Nightmare gig stories

Aahzz

Aahzz

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OK, I was just reminded of this by a thread elsewhere...do you have any real complete nightmare gig stories? One of those nights where everything just goes to hell?

I do.

The first gig I had with a band I joined a few years back, the bass player (Allen) had been complaining of a headache/not feeling great while we were setting up, but he said it wasn't that bad. We played the first set, and he was animated, played great, running around. We took our break, and he said he was feeling awful and went to sit in his truck. His kid came running back in a few minutes later to grab a doctor he knew in the crowd. Turns out Allen had a massive heart attack during the set. He didn't make it to the hospital. So, first gig, only gig...I used to run into Allen's wife occasionally, which was kind of strange since the day I met her was also the day he died.

I had another friend actually die on stage. I wasn't there for that gig - he had been the lead singer of a band I was in when I lived in CT. I moved to KY, heard about the story afterwards - he was on stage with his band and his heart went out mid-song. Another mutual friend was the first EMT on scene, said Shaun was most likely dead by the time he hit the floor.

OK, so those may set the bar a little high for nightmare gigs, but what have you got?
 
We had a casino gig in the UP of Michigan and I saw a guy fall out of a chair during a guitar solo and stopped. The staff kind of dropped the ball calling for help so he died not long after the EMT crew showed up.

The worst part was having to wait around because if he woke up or died earlier we'd have to finish our set.

This was also our new bass player's first gig with us.
 
No deaths for me, thank goodness. Most shows I did went quite smoothly.

I did make an error in judgement with one pit band, thinking I could leave my electric bass slung on my back when I switched to double bass. It was awkward for a bit until there was a pause long enough to correct that.

I did do one outdoor show that became iffy when lightening struck the stage power. An strange tingly feeling made its way to my fingers through my bass strings. The crowd was all running for cover, so nobody cared that we stopped.
 
I played bass in bands from 1972 through 1982. Somewhere around 1979-ish we were playing at a biker bar in Detroit. For those familiar with the terrain, it was somewhere around 6 Mile and Gratiot. Normally we got along pretty good with bikers and had no confrontations with them. But in this place with these guys.....you could feel it in the air and it didn't feel good.

One night in between songs one of the bikers in back who was playing pool yelled out something quite derogatory towards us to which our singer responded in a similar derogatory fashion. I'll never forget it. This biker semi slowly strutted up to the stage with his queue stick on his shoulder, walked up to the stage, pointed it right in our singers face and said "one more word out of you and you're a m****r f*****g ghost." I was thinking "don't say a word, please don't say a word." Thank God our singer didn't say anything. He slowly raised his hands, put his head down and slowly backed up in a "I surrender" fashion. I can still picture that biker. Just had a look about him (especially his eyes) that was real bad news. Couldn't help but wonder what his life story was. What got him to that point?

The next night (which was also our last) one of the bikers shot some guy outside of the bar. We never played there again.

We later played at another biker bar and had a blast with these guys. In an incident that didn't involve the bikers, I watched some guy 3 feet away from me get stabbed by another as we were playing. To say all hell broke loose is the understatement of the last century. Saw some unbelievable fights break out during my time as a musician. I remember one in particular where our drummer and I took cover behind our PA due to the shot glasses and beer mugs flying at full velocity. Just before we took cover I saw a heavy glass beer mug fly within 2 inches of my head. (He must not have liked the bass I was using!)

Now I play for the Lord. So far, no fights!
 
Ok, I know most of you think I make up my stories anyway, so I'll tell this one for the first time, as it's kind of related to Veinbusters.

We were doing "Gospel Night" at the county fair 3 years ago. They have a huge pavilion so you have a roof over your head, a really good sized stage etc. Our church is the biggest in the area so we always "sponsor" that event. Multiple groups from our church will perform. My brother is on staff at our church, and in a group that does concerts at churches around the areas, so he has a complete sound system for his group, and that is the sound system we use for the event. And, of course, yours truly is the sound man for all the groups.

About halfway through the event, we got a downpour. A popup storm, it only lasted a couple minutes, but it blew through hard and we were scrambling to get all his powered speakers out of the rain zone since there are no walls on any side. My position was about 25 feet in front of stage center. I had his rack of equipment, mixer, and all right in front of me, including the main power coming into the system, and being split to all the powered speakers and monitors, etc. During the storm, a bolt of lightning hit the building right next to us and you could hear a weird sizzling noise. I immediately grabbed the main power line coming to his system and yanked it out of his power supply. It was laying right beside the rack and when the lightning hit I just reacted. Everything in the building next to us, and the pavilion we were in got fried, but none of his equipment was hurt. We lost the stage lights, their little PA stuff they had on stage for other events... everything. But none of his stuff was hurt.

15 minutes later, the rain was gone, the sun was out and we plugged it back in and started the singing again. He does have a surge protector in his rack, so maybe nothing would have been damaged anyway, but you never know with a surge that big. So, this wasn't actually a nightmare gig, but my brother has thousands of dollars of gear and it's all his. If all that had gotten fried, it would have been really bad.
 
My band opened for a local legend, Faith Band (RCA recording artists, “Put on your Dancing Shoes”) at an outdoor park over a July 4th weekend. It was a blistering hot day, and we played in the middle of the afternoon on an uncovered stage under the sun. The temperature was around 100F, and after we finished our set, and I joined Faith band to play a few songs. While playing, Faith Band’s guitarist became faint from the heat. We stopped playing, and he was attended to in the shade. While watching him, I started feeling ill, and progressively became worse. I was soaked with sweat and became so sick that I lost my ability to see color; I remember the grass was white. It’s only one of two times that I ever suffered serious heat stroke.
 
sergiodeblanc said:
I played at Skatetopia in Ohio. Closest I’ve ever come to playing in a war zone.

Guns, fire, and BaM Margera. At one point during our set I saw dudes picking burning logs out of a bonfire and throwing them at each other.
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That must have been up near Cleveland. We don't act like that down here on the lower half of the state.
 
I am almost embarrassed to talk about my nightmare gigs after hearing about biker bar incidents. My worse nights seem like a trip through Disneyland in comparison. That being said, that is why I have always avoided joining bands that played biker bars. I had the opportunity to join a bar band that played a Maryland establishment simply known as Daniel's in Elkridge. I wasn't crazy about their music, but they did get quite a few decent gigs and it would be an opportunity to play quite often. Daniel's was not a crazy biker bar at that point in time, but I have learned through experience that bikers and alcohol can be a toxic mix.

As far as to my most personal nightmare gig, it occurred in a band I played in while stationed aboard a forward deployed ship in the Maddalena archipelago. The gig was in a small club on the island of La Maddalena. I was just 20 years old at that point in time. The other guitarist who is a friend to this day drank way too much and could not play (the band's drink of choice was Jim Beam and ginger). The alcohol kicked in and he started dangling his Strat by the trem arm in a middle of a song. He was out of control to the point where we struggled to finish the set and had to terminate the gig. There was a concrete stairwell outside of the entrance to the club and he was so drunk when we were packing out that his 100W Marshall bass head and cabinet took at detour and went straight down the stairs. Surprisingly, both the cabinet and the head survived the ordeal, but everyone had to agree to a strict drink limit to be able to play that venue again. We would have never recovered from the loss of that amp. Everyone in the band was just a first enlistment kid. We barely managed to scrape together enough gear to perform, and then there was the Star Spangled Banner debacle. I used to play Hendrix's version of the Star Spangled Banner. The Italians were really into Hendrix at that point in time. I made the mistake of playing it at an outdoor venue on the big island of Sardinia. To my chargrin, the old man (captain of the ship) and the commodore where on the captain's gig out in the harbor. Needless to say, I never played that song during an outdoor festival again because the old man and commodore did not want us to be seen as a propaganda device.
 
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Aahzz said:
OK, I was just reminded of this by a thread elsewhere...do you have any real complete nightmare gig stories? One of those nights where everything just goes to hell?

I do.

The first gig I had with a band I joined a few years back, the bass player (Allen) had been complaining of a headache/not feeling great while we were setting up, but he said it wasn't that bad. We played the first set, and he was animated, played great, running around. We took our break, and he said he was feeling awful and went to sit in his truck. His kid came running back in a few minutes later to grab a doctor he knew in the crowd. Turns out Allen had a massive heart attack during the set. He didn't make it to the hospital. So, first gig, only gig...I used to run into Allen's wife occasionally, which was kind of strange since the day I met her was also the day he died.

I had another friend actually die on stage. I wasn't there for that gig - he had been the lead singer of a band I was in when I lived in CT. I moved to KY, heard about the story afterwards - he was on stage with his band and his heart went out mid-song. Another mutual friend was the first EMT on scene, said Shaun was most likely dead by the time he hit the floor.

OK, so those may set the bar a little high for nightmare gigs, but what have you got?
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OMG. That's pretty awful.
 
It wasn’t really a nightmare for me, but it was for some others. Important background is that this happened in Quebec during the FLQ crisis (short version for youngsters is that there was a fairly militant action to separate Quebec from Canada).

Our band was booked into a hotel in a small town in northern Quebec. We set up and about an hour before we were to start, a female singer showed up with her...let’s just call them friends. Somebody had decided the place needed some French content. She didn’t know any of our songs. We didn’t know any of hers. She had brought piano music for one song, but the guitar player couldn’t read music. We agreed it would be best for us to play a set to warm up the crowd and during the break, I would see what I could make of her music.

The set went well and none of the crowd cared that we played Beatles, Stones, Eagles, CCR and pop of the month. My in-the-moment piano music to guitar wasn’t great at the time, but I accompanied her and the crowd made it pretty clear they were more interested in something they could dance and drink to...the owner decided it would be best if we just did our stuff, so that’s what we did for the rest of the weekend.

We got paid. She didn’t. Mysteriously the hotel burned down the day after we left.
 
Got booked at this bar in the middle of nowhere (about 3 hours away) by our drummer. He said this place is always packed and they pay great. I drive separately because I worked off that morning and needed to get some rest. I arrive at this place and it's in a town with a population of about 85 people. There are 3 churches and 3 bars all lined up along the street. I walk in and see two other members of the band. The singer and other guitarist. The drummer and bass player don't show. We decide to start the show with the other guitarist playing drums and the singer playing bass and singing and me on guitar. There are 5 people in the place and they immediately start doing blow and meth right off the bar. We stumble through the first set and still no one is in the place. We ask if we can take off because we have such a long drive back. They say, "Absolutely not!!!" In a very threatening manner. We finish the gig, scared to death the whole time we are up there not knowing if we are even going to get out of the place alive because by the end of the night the patrons (now up to 7) were cranked and ready to go and they are refusing to pay us. At this point I don't care, I just want out of there. We finally say, "You can keep the money we just want to go." They finally let us leave with some very smooth talking by our singer. A few days later we find out the place had been raided by the police the week before and busted for some underground drug ring that had been organized by the local "redneck/KKK" mafia or something. Needless to say, we didn't ever play that place again and I suggested we fire the drummer because he knew about it and just skipped out on us!!!! The bass player was just a clueless jerk and skipped the gig.
 
Shrews824 said:
Got booked at this bar in the middle of nowhere (about 3 hours away) by our drummer. He said this place is always packed and they pay great. I drive separately because I worked off that morning and needed to get some rest. I arrive at this place and it's in a town with a population of about 85 people. There are 3 churches and 3 bars all lined up along the street. I walk in and see two other members of the band. The singer and other guitarist. The drummer and bass player don't show. We decide to start the show with the other guitarist playing drums and the singer playing bass and singing and me on guitar. There are 5 people in the place and they immediately start doing blow and meth right off the bar. We stumble through the first set and still no one is in the place. We ask if we can take off because we have such a long drive back. They say, "Absolutely not!!!" In a very threatening manner. We finish the gig, scared to death the whole time we are up there not knowing if we are even going to get out of the place alive because by the end of the night the patrons (now up to 7) were cranked and ready to go and they are refusing to pay us. At this point I don't care, I just want out of there. We finally say, "You can keep the money we just want to go." They finally let us leave with some very smooth talking by our singer. A few days later we find out the place had been raided by the police the week before and busted for some underground drug ring that had been organized by the local "redneck/KKK" mafia or something. Needless to say, we didn't ever play that place again and I suggested we fire the drummer because he knew about it and just skipped out on us!!!! The bass player was just a clueless jerk and skipped the gig.
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Could have stopped after the first sentence…:D:p
 
Back in the late 80s we were doing a big outdoor show. The birth place of Captain Kirk is Riverside Iowa and every summer the would do Trek Fest. It was a HUGE deal back then. About 10 miles from where I live.

Storm popped up right as we were about done. Everything got wet, seriously wet.

When I got home the tote we kept mics in had about 4 inches of water and all my sm 58s were laying in that water. Took them apart and put them all in front of a fan.

I still have them and they still work!

Another 80s gig we played a dirt hole biker bar in Ottumwa Iowa. The guy was a big greasy biker and had ties to Tom and Rosanne Arnold.

Our arrogant singer made a less than stellar remark about the owner to one of the girls working there and she told him. He kicked us out immediately and was threatening to kill all of us. It was pretty intense.

I was in another dirt hole bar and a guy threw a glass ash tray from clear in the back of the bar that hit me in the forehead. Just about knocked me out. I was soo pissed and made a HUGE scene but nobody owned up to it.

Fun times
 
gush said:
Back in the late 80s we were doing a big outdoor show. The birth place of Captain Kirk is Riverside Iowa and every summer the would do Trek Fest. It was a HUGE deal back then. About 10 miles from where I live.

Storm popped up right as we were about done. Everything got wet, seriously wet.

When I got home the tote we kept mics in had about 4 inches of water and all my sm 58s were laying in that water. Took them apart and put them all in front of a fan.

I still have them and they still work!

Another 80s gig we played a dirt hole biker bar in Ottumwa Iowa. The guy was a big greasy biker and had ties to Tom and Rosanne Arnold.

Our arrogant singer made a less than stellar remark about the owner to one of the girls working there and she told him. He kicked us out immediately and was threatening to kill all of us. It was pretty intense.

I was in another dirt hole bar and a guy threw a glass ash tray from clear in the back of the bar that hit me in the forehead. Just about knocked me out. I was soo pissed and made a HUGE scene but nobody owned up to it.

Fun times
Click to expand...
That last one sounds like "The Life and Times of Guy Terrifico". Hope you didn't hump the drum!
 
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