The big "The show-must-go-on" thread

[Blazer]

I guess we all know about it, you're playing an important gig and everything goes well until something happens.

- A string snaps
- Your amp dies
- (Fill in whatever disaster can happen)

So let's show youtube clips where that happens and see how the guitarists cope with the disaster that cought them by surprise.

This guy has one disaster after another happen to him...


The Dutch Ska band Doe Maar performing "Smoorverliefd" (Madly in love) and their guitarist' Les Paul suddenly dies, at the 1:35 mark you can hear the trouble start and you can see him turning towards his amp, you can also see his roadie standing nearby, ready to hand him his back up, he quickly changes guitar, Note also the bassplayer at the 2:19 mark going "Hey, guitar!" as he suddenly hears the staccato rythm return but not for long, because the back up isn't properly tuned up, so they give him his les Paul back but that one still won't work properly.  They quickly have the saxophone player to play a solo where the guitar solo should have been.

You can tell from his desperate facial expressions that he is NOT enjoying this.

[Dave W]

Sorry, can't resist. 

[nofi]

i saw a rory gallagher show were he broke a string and his strap came off almost at the same time. he didn't miss a beat. there's a pro for you.

[Barklessdog]

The awful Van Halen recent gigs

[TBird1958]

One of my fave clips of The Cult..........A particularly bad night for guitarist Billy Duffy, 3 different guitars for one rendition of Sanctuary. On the plus side the band keeps it together and plays it thru hitting the break with Ian Astbury ad-libbing and getting the crowd into it, definately keeping the show going!  It certainly makes me think of a few "on-stage" disasters with my band too 

 

[Bass VI]

 I don't think anything could stop "Sanctuary" from being a great song, the opening riff rates at the "Smoke on the Water" "Day Tripper" level ( to me anyway ) Kudos to the Cult for pulling it together and not self destructing like some bands do ( some I've been in  ) when something goes amiss on stage.
I can remember a show where it seemed that every effect on our guitarists' pedalboard went out sequentially......delay ( very important in our stuff ) gone....phase, followed by chorus or whatever ( sounds kinda thin ) oh well he's still got overdrive, overdrive gone ( come on! ) finally he was just gone.....We made it through, but ugh! how we depend on a lot of wires sometimes.

[Rhythm N. Bliss]

In '79 I lived in Honolulu in the HUGE Dole mansion (after Governor Pineapple Dole checked out) with several friends including 2 bandmates who played in a Tull type band & our flute player stupidly left his flute in the driveway as we loaded up to go to a gig. We played the gig without him.

[the mojo hobo]

It's was about 15 years ago, we were loading in at a small town downtown bar. I had my only bass, my NR Thunderbird. I carried it in and left it standind on edge next to a table. While carrying in a speaker cabinet I myself acidently hit the case and it fell over. Because the headstock had been previously broken, I knew right away it would be re-broken, and it was. I thought about buying another bass but it was 8 PM on a Saturday night and the closest music store was 30 miles away. I came upwith a brilliant idea, went to a nearby hardware store and bought a C clamp and some shim stock. Put a little shim front and back to protect the wood and clamped it together. It worked great, even stayed in tune, just had a little extra neck dive.

Just last week we were playing on the deck at a local bar, a guitarist dropped his Squire Strat from waist high, and it wasn't hurt a bit.

[TBird1958]

 "Kudos to the Cult for pulling it together and not self destructing like some bands do ( some I've been in   ) when something goes amiss on stage.'

In my band we call that a "Trainwreck"......................I actually think we should have a thread for it and trade stories, 'cause I've sure got a few 

[Blazer]

Here's Nirvana in 1994 on a french TV show only two months before Kurt Cobain's death.

In this performance though it's his Fender Mustang that dies. luckely, they have Pat Smear there on extra guitar, leaving Kurt free to finish the song in a way that seemed somewhat alien to him: as a rock singer and he even makes the microphone stand poses.


Again Nirvana, Kurt has a little trouble keeping his guitar in tune and halfway through the first verse he just seems to throw caution in the wind..


Finally here's the RHCP playing one of their first gigs after John Frusciante re-joined the band. Flea's Bass is a little off key and he can't get it to work properly, he does a thorough job on making sure that that particullar bass will never be out of tune again.

[Bass VI]

"Kudos to the Cult for pulling it together and not self destructing like some bands do ( some I've been in   ) when something goes amiss on stage.'

In my band we can that a "Trainwreck"......................I actually think we should have a thread for it and trade stories, 'cause I've sure got a few 

That could be fun!

[Granny Gremlin]

One of my fave clips of The Cult..........A particularly bad night for guitarist Billy Duffy, 3 different guitars for one rendition of Sanctuary.

Oh no! I hope the White Falcon was OK in the end.  (I love the Cult.... and Grestch Hollowbodies).

Anyway, We Love has had a few mishapps on stage - we kind of pride ourselves on recovery.  The drummachine dying was not so bad (and the band played on). Once, in the sound guy hit the mute on the drum machine track with his elbow (or something) and didn't realise what he'd done until a minute later. We'd just kept on playing because we thought the thing died (again)... but then the tech realised what he'd done and the dunce unmuted it.  We weren't quite in time with it but we made it work. He got some cut-eye for that one.

At our EP release our vocalist's mic died.  I motioned her over to mine and had to share with the guitard.  At least we got a descent pic out of it.



Our guitard also has a talent for breaking E or B  strings during the 2nd song.