Shows Where Something Horrible (technical or not) Goes Wrong

Gawd, what are some good examples -- ah, here's a great one! So the Toy Dolls, those stalwarts, were on a weirdass punkish bill in 1992. Halfway through one song, the guitar amp blows out. Olga smiled broadly, yelped at the crowd "Keep going!" and he just kept playing along and bouncing merrily while the amp was fixed. Crowd never stopped and I thought, "Sir, you rule." Best band I ever saw that I don't own anything by.

It doesn't count as "something horrible," but i remember seeing the Wedding Present at CBGB's just prior to the release of Seamonsters, and right in the middle of "Kennedy," Dave Gedge managed to break about three of his guitar strings. Like a complete and utter pro, Sean the drummer kept playing said song's signature, circular drum pattern (no easy feat) whilst Dave re-strung. It was an amazing display of stamina and professionalism. When Dave finished, he kicked right into it as if nothing had happened.

nevertheless, they were on fire and it's still the best show i've been to in a while

Drew, I can only imagine several such snafus involving computer and sequencing rigs (wasn't there a famous/infamous Depeche Mode show where the whole show had to be restarting when all the pre-taped cues cut out?) Must be stressful!

When I saw Television that last time they reunited, Richard Lloyd broke a guitar string just as the soloing sections of "Marquee Moon" began. No kidding, he spent almost the entire end of the song slowly changing the string and tuning as Verlaine and the other guys vamped around. Lloyd only finally popped back in for a whopping one minute or so before the song ended.

We all went outside and Jim was standing there in the rain with his $15,000 guitar in a stinky loading dock. When we got back in, he said that had never happened to him before.

So, while playing the second or third song in their set, Clint Conley broke a string off the guitar. He continued playing until the song was over, but kept looking over at Chris to try to figure out what to do next. He asked some one for help (I think it was his brother Jimmy) and they found a guitar behind the drum kit, which had previously been sitting on the front of the stage covered in confetti before their set. It was a red Mustage with the head broken in half in just the perfect way. Every tuning peg was still in place.

Clint thanked Readyellow for letting them us their stuff after getting the second guitar.

It wasn't too crazy.

Um, as for shows I've attended...I went to see a local band and after them Codeseven came on and only performed two songs because they apparently had technical difficulties where they couldn't play the rest of their repertoire.

-- Dom Passantino (juror...), May 7th, 2005. (later)

Hi Alex!

also, there's that one Wolf Eyes show (which was released, natch) where there was a power outage and they 'played' anyway (also awesome)

(xpost)

Eh?

They burned down the gambling house
It died with an awful sound
Funky claude was running in and out
Pulling kids out the ground
When it all was over
We had to find another place
But swiss time was running out
It seemed that we would lose the race
Smoke on the water, fire in the sky

We ended up at the grand hotel
It was empty cold and bare
But with the rolling truck stones thing just outside
Making our music there
With a few red lights and a few old beds
We make a place to sweat
No matter what we get out of this
I know we’ll never forget
Smoke on the water, fire in the sky

Well? Well???? It meant you could hear the buggers whichever corner of the site you cowered in.

Eh?

Assuming you don't know the story and aren't referencing the mis-spelling of Curtis, in 1990 he was playing an outdoor show in New York on a really windy day, and the lighting rig above the stage fell on him leaving him paralysed for the rest of his life.

I was at the Meta11ica/GNR show where James Hetfield caught fire.

Oh yeah, that was awful... Several of my friends were there then, and I tried to call them the whole day to make sure they were fine.

The remainder of the show was way louder and intense and better. I remember this as being a classically dull and fun-less mutek event up until that point, all black turtlenecks, shaved heads and thick-framed glasses name-dropping Deleuze.

*Mutek started to incorporate fun in 2002, as far as I could tell.

Oh, Deleuze would have hated that. I have seen those guys around here. It's amazing how creative they are with their eyewear.

After suffering the indignity of watching Cud (Cud!) and Teenage Fanclub deliver the most shambolic and worthless sets I've ever fucking seen, the Pixies come onstage and the crowd goes completely nuts. Two and a half songs into the set, the audience breaks thru the crush barriers and capsize the stage. Frank throws his guitar down and leaves, the band follow him.

Gig canceled. Pixies break up and never come back to Scotland, those fuckers.

I refuse to go and see the Pixies on their current "Gettin' paid" tour because of this.

That was the first thing that came to my mind as well (I wasn't at the gig, but still).

*Mutek started to incorporate fun in 2002, as far as I could tell.

There were computer crashes during two sets at Mutek 2002 (both were PC's, not iMacs. I have yet to see an iMac crash). Timeblind's computer crashed twice, after rebooting, he restarted his set but after the third crash he needed to abort :(

I think I mentioned this on another thread, but I saw a Pan Sonic show where they played for about three minutes and then walked off because they complained that the sound in the venue wasn't loud enough.

That reminded me of that Who concert where something simliar happened, 1979-ish.

I was there up front. It was good on my end!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

this was only a BAD thing in that he didn't go up in flames!!

I was there up front. It was good on my end!

-- Mr. Harvey Weinstein (h...), May 9th, 2005.
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yeah, I mean, as a Bj0rk show it was a good one because she rose to the occasion and sang really well, and she carries the show, not the sequencer- I just mean from my subjective point of view onstage trying to fix gear and feeling hellishly awkward it was, personally, utterly miserable.

seeing them both days, i can honestly say that the pure blue background, with their shadows distorted high onto it worked a lot better then the intended visual of static that moves in time with their music.

they sure seemed angry about it though.

also: Soybomb!

but watching the footage makes you believe he deserved it.

a sonic youth show i saw in syracuse saw thurston's guitar just disapear about 2 notes into "bull in the heather". lee commented, "everytime we start that number..."