Most embarrassing moment on stage

[TBurst Std]

The other thread prompted this one:

Most embarrassing moment on stage.

Mine. Was playing a large weekend long outdoor festival. Lawn seating. Anyways I was playing and singing and the stage monitors died. I panicked. Panicked so much I missed the key change mid song. The lawn was full. Have no idea how many were there on the lawn, but the attendance that day was over 20k. The PA system was loud and you could hear it somewhat pretty much throughout the festival.

I just wanted to crawl into a hole and die LOL.

 

[mayfly]

I'm embarrassed every time I go out there!

 

[Rick]

Being solo and either forgetting words or how a solo goes. Words are easy i just make something up. .. solo . .. i just try to keep going ... make something up and get back to tge safety of rhythm. Happens at least once a performance.

 

[Don O]

This is more funny than embarrassing, for the lead singer/guitarist who is an excellent musician. The place I worked at would have an all hands meeting every year and afterwards would have a catered lunch (Carl’s Jr. 18 wheel lunch rig that year) out in the parking lot. 4 of us got together and practiced about 20 songs and we were the entertainment for the 350+ employees. We were about 12 songs in and I started Road House Blues. Longest intro I ever did. He couldn’t remember the opening line !

 

[ghostrider25]

This thread has potential.

I have the standard capo on the wrong fret, forget the part, etc.

The one that comes to mind is I turned down my volume knob on my guitar during setup. Normally when I have a volume pedal, I don’t touch the guitar’s volume knob but, for whatever reason, I did. The first song had a defined lead intro part I was supposed to play coming in big, but I got no sound. I started to panic. The amp was on, not on standby, volume pedal was on, etc. I thought, “Oh no! Maybe I have a bad instrument cable or bad cable in my board or a bad solder joint that came loose in my guitar!”

It felt like forever but was only a few seconds before I figured it out. But, in my panic, I came in at the wrong spot on the repeat. It was a train wreck and I felt embarrassed.

On my way to the car, someone said, “Dude! You killed it on bass today!” I be all like, “Thanks bro!” …but I had been playing lead guitar. That’s when it occurred to me that most people have no idea who’s playing what and whether or not you meant to do something. And, most likely, people forget what happened in the first song by the middle of the next song. I don’t think I’ve been nervous since.

 

[TBurst Std]

That’s so true. The audience largely doesn’t recognize instrument mistakes. Only us and other musicians.

Everyone recognizes vocal mistakes.

 

[Strat Avenger]

I've had several Spinal Tap moments. One that comes to mind is when I tuned down to Drop-D for the next song, but when the song was finished, I forgot to tune it back up. During the next song, the band members were giving me looks of confusion.
Kind'a embarrassing.

 

[alexreinhold]

I had so many but turns out the audience almost never notices. One of the worst was noticing that I played a whole song with the Harmonizer pedal on. Sound on stage was so bad that I didn't notice, still don't know if the crowd noticed.

 

[NutBehindTheGuitar]

Now that is interesting

I forgot to tune it back up. During the next song, the band members were giving me looks of confusion.

So where you thinking as you were playing that the low string was tuned to "E" and thus you were off by a whole tone on any note you played on the low string?

 

[Strat Avenger]

Now that is interesting

So where you thinking as you were playing that the low string was tuned to "E" and thus you were off by a whole tone on any note you played on the low string?

Exactly!

 

[Jebberz]

High-School talent show, the backline was provided. I broke my cable the night before and I wen in a hurry to a Radio-Shack to buy a new one, since I didn,t had the time to go to a proper music store. Bought a Coiled one (threr was only this available. I move a lot on stage, but the amp was on wheels. It started following me around.....

Also, I once fell asleep on stage (classical music, I has 5 songs in a row without bass) - I guess nobody but the Violin player noticed (at least I did'nt snoored or drooled).

 

[mayfly]

Also, I once fell asleep on stage (classical music, I has 5 songs in a row without bass) - I guess nobody but the Violin player noticed (at least I did'nt snoored or drooled).

That almost happened to my kid! In the orchestra there were a couple of movements without any brass, and I could see his head nodding from the audience! That'll learn him from staying up all night playing minecraft with his buddies...

 

[Lbpesq]

I was watching a friends’ band play and they invited me up to sing. I got up on stage, stepped up to the mic stand, stepped on the cord, and knocked over the mic and stand … all within the first ten seconds.

Bill, tgo

 

[ghostrider25]

High-School talent show, the backline was provided. I broke my cable the night before and I wen in a hurry to a Radio-Shack to buy a new one, since I didn,t had the time to go to a proper music store. Bought a Coiled one (threr was only this available. I move a lot on stage, but the amp was on wheels. It started following me around.....

Also, I once fell asleep on stage (classical music, I has 5 songs in a row without bass) - I guess nobody but the Violin player noticed (at least I did'nt snoored or drooled).

Those are good ones! I forgot about falling asleep! That's happened to me too. It was a super chaotic time in my life and I wasn't sleeping well at all. I was standing up so I know I didn't fall asleep long (a second or two), but I almost fell over and was so confused for a moment where I was.

 

[MikeW]

Our singer, a fantastic talent in general, got really into it toward the end of Somebody to Love. She started spinning for the outro and one of her hands hit my headstock knocking all 6 strings out of tune. I've got a floating bridge on that guitar... Took me two songs to get everything really back in tune.

I could see a couple of my friends in the crowd laughing the whole time. Sheesh!

 

[rauchman]

3 minutes to show time, and I get hit with...I have to go #2 now...I mean RIGHT NOW

 

[ghostrider25]

3 minutes to show time, and I get hit with...I have to go #2 now...I mean RIGHT NOW

I have questions:

1. Did you make it in time?
2. Also... did you make it in time?

 

[MoreSpaceEcho]

Played hundreds of shows back in my show-playing days and I honestly can't think of anything particularly embarrassing happening on stage.

Embarrassing moments anywhere BESIDES on stage? Could fill a book.

 

[Strat Avenger]

Another one that comes to mind is when starting the first song of our set which was "Pride" by U-2 (and you always want to come out strong with your first song), the bass & drums kicked in and no sound from my guitar. The damn amp was on Standby. Those harmonics at the beginning are so important for the intro. Quite embarrassing.

 

[TBurst Std]

You know, I don’t come across a lot of people who cover U2.

While many say that the guitar liicks are not hard, they do really require you to think differently. It’s more chordal modulations and arpeggios. You don’t just use a maj or min pentatonic.

And setting it all up. When I was in a U2 cover band, I had a full bank in my Fractal dedicated to each song. The back half of the bank was each song in our repertoire, the front half I would copy to in set list order. All time based effects were preset to the bpms. (No having to tap tempo, when you also open the song with a lead with time based effect).

Doing all the prep work up front takes time but allows you to enjoy playing. 1 button puts where you need to be next. That’s why The Edge has a guy manipulating all his effects back stage for him.

I still carry that on today in my gigs. I preset all my set lists before go time.