amp through a 4x12. I had a dress rehearsal before to practice setting it up and changing banks on the floor controller to switch sounds. Only needed 3, main rhythm, a lead sound with delay and a tremolo effect. Was all working fine when practicing and even when soundchecking upon getting to the venue.

Then, just 5 minutes before we were due to play the vocalist said we should all gather side-stage to have a little pep talk together, I put my (or my mate's) guitar down by the foot controller and we had the talk and went back on stage ready to start the set.

Suddenly the settings all changed on the Pod, was getting weird reverb and delay sounds and clean tones. Pressed the A B and C buttons on the controller but couldn't get any of the sounds back. Went 2 songs in with non-stop echo'ing and delay sounds, and couldn't figure out why. By the 3rd song I had to unplug all FX returns and stuff and run the guitar straight into the amp. It wasn't the best sound of course but got me through to the end of the show.

Afterwards I realised upon setting the guitar down it had pressed one of the arrows on the controller changing the bank to another setting of amps. My mate showed me after there was a scroll wheel on the Pod to switch banks back to where it was but I didn't know it at the time. Luckily as we're all mates the guys laughed it off but had I not put the guitar down on the floor by the controller none of this would have happened!!

EricTheWeary · August 2023

Our singer knocked himself unconscious on the (rather low) lighting rig.
Had to stop mid gig when a member of the audience had a heart attack.
Oh and our whole PA went down when someone pulled the plug to put their phone charger on. Easily rectified at least!

Roland · August 2023

We had a punter unplug the PA so that he could play the one armed bandit. The weirdest was a couple who demanded that we stop playing, and move our equipment, so that they could use the French doors behind us.

stickyfiddle · August 2023

All the power went off part way through Ain't No Mountain High Enough at our last gig - no amps, mics, lights, PA, nothing. Thankfully the AV guys got it working within 90 seconds or so but that was not a nice feeling...

ICBM · August 2023

A drummer once broke a Neutrik plug on one of my cables by standing on it. I thought they were as close to indestructible as you can get, and it looked fine at first, but on testing it when I was back home I found he'd actually crushed the sleeve just enough that it had shorted to the core. I've never seen another break like that in 30+ years.

Drummers....

mudslide73 · August 2023

We've had the PA trip out a couple of times. I had my power adaptors kicked off stage - my pedal board went off completely as I was approaching a solo. Last time out my co guitarist turned up the guitars through the FOH instead of the DI'd bass. It felt like I was playing through a 3000w Marshall.

CountryDave · August 2023

Drummer had a heart attack half way through the first set.
Song had a couple of stops in it, he didn’t come back in after one. I looked round to see him sprawling forwards onto his kit.
Put my guitar down, lifted him up with one arm, whilst dialling 999 with the other.
Paramedics turned up, wired him up to an ECG & wheeled him off to hospital, where a few days later he had a bypass.
All a bit Spinal Tap.

thecolourbox · August 2023

I was playing a solo set in a local library and a book randomly fell off one of the displays half way through Riders on the Storm

EricTheWeary · August 2023

CountryDave said:

Drummer had a heart attack half way through the first set.
Song had a couple of stops in it, he didn’t come back in after one. I looked round to see him sprawling forwards onto his kit.
Put my guitar down, lifted him up with one arm, whilst dialling 999 with the other.
Paramedics turned up, wired him up to an ECG & wheeled him off to hospital, where a few days later he had a bypass.
All a bit Spinal Tap.

Our drummer had a heart attack at rehearsal. I had no idea what was going on and was fairly useless.

stratman3142 · August 2023

I was playing a 'marquee in a garden' function gig with my amp tilted back on one of those Standback Ampstands.

At one point, I turned around and noticed my amp wasn't there, but I could still hear it.

It turned out that it had slid off the rear of the raised stage and was lying on its back on the grass. The mic, looped through the handle, was still picking up sound. So I carried on, until a got a brief moment to go and retrieve it.

CoffeeAndTV · August 2023

I’ve snapped the headstock off the only Les Paul I owned at an outdoor bikers gig while tuning up. It got more applause than our entire set.

Danny1969 · August 2023

I don't have much luck with straps. Last December it was the last ever Kate Bush trib gig at a sold out Wedgewood rooms in Portsmouth. There's one song where Katie has to go off stage and do a full costume change so I get to do a solo over a moody piece of music for 2 or 3 minutes until I see here returning. I was just getting into it and the f#cking strap snaps on a plastic joint. It was one of those Rotel ones
Cue 1 and a half minutes of holding the guitar up and soloing.

3 weeks ago I was doing a beer festive and the strap button on my Ibanez snapped in half. Just sheered straight in half so again, played the rest of the song holding the guitar up while playing it.

Worse ever disaster though was the desk we were using to run our in-ear monitors going duff halfway through the first set in front of a sold out crowd in Worthing. With no amps or wedges on stage we couldn't hear ourselves at all or each other. I pulled my ears out, went as far forward as I could in order to hear the PA but the keys player at the back was screwed and it was only his professionalism that got him through. There was a couple of people in the crowd who came to review the gig and we got a great write up despite that issue.

The desk was a Soundcraft UI24R and it was a chip that creates the pulse width for the buck converters that produce the rails for the opamps that failed. Leading to digital control but no audio at all through the mixer. I repaired it and details of what chip etc are in our Community Repair Thread on there if anybody elses UI24 does the same.

relic245 · August 2023

Not a patch on drummers having hear attacks (hope they both recovered)

Lost all sound at a marque gig. Turned out that someone has forgotten to put petrol in the generator.

BillDL · August 2023

One of the first of the few pub gigs I played was in a very old pub that had suffered from subsidence due to extensive coal mining under it. It had always been a miner's pub that was notorious for massive brawls, and was aptly named "The Ranche". Up until the late 70s the bar had managed to keep it as a "men only" drinking den but they had been forced to move with the times. Even then they only partitioned off a "woman's snug bar" and still refused to serve women at the public bar. By the time I played there around 1982/3 it was fully integrated and they started having bands play, but it was still a notoriously rough clientelle. The whole building had gradually sunk at one end over the years and had been stabilised, but the whole floor area was on a very noticeable slope. The pool and snooker tables had their legs raised at one side by about 9 inches and the doors all had those rising hinges fitted. You could feel yourself falling to one side and walking diagonally as soon as you stepped in.

The stage was only a raised area at one end of the hall probably only only 18" higher than the floor and was just bouncy plywood on a wooden framework. Whoever had built it had obviously just made it parallel with the floor, or else it had been there for many years as the building was subsiding. You could hear and feel it creak as you stepped onto it and I was concerned we might crash right through it. I had a 2 x 12 combo so I wasn't too bad apart from feeling a bit seasick during the set , as did the drummer and the singer. We had all drunk a few beers before the set for Dutch courage, which didn't help with the balance issue. The bassist tried to put makeshift wedges under one side of his large tall cab, but was constantly distracted having to keep looking around to make sure the wedges hadn't vibrated out from under it, because it could well have toppled.

You know the feeling when you step onto dry land after having been out on a boat? That's how we felt stepping back out of the pub. It was a relief to get through that gig.

trolley · August 2023

I've had several over the years, but the 2 'worst' involved my Roadster footswitch.
At one gig, the singer stepped backwards as I was about to solo and landed on a footswitch button. No sound! He'd managed to find (and activate) the mute button!
Another gig I lost all sound suddenly and none of the channels were working. After unplugging the footswitch, I found that the DIN plug that went into it had moved (OK I caught it with my foot) and wasn't fully in. Plugged it back in and voila - all back to normal.

BillDL · August 2023

I played in the orchestra / band for an amateur theatrical performance of a rock-style musical that was held in a large school hall with a fully equipped stage. Although I had the score for a month and had sat in on some of the scene rehearsals in the evening, we only had one full dress rehearsal a week before the night. We didn't have a "pit", and had to sit behind low partitions where the audience all on one level could still see out shoulders and heads. In the late afternoon of the evening performance we went through all the sound checks, but the mixing desk was down where we were to play and that's where we all understood it was going to be due to the hall layout. I had set up my fancy little Zoom 9002 with about 6 or 7 patches for the songs, including one that used the octaver for a heavy groove and another that used a fairly pronounced and long delay. I think I also had a cocked-wah effect for one. It all went really well straight into the mixer to PA and the stage monitors were all working well, but for some reason I can't recall there was a last minute decision to move the desk slightly further back and to the side of the hall where there was a small "vestibule" at a side door. I had to scurry around for a longer cable but the latency was dreadful to the point I would have had to play about half a second in advance to be in time. I had to switch to a "dry" patch and just play very sparsely until the end of the song, then get down on my knees behind the screen and switch over to (I think) my Peavey Envoy 110? combo to take a direct-out and use my 3 Boss pedals (OD, Chorus and Delay) for the rest of the show. The hardest part was breaking into the next song without knowing my levels and how it would sound, and adjusting on the fly while looking back at the guy on the desk. It all worked out OK in the end, although my playing wasn't good. The Zoom 9002 was traded in quite quickly after that.

DefaultM · August 2023

Had a girl fall flat on her face on the dance floor, she got up holding half of each of her 2 front teeth, blood everywhere.

DefaultM · August 2023

Have said before about the time we played a tent in the middle of the field and the power went off. Stood on stage with our phone torches watching hundreds of people scream and run round smashing their shins in to chairs, wondering why they just didn’t get their own torches out.

ElectricXII · August 2023

stratman3142 said:

I was playing a 'marquee in a garden' function gig with my amp tilted back on one of those Standback Ampstands.

At one point, I turned around and noticed my amp wasn't there, but I could still hear it.

It turned out that it had slid off the rear of the raised stage and was lying on its back on the grass. The mic, looped through the handle, was still picking up sound. So I carried on, until a got a brief moment to go and retrieve it.

You're a true pro my friend!

kennedydream1980 · August 2023

I once took a Partscaster Strat straight to a gig right after purchasing it and after having it setup by someone recommended to me. Not my usual go to guy.

Towards the end of the second set on the gig the intonation screws for the B & G bridge saddles just fell out. So the string tension was the only thing holding those saddles in place.

I made it to the end of the set. Luckily the singer had his Music Man silhouette in the band van. So I used that for the 3rd set.

Jeremiah · August 2023

A dog jumped up on stage and knocked over an acoustic guitar on a stand behind me.

(When I say "stage", it was more like a slightly raised area in the corner of a pub...)

LuttiS · August 2023

An amp caught fire at one gig once. Something about an active bass going through a solid state guitar amp..

JayGee · August 2023

trolley said:

I've had several over the years, but the 2 'worst' involved my Roadster footswitch.
At one gig, the singer stepped backwards as I was about to solo and landed on a footswitch button. No sound! He'd managed to find (and activate) the mute button!
Another gig I lost all sound suddenly and none of the channels were working. After unplugging the footswitch, I found that the DIN plug that went into it had moved (OK I caught it with my foot) and wasn't fully in. Plugged it back in and voila - all back to normal.

AAAAAARGHHH! Bloody Mesa and their DIN footswitch cables, especially when they (as with my 5:25) they plug in behind the shield over the tubes…

ICBM · September 2023

LuttiS said:

An amp caught fire at one gig once. Something about an active bass going through a solid state guitar amp..

When I was 17 I had just started playing guitar, and a friend came round to my house with his bass for a jam. My 'amp' consisted of a home-made mixing unit plugged into my Pioneer hi-fi amp and a pair of Sanyo speakers, to which I connected both instruments... my parents were out so I decided to impress him with how loud it was.

He played about one note and blew both the speakers. No fire, but it was still quite impressive!

That was when I learned that hi-fi and musical instrument amp and speaker ratings are *completely* different things. Luckily the speakers were just cheap ones I'd acquired and I then replaced them with the Wharfedales I still have and use (with the same amp) to this day, but I've never played guitar or bass through them again at anything above whisper volume.

maltingsaudio · September 2023

I was taking part in an acoustic session at a local pub, and the bloke playing his double bass had the headstock fall off mid song. No coming back from that one!

maltingsaudio · September 2023

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/jul/07/broadway-hand-to-god-cellphone-charge-fake-outlet

HerbieTheRadDorklift · September 2023

It's not particularly weird, but I was running my Mesa Mark IV into a GCX channel switcher, TC Electronic rack unit, some pedals into a GCX Ground Control. We were a modern metal band of sorts. Anyway, come solo time rather than switching to my lead channel with phaser, delay and a bit of chorus, it actually switched to the clean channel with the effects and I ended up shredding like some 1980s Chuck Berry.

HerbieTheRadDorklift · September 2023

Oh, and once at a wedding we were interrupted by the father of the bride. He got on the mic and told everyone that the bride's mother had just died. He then asked us to carry on and "bring it up lads"

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