Shows that went wrong?

Share some fun / embarassing / weird / etc. moments from shows you've seen!

Here's my two cents:

SLAYER in Munchen Germany in 2004, with Slipknot and Hatebreed as supporting acts: my first Slayer show, and certainly one to remember. 30 minutes in show (great one till then), Tom Araya lost command of his voice, he couldn't even speak let alone sing. I think that they played 2 or 3 songs as instrumental (Seasons was one of them), and Tom was looking in first rows for someone to sing, but no-one volunteered. In the end, singer of Hatebreed came on stage, they started playing Raining Blood ... he started singing Angel of Death. Bummer That was the end of the show. Saw Slayer on same tour in same hall 2 years and 1 month later, and Tom remember and apologized.

WASP / MEGADETH at Burning Sea festival in Croatia, 2012: WASP were supposed to play before Megadeth at some 8 p.m., but apparently Blacky wasn't satisfied with that, so they got cancelled on the same day they were scheduled to play. Megadeth played in their time, and enraged WASP fans started throwing rocks on stage. Some 45 minutes in, organizer came on stage and announced that Megadeth won't come back as Dave Mustaine got hit by a stone, so that was it, the end of their show. Dave Mustaine got stoned in Croatia! Luckily, Death Angel, who were initially supposed to play at some 3 p.m., got the headlining position and totally killed with their set (that was the tour where they played their whole 1st album).

Jackass Danzig was supposed to play at the Cabooze with Municipal Waste and Evile.  When the "almighty" Danzig saw the size of the stage, he cancelled at 2 minutes to midnight.  So we got to see MW/Evile for free!!

The next weekend, Suicidal was scheduled, but Mike's Mom died and they had to cancel at the last second too.

Megadeth/Misfits on the tour for Cryptic Writings in 97 or maybe 98. It was in Columbus, Ohio in a field on a broiling hot day in the summer. I could feel the tension in the air as soon as I got there because of the mixture of punks and metalheads. The crowd just seemed "off" for some reason to me - lots of dudes looking to fight. The concert was out in the middle of nowhere in a field, and the field was covered in crushed gravel for some unknown reason. Of course, gravel started getting hurled immediately during the Megadeth set (most people ignored the stage when the Misfits played) and Dave stopped the show. He restarted it and almost immediately a burning tree branch (?!!) comes flying into the crowd. Dave stopped the show at that point and a near riot broke out. I chose that point to get the hell out of there. What a fiasco.

Motorhead/Wasp show in '98 at Bogarts in Cincinnati, Ohio. Motorhead came on first and played a blistering set. They really kicked ass. W.A.S.P. then came out and burned through an excellent medley of songs. Unfortunately, Blackie had some ridiculous apparatus on stage that he was going to use to stab/dismember/mutilate - a nun/baby/teddy bear or something. The damn thing didn't work and Blackie went nuts and left the stage. That was the end of the show. I also believe W.A.S.P. got kicked off that tour that night. Thanks for nothing Blackie.

One time, I was shining a laser pointer at MegaDave and he stopped the show and called me a virgin and a "peckerwood."

Pretty awkward.

DakotaRogers wrote:

One time, I was shining a laser pointer at MegaDave and he stopped the show and called me a virgin and a "peckerwood."

Pretty awkward.

HAHAHA!!!!      

I went to a D'molls/Bang Tango show a few years ago. Everyone could sense something was wrong when D'molls went on very late. The promoter came on and announced that Joe Leste had suffered a stroke and was hospitalized. The rest of Bang Tango still went on stage though, and a die-hard fan sang a few of the bigger hits with them.

This one is not really about a show "going wrong," but when I saw Megadeth on the first Gigantour, Dave noticed that some idiot had brought a child into the pit up front. After the first song he made the crowd pass the kid to him on stage, saying "Kid's getting crushed!" while security came and escorted him to the side of the stage, where they let him watch the rest of the show.

One time I saw Bulletboys in a small bar in Chicago. I think there were more people there supporting the local opening band than there was for Bulletboys. The band showed up to the venue with their gear about five minutes before they were scheduled to go on stage and rushed to set everything up. Marq announced during the show that all the band members were brand new and that he had fired the former members for stealing from him that same week. They played for barely 40 minutes before they closed with "Smooth Up In Ya" and left without an encore.

I mentioned it in my review of the concert on this forum, but at a Kreator concert I watched a bouncer hassle a gal standing behind the rail for some reason. He kept trying to push her back. There were other fans hanging over the rail, so I don't know why this bouncer kept giving this gal a hard time, but she kept protesting. The singer of Kreator noticed what was going on and stopped the show briefly. He knelt down and listened to the gal blubber about what was happening. He told the bouncer to back off and gave some sort of anti-violence message to the crowd before continuing the show.  

80s Metal Lady wrote:

I mentioned it in my review of the concert on this forum, but at a Kreator concert I watched a bouncer hassle a gal standing behind the rail for some reason. He kept trying to push her back. There were other fans hanging over the rail, so I don't know why this bouncer kept giving this gal a hard time, but she kept protesting. The singer of Kreator noticed what was going on and stopped the show briefly. He knelt down and listened to the gal blubber about what was happening. He told the bouncer to back off and gave some sort of anti-violence message to the crowd before continuing the show.  

I would love to see video of that!

UNDERWALL festival in Croatia this summer - the festival got cancelled in the middle of it, as the organizer didn't pay for bands, crew, anything at all! Benediction were already there and they decided to play for free (afterwards the show they stayed at some fan's house ...). Several of bands who were supposed to play on 3rd and 4th day of the festival and were already there (generally smaller bands from all over the world, Russia, Costa Rica, you name it) got together and organized a show in a small, sweaty and decaying "club" - one of those bands were Tankard, totally drunk from 2 days of boozing, and that was one of the best shows I've seen, ever!

DISSECTION, Oslo Norway 2005:

What happened was that Dissection was supposed to do an encore with the infamous Tormentor song “Elisabeth Bathory”, with original vocalist Attila "Mayhem" Csihar as a guest. But their time slot was long overdue so the PA system had been cut. Dissection refused to go off stage and started to play the song with only the sound from the instruments on stage, and with no working microphones Attila and Jon (rip) had to shout the words out to the audience. This with the result of the audience singing along and going off the roof with enthusiasm. The atmosphere was truly unique and I'm grateful I was apart of it.

Iron Maiden - Camden show in 2006 - tank Eddie didn't come up during the song Iron Maiden - band had a WTF look on their faces.... Dickinson saved a bit of face by calling it a "Spinal Tap Moment"

Scorpions - Monsters of Rock, Donington 1986

My first ever gig, the Donington faithful had a disgusting little habit in those days of peeing into the plastic bottles that had previously contained beer, and throwing them at bands they didn't like. Well The Scorpions had reached that point where they did the human pyramid thing and just as Klaus was balanced on the other guys shoulders, he got zonked in the side of the head by one of those piss bombs and fell off the top of the pyramid.

An immature mind might have found this funny (it was my 15th birthday) An immature mind might have found this very very funny   

The crowd that day really were a boisterous bunch, this came only a short while after Lemmy had threatened to take Motorhead off stage unless people stopped throwing lit fireworks at him.

KING'S X, HAMMERFALL and DIO, Albuquerque, NM. I was super hyped to see this show as I love all three bands. Hammerfall and Dio did not disappoint. Great show from both. King's X were having some problems with their stage monitors and being able to hear themselves. By the second song Dug Pinnick was visibly annoyed and was making gestures to the stage crew. By the third song he was so pissed, he threw he knocked over his mic stand and walked off stage leaving his two band mates to finish the song along, which they did. They then walked off stage too, end of show. Really, it sounded fine in the crowd.

I know from playing crappy clubs and dives most of my career with Ultimatum that sometimes stage sound sucks and you just have to keep trudging through it. We've played shows with NO stage sound and you have to rely on each other and playing off each other and those cues that you get use to. It sucks, but you keep pounding because the crowd can't hear the stage sound and they only care about you putting on a killer show.

ultmetal wrote:

KING'S X, HAMMERFALL and DIO, Albuquerque, NM. I was super hyped to see this show as I love all three bands. Hammerfall and Dio did not disappoint. Great show from both. King's X were having some problems with their stage monitors and being able to hear themselves. By the second song Dug Pinnick was visibly annoyed and was making gestures to the stage crew. By the third song he was so pissed, he threw he knocked over his mic stand and walked off stage leaving his two band mates to finish the song along, which they did. They then walked off stage too, end of show. Really, it sounded fine in the crowd.

I know from playing crappy clubs and dives most of my career with Ultimatum that sometimes stage sound sucks and you just have to keep trudging through it. We've played shows with NO stage sound and you have to rely on each other and playing off each other and those cues that you get use to. It sucks, but you keep pounding because the crowd can't hear the stage sound and they only care about you putting on a killer show.

In my club days, having monitors was a plus but never counted on. Like you stated, a working stage sound was golden. If you don't know your songs or your band mates.....get off the stage. Totally unprofessional on Dug's part. I understand having a bad day, but being a baby about it is lame.

Some good stories here !
On the 'Dream Police' tour - guitarist was angry -
that the spotlight didn't shine down on him -
at a crucial spot of the song -
Angus was playing intro riff to Hell's Bell's -
and a chick ran on stage and gave him a huge hug -
he messed up the riff - as the place erupted even more !!!!!

One of my high school teachers told me about how he went to see Motley Crue during their heyday(forgot which tour it was), Mick Mars must've been pretty wasted because he kept on making several mistakes playing notes and getting visibly irritated at them.

I wasn't there but this takes come beating   

The first Gigantour held here in Fresno at the now-seldom-used Selland Arena. The sound was horrible, but that was the venue for you. Dave's voice was out so no vocals, and his set was cut way short due to curfew. Dream Theater was the best act (and the most discernible audio) but Nevermore, Fear Factory, Symphony X, and Deth were just a wall of noise. Not as horrible as the above mentioned stories, but still not much fun.

I rarely had good monitors when I played out. As a guitarist it's no biggie but as a singer it sure helps to have them!

Temple of Blood wrote:

I rarely had good monitors when I played out.  As a guitarist it's no biggie but as a singer it sure helps to have them!

I hear you (no pun intended). I always had to work with amateur soundmen who thought monitors had to be hush-hush. I kept hitchhiking from the stage and they wouldn't bring em up. Drove me nuts.

James B. wrote:

ultmetal wrote:

KING'S X, HAMMERFALL and DIO, Albuquerque, NM. I was super hyped to see this show as I love all three bands. Hammerfall and Dio did not disappoint. Great show from both. King's X were having some problems with their stage monitors and being able to hear themselves. By the second song Dug Pinnick was visibly annoyed and was making gestures to the stage crew. By the third song he was so pissed, he threw he knocked over his mic stand and walked off stage leaving his two band mates to finish the song along, which they did. They then walked off stage too, end of show. Really, it sounded fine in the crowd.

I know from playing crappy clubs and dives most of my career with Ultimatum that sometimes stage sound sucks and you just have to keep trudging through it. We've played shows with NO stage sound and you have to rely on each other and playing off each other and those cues that you get use to. It sucks, but you keep pounding because the crowd can't hear the stage sound and they only care about you putting on a killer show.

In my club days, having monitors was a plus but never counted on.   Like you stated, a working stage sound was golden.    If you don't know your songs or your band mates.....get off the stage.   Totally unprofessional on Dug's part.    I understand having a bad day, but being a baby about it is lame.

Ya gotta remember - dUg is deaf in one ear. His monitors are his other ear. Try playing deaf while having to open for a shitty band like Hammerfall.

Don't care. I paid to see King's X and I got to see 2.5 songs. I once drove 13 hours to Texas and got up on stage with a 101 fever and put on the full show. You do what you gotta do.

ultmetal wrote:

Don't care. I paid to see King's X and I got to see 2.5 songs. I once drove 13 hours to Texas and got up on stage with a 101 fever and put on the full show. You do what you gotta do.

Yeah, being partially deaf dosen't automatically excuse him from screwing over fans like that.