I wanna hear your gig horror stories. What's the worst one you've ever played?

We were playing a local party bar in a college town. Busy place. It happened to be my birthday. We had a song about getting drunk. Right before, the singer stops and says something like “hey it’s this fuckers birthday. I need someone to get us a shot from the bar!”… crickets. No one moved. So we say ok and just start the next song. By the time the song ended 10 different people lined up at the stage with shots. My band looked at me like…that’s all you. Just left me hanging. The entire audience is staring at me. Way worse than the peer pressure situations they tell you in school. I took each of them one after the other. I was instantly destroyed. Couldn’t play. Could barely stand. Thankfully I stepped on my cable and pulled it out so whatever I was doing did not get heard. On the positive side, the owner said it was the most rock n roll thing he’d ever seen and invited us back.

Shat myself onstage.

Don't play a gig while suffering a severe flu. No matter how pissed your drummer gets when you try to cancel.

That is all.

Electric shock came off the microphone and hit me in the face. Like visible lightning bolt—or apparently visible, I don’t recall because everything went black. Made $30 though. Just had to split it three ways.

Oh man - salsa gigs. I sat in on sax for a small tour with a salsa band. At one show, we had too many guys on too small a stage. Rickety-ass stage, too. Quarter-inch plywood. The speaker stacks were huge and as we played, we bounced the flimsy stage surface like a trampoline and the speaker stacks began to sway to the music. At one point, the top speaker just toppled and crushed my alto sax FLAT! Completely smashed. I picked it up and tried to play it.. it just played one note no matter what fingering I tried (ALL the valves leaked). LOL ... Amazingly, I was able to bring it to a local school band repair shop in that town and the lady fixed it up!! A little worse for the wear but completely playable. This was about 30 years ago and I still play that sax.

Bar owner says we'll get $1500 and 10% of the bar. We play four, one hour sets and the place is packed butts to nuts until the encore. Counting up he claims he can only pay us $1000 total. Piano player pulls me off him and says, "Load out". We pack up and piano player (now driving van) backs up into the club's three 8 'x 10' windows fronting the parking lot and side swipes the owner's Mercedes before we pull on to the highway. Shit money, but a clean getaway.

Our band booked a weekend mini-tour of three shows. First one was decent except the moronic sound guy didn’t realize our fiddle player was muted while tuning and kept turning him up, causing a massive boom when he unmuted; he was wearing headphones for some reason so it was even worse on him. But I digress….

Last show of the weekend, we’re playing second in a three band bill at a busy bar in Knoxville. Right from the start the vibe is just weird; we can unload in the alley, but it’s only wide enough for one vehicle and other businesses had to use the alley, so we had to scramble to unload everything. Then the venue guy takes us to the “green room” and says if we want to smoke weed this where to do it. We kind of chuckled but the guy just stonefaced walked away.

We go to get some food and smoked some cigs in the alley. When we came back in the guy yelled at us about smoking weed in the alley, even though we definitely didn’t.

Opening band basically ignored us. The “headlining” band was chatty but it turned out this was their “first bar gig.” Ofc that’s totally fine but kind of funny to be opening for newbies, as we were all seasoned pros.

So we get on stage for sound check, and we’re told our 45 minute slot is now 30 minutes and that includes changeover. Sound guy really wants our bass player to use the headliner’s rig to save time. He doesn’t want to and tries to brush it off by saying “Well I would probably need different settings, I don’t wanna fuck up his amp” (meaning his settings) and the sound guy was like “Excuse me? What the fuck is wrong with you? Why would you fuck up his amp? If this is how you’re gonna be then you can just give up your slot and get the fuck outta here!” At this point our leader jumps in and apologizes, just to try to salvage the situation. Sound guy goes off in a huff and we all just stand there dumbfounded. Gives us the quickest, shittiest sound check ever.

We finally go on, and things are going fine, smallish crowd but they’re digging our (all original) stuff. Then after 20 minutes, sound guy says our time is up. He grudgingly agrees to let us play one more song, which goes fine despite us all feeling bummed about this gig.

After we all pack up, we go back in to the bar to use up our band tab; figured we might as well take the booze. The last band comes on, all wearing cheap, fake exotic leather zoot suits, and starts cranking out covers. We finished our drinks and walked out as they started “Sweet Caroline.”

Got in the van, drove 4 hours home. Arrived at 5 a.m. There’s a car parked in front of the driveway, so we can’t pull the van in. Eventually a neighbor and his schmammered girlfriend come out and move the car.

Our band leader wrote a song inspired by the end of this experience. We recorded it, but the record never got released.

We were on tour and pulled up to play a venue in Detroit on a Friday night. Literally no one came. Like not a single person! We played to the opening band and the bartender, it was basically practice

I played a covers show in a pub with 3 people in it (Wauchope for those in nsw australia) - which was bad enough, but got worse when two of them had a fight halfway through. 

So normally it's a bad idea to eat right before a gig if you're going to be singing, as there's the risk of partial regurgitation whilst trying to sing.

We're the support band, in front of a packed hall, probably around 500 or so people in there (not the big leagues, but not a exactly small gig either. Us and the other band decided to get a heap of fish and chips before we play, rather than just drinking beer on an empty stomach. I figured, what's the worst that can happen?

Two songs in, and my stomach starts rumbling. I figure it's probably just nerves, and try to ignore it, and keep swallowing the extra saliva that keeps ending up in my mouth. I'm sweating like crazy, but I tell myself it's just really warm in there.

Half way through our third song, I projectile vomit all over the microphone, my guitar, and the poor poor people who were right in front of me in the audience..

A couple of years later I get diagnosed with IBS...

Not my gig - I'm not a musician - but I was probably a witness to one of Bo Diddley's lowlights.

1) Blizzard. So maybe 10, 15 people show up.

2) Some undergrad doofus (ok, me) interviews him for the school paper and makes the huge mistake of mentioning Chuck Berry.

3) Club owner tries to stiff him on his guarantee because of the miniscule turnout.

Never mention Chuck Berry or a short payout to Bo Diddley. Trust me on this.

After all that, the man (with ALL his money safely in his pocket) comes on and delivers his full set, and what a set it was. Absolutely brilliant.

Opening for Jonatha Brooke in Seattle 2001 I believe. Flew out from EWR that early early morning from east coast gig night before. Rented drum kit from SIR except snare and cymbals. Midway through first or second song bottom head on snare drum breaks. Seconds after that I feel a sudden lack of resistance in my foot pedal and watch in horror as beater ball rolls across stage. Recovery was difficult. Not a great gig lol .

Was tripping on acid at a desert festival in morocco and somehow got convinced/pressured/railroaded in to playing a dj set by the people i was hanging with. Next thing i knew i was on the stage like i was under some mind control truth serum spell, this chick is demanding i play, some other act were saying they were on next, i was like: 'cool, i dont want to play anyway' eventually we negotiated id play one track and then they would come on next. I look at the setup, its fucking one cdj and the other thing is like a dat player or something, im tripping balls and all the knobs are waving everywhere. I go to put in my cd and accidentally eject the guy before me's closing track, fuck, the crowd are standing around bewildered, i cant figure out how to get my track going and there is the organiser yelling at me in french (i dont speak french), finally get it on and my cd is scratched and skips the whole way through, slink off feeling like a total piece of shit which im sure you could imagine are great vibes for riding out the rest of an acid trip. Im actually a decent dj but i was not in my right mind to be doing it that day, say no to peer pressure!

I played with a band in NY at a festival. We had the worst drummer I have ever heard. He used to write for some well known drumming magazine as well. Every time he hit the snare it literally caused me pain and I used to set up opposite snare (playing keys) to minimize damage.

We were supporting a band who was basically Les Paul’s Iridium jazz band. Their drummer was Bernard Purdie. I don’t know if you know him, but he is a little bit good at playing drums. If you know him better, then you know he never turns up earlier than he has to. So we are soundchecking, and he hasn’t showed. Before we sound check, the Les Paul guys ask our drummer if he can do the sound check with us. Our drummer excitedly agrees. They hear us sound check. Our drummer waits to leap on stage. The band asks the guy running sound “do you play drums?” He say “No”. They ask “Even a little bit?” He says “Yes”. The sound man, a guy who doesn’t play and they haven’t heard, is a better drummer than the one they have heard and know can’t play.

Last gig I did with them. Purdie made the gig and was tremendous as always.

Sold out show in Switzerland on my first ever EU tour. Had a double ear infection so my friend gave me some codeine pills earlier that day. Didn't even cross my mind that evening when the promoter brought us a bottle of Jack 20 minutes before our set.

We passed around the bottle until it was gone and started playing foosball in our underwear for some reason. My last coherent memory is walking out on stage...past that point I was blackout wasted other than a couple vague memories filled with anxiety and horror at the recognition of my own, unstoppable state of totally fucked up - somehow my capo detached from my guitar at one point and ended up in my bass player's hair, and I remember having to ask him to put it back on my guitar for me lol. And then just getting offstage and getting yelled at by our drummer 😆

Last time I ever made the mistake of mixing those two substances, or of being wasted onstage period. A shot or a puff on a joint before playing is fine but I religiously swear off anything more than that ever since lol.

I have another horror story about Switzerland, I think that country is too perfect for me, every time I step foot there I somehow become a hot mess almost instantly.

I walked into the toilet door as I was about to take my last piss before going on stage. I smacked my head into the edge of the door, cut above my eye and it started swelling up immediately.
I was also the front man/guitarist in a 3-piece, so all eyes were on me.

Ended up putting some gaff tape along my eyebrow to cover the cut, so it looked like I had one really, reeeallly hairy eyebrow.

Our power source was a generator that went out 3 times during our half hour set.

I played a woman's 50th birthday party out in the suburbs of NYC. Her husband booked me to provide music for them and about 40 of their friends, with my own equipment, singing and playing guitar, looper pedal setup, one man band style.

I booked it while I was on the West coast, so when I put it in my calendar I was careful to adjust the timezone. Only problem was I selected some South American city as my "time zone" on the calendar and that country didn't recognize daylight savings, and the gig was taking place after the clocks changed in the Fall. So, the start time on my calendar was an hour later than it was supposed to be.

I get to the party, what I think is in an hour early, and they're in full swing, but with no music. Awkward, but no one alerts me to anything. I talk with the husband and he says they'd like me to set up outside on their deck, where most of the guests are hanging out. There's a chance of rain, but nothing yet, so I say sure, and start slowly getting my equipment setup. About 45 minutes later the husband is visibly frustrated and asks me when I'm going to start playing. I tell him in about 15 minutes, and he again looks visibly frustrated but doesn't say anything. I finally ask him if there's a problem and he alerts me I was supposed to start almost an hour ago. I apologize profusely and quickly setup the rest of my stuff. I play the opening chords of my first song, and I feel a raindrop hit my head.

I mentally commit myself to continue unless it's unbearable, and I can see that the guests seem willing to put up with it for the moment, so I keep playing. I get through about 2 songs, and I look down and my EQ pedal lights are flickering on and off. My board is covered in water at this point. One of my pedals just stops working. I see that folks are moving everything inside, so I stop and tell the host I'll try to quickly move everything inside to continue playing. At this point, no one is helping me, so I have to breakdown all my equipment myself while the rain just keeps coming. My stuff got soaked. I've got a couple pedals which don't seem to be operational, so I take them off the board as I frantically try to get the rest of my stuff setup in their much smaller living room space.

As I'm getting everything setup inside, I meet the wife. She's red in the face, very drunk, and absolutely livid. She rips into me saying that her husband has paid me way too much money for me to show up late and play only a couple of songs. I try to explain that I'm setting up inside to play more for them, and that I'll happily stay later, but she doesn't want to hear it and tells me multiple times, loudly, that I've ruined her birthday. I am SO flustered at this point, I can barely remember how to plug in my equipment. One of their outlets isn't working, to make matters worse. I finally get everything setup inside, but about half of their guests have left at this point (mostly due to the rain, I think, and to the fact that the birthday gal is shitfaced).

I struggle through like 10 more songs, all the while overhearing the wife loudly crying to her friends about how I've ruined this. Everyone is just either staring at me and judging me in commiseration with the wife, or trying to comfort her. A couple people have song requests, but none that I could actually do.

I keep playing until the husband gives me the sign. I apologize profusely again, refuse to let him pay me the remainder, and breakdown my equipment faster than I think I ever have.

I played a gig with a high school buddy who lives in another state. First major gig in years - decades, actually. He said it would be easy. One rehearsal - killed it. Then the performance went well except I forgot to transpose the keyboard for RESPECT (we skipped it in rehearsal) and it threw me off. Had to restart and I couldn't get out of my head the first several bars.

Made a couple other quick mistakes on a couple other songs but for a three set gig most of it was tight AF.

Singer was pissed. Not sure of all the details but they disbanded after that.

Feels bad.

Played a gig with a bunch of other bands for a fundraiser event for an animal habitat. The gig was on an open-air floating barge that was connected to a permanently docked riverboat that served as a bar and grille. During the evening when the weather was nice it was a great place to play, but this benefit gig was in the middle of the day, in July in Arkansas. The sun was beating down on us, and the barge was bobbing up and down in the water. To make things worse, the event was poorly planned and not very organized. We didn't know when we were going on and just had to sit outside in the sun waiting for our turn. By the time I got home and unloaded my gear, all I could do was lie down in the floor for several minutes. I don't know if it was full blown heat stroke, but it was at least heat exhaustion, along with a significant sunburn. It felt like the floor was moving underneath me as laid there. And, being a charity event, we didn't get paid, of course.

Played last on an overbooked pay-to-play bill. Cut off after one song. $2k of gear went missing during loadout. Guy in a Porsche yelled at us for parking in "his alley" for the last 10 years. All round suck fest.

My worst one was when a big international touring act hired me for some gigs on my side of the world, and the artist hired someone totally incompetent to be the band leader. This “band leader”, as well as everyone else besides the singer and I, are genuinely at an extremely low skill level. I’m the drummer, so I don’t play tones, and unfortunately the singer doesn’t play an instrument, so every toned instrument was playing totally different things throughout the entire hour and a half set. Like clashing, not harmonizing or anything that could ever potentially sound acceptable. The band leader would do a motion asking us to stop playing so he can sing acapella, because that’s the only possible way he would have been able to sound at least slightly good, given the circumstance that his band was a bunch of potatoes. They never once cut out, and he’d be singing while frantically waving his hands in a downward motion trying to get the point across. This happened for the entire hour and a half long set. Each time I’d stop playing, but the rest of the band members continued, all playing clashing notes that had nothing to do with the key the song was in. Longest hour and a half of my life. Tickets were expensive, and it was well attended. The “band leader” is originally from the country where the singer is from, so I guess that’s the only thing the singer looked at when figuring out who to hire. So I guess this is all on the singer, despite him being very talented and having extremely good music.

You might be thinking this doesn’t sound THAT bad, but I’ve had some BAD gigs, with fights, one where the singer fell down stairs and broke a bone, some where absolutely no one besides bar staff showed up etc. None of those came slightly close to the cringe fest that was the above mentioned gig.

This was about 20 years ago when I was very young. My best friend, S, who sang and played guitar would ask me to play guitar with him for some acoustic gigs down at the local pub. This would have been only the 2nd or 3rd time I'd ever played in public and the pub was always a friendly place with a good crowd, plus we'd get paid a little bit.

Now, we didn't have any equipment other than our acoustic guitars. We would always borrow the small portable PA system that one of my housemates owned when we did these gigs. My housemate, D, could be a bit of a jerk and very set in his ways, but I always got on with him okay. It's also worth noting that my best friend, S, was very headstrong at times. S & D had a volatile friendship.

A couple of hours before this particular gig as we were running through the songs at my flat, S suddenly realised that he hadn't asked D if we could use the PA system. He phones him up and asks. From the side of the conversation I can hear, it doesn't sound very good. S slowly goes from polite to frustrated to berating. He angrily hangs up the phone. "He said no, but it's fine, we'll use the PA anyway. He won't mind, he's always let us before."

Uh-huh.

We take everything and go to play the gig. It's going well, we get through a few songs. Lo and behold, D walks into the pub and sees us playing with his PA system.

D walks right up on the stage mid-song and unplugs the PA system, begins packing it up. He starts shouting at S, "I told you no! You don't get to just take my stuff!"

S sees red. Starts loudly insulting him, I very clearly remember he calls him an "unbelievable c*nt!". The pub crowd looks awkward. I'm frozen in shock at what's happening. D and S are screaming at each other, flinging insults as D grabs all of the PA and leaves with it. Me and S are left on the stage with everyone silently looking at us.

Thankfully, the pub landlord turned on the jukebox and we were able to kind of slink off.

Played a gig in a bar there was one guy at the bar. We asked him his name and for the rest of the night keep saying thank you Gary for coming out, anything you wanna hear Gary, are we to loud Gary dude just laughed and laughed. Once was playing a day festival kind of show with a new band got through the first song and my amp starts cutting out, was sure it was my pedal board so in the song I’m cutting my signal path down to get to just amp and guitar and what had been a most consistent amp I own was just dying. Had no backup cause it was a 10 bands kind of gig so not a lot of room for backups. We had another guitarist and I just sang back up and got out the tambourine lol

The worst gig I ever attended (not played) was in a Philadelphia bar. It was mick Taylor from the stones. I kid you not, I was one of six people to show up.

Played a gig at the biggest venue in town. A few hundred people are in the audience. The sound guy tells me my distortion pedal is no good for his PA, so I shouldn't use it. Then he says that he likes to put the guitars through the PA, so don't have amp loud on-stage. Makes sense so long as I can hear my guitar. I can't. I'm asking for more in the monitor, but he can't do it.

Long story short theres one song I sing pretty badly because my ears are doing weird things due to the sound. I keep asking for more guitar in monitor, and he is just shaking his head from his marquee 30 metres away. Someone comes up to me after the gig and says they couldn't hear my guitar out front during gig, haha. First big gig in my town pending the release of my first album, and I embarass the shit out of myself. Ah, well. Life goes on. I keep reliving that gig and telling myself I coulda just turned up my amp on stage and made it work, but I kept thinking this guy just knew what he was doing.

In a cover band that did mostly grunge...one of the band members booked us at a chili cook-off that seemed to be constituted of 80 year old people. Singing "Nutshell" to disinterested people on death's doorstep...I still cringe

Besides the countless gigs where we ended up playing to no people, or where I’ve broken a string mid set, I think the most memorable one was a gig we played at a pub for a friends birthday. The pub apparently didn’t realise we were a loud ‘rock’ band (pop punk) and kept asking us to “TURN DOWN!”…

We played on for a few songs until we’re told “FUCKING TURN DOWN OR GET OFF!”, and in the end we got off stage, and while we were packing up some bald git comes along shouting how we thought we were the billy big bollocks (just because we’d made a comment about playing at o2 academy in a few weeks) and he punches our bassist in the back of the head! 😂

Cue lots of people square’ing up, and the girl whose birthday it was trying to keep the peace. Our drummer was a policeman, so it didn’t go much further, but it was one of our more eventful gigs, to say the least!

Oh geeze, I have a few. But here's the first one that came to mind. I was in a band for awhile, but due to the enormous ego of the guitar player, me, along with the bass player quit. For reference, I am a singer. At some point the guitar player, who was the band leader, asked me and the bass player to sub for one gig. I've known this bass player a long time, and played in several bands with him. We got along great. So, I talk to the bass player, and we agree to do this one sub gig. Guitar player sends us the set list a week ahead of the gig, and cool, all songs we've done before. We show up at this bar (a rowdy dive bar). The place is packed, and looks like it could be a fun night. We start playing, and the crowd is responding well. Dance floor is full. After the first set, our guitar player disappears outside. 20 min later, the bass player and I have to go find him. He is out on the side of the bar, wiping his nose and sniffing a lot. Bass player says something about him liking coke. We go back in and things start to go downhill. The guitar player decides we are going to start doing songs, not only NOT on the set list, but that the rest of the band doesn't know. Ok...some of them were typical blues, and they can jam to that...but I am a singer. Lyrics are kind of important, and although I CAN make some up on the fly, doing a bunch of songs that way is just not something I can do. I tell the dude to stick to the set list. Then he starts to insult the audience. On microphone, "Look at these fucking losers, they aren't dancing as much as they are obviously having convulsion." and, "Fucking asshole drunks!" We take another break at some point. The guitar player and bassist have words. Something to the effect of, "Dude, wtf are you doing? Trying to get us killed in here??" The guitar player disappears again outside. We follow him to see him snorting...some substance....We manage to get through 4 sets, which was a clusterfuck. I am making up words, and sometimes just not singing at all to songs I've never heard before, and getting him to play songs on the set list sometimes. At the end, surprisingly, we had about $300 in tips. I was busy packing up some stuff, and guitar player disappears again. We are now waiting for him to show back up, and pay us. He does and doesn't share the tips. He says, "The tips go back into the band for gear and things we need." We say that that is bullshit and we aren't in your band anymore. He proceeds to pack up, and then leaves. We got paid for the gig, but he bailed with the tips. He called me back a few months after that, to sub again. I had to laugh at him, and told him, "No. Dude, get yourself some help and a new singer." Last I ever heard from him.

I played an acoustic open mic about 12 years ago when I was in college. Killed it, and the people running the place asked if I would come in and do a set. I agreed. They asked if I could play for two hours. I agreed without thinking.

The problem is, I had about 30 minutes of prepared songs. So I try to put a set together of songs that I kinda knew but hadn’t played in forever. I was so sure I could pull it off.

The first few songs go fine and everyone seems super into it, then I proceed to shit the bed for an hour and a half. The only song I could get through without fucking up for the next hour and a half was Knocking on Heaven’s door. the only people listening was my dad and his friends that he brought from two and a half hours away and even one of them felt so bad for me they put $20 in my tip jar.

I made $78 that night, but I’ll never forget the complete silence as I just had to stop one of the songs and move on to the next. Valuable lesson learned. 100% my fault and it was shitty to agree knowing I didn’t have that much material prepared.

Large jazz festival and had to use one of the touring bands motifs…. No fucking clue what I did but the keyboard went silent for the last 2 songs of the set and couldn’t get any sounds back on. So I just mimed along with the music since it was a massive band and I was just the aux keys lol. Someone later informed me about the panic button

A funny story instead of a nightmare. This band played before mine one night and the crowd didn’t care at all. The singer was really upset and at one point told the crowd that his band was a fucking rock and roll bazooka!

I worked with this guy that had never booked or played shows in his life, but he paid so I showed wherever he booked. He had this show booked and I looked it up the event and noticed there was no other acts, so I gave him 20 questions about gear, sound people, other bands, etc., he couldn't answer anything and I said we should cancel since we have no idea what we're getting into, but he relented. I said ok but this might be a shitty learning experience for you and I don't like playing shitty shows.

So yeah, no sound person(but DJs), no stands, no people, no NOTHIN. We get halfway thru our set and our music stops because the DJ played it directly from gdrive instead of downloading it...

Related, I did a record release a couple years ago in the middle of July. It was 100+ F°...3 people showed up...

I was playing a bar gig in the middle of nowhere Midwest USA with an unknown singer-songwriter the night Princess Diana died. We just eventually stopped playing…

I took on a bass dep gig a few years ago for a soul/jazz singer doing some original music at very late notice - about 50% of these tunes were still not recorded yet and I had about 2 days to try and learn the set on top of working the day job etc, so the singer sent over a bunch of chord charts/sheet music to help me get through the set in one piece.

I organised everything and made sure it was all in the right order but what I stupidly didn’t do is staple anything together or attach them to my music stand - about 3 minutes into the first song a breeze blows in when some fella opens a door by the stage and the sheets end up on the floor in a huge jumbled up pile of unnumbered,loose pieces of paper.

Had to get through the rest of gig completely winging a bunch of tunes I’d never heard before by looking at what the guitarist and keyboardists hands were doing and trying to improvise something along, trying to do something that wasn’t total shit and fit the vibe. I’ve never packed down and bailed after a set so quickly in my life

Booked for a bar in Greenock. Owner immediately grills me about my English accent because it’s a celtic bar. Says it’s lucky my Dad is from Derry or he would physically throw me out himself.

I gig alone. Two old pissheads damage my equipment when i run to the loo mid-set and owner has a go at me for walking away from my kit.

Got tf out of there as quickly as I could 😅

Im almost 40 and haven't had a good gig since highschool. Every gig after that was some level of shit show. One time the house bass amp we were told to use made no sound, just crackles and pops. One time my loop pedal got stuck and wouldn't shut off the fucking loop. One time the sound guy sound checked us preshow then .... showtime ... no sound. I guess he muted the board entirely after. He fucked off and no one could find him. One time the mics started feeding back and no one could get them to stop. One time the drummer forgot his snare drum.

I could go on forever.

My best gigs were the ones where I completely fucked up the song structure or missed a verse or something.

I no longer gig.

About 15 years back was in an originals band that seemed like we were really making some headway, playing our own shows 3-4 nights a week, got to the point where people were chasing us to do shows, and we were getting some good press,it was a lot of fun and we were maybe enjoying it a little too much with regard to our alcohol intake, which at this point was verging on biblical proportions.

One day I get a call from a guy who was some kind of booker for student entertainment at the biggest local college, he asks us to do a gig and also suggests that we do an interview a few days before on one of their college radio shows which at the time would have broadcast to potentially almost 100k people. We had been doing a lot of radio interviews in the weeks prior so this was no issue, quick chat, play a song, list some upcoming dates.

This we do, the interview goes well, they air it live and we are walking back to our cars marvelling at how big and beautiful the campus is ( You’ll be shocked to learn that none of us were graduates).

We come back about two or three nights later to do the gig and find the college bar, it’s as you would expect but really quiet, we figure fuck it , it’s still early so we soundcheck and go get something to eat.

Oddly the bar staff didn’t even know we were coming, there was no one running the desk, and we saw no posters, slack on the part of the event manager but we are already pretty fucked up at this point and event the roadie is drooling on himself by the time we play our first song.

The gig needless to say is a total bomb, at one point a guy actually comes up to the stage and asks us to stop playing because its too loud for anyone to hear each other talk, to which we responded by turning our amps up, at this point in the evening we were not even in agreement with each other as to what song we were playing at any given moment. Singer forgot lines, I forgot what key I was in a few times, nobody had the count, at the end of every song at least one of us would just keep playing.

Eventually we decide the audience of about 6 people had had enough and packed our gear, woke up our roadie(he had discovered he could bulk buy Xanax online a few weeks previous) and went home.

As we were leaving the campus we saw a large, seemingly brand new bar, with well over a thousand or more students enjoying the night of their lives and posters up saying we were playing there that night, I did not respond to any calls from the student booker the next morning.

The worst gig was this yacht club party for rich people. I mean, you kind of have a vision of how rich entitled people might act. Setup was smooth and they helped us get settled. They made sure we all got fed and made sure the bartenders knew we all got whatever we wanted for free. The dancing seemed to go well. The dance floor was packed and we played an extra 20 minutes due to encores.

Now here's the dicey bit. Somehow the band leader never actually negotiated a firm price. The guy who hired us (who owns and produces a well known brand of liquor) asks us what he owes us. The band leader was caught off guard and didn't know what to say. So the guy says, "What's the most you've been paid?". The band leader said that we got $3500 for a wedding recently. So the guy says, you were awesome, and he doubled it, and paid us $7000. Then we sat around on a balcony deck over the lake doing shots with him for an hour. At the end of the night, I asked him if I could have a bottle of the liquor he produces as a souvenir. I knew he had multiple cases there. He brushed me off and changed the subject. Jeez. What a let down. Entitled rich people. Amirite? Worst. Gig. Ever.

I did a tour in China a while back.

I used to simply say it was both the best and worst gig at the same time, until I found out one pretty horrific detail years later.

I was hired to play Chicago the Musical in China. Long story short, the Chinese promoter company was vastly underqualified and underprepared to handle the logistics of an American style theater tour, and they majorly goofed at all levels of the process. We played one show, the cast escaped the country back to London as a bargaining chip, and about fifteen of us stuck around for a month in Fuzhou/Beijing/Shanghai on salary while the cast renegotiated the contract. We played one show and sat in a 5-star hotel on salary for a month. On one hand, it was awesome.

On the other hand, I found out years later when I was working with the conductor again, that that single show we did in Fuzhou was a shotgun performance. As in, "you will play tonight or we will kill you all."

See, the logistics were so bad (wrong gear, inexperienced crew causing broken glass to rain down on the cast while blocking, etc.), that the director refused to open the show until the Chinese side got their shit together. Since the funding came from the CCP, the promoter called them and said that they think this is a 50+ person shyster attempt and that they were accusing us of "pretending to be a touring show" to steal the money from the CCP. Some top honchos in the CCP called the director and said "you perform tonight, or else." The performance included a full row of decorated military men sitting in front, with armed guards in the back. I didn't think anything of it. We were going into the show completely cold, because the musicians never even looked at act 2, and the lighting gear never arrived, so a show that's extremely reliant on amazing lighting is now going on with simple stage lights. No spotlights for Cell Block, etc.

Then, while we were repositioned in Beijing while contract negotiations took place back in NYC, it turns out they kept saying "if you don't agree to this, we will kill the Americans still in China." So we're out sightseeing the Forbidden City, Summer Palace, etc., while they were thinking about murdering us to prove a point.

Ten years ago I got electrocuted onstage at a punk club in Croatia while the owner of club was making crank in a bathtub in our greenroom. Our backline was Sov-Tec everything. We were hired to play blues and the kids wanted punk. We were yelled at and ushered out by these big Croat dudes into our rental van and got lost as fuck for 8 hours trying to get back to Slovenia (Phone maps don't pick up well on mountainsides). Also ten years ago, played a gig in Pilot Point, Texas for the Chamber of Commerce. Their racist police chief, Ric Sadler, hated the fact we were playing black music (It was a Mardi Gras party, dude should have taken a rain check) and asked us quietly and sternly, "Stop playing that ****** music". We kept on playing and he walked back up to us and said in words that I'll never forget, "Y'all just make sure you don't have any drinks or drugs because I'll have somebody watching you when you leave this parking lot." We had friends drive our vehicles and I called my buddy who was a limo driver to drive us home because try pulling over a commercial transport vehicle (the COC paid for it and apologized for the Chief's behavior) without just cause is asking for a lawsuit. Shit like that makes you realize white privilege because this dude was itching to violate some rights. His name is/was Ric Sadler, also former FBI.

So many to choose from! The time I broke a string in the first song of a four song set with no replacement and the string stuck in the other strings, the time I broke my finger the day before the gig and had to okay with my middle finger sticking out at the audience, or the time the bass player’s amp kept cutting out in the most intense parts of all of the songs because the fault was voltage dependent?

One of my saxophones got hit full on by projectile vomit from a very drunk girl a couple of rows back. Luckily I wasn’t playing it at the time but cleaning it up afterwards wasn’t pleasant, for me or the tech.

Oh! I thought of another one. Had a gig booked at a local bar, and at the same time there was a Jimmy Buffet tribute band scheduled to play at a nearby outdoor amphitheater. Heavy rain moved in, causing the tribute band to have to cancel. The promoter knew the owner of the bar and asked if they could play there. The bar owner asked us if we would mind cutting our set considerably short so they could play, and we would still get paid the same we had agreed on. Less work for the same pay? Sure.

Well, the downside was that the Buffet tribute band wound up asking to borrow some of our gear. We foolishly said yes, then regretted that later when they went long and we wanted to leave, but couldn't because they're using some of our gear. Our lead singer gets the bright idea to ask the promoter to compensate us since we were stuck waiting on the other band to finish. Promoter dude had two big guys with him, one on either side. I guess they were his bodyguards, maybe? He laughs, turns to one of them and says "get this guy out of here." Totally stunk of the whole "you'll never work in this city again" kind of vibe.

We thought playing a skate park would be a great way to make fans and have a great time. This was the mid 2000s after all!

The skaters started throwing their boards at us during sound check. Violence increased during the support band, manager complained about the noise, ended up with our driver / friend pinning the managers son to the wall by his throat. 

We never got to play and went home. In fairness the manager said sorry for the hassle and that it didn’t work out and gave us a case of beer!

Was playing in a “band” around 20 years ago that consisted of me playing guitar, and two singers. We used a drum machine and sampler for the other parts during practice and for a couple of pretty bad recordings. The “band” was mostly theatrics from the main singer guy who had a massive ego and only a little talent.

We booked a show at a tattoo parlor owned by one of the singers friends, and it was attended by the tattoo artist’s friends and clients. Around 50 people or so. All strangers to me. We had a few songs that we thought would sound much better with more live instrumentation, so I called in a favor from a few of my friends to play bass and drums. We practiced one afternoon and it sounded pretty decent.

We were told there would be a drum kit at the place that we could use, and there was one on the main stage, but it belonged to a different band and they didn’t want to share. The drum kit that we were to use was in a loft area around ten feet above everything else and off to the side. There was a kit up there that was only a little better than buckets and trash can lids.

Having the drummer basically on another planet made it pretty much impossible to play together, and the sound was dreadful. To make matters worse, between songs the singer was insulting my friends on microphone. I was incredibly embarrassed by the whole thing. I apologized to my friends and quit the “band” immediately following our first show.

That whole experience with that band was a nightmare really and ended up costing me money and gear. It’s a long story from when I was too young to know who to work with and who to stay away from.

This isn’t horrible but I was hired to play solo at someone’s funeral service about 6 or 7 years ago. Everyone was sobbing and I couldn’t help but think how funny it was that they only hired a trombonist. Felt weird lol. They then talked to me about how much he loved the trombone (he did not play). They even hired a “crier” to sob for everyone. She was almost louder than me

You think it's bad when your band shows up late?

Wait till they show up early and start drinking and wind up too drunk to get on stage.

I was on tour, we were headlining and I was using backlined drumsets. One of the shows, the drummer before us tells me, "hey, adjust anything you want, the only problem is the throne is broken". It was broken and was stuck in the lowest position possible. I'm a little over 6 foot. My back was so fucked for the rest of the tour. I'll never forget that.

I played a strip club 'happy hour' and was told there would be no strippers because it was too early...first song I turn around and sure enough...3 naked chicks dancing on a pool table.

In college we played our spring weekend (last weekend before the end of the semester) and it was a party school.  

-Arrive at 7am to find the stage inhabited by a guy in his boxers with a handle of whisky and a gallon bag of weed tucked into his waistband. “Let’s get weird!” A harbinger of the chaos to come.  

-we were supposed to play an hour for the first set , the crowd was vibing and the band we were opening for got jealous so we got basically forced off stage after 20 mins.  

-for the second set, in the evening, people were absolutely destroyed from 12 hours of drinking and it was like a riot. If you’ve ever heard about the pumpkin fest riot, was in the same area / timeframe. We were using my speakers for the PA and a guy apparently on acid kicked out the cables from the back whilst dancing atop the speakers. We had a mic stolen and everything got covered in dirt. Still a fun time tho.  

Drummer forgot her cymbals. Fortunately they had a metal table that she used.

Lot of great stories in here, this is a great thread!

I have a few, but probably the worst one was when I was playing bass with this country singer and we'd been on a 6 week run out west and had hauled out to North Dakota for a gig. Part of the deal was, we were supposed to "host" an open jam at the club on Saturday afternoon, so we do, but there's some guy at the bar who is sending up round after round of shots. The drummer and guitarist are smart and do one apiece and then say no more. Me being an idiot, I tell them I'll do theirs and mine too and the singer drinks all of his and stays to drink with the guy after the jam. This is all before we have to play a show that night.

I leave to eat and drink water and try to sober up some but I'm still shitfaced. Sometimes the singer and I would swap and he'd play bass and I'd sing and play guitar, but I was in no condition to sing and I come back to the club to find him wearing my bass and him expecting me to sing and play.

I try to sing some song I like that nobody's ever heard of and we eventually swap back. He can't find his pick and accuses me of stealing it, to which I reply, "If you were a pro, you'd have more than one." He gets in my face ON STAGE and basically tries to start a fight with me in front of everybody, including the people sitting at tables mere feet away from where we are.

We play. Eventually the singer leaves the stage mid set and sits down at a table with some guy after being so fucked up he needs to lean on the wall behind the stage to stay upright looking like he's in a completely different universe. I'm pounding giant cups of water the entire time. The bartender and waitstaff tell us they feel really bad for us. Our guitarist is a pro and basically carries the first three sets.

Finally I sober up and sing and play the 4th set but the singer is gone and nobody knows where he is. I walk back to the place we were staying with the knife I carried in hand because I expect him to mess with me and he's bigger than I am, but he's already gone to bed and the night is over.

The next morning, me and the drummer and sitting in the living room area talking and the singer comes out of his room muttering something about "Guess you should never mix antidepressants with alcohol."

It is my last gig with this singer.

A wedding. I've been doing this 15 years by this point: the planner was newish, but had snagged some high-end clientele through a strong sense of style and excellent Instagram skills. The wedding was held at a new mansion, what the owner wanted to be "the landmark residence in Paradise Valley," the old rich area of Phoenix. A niece was to sing and they strong-armed me into rehearsing the day before. Later, I celebrated my wife's birthday using a gift certificate at one of our finest resorts, having a great dinner and splitting a bottle of champagne. Everything was fine, until...

The next morning, around 6 AM, I woke up feeling terrible. Hungover? On half a bottle of champagne? 7 AM, didn't feel any better. Nor at 8 AM... But it was okay, the wedding was like at 4 PM or something.

But I didn't feel any better, and I also had severe gastrointestinal distress. It was coming out of both ends. I developed a sense that I shouldn't have had any of that Sea Bass the previous night. As the hours rolled on, and it was all I could do to crawl back and forth between the bed and the bathroom (oh, how cool and salubrious the bathroom tile feels at such times!), I realized the wedding wasn't going to happen for me.

I began to make phone calls.

To condense the story, I found a guitarist in my network who was open and willing to do the gig, but I also found him to be shockingly bad on the phone and was demanding to be paid essentially yesterday. I say shockingly, because he'd been in my network for many years and the idea that I wouldn't pay him in a timely fashion was, in my mind, bizarrely suspicious, given that I'm an established and trusted musician and we had friends in common and had socialized.

But worse, the wedding planner. Oh, the wedding planner. Again, to condense, she was not understanding. She was barking at me and complaining and pointing out that they weren't paying some rando to play the wedding, but ME, and so they should get a refund (even after paying the guy). Apparently, her idea of fair was that I should pay the guitarist sub and her client should get a full refund (yes, the client with the nicest house in the nicest area of Phoenix).

To be honest, the shitty behavior of my sub and the planner made me decide to give it a go.

So my wife went to the store and stocked up on medication. I began taking pills designed to stop up my, well, butt and mouth and to prevent all the things from coming up. Also, advil for the headache and general pain and feeling of terribleness. And laboriously, dizzily, began to wash and get ready.

By the time the afternoon rolled around, held together with a variety of medications and also muscle contractions, I pull up to the mansion. It's a swanky affair. Budget, I would estimate, of perhaps $100K?

They didn't even get me any shade.

But, assisted with the wonders of chemical intervention and a bit of grit that I didn't even know I had, I pulled it off. Packed up. Drove off.

Not even a tip.

My goofy little pop punk band got booked at a Latino biker pool hall called the Crazy Horse and the ceiling over the stage collapsed during our set.

In middle-high school I was in a number of local youth symphonies and we played at different locations in our area. I played percussion in symphonic orchestra/jazz band. They would ask me to play in the lower level bands some times because they were so short on percussionists and had literally nobody. In one band it was just me and this other girl in the percussion section. I had a big crush on her so I agreed to play in that band even though I didn't want to lol... We became good friends goofing around in the percussion section. At one of the concerts we played was in her home town, and we had a long intermission after rehearsal .. She asked me if I wanted to go with her to the trails in the woods behind where we were playing at and she knew a cool spot. Still in my tuxedo minus the jacket I said hell yeah lets go.

So we're going along these trails and it comes to a large fast flowing river with a log fallen over it like a classic log bridge. She starts walking across it.... mind you this isn't a huge log.. She makes it to the other side and I start walking across. I made it about 2/3 of the way across and I fell in the river with my tux on. She helps me out over the bank and I'm head to toe with mud. Obviously I didn't bring a spare tuxedo with me lol.... We were both supposed to play in like an hour. So I rushed back, scrubbed my clothes off in the sink the best I could and went on stage stained brown from head to toe and some of the looks I got.... I will never forget it.. good times.... I never scored BTW lol

Had shingles from the middle of my back through the armpit to the sternum. Took a pain pill several hours before the show and took a nap. Woke up groggy and still in a bunch of pain and took another pill too soon. Was too sick to my stomach to even stand up until about 30 minutes before we went on. Had to play sitting down on a stool because my bass strap sat right on top of the shingles outbreak. We were a very physical band, so just sitting there like a bump on a log was lame.

The actual worst is because I’m still embarrassed about it to this day.

I got the chance to book a show with one of my favorite bands. They were booking a US tour (they’re from Austria) and I reached out and got them a date in my city. Managed to get a $600 guarantee for them, which was a little better than they were averaging. (They didn’t make much through the US and Canada. Europe better at something? Color me shocked.)

The show was packed. People were willing to travel to see them, we had a crowd from like five different states. It went good enough that, after they finished, members of a few of the bands went back up and started doing covers, just having fun, to keep the night going.

At the end of the night, we go to get the money, and the manager is like “what money? There was barely anyone here!”

It was so bizarrely devoid of logic that it took everyone by surprise. The manager just snuck out and left the bartenders and sound guy. The crowd actually got furious when they heard and took up a collection to at least get them to the next show.

Those guys never responded to any of my messages again.

Oof. I'm sorry for ya. I've had some rough gigs but nothing that rough.

I haven't had a nightmare gig yet but I've definitely had some awkward ones. Last gig I played with my cover band was our first attempt at going full digital (guitars) and everyone on IEMS. No stage volume, everything running through the house mix.

The mistake was only having one rehearsal to dial in the IEM situation. First half of the set we kept having to adjust levels and people were fucking up because they couldn't hear what they needed to hear. Then with no stage volume - on that particular stage it wasn't a great idea. You could only hear the drums and bass close up, but if you stood back you got the full mix which to hear it told was great.

Brand new guitar experienced a broken wire inside and cut out midway through a song. Then the backup guitar broke a string. That ended the set.

Venue used to be a mechanic shop, we played in what used to be the garage. Mid July, no AC, the building was made of cinder blocks. The venue demanded we be there at like 4 for setup sound check and to run through set times. We didn't start till 6, ac didn't start working till after our set, we ere miserable

Flew out to Ohio to play a festival , brought my kemper and wireless set up. Wireless wouldn’t work due to interference and had to rip the big stage with a 10 foot cable. Felt pretty bad

The monopole in Plattsburgh is brutal when you lug a whole PA and subwoofer and cameras and lights up those stairs lol

Many years ago, played a show in New Hope, PA. Ween was there, we all thought "Hey cool, maybe we can say hi to them after the show if they're still here!"

One of our guitar player shows up a bit late, she's on some kind of pills, proceeds to 'play' with her guitar turned down/off/amp not on (honestly I don't remember, bottom line is she fucked up). Also slurred/mumbled any parts she was supposed to be singing...it was an awful gig.

Fortunately Ween had left long before we were done, so no embarrassing meet-and-greet!

Playing for a political party because the band was apolitical... Ended up with my instrument over my head, squeezed in between the people that wanted to see a politician in real life (felt like it was the whole city) even though I legitimately did not like the person at all...

It was the first and last time I accepted to play for any political related type of thing.

Wasn't even paid.

Mine are pretty tame tbh, but here’s a few:

We did a charity show earlier this year where we were supposed to be playing the charity’s theme tune while a load of their volunteers got onstage for a massive finale. Except it turned out the sound guy didn’t get the memo and hadn’t unmuted the bass or guitar, so it was just drums and a lone sax player audible to an absolutely packed out venue.

We were behind about 30 people crammed into a fairly small stage so there was no way to alert the sound guy. Our monitors were at the front of the stage as well, so we had no idea if any sound was reaching us at all. Looking back at videos you can just about see our band playing our parts behind about 3 rows of people, packed in like sardines upstage. It was a really fun experience though!

Second one, we headlined a showcase with a couple of hardcore bands and a regular rock band. The hardcore bands were pretty annoying to work with, we had to fetch them from outside the venue to come and do their sound check as the sound guy was getting more and more pissed off at them dicking around. Apparently standing outside having a chat and a cig is more important than staying inside and making sure you’re available when needed. When it was the second hardcore band’s turn, one of their guitar players kept noodling around playing meme themes during switchover while their drummer decided to assemble his entire kit instead of using the headline band one. They also managed to lose a few pieces of our kit and delayed everything, just for a 10 minute set. Those two were the most unprofessional bands I’ve worked with so far. The regular rock band were pros though and played a blinder of a set.

Before a pickup “fun” gig, the singer and leader starts drinking heavily and harassed the female bartender, gets himself kicked out and the police called. Then somehow he manages to talk himself back in. The minute we started, said leader starts flailing out in all directions and manages to rip off a cabinet door. Needless to say, the gig was over and the leader was banned from the place.

Fortunately, the place didn’t ban the rest of the band because they knew we were trying to keep him in check.

Bar gig years ago in Ybor City, Florida. A shot glass went rocketing past my head and through the giant window behind me. Shattered it. So my back was turned to the packed party street the rest of the night.

Had a fly in date to Wyoming, and took my snare, kick pedal, spds, stick bag, and cymbals. All packed nicely into one flight case. Which the airline broke. I realized it broke when on the mainly empty luggage turnstile I saw my ride cymbal alone. Followed by my pedal and loose drumsticks.

Booked a tour with a indie band that was getting lots of radio play, especially in college towns. I think we did 42 shows, but the most memorable one was when we showed up in Savannah to a closed venue. They closed for good that day. I was already paid, so we farted around Savannah for a few hours and crashed.

Had food poisoning set in the middle of a set. That was awful, and a terrible van ride to the hotel.

Backline and rental gear hasn't been too terrible for me over the years. But I have heard stories about nightmares.

The time I broke my foot stepping down off stage at a festival and it was so loud the stage manager heard it over the band.

Spent the day drinking "aquahol" (99 bananas and water) and once I got on the drums for our set, I completely forgot all of the songs and proceeded to crit fail the gig. The guitar player was so pissed he left me at the venue to figure out my own way home. Lesson learned. Drink responsibly.

When I was 16 or 17, I played bass for my youth groups praise band. We even toured around the area a bit. One such gig was at a huge youth group gathering. We were leading a worship set before a notable Eminem-esque Christian rapper took the stage. All went well until the 2nd to last song we had in our set when his DJ started doing his soundcheck in the middle of our set and started blaring some shitty mid-2000s beat.

Snow storm hit while we're setting up before a big show, like...closed roads, emergency vehicles only. 1,000 seat arena was totally empty. No one there, not a single person.

The barmaid and owner are the only ones there. We're stuck in a big van with bald tires so owner says fuck it, you guys can stay and play if you want ..I'll keep ya fed and y'all can drink....you can sleep here.

We played a tight set to two people, ate food and drank. But, we lost a lot of money and it was a sad spectacle. I ended up going on a few dates with the bar maid, lol.

We were booked for a battle of the bands at the Roxy in Hollywood. We were like 18 years old and super excited. Then the event planner said the whole battle of the bands was bumped to the bar upstairs “On the Rox” because Cher’s kid was playing the main stage now. Then half of the people who came to see us missed our set because they stood in the wrong line, because there were two now. Then after the sets were played the judges for the Battle of the bands approached us and told us how we were the best and most original band of the night. They then declared an emo band as the winner because that’s what was in during 2006.

Show on stage in front of about 500, we’re setting up behind the curtain while someone else MCs the crowd out front.

We’re ready, set to open with the first tune just as the curtain rises, but as it does, it takes down the two vocal mics on stands set up for me and the bassist. They were placed too closely to the curtain by the crew and I forgot to check. Two live SM58s hit the ground loudly right as the curtain goes up and we hear silence and then laughter from the crowd as the bassist and I have to upright the mic stands. That’s how the gig started.

Live and learn….that was powerfully cringe

I have two that come to mind for questions like this:

First one - rock trio playing a birthday party at some basement bar. No money, getting paid in beer sort of thing. We got there early to get sound set up, and I found I needed an adapter I didn't have. I ran home to get it. Meanwhile, guitarist stayed there and got paid... When we started our set, he was pretty well trashed. Singing off pitch, breaking strings, tempos all over the place. Drummer and I just sort of gritted our teeth and got through it...and left as quickly as possible.

Second one is simultaneously worst and also best. Playing another birthday party - this was a biker party at someone's house. It was a big deal, there were like three bands scheduled to play, hundreds of people. 20 minutes before we were supposed to go on, our drummer bails. (To this day I have no idea why.) OH SHIT. We were friendly with another one of the bands, and their drummer offers to play for us. The snag - he doesn't know any of our setlist. However, their bassist does, so he stands next to him to give cues during our set. All told, it went better than it had a right to, which leads to the best part: we were playing "Girl all the Bad Boys Want" and get to the line "all I got's a moped!" - and this drunk biker gets up and shouts, "BUT AT LEAST YOU'RE RIDING!". Best moment ever.

I was DJing a strip club in Orlando and one of the patrons wanted his song played so the other DJ played it then his friends were like cut that off and play some Chinx Drugz so the other DJ cut the song short and played what the guy’s friends requested. The dude flipped out and pulled a gun out like he was gonna shoot the other DJ then my friend jumped on top of him and he started shooting the glass in the DJ booth. Everyone scattered. Then there was a gun fight outside and one of the strippers was sitting in her car and got shot. The police then stormed the place with AR-15’s and we had to stay there till 5am getting questioned until they cleared the scene.

Okay, going to subject myself to a whole lotta PTSD embarrassment but here it goes...

Started a new job and got friendly with the VP of the company who was retiring in a few weeks. Naturally we talked music, the bands we used to be in, what we played etc. Despite him being around 30 years older than me we hit it off and had a lot of musical tastes in common. Well he must have talked me up because I got an invite to his retirement party directly from his wife who mentioned that he told her I play guitar/sing and she asked if I'd play Sweet Caroline on guitar while she sang. She even changed some of the lyrics to make it about when they met, something with the company etc. I said sure. I didn't know the song well or anything but had two weeks to practice so by the day of the party I was good to go. I was a little nervous because I just started this job and was now performing with the VPs wife in front of a ton of co-workers I just met. Nerves were a little fried but I knew I could get through it.

Arrive to the party and someone tells me the song has been cancelled. I was incredibly relieved and was looking forward to relaxing. I definitely hit up the open bar since I assumed I was now just there to enjoy the festivities. To my absolute horror, his wife found me a little while later and said, I still want to perform but can you play Landslide by Fleetwood Mac. Honestly, I knew the song just fine but had never prior to then attempted to play it on guitar. I was nervous but wanted to impress them both and make a good impression so I agreed. I went to the bathroom with my phone desperately trying to look up the chords. Finally she got me up there and I looked out and saw about 60 people, most of who I now work with, and utterly freaking out internally because I didn't even get to practice the song!

Well we start. Naturally I F up. Try again and I can't match her tempo and vice versa. We restart again and now my nerves are really shot, sweating and my hand was shaking a bit. She said something to the effect of "Okay, let's try this one last time I wanted this to work" and we get through the first verse and chorus with me flubbing a few times. Her husband finally comes up and hugs her and says thanks, let's wrap it there.

I was so embarrassed I left without saying goodbye shortly after and left my guitar there. It sure was awkward at work the next few weeks but eventually subsided until I left the job two years later. Single most embarrassing moment of my life and took me a while to get over.

NYC, on a bill with an awesome band with a following. They played first to a packed room. So excited. When they finished, an uninformed club employee started clearing the room. We quickly corrected him, but it was too late. The only people left to watch us were our girlfriends.

The singer’s lady had recently cheated on him, so he changed the words to the songs to call her out and bitch. Absolutely worst show ever. We broke up soon after.

Our stoner/doom band “opened” for a Slipknot rip-off band. When we got to the venue the booker/owner informs us (after we unloaded all our gear) we are going on AFTER the headliner. They do their bullshit set (super over processed keys and guitars…sounded like digital horseshit). They get done, the entire place clears out. We played to an empty place THEN the oener got all aggressive on us telling us we’re playing too loud and clearing everyone out. Our bassist almost beat the shit of him. Worst playing experience ever.

I played a solo gig in Brooklyn. A guy got tossed out after nodding off at the bar. He came back and shot out the window in front and close to the stage. Bullets narrowly missed me. I dove on the floor and crawled into a corner and waited for the cops to arrive. Gig over.

I worked as a bartender at a brewery/music venue and would also run basic sound for some of the more casual shows (not mixing during the set, just getting everyone hooked up and sound checked and doing FOH and monitor mixes for them) and there a handful of shows where I was the only person the band saw that night. I'd get them set up with drinks, run sound check for them, and be the only audience member too. Actually had some really fun nights doing that lol. 

My college band was playing some gigs at bars and venues. It was a slow summer, though with the local college out. A friend of my girlfriend at the time was throwing a huge pool party an hour and a half away for her birthday. She convinced us that it was going to be massive. She lied. It was just her and my girlfriend and us. The van broke down on the way back. Cost us $2,200. To play for two people.

Yeah, we broke up a while later.

I've played several gigs that my band should not have booked. My favorite was at a place in Chicago. The band before us was local and they were a Greatful Dead cover band. We did not know this as we were a loud rock band. Think Cheap Truck meets the Ramones with some old school country mixed in. All fast and loud.

The bar was packed with their crowd and we emptied the place before the chorus of our first song. I'm the middle of the second sound the owner of the bar shut us down and kicked us out.

We regularly played at the Cubby Bear, The Metro and other clubs in the city before this gig and never had a problem.

Sometimes booking agents are idiots. LOL

Played a venue with a reputation for attracting quite the weird bunch of people. We played two sets that night, one at 2am one at 4am. Two guys doing door security were the ones in charge for the whole event. Door security guys brought at least 5 shots of vodka for the whole band each set. I had a dozen half empty shot glasses on a bench behind my drum by the end. Door security guys opened up a moshpit midway through the set only to down two shots each and proceed to put the glasses on the floor and smashing them to bits with a hammer. Random dude brought a box of some nasty looking fermented apple slices drenched in some suspicious fluid to the gig, lost his shit in the moshpit: whole band, a third of the crowd, post show dj equipment, foh mixer and all our instruments were drenched, we still found rotten bits in our amps half a year later or sum. Played that venue three times in total. At the time good fun, all of us around 19-20yo, looking back.. the hell were we doing hahah. Most irresponsible shit i've ever seen at a concert.

Chased by a bunch of skinheads at my first show in a new city for flipping them off for being asshole racist fucks…that was fun/scary.

Sound guy ran defence while he could and told me to hustle load-out and leave fast as they were gonna stab me.

Not me, but my jazz director in high school to Lenny Bernstein...... "are you going to keep singing in A while we keep playing in B flat?"

Oh my god… I was a fill in guitarist for one of my buddy’s bands, opening for CROWBAR.

Long story short, only I and my buddy learned the songs.. not the bassist or drummer or lead guitarist… it was a disaster in a sold out show and CROWBAR was pissed lmao

I got called to play harp in La Boheme 5 days before the performance. Apparently everyone else did too. When asked about rehearsals, they said it’s just the sound check 2 and a half hours before the show (the opera is 3 hours long….). I have never played opera, even less this one, so I was nervous about it and on top of that I was worried I was going to be surrounded by an entire orchestra of professionals who have done this so many times they don’t need rehearsals.

Oh lord was I wrong. I show up and the pit was microscopic. 1 musician per part. We play and it’s a disaster all around, musicians, singers, and me alike. We barrel through the rehearsal without working through anything. The show plays and it’s the mess you expect. Missed entrances, wrong notes, forgotten lines. The concert hall was a full house. People paid hundreds for this performance, I feel bad for them.

My band and I were hired to play at a wedding in a churches gym/banquet hall. The acoustics in this kind of room are a challenge to begin with but we were paired with a sound man (they hired a seperate sound person and told us not to bring our equipment) that bought a new system for this gig.

This was his first gig running his Behringer X32. I Am a fan of this system, but this guy had never ran a digital system and thought he could “figure it out” on the fly with us. Needless to say our sound was awful. Sound man could never work the feedback out of the room. The irony is that this was the same system we used, but he wouldn’t let us give him any tips on how to use it.

After an hour of being stared at by the crowd we finally through in the towel. The sound man could never EQ the room. What made us look worse, was that he started to stream music so everyone could dance, and that never had the feedback issue, which made us look even more amateurish, because, of course it’s the bands fault.

However, still got paid.

Someone asked my band to play their friend’s last house party before they moved out. We didn’t know the friend who was moving, and they lived slightly outside of town. We show up and figure out fairly quickly this person isn’t moving out but is being forced to move out by their landlord. The house is super gross and the crowd is all crust punks. They dismantle this decorative wooden well in the yard, douse it with gas, light it on fire, and line up (strangely in a very orderly way) to take turns jumping over the flames. My band and I sat in the van until someone wanted us to play. We set up in this big shed and played for maybe 10 mins before the cops came. I’ve never been more relieved to have the cops shut down a show.

We were a pop punk band invited to play at what turned out to be a NuMetal show. Someone from one of the other bands started taunting us through the monitors. I wanted to just pack up and leave because it was obvious nobody was having a good time, but we tried to remain professional.

2nd worst was when we played with several bands at Club Laga, some kid was trying to get with our manager and decided to help us pack up, only we were already packed up and he took a guitar from the band getting set up on stage. The guitarist wanted to fight our guitarist, but then over 100 people from our town who came to see us bum rushed the backstage doors and the show was almost shut down.

Dude. I can’t even compare with this. I’ve had some gigs that were miserable, but nothing like this.

Closest I have is: Played this “Zombie Crawl”. It was a benefit for a kid with cancer and it was ostensibly my bands second gig (the first being a house party where we only needed to play 5 songs). We got told there would be a PA, drum kit that would be mic’d, a stage and a tent to play under.

The gig was in the parking lot of a tattoo parlor, late may and our a lot was at 2:00pm. The first band starts up and i notice you can’t hear the vocals but I don’t think too much of it because I was getting my face painted like a zombie as part of the event.

I don’t remember exactly the order that things went down after this but, the stage was a 4x4 platform so only the drums fit on it. The “pavilion” was a pop up tent set up directly over it so the drummers were having to crouch under it, then since it was past noon, the shade was going behind it, not onto the bands. The PA speakers were a couple house speakers that someone brought from their garage and the mixer was some little 2 channel thing I’s never seen before. There was only 1 mic and stand.

Luckily I lived 10 minutes around the corner so we ran back to my house, grabbed some speakers, a power amp, some mics, and a little 4chan behringer mixer we used for practice. Then a random girl grabs me and asks if I know to use all of it, I say “yeah, it’s my stuff”. She says “okay, so and so who’s supposed to be running sound is between those cars puking. He’s too drunk to stands”

So, it’s 104 outside, there’s no shade on this asphalt parking lot, it’s my second gig and I gotta sort out sound for the rest of this show. It was super miserable, but we got through it, raise a bunch of money for a little kid and it’s honestly one of my favorite gigs, but it is also definitely a contender for the biggest shit show I’ve ever played.

not a gig- but i def travelled 300 miles to audition for berkley school of music.....not knowing how to really read music, not knowing the names of most chords...pretty much only performed an original guitar instrumental, which to be fair, was pretty damn good for an 18 year old

but oh my god i cant even express the embarrassment being in that room with FOUR fucking judges lol

whatever- the gypsy punk band i played in the next four years was much more fun and i didnt pay 80k a year (or whatever it was)

Festival gig a few summers ago. Booked for 2 sets throughout the day. They forgot to fill the stage's generator for the 1st set and we lost power 10 minutes in. The genny didn't get filled until there was 5 minutes left, leaving me standing awkwardly with my gear the entire time the power was out. For the 2nd set, the sound guy was clearly overworked and already checked out for the day. He was radioing the stage managers yelling that the artist wasn't there while I was actively trying to get his attention to start soundcheck. During the 1st song of the set, he started fucking around with the board. This resulted in HUGE feedback coming through the speakers, which he "fixed" by turning the master to an inaudible level. I lost the crowd immediately and started getting heckled within a few songs.

The funny part is as I was loading out from my apartment to come to the gig, one of my neighbors said the "GL" words you never say to anyone in the performing arts. I now believe in those old curses.

Only one show. Sixth show in a band that I joined, singer is rocking out and bumps into the guitar player, guitar players storms off stage.

I did not play anymore shows with them.

Band member got knocked out on stage by Lil Xan 🤷🏻 Sadly (gladly?) I wasn’t playing with them that night tho

Just was extremely hungover once at a show and it was the worst. It was a Halloween show and I was just not the in the spirit of anything at all, just got up played, barely moved, got off stage and went home. Pathetic, last time I ever did that.

Played a festival. It’s one of those festivals that takes over an entire town and puts bands on everywhere. Most of the alternative bands play in a venue which is well known/equipped for guitar-heavy music, with a built in audience of music fans up for more left of field stuff.

We were super excited to play the festival, and assumed we’d be playing in the alternative venue, but weirdly enough, we were actually booked to play a different venue across the street, in the middle of the day on a Sunday. Grand, no problem.

We get down to the venue and it’s an Oirish pub, really touristy, with a tiny stage in front of the TV. The audience is mostly older people and families coming out to eat their Sunday dinner and watch the rugby. The pub’s PA was barely equipped for acoustic folk singers, let alone a full band with guitars and synths.

The sound was terrible, the audience hated us and the pub left the rugby on the TV behind us. It was the most humiliated I’ve ever felt on a stage.

We had played headlined sold out gig the night before to an audience that were really into it, so maybe the universe just decided we needed an ego check!

String broke when an A&R guy from a (then current) top 40 pop artist was in attendance