The most amateur-ish thing you've done live?

Haych

I recall that the first band I was in when I was about 19/20 was booked to do a gig for a friends engagement party. I think it was our first proper gig and not as support for another local band. 

The venue was at a conference centre on the outskirts Bristol and to be honest was really nice. 

Anyway, I’m doing my usual thing and making a short story unnecessarily long!

The first song on our set required a capo. Guess what I’d forgotten?

Any sane person would have just dropped the song from the set but after a brief discussion with the singer I hopped in the car and drove the 20 miles or so home to fetch it. 

It was a really good gig though. We thought we were in for a slating since the vibe in the room was really weird. Nobody was into the DJ who was playing before we went on. We actually went on early, we thought that I’d it was going to be a duff gig we might as well get the pain over with ASAP. 

Turns out we were wrong. By the end of the first verse of the opening song the entire venue was up and dancing. I’m quite glad I did the trip home for the capo after all. 

Branshen

Haych said:

I recall that the first band I was in when I was about 19/20 was booked to do a gig for a friends engagement party. I think it was our first proper gig and not as support for another local band. 

The venue was at a conference centre on the outskirts Bristol and to be honest was really nice. 

Anyway, I’m doing my usual thing and making a short story unnecessarily long!

The first song on our set required a capo. Guess what I’d forgotten?

Any sane person would have just dropped the song from the set but after a brief discussion with the singer I hopped in the car and drove the 20 miles or so home to fetch it. 

It was a really good gig though. We thought we were in for a slating since the vibe in the room was really weird. Nobody was into the DJ who was playing before we went on. We actually went on early, we thought that I’d it was going to be a duff gig we might as well get the pain over with ASAP. 

Turns out we were wrong. By the end of the first verse of the opening song the entire venue was up and dancing. I’m quite glad I did the trip home for the capo after all. 

Surely you should've improvised a capo by using a pencil and some rubber bands instead!

Haych

Branshen said:

Surely you should've improvised a capo by using a pencil and some rubber bands instead!

Never found it an effective alternative.  Either it won't bar the fret properly and the strings choke or I break the pencil trying.

ICBM

Haych said:

Branshen said:

Surely you should've improvised a capo by using a pencil and some rubber bands instead!

Never found it an effective alternative.  Either it won't bar the fret properly and the strings choke or I break the pencil trying.

Wrap the guitar neck and strings with some toilet roll - to stop them getting covered with sticky muck - and then gaffer tape.

PolarityMan

Branshen said:

Haych said:

I recall that the first band I was in when I was about 19/20 was booked to do a gig for a friends engagement party. I think it was our first proper gig and not as support for another local band. 

The venue was at a conference centre on the outskirts Bristol and to be honest was really nice. 

Anyway, I’m doing my usual thing and making a short story unnecessarily long!

The first song on our set required a capo. Guess what I’d forgotten?

Any sane person would have just dropped the song from the set but after a brief discussion with the singer I hopped in the car and drove the 20 miles or so home to fetch it. 

It was a really good gig though. We thought we were in for a slating since the vibe in the room was really weird. Nobody was into the DJ who was playing before we went on. We actually went on early, we thought that I’d it was going to be a duff gig we might as well get the pain over with ASAP. 

Turns out we were wrong. By the end of the first verse of the opening song the entire venue was up and dancing. I’m quite glad I did the trip home for the capo after all. 

Surely you should've improvised a capo by using a pencil and some rubber bands instead!

Or barre'd it like a man. 

Bezzer

Sometimes I think everything I do live is bloody amateur.  Done a lot of the classics, left the guitar in drop D, put the capo on the wrong fret and not noticing IMMEDIATELY.

During my duo days we started Cocaine, the Clapton version.  We hadn't done it live before so asked singist what key the backing track was in, "Same as the CD" he says so I start in E.   He started in C.  Backing track was in D.   It really, really didn't work ha ha

At a metal show I hadn't bothered walking the stage first to know it blindfolded ... accordingly mid windmilling and stamping I stamped right off the front of the f***er.

There was also the time I "enjoyed the company" of the drummers daughter after a gig ... in hindsight the only amateur part was him finding out ... (I was considerably younger than him so that's nowhere NEAR as creepy as it sounds!)

robmac5150

really enjoyed reading this thread ....pmsl

HAL9000

Wondered why none of my pedals were working. Power supply indicator LED was on. Pedals all lit up but everyhing would go silent when stomped on. Spent the first half riding the guitar's volume and tone. During the break I twigged that I'd plugged the guitar into the 'out' and the amp into the 'in'  of the pedalboard. Duh!

Nunogilberto

I’d say it was attempting to play the guitar...

Dcotorstewie

My last "proper band" featured, and was the brainchild of, a rather well - known and respected Manchester musician of a long and illustrious folky/alternative heritage. MY amateur moment was utterly losing my shit in front of the entire band and sound engineer because, once again, band leader ( who also played keys and a bit of guitar ) had forgotten most of their gear, bought a phone charger instead of the power supply for their keyboard, turned up an hour late, forgot to bring someone ELSE'S gear that they had promised to supply, and had spent previous gigs plugging their guitar into the headphone socket and looking baffled, plugging their keyboard output cable into the sustain pedal socket, ( and looking baffled) being outwitted by a guitar strap, and complaining that their guitar was out of tune,( which they didn't tune, because they couldn't)  because "This sounds nothing like a D" which it wouldn't, because she was fingering a d chord a semitone up. 
And they did the "keyboard drum machine" trick too, plonking a tambourine on top of their KB ( because why put the fucking thing anywhere sensible, eh?) and NOT EVEN NOTICING even though the rest of us did. I was the drummer, and the tune depended on a particularly driving drum part. Fortunately, when I want to, I can leather seven bells out of my kit, and it had been well mic'd up. 
As for me personally: Falling off the drum riser ( backwards) is one of my favourites, and at the first open mic night I ever did singing with a guitar, being so nervous I forgot to change chords for the entire first verse of the song. or sing remotely in tune/key. 

dogload

So many that I really don't know where to begin, although in my defence, I am not a professional musician! However, there was last night's gig...

... played this one song loads, and always (generally!) nail it. However, last night I just had a total brain-fart and could not for the life of me find the right chords. To make matters worse, as I am the singist in the group and was therefore singing, I couldn't even step back and look at where I was even putting my fingers. Three and a half minutes of utter agony, although at least the nice little solo at the end was spot on. And just to make it worse, I can't blame anyone else coz I wrote the bloody song!

So pleased to get home and have a beer and chillax!

Dcotorstewie

Oh yeah, I did that last week: "Here's one I wrote...." *two minutes later....repeats  instrumental bit...repeatedly whilst looking pleadingly at bass player....repeats first verse and chorus, goes for a break....* 

Grunfeld

HAL9000 said:

Wondered why none of my pedals were working. Power supply indicator LED was on. Pedals all lit up but everyhing would go silent when stomped on. Spent the first half riding the guitar's volume and tone. During the break I twigged that I'd plugged the guitar into the 'out' and the amp into the 'in'  of the pedalboard. Duh!

And this is why I went and got Orange and Indigo (well, blue really) cables for the way to connect the wah to the board.

INdigo = INto the wah; Orange = Out of the wah.

With Blue dot stickers on wireless output, and Orange dot stickers on the tuner Input so I can just colour match the cables to the dots.

But I still got it wrong... poor lighting or stupidity.

So... packet of kids' animal stickers to supplement the orange and blue dots...

Orange tigers and Blue Elephants. 

So far, so good!

roberty

I learnt 19 songs + backing vocals for a couple of shows at Manchester Academy and the Electric Ballroom. On the first night I played a song in B instead of C#. The singer didn't notice but the rest of the band did. Anyway it's their fault for not rehearsing properly and pulling in deps for headline shows

viz

dogload said:

So many that I really don't know where to begin, although in my defence, I am not a professional musician! However, there was last night's gig...

... played this one song loads, and always (generally!) nail it. However, last night I just had a total brain-fart and could not for the life of me find the right chords. To make matters worse, as I am the singist in the group and was therefore singing, I couldn't even step back and look at where I was even putting my fingers. Three and a half minutes of utter agony, although at least the nice little solo at the end was spot on. And just to make it worse, I can't blame anyone else coz I wrote the bloody song!

Congrats - you just wrote another song!

Moltisanti

we were in France doing a residency at a bar/restaurant and i hadn't eaten before our first set and i was starving. So i ordered a plate of chips between songs (down the mic), then when the waiter brought them over i put them on my bag at the side of the stage and ate them during the next 3 tunes.

Not the most professional thing i've ever done, but they were decent chips!

WiresDreamDisasters

I'm always a consummate professional. Even after 12 pints.

MikkiMcMurderer

I was on tour in Italy in 1990s doing covers at outdoor festivals and one stage backed onto a stagnant stream.  Sound checked in daylight, all good was using a Marshall JMP1 and 9100 rack system with a few digitech FX racks into a 4x12. Come show time after dark, all the lights in my rack had attracted a swarm of flying beasties who were crawling around the valves and even between LCD screens and the plastic windows. Came on stage, saw the insect apocalypse with horror, plugged guitar in, no sound came out. Crowd and band staring at me.
I was so angry I kicked the whole stack over. The insect were laughing their fucking minute arses off.
Bailed off stage for a quick think and then I think I had to play plug direct from DI out of Marshall JMP1 into PA, but I've blocked it from my memory... 

thing

Played at my son's wedding as a surprise. He'd been asking if we would play and I kept telling him no way am I playing at your wedding. I was totally and utterly shitfaced by the time I went on (Still in my morning suit) Normally i'm quite strict with drinking at gigs, get ratted afterwards by all means but not before. Anyway needless to say i think I started the first few songs in the wrong key and after about ten minutes our bassist gently led me to a chair for a sit down and they did the rest of the gig without me. The band thought it was hilarious but as they said, they had a reputation to maintain which was a fair call. I can't actually remember any of this, it was the band that told me after.

It was my son's wedding, so I'm playing my Get Out Of Jail card for that one.

PhilKing

Last gig we played in summer, the stage was set up in front of a glass wall.  It was the opening of the building, so we were booked to play the party.  Stage arrived late, balloons had to be set up and then the band could set up all the gear and PA.  Fortunately I have multicores, mixers and stage boxes labelled, but we could only run one soundcheck.  First set went great, went to grab a beer in-between sets, came back, checked tuning of all guitars (I was playing 6-string bass, 5-string bass and the guitar on the last song - Comfortably Numb).  As we start to go through the second set, the sun is now full on the window, which is where the guitars are stood, at the back of the stage.  All goes well and we get to the last song.  I pick up the guitar, plug in and it's out of tune, go to quickly tune it, and the band starts the song!  Since I'm also the singer I had to sing the first verse on power chords and quickly tune over the start of the chorus before the solo (that I'm playing).

Anyway, it all went great and we got lots of applause and cheers at the end.  I couldn't bask in it though because the guys were there to break the stage down.  The place had only hired it until the time we were due to finish.  The sound guy had to stop them coming over when we were playing!  We never even got another beer!

I'm never putting guitars in front of windows again.