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

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BranshenBranshen Frets: 1222
edited September 2019 in Live
I had a pub gig as a guitarist in a 4-piece band. Pianist and singer were going through the PA, and there was a full drumset. All I brought was a Vox DA-5 (Vox's equivalent of the microcube).



In my head, I had a dynamic mic and planned to put it on a wee tabletop stand next to the amp on the floor and mic it up, which is not ideal because I wouldn't be able to hear myself.

I can't remember why, but even that didn't work, so I spent the 2-hour gig playing riffs and solos to myself and the few people directly in front of the stage.

And after all that, at the end of the gig, I picked up my amp, flipped it over and remembered that it had a line out jack which I could have used.

Bonus fail: Singer forgot the words to a famous coldplay song (could have been fix you?), so the audience loudly sang the tune for her.
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Comments

  • thecolourboxthecolourbox Frets: 9654
    edited September 2019
    I did a piano gig once at a wedding anniversary party where I was employed to play background piano jazz for the most part, but also to accompany the couple's niece who was going to sing Once, Twice, Three Times a Lady, which was their first dance at their wedding apparently. Anyway, the kid drops out about ten minutes before with nerves, the anniversary couple's daughter runs over to me in a panic asking what can we do etc. Muggins here ends up having to sing the bloody song myself despite not being a singer, having somebody to hold the microphone in front of me because there was no stand, and the words to the verses scribbled on a napkin atop my keyboard because I didn't know the bloody song that well just the chords to play for this kid.

    I was 22

    I stopped doing piano gigs not long after
    Please note my communication is not very good, so please be patient with me
    soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
    youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
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  • vizviz Frets: 10644
    Played the guitar
    Roland said: Scales are primarily a tool for categorising knowledge, not a rule for what can or cannot be played.
    Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
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  • poopotpoopot Frets: 9098
    edited September 2019
    500 miles by the proclaimers
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  • Personally: tuned to drop D for a song and then played the whole next song without changing it back (drunk).

    Band level: The other guitarist messing up the twin lead part on boys are back in town (cocaine probably). Still haunted by that one!
    I'm just a Maserati in a world of Kias.
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  • martmart Frets: 5205
    At my first gig, the first song was just drum and bass for the first verse. I was on bass, using an amp borrowed from the guitarist since he was also a gigging bassist and his megabucks rig was rather better than whatever PoS I had. 

    Problem was, after the soundcheck he had flicked the amp to standby without telling me. I don’t think I even knew standby was a thing at that point in my life. So come the first verse everybody else dropped out, and there was just the drums and me, except that I was silent. Not a good moment.
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  • Apart from ‘everything’ I remember playing the first verse of The Harder They Come a semitone out and afterwards our dep sax player thought it might have been his fault the song sounded shite and I never corrected him. 


    Tipton is a small fishing village in the borough of Sandwell. 
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  • I’ve started songs in the wrong key many times. The gig last weekend I forgot to turn my pitch shifter off on my AX8, which is set to drop the guitar down to D (For place your hands by Reef). The next song was Superstition in E. Took me about 12 bars to realise why it didn’t sound right.


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  • Tuned silently and didn't pay enough attention to what notes my tuner was displaying. In the process I tuned my 2nd string to C instead of B.

    The first song was just power chords on the bottom 4 strings, so everything was OK. Then I went into the solo and everything went 'Les Dawson'.

    It's not a competition.
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  • JasonJason Frets: 1103
    tFB Trader
    I was so drunk that I left my foot on the smoke machine pedal, so we played through fog for three numbers, it was like a Sister Of Mercy gig
    The Guitar Show, Cranmore Park, Birmingham | Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Podcast
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  • Stepped to the front of the stage for my big solo, trod on guitar cable, pulled it out of jack socket. Silence, apart from the laughter of the other people in the band.
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  • Played a gig at a private party in a farm.   Too many drinks before we played.  Totally forgot how one song went and messed it right up and blamed everyone else.   Learnt a valuable lesson that night. 

    Don't play gigs on a farm. 
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  • poopotpoopot Frets: 9098
    Started a song a tone higher... bass player cottoned on and joined in... singer was none too pleased...
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  • I thought I was David Lee Roth and decided to jump of the drum riser..... And went straight through the stage....
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  • Blaming the drummer for all the farts. I thought it was a pro move personally.
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  • ESBlondeESBlonde Frets: 3576
    Had a printed set list, but one song had the wrong key printed beside it.
    The amatuer bit was not changing the print and making the same mistake a few weeks later at another gig with the same band!

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  • First time I got my hands on an electric tuner - loud stage. Didn't check it properly.

    Tuned my G an OCTAVE too low, didn't realise until I got to the solo and went full Duane Eddy...
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  • steven70steven70 Frets: 1262
    edited July 2020
    ...
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  • My first ever show all I ever took was the guitar and a cable in the case. No tuner, no pedals, no amp back in the day, had to borrow off another band.
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  • I've played songs in the original key after band practises and previous gigs playing them in the proper key for us.

    Last gig somebody walked over a trailing socket and switched off half PA and my pedalboard. I scrambled for half the first song changing guitar cables before I saw the problem.
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  • Our old bass player playing the whole of "Dock of the Bay" in the wrong key at a gig, and wondering why we were all looking at him.
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