Most Embarrassing Moments.

[sufc.loyal]

What are your most embarrassing moments when gigging.

[Concrete Pete]

Hey Crew,

Being seen playing in a country bar, in a country band, before the 3rd beer takes control. After that, it's all cool! (just kidding!)

Cheers,
C. P.

[kuren84]

Playing a gig where we are the supporting act and playing the other drummers kit who for some unknown reason has all his cymbals ridiculously high. He asked me not to move anything so we start our set and in the first song I catch the cymbal wrong and and drop my stick twice. At the end of the song I dropped the the cymbals and played a killer gig.

[Thaard]

The first gig i played, at this childrens school. I thought I could play every setup there was, so I didnt bother changing it. I lost alot of sticks that gig, and the hi-hat refused to open, so I had to play with a closed hihat the rest of the gig. Atleast I learned that It's important to setup the kit before playing it.

Also, we played at another school, and we tried to get the crowd to sing along and have these stops. Stupid as I was, I thought this was an opportunity for drumsolos, so I played when people sang. The music teatcher was furios!

[dairyairman]

when i was in college at florida state university, i played bass drum in the marching band. we used to do this thing where at the end of our field routine we'd all just run off the field to the sideline. we were running off the field at a pre-game show when i tripped on a yard line marker and went flying forward. i landed directly on the bass drum and proceeded to roll forward (because i was attached to it) until i hit my head and rolled under the drum. this was in front of 40,000 fans! that was pretty embarrassing.

[razorx]

when i was in college at florida state university, i played bass drum in the marching band. we used to do this thing where at the end of our field routine we'd all just run off the field to the sideline. we were running off the field at a pre-game show when i tripped on a yard line marker and went flying forward. i landed directly on the bass drum and proceeded to roll forward (because i was attached to it) until i hit my head and rolled under the drum. this was in front of 40,000 fans! that was pretty embarrassing.

Ouch, That sounds like something i would have done. I bet it hurt.

[Doug Masters]

This one time, at band camp...... :)

[Pollyanna]

lol Dairy, what a glorious failure! Bravo!!

When I was studying many moons ago I augmented my tiny student allowance doing fill-ins with a restaurant band. I was a dedicated rocker so it was painful at times. While playing Girl From Ipanema quietly with brushes along to the utterly bland and uninspired music happening up front I had the thought, "This is the nadir of my drumming career".

These days my only problem with it would be if I wasn't playing it well, but back then I would have been mortified if one of my bandmates saw me doing that. Still one gig was worth almost as much as a week's tertiary assistance and we'd get a free meal at the end.

I was a basket case in my teens and often felt depressed about my love life - unrequited love and all that. I was in that state when playing at a fair with heaps of people around. I had to start a song with a plain old money beat. After a bar or two I dropped a stick. I was too miserable and self-absorbed to try to cover for it so I just stopped, sighed, leant over to pick up the stick and started again, almost in tears. Such tragedy! lol

Earlier still, I put the pedal through my kick skin during the first song at my first ever gig. I should have been embarrassed but I was too gung ho at the time to care.

[Ami]

When I was 13, 14, I used to go to this jazz jam session and listen to the local pro's. I really wanted to sit in. I was hoping to do well and maybe impress some of the musician's I admired. Finally the chance came to play. The tune was a jazzy samba, and as we were playing, the bass drum pedal disconnected from the bass drum. I had to stop playing and reattach the bass drum pedal...... lol.
Actually looking back on it, it was quite a liberation experience. I messed up on stage and the world didn't end right there and then. :-)

[dairyairman]

Ouch, That sounds like something i would have done. I bet it hurt.

it did hurt! i was actually pretty well bashed and had to be helped up, but i managed to get through the rest of the evening.

speaking of embarrassing moments with bass drum pedals, another time my high school's jazz band set up and played in the middle of the football field during a half time show. i was playing a big drum solo when my bass drum pedal flew apart, sending the shaft through the drum head. i kept playing, but after our show they had to hold up the game while several of us combed the field for pedal parts.

[bob2loud]

While playing an outdoor gig in front of several hundred people a bee flew up inside the leg of my shorts in the middle of a song. I jumped straight up off the throne, whacking my head on my vocal mic boom while trying to open up the leg of the shorts with a drumstick to let the bee out before it stung me. It worked, but needless to say I lost the groove on that song.

I then had to explain the incident to my bandmates and the audience who all thought I'd had a seizure or something. My concentration was blown for the rest of the set but I at least provided the band with some good one-liner material at my own expense.

[dairyairman]

hahahah! that's a good one! a bee flying up your ass is so random you can't possibly prepare for that!

[Thaard]

Ah, just remembered some more. I was laying out the drumcarpet up on stage, and I was standing on one of the cornes. It was pretty big, so I thought it would be easyer to just throw it out. Ofcourse I almost made a backflip when my foot slipped out. I fell on my back and the whole carpet landed on top of me. People watching laughed out loud.

This one time I'd played a concert without any errors. On the last song on the last fill, my mind suddenly shot up into space and went back again. As this happened I took the longest most out of time fill ever. People thougt I did alittle drumsolo, so I was off the hook. The recordings tell otherwise though. Sounded just awfull.

[metal overlord]

I was doing some stick twirling, and my hand was so sweaty I lost control over it and it went flying out. And, to add to the stick twirling problems, I threw my sticks in the air, but only one came back down. The other got caught in the lighting rig.

[DrumEatDrum]

Some friends had asked me to play in their band on the side, just for fun.

The band had an epic sound, and was a bit over the top in the visual department.
The keyboardist has some some songs sequenced, and I had a midi cable running to my drum machine to give me a click on those songs.

We had been invited to play one of the nicer theaters, on a nice big stage that normally hosts national acts.

The band had a long epic intro worked out before the fist song.

So in keeping with "being over the top" and having fun, I thought I'd do the whole cheesy stand on my drum throne & snare as the house light came up.

Yeah, only I have a bicycle style seat, not a flat seat.

As you can imagined, the seat went flying, I toppled over, my hi hat stand and snare drum go over and I knocked my water all over my drum machine.

Thankfully, the house lights were only the guitar player, and no one noticed. The monitor guy helped me get my gear back up, and I was able to use a towel to absorb the water off of my drum machine before it shorted out.

Crisis was averted, but man, that was close.

[Pollyanna]

The band had a long epic intro worked out before the fist song.

So in keeping with "being over the top" and having fun, I thought I'd do the whole cheesy stand on my drum throne & snare as the house light came up.

Yeah, only I have a bicycle style seat, not a flat seat.

As you can imagined, the seat went flying, I toppled over, my hi hat stand and snare drum go over and I knocked my water all over my drum machine.

ROFL! It's Spinal Tap!!

[ChipJohns]

This was years ago..!

So. The set isn't over and I really, really have to go to the bathroom. I really had to p..!

I finally just left the stage. Fortunately the band had a song they could play without drums... I made it back as soon as I could.. Oops!

[joeysnare]

i played a gig with my band last year. i was sick as a dog with the flu but the show must go on. but anywho i was so out of it twice i started off a diffrent than what was on the set list and on the second time this happened i even changed the song i was playing midsong. lmao luckily i have good guitarests they saved my arse that night.

[jer]

Playing a band shell gig downtown, small town Ontario. We were using our own PA, I was the guy who hooked it up. Power amp was setup front and centre (our cables weren't long enough to move to one side), for some reason, was powered up when I went to connect the speakers (bare wire).

The shock kicked me back and I feel to the ground, centre stage in front of a hundred or so folks. Acoustics in the shell were such that I don't think anyone missed the cursing that came out of my mouth instinctively.

[larryace]

Wow you guys have some real stories. Mine was when my idiot bandleader asked if I had to go to the bathroom in front of a dead quiet audience whose complete attention was trained on us. It really wasn't as bad as others here.

Oh loved the bee story, classic!

[rootheart]

when I come to a gig, and while setting up my kit some ***hole pulls at my arm asking "can U guys play Wipe Out?"..even worse: "can U guys play Hang On Sloopy?"..even worse: "can U guys play Sweet Home Alabama?"...grin

[MisterZero]

I mentioned in another forum / post that I threw a stick into the air and didn't come close to catching it, that was embarrassing, but the audeince just laughed, so did I.

Another time during " Behind Blue Eyes", the Who, I was sitting behind my kit bored because the beginning of the song is guitar and vocals. So, I'm twirling my stick just to 'pass the time' and wouldn't you know it- SLIP, crash, thud, crash again, and finally the sound of a drumstick hitting the floor....my bandmates were not happy and I felt horrible. I mean this stick must've hit everything on my kit on it's way to the stage floor....audience laughed hysterically.

[mcbike]

I was playing a show and the captain morgan guy showed up with like 2 hot captian morgan babes. They wanted a picture with the band (awesome) so every body is infront of the drums so I hopped up on my drumstool. everything is cool... until they ask us to do the captain morgan stance, one leg up in the air. so i raised my leg and my stool just started spinning around I fell to the ground and ontop of my drums and put my hand out to catch myself and I hit one of those metal alcohol signs with the palm of my hand and sliced my palm open. BLOOD WENT EVERY WHERE!

[intheruff]

This happened about 15 years ago... give or take.

I kept my drums in the 'shop', which is often left open and happens to be surrounded by a few million acres of wilderness, where I live. Anyway, I hadn't played in a few months when i got a call to do a 'fill in' that evening at a resort on a lake. After arriving, I unloaded the drums and set the cases up on stage. The bass drum case was resting on it's flat bottom, and when opening it I suddenly noticed a strange odor emanating from somewhere within the cases darkened confines.

Without a warning, out from the case sprang about a dozen small mice, scampering about the stage and dance floor while those present jumped as if Olympians up onto their chairs and tables to escape the wrath of the paniking beasts. LOL, That was embarrassing!!

Because the bd had no resonator, I took the drum outside and dumped out I'd say about a shovel load of smelly ol' mice droppings, and then with damp rag in hand, wiped the shell 'clean' while guests and band members pointed my way laughing at you know who's expense. The mice? Well, this happened right at the stages open back door and most of em' fleed into the 'yard', where a family of cats that lived under the outdoor deck responded with glee to the unexpected frolic and feast. It was a real scene for those that saw it. True story!!!

[JeremyS]

Back in the 90's Cannibal Corpse, Sinister and Cynic played locally and we got to open for them. Sean Reinert (Cynic) is one of my drum heroes, so of course he walks behind me as I drop a stick and knock my stick holder off of my floor tom leg trying to get another, so I have to become a contortionist, keeping the snare beat and 16th's on the double bass while I bent down to snag a stick off the floor.
He did give me a pair of his sticks after the show :)

[larryace]

Thanks McBike, MisterZero and intheruff for the laugh out loud stories, just priceless