Gig story of a "don't":
About 2007 or so, we were headlining in an intimate music listening venue in Phoenixville, PA. GREAT room, classy joint. Really cool audience, and the place was full. I was there with a different band than the one I'm in now. GREAT opening act, you had to peel me off the floor she was so good. One woman and a piano. Great original songs. Stephanie Nilles. WOW. I was seriously impressed with her, thinking she should have been the headliner.
So we go on. The leader/singer/frontguy Paul doesn't say word one about the AMAZING talent that just preceded us. (HUGE mistake, you ALWAYS give big props to...everyone really) The place is dead silent, and the leader asks on mic if anyone in the band has to go to the bathroom before we start. How awkward!
Then he singles me out personally and says over the mic to a whisper quiet audience, "How about you Larry, do you need to go to the bathroom?" Dead silence.
I was mortified. At first, just for laughs, I thought I would take him up on it, grab a wireless mic, and then walk in the bathroom. Where I would have proceeded to audibly fart, take a big ole steaming dump, complete with the straining sounds, followed by a nice watery plop, a prolonged wiping session, and of course, the iconic toilet flush over the PA system lol. Just to teach him a lesson.
But I didn't. Instead I smiled and said, "No Paul, I'm cool".
Inside I wanted to break his legs. The next day, I let him have it with both barrels in a scathing email. I blasted him like I never blasted anyone before.
He said other things that were equally embarrassing/condescending/disrespectful to some really awesome female singers who were in the audience. They helped us out with some unscheduled impromptu background vocals, which killed. After the song was done and the audience was all hopped up, Paul says to the singers as they exited the stage...."Hey what are you guys doing tomorrow? Do you want to play a barbecue with us?" (for free was the implication) Put them right on the spot, ruined the cool mood, and treated them disrespectfully IMO.
They really didn't know how to respond, so they just kind of slithered away. I mean he didn't ask the audience to give them a hand, he didn't introduce them, he didn't show any appreciation at all for how they elevated the song like they did. He totally ignored how much they added. He managed to ruin a really cool thing. What a tool. I also took the opportunity to blast him for that as well in the email. It was embarrassing. You ALWAYS recognize everybody. Thanking people is easy, and it works. It makes people feel good to be thanked publicly. But socially, the guy is as dumb as a bag of hammers. It was him who put himself in the line of fire by singling me out and embarrassing me publicly. He had it coming.
The moral of this story is if you have a microphone, don't be an idiot with it. It's a big responsibility.
As a side note, this guy Paul, a few weeks later, ended the band. Then about a month after ending it, he reforms it with another drummer lol. What a pussy move. Add him to the list of band leaders I pissed off and got fired for, there were a few others too lol. No regrets though, the guy wasn't the type of person/musician I wanted to be associated with.