On Stage Melt Downs & Unprofessional Behavior

[Blue JC]

I got a call to sub last week at a club I frequently play with my regular band. I know a couple of guys in this band a little bit and the rest not at all. The singer called me and said their keyboard player couldn't make the gig and would I be free to sub? I was off that night and took the gig.

 

To make a long story short, halfway through the second set, in walks their keyboard player - out barhopping with his buddies - and all Hell breaks loose. The singer and guitar player told me, the bass player and drummer (the two guys I knew in the band) that the keyboard player couldn't make the gig but they actually never called him.

 

The whole thing degenerated into a screaming match and eventual fist fight - on stage!

 

The bar owner and bouncers kick the three of them out of the bar and banned them for life.

 

The owner, who I am very good friends with, asks me, the bass player and drummer what we can do. He's got a full house and we've got almost 3 hours left on the gig. So we played the rest of the night as a trio and split the money three ways.

 

The next day, the singer calls me. Incredibly, instead of apologizing for lying to me and putting me in that position - he wants his cut!

 

Feel free to share your on stage melt downs.

 

Best,

JC

[David Loving]

JC, this is the best melt down I ever heard! ...his cut?

[marino]

I had an almost identical experience. About 15 years ago, I spent a year or so gigging with this half-famous singer from New York. He was a good singer, but as a person, he was a mess; for example, he used to get quite excited onstage and verbally fight the audience, and when you add that he was an English-speaking guy in front of Italian audiences, you can imagine in how many ways he was able to embarass his bandmates.

 

Anyway, one day he called for an extra reharsal; at the reharsal, we found a new bass player. The singer said: "Our bassist can't make the next gig, so we have a substitute." The drummer and I assumed that the sub was for one gig only... But the singer had the intention to fire the old bassist. Only, he "forgot" to call him to say it. So at the gig, the usual bass player showed, instrument in hand and ready to play - only to find another bassist doing the soundcheck.

At first, he old got angry with me and the drummer, but once we explained things, he tried to speak with the singer - but the singer had just left the place!

Te old bassist left the club, disgusted; we musicians were even more disgusted. We played that gig, plus a few more gigs that were already booked, then we left him looking for another band.

 

Oh, and at the very last gig we played together, this nice man *stole* all the parts and scores of my arrangements (I was the MD), presumably in order to make his next band play them. He didn't ask; he just stole them from my gig bag.

 

Last time I heard of this guy, he was in Canada. I strongly hope he'll never return to Europe.

[linwood]

Classic Meltdown

[Bridog6996]

That's cool, Linwood, I've never heard that before. Big props to Brother Ray for playing it ultra-suave on that one! In fact, he seemed to get a kick out of it. Who was yelling at him? I couldn't make it out.

[MidLifeCrisis]

Originally posted by linwood:

Classic Meltdown

That was Great! Now we know WWRD. (What would Ray do?)

 

Just "Bless his heart"

[Dave Pierce]

JC, I'm dying to know what you told this guy when he asked for his cut!

 

That's rich...

 

--Dave

[eric]

That is a good story and I would love to know what you told the singer asking for "his cut."

 

I have a couple of similar types of stories that occurred with the same group within the past couple of years. One day, I got a desperate call kind of late in the day for a last minute sub job. They had a couple of members out (including keyboards) and were trying to cobble together something at the last minute for a gig. The singer that called me was begging me to bail them out, so I agreed to do the gig.

 

I showed up and started loading in my gear at the venue. The guitar player was also loading in and he was like "hey, what are you doing here?" in not such a friendly tone (I've known him for years, but don't play with him that often). Apparently, he did not know I'd been called to sub. So I told him about the desperate call from the singer and I was just trying to help them out. He scowled and then stormed into the building and started yelling at the singer. I stayed out of it and kept my distance, just about ready to pack up the gear and leave. It was pretty high drama! Once they settled their ruckus, I walked up and said, "if there is any confusion here, I would be glad to just skip this gig." To which the singer told me that everything was fine and he just did not have time to tell the other guy about people missing the gig. It turns out that the guitar player likes to try and sub on keys in a less-than-stellar fashion. He felt spited at not getting the chance to do the keyboard duties himself, or something.

 

I did play the gig, but did not really enjoy it. I told the singer that I would only sub for them again if the guitar guy was not playing at the next gig.

 

Regards,

Eric

[The Real MC]

Originally posted by Blue JC:

The next day, the singer calls me. Incredibly, instead of apologizing for lying to me and putting me in that position - he wants his cut!

The singer blew his top and made a scene. The barowner did not approve and he gave you his cut. End of story.

 

I worked with this guitarist who made a scene with the barowner right in front of the audience! After the gig I scolded him for making the band look like idiots. That was the last time he asked me to play with him, good riddance. This town where I live has zero tolerance for egotistical idiots.

[Trill]

I was perusing the books one day in Barnes and Nobles. I was waiting for the wife and started reading the biagraphy of the Eagles. There is a reason they had the " Hell Freezes over tour".

 

One scene described was Glen Frey telling Don Felder, " Two more songs and I 'm going to kick your a$$ " Then he proceded to go after him as soon as they left the stage. It seems Don didn't agree with Glens politics and embarassed him.

There are a lot more incidents decribed in the book . You get the feeling they couldn't stand to be around each other .

[BluesKeys]

It's sad there are so many unprofessional so called musicians out there. I had a thread about one leaving one of my bands and starts cancelling gigs that are booked for the next day as well as several weeks out. There should be a place in purgatory for these type of pricks.

[Prague]

Most musicians never even get to the rehearsal! A recent keyboard player:

 

He wants to join band. Two weeks for 2 emails later ( ) he wants to meet up. We agree on a day. That morning he gets directions. He never shows and never calls.

 

Two weeks later he responds and says he had a "family emergency" (how ironic). He'll get back in the swing of things.

 

9 days later I ask if he is still interested. 1 week later he say yes. I reply and ask when. 1 week later I ask again.

 

I week later he says to forget it. He's angry at me for being "passive-aggressive".

 

I don't believe his story and I am convinced he simply is not capable of playing the material. He considers himself a "pro".

 

Obviously, I do plenty of other things in the meantime. I just keep it up to see how far people will go. There is no shame.

[guestuserguestuser.com]

Originally posted by marino:

Last time I heard of this guy, he was in Canada. I strongly hope he'll never return to Europe.

Marino, since I am in Canada, would you mind sending me the name of this guy, so I can avoid him? No need to mention any names publicly, but could you PM me?

 

Thanks,

Richard

[Blue JC]

Originally posted by Dave Pierce:

JC, I'm dying to know what you told this guy when he asked for his cut!

 

That's rich...

 

--Dave

I was so dumbfounded when he asked me to give up some of my pay after what he did that I didn't say anything and just hung up. Of course, after the fact, I can think of plenty to say. I'm pretty sure he got the message to lose my number.

 

Silver lining: the bar owner wants to book the trio that finished the gig for a steady Tuesday night gig and we start tonight. I guess doing the right thing still has value somewhere.

 

I didn't think that I could possibly respect Brother Ray more until I heard Linwood's clip. He was born to be on stage. What a professional.

[Garrafon]

Now I'm wondering if I acted appropriately in the following situation:

 

Several years ago, there was a band decision made to replace our bass player. So, we put up an ad, etc. I got a call from this one guy, we met for lunch, hit it off real good, and we decided to bring him in for rehearsal. Everytime we invited him up, he couldn't make it for one reason or another. This probably occurred over a two month period. In the meantime, we found a great bass player with a great personality, who fit in real well with the band. So, we hired this other guy.

 

When I told the first guy, he sent me a really nasty e-mail telling me that I was totally unprofessional for failing to allow him to try out.

 

What else was I supposed to do? Keep the position open forever?

 

I think I did the right thing, but any other thoughts?

[Mr. Nightime]

A while back we were set up in a local club ready to play. The guy that did the booking for the club was a real prick, and every band in town hated working with him. This guy ran the sound, and thought that he knew more about sound after 6 months of ineptly twiddling knobs than the musicians coming in with 40+ years of experience. Unfortunatly, this club was and is the hottest club in town to play.

 

Our guitar player, Pat, had tried to corner the guy for a month to get more bookings out of him, always to no avail. The standard answer was to catch him later, he didn't have time now. This was after the bastard had screwed us out of more gigs than we played do to double bookings. He actually called us one day at 2PM asking us to change our start time for that day from 7PM to 3PM, and got pissed when we told him there was no way we could do it.

 

So, we're set up, ready to play, and Pat gets into a heated, almost come to blows argument with the guy. So bad that Pat starts to pack his gear to leave, and we've got a crowd that's there specifically to hear us. We finally calmed him down, and decided to play, making the bastard the bad guy in all of this.

 

Just a few weeks later the club owner finally had enough of the guy and fired him. Every musician in town cheered when we heard this. We played there this past weekend, and the overall atmosphere was so much more relaxed. Nice to have him gone.

 

The club owner did get in a little dig to the bastard's replacement. He called him, to me in front of him, Mike Jr. Big laugh out of all of us.

[SilverDragonSoun]

It sad there are so many stories like this. I was semi involved in a situation that indirectly led to a meltdown.

I played in a band about 20 years where I was replaced because the band I was in found another keyboard player who was better than me. While I was upset, I didn't verbalize it to anyoner and accepted it because I knew this guy was better than me. ( Its probably fair to point out almost anyone was better than me, I was all about image then ) One month later this band had a meltdown on stage as the drummer was replaced by this new keyboardist and never told the drummer cuurently in the band. When he showed up to do the soundcheck, another set of drums was already set up. It turned ugly and they forced the new drummer to a hike or the other band members, minus the keyboard player, wouldn't play. This was the last gig this band ever did and everyone went their seperate ways.

[Bobsk8]

A guitar player friend of mine told me about a substitute keyboard player that showed up to play with his band for one night, a few years ago. The guy arrived at the gig 45 minutes late and then took almost 1/2 hour to set up. They started playing to a full house, which was sort of a wild rock club on Long Island, and immediately the keyboard player starts telling the lead vocalist that he is singing out of tune. The next set, he told the bass player that the original tune that he wrote "sucked". Now he starts getting on the drummers case telling him he is dragging the time down. They were finishing the last tune of the last set, and the chick singer takes a big gulp of beer out of the bottle that she kept on the bandstand next to her music stand, walks over in front of the keyboard player, like she is going to tell him something, and spits the beer in his face..... The crowd thought it was part of the tune, and broke out in applause....The keyboard player packed up and was gone in about 10 minutes.......

[Phred]

My story isn't as good as the ones here.

 

I worked with a singer who had some moderate local success in the 80s. She was trying to recapture that success a few years ago. I played with her for 6 months, and have had some crazy things happen.

 

Things like; I auditioned while they still had a keys player that they wanted me to replace. They didn't tell either of us and invited me to audition at a practise that he was at. She turfed the guitar player two days before a gig with no intention of replacing him. She wanted the band (that means me mostly) to rework all the tunes as a threepiece...

 

The kicker came after I had already put in my notice. I tell them that I will do the gigs that we have booked... Things go on okay until the last song of my last gig with them.

 

The singer liked to close our shows with a song that she wrote that means a lot to her. It is really slow and boring. Also I should mention that at this show we were the first act of two so it is still early. At this point in the night we should be playing a hoping tune, not a slow tune.

 

People are chatting all the way through it, and in the middle of the song she says "Whoa whoa - stop playing everyone..." The band ignores her, "I MEAN IT STOP PLAYING!!!" we reluctantly stop.... "I am going to start over and you guys (refering to the audience) are going to sit quietly and listen. I am going to keep starting over until you can sit quietly through this song.".

 

She motions to me to start the song again. I almost didn't, but since I had already quit, I decided to do it ("just one more song" I told myself) Surprisingly the crowd stayed, and didn't talk that much. I imagine what they were whispering wasn't very nice...

[SilverDragonSoun]

Garrafon,

 

In your situation I feel you did the right thing. If you want soemthing really bad in life, you go after it. Two months is inexcusable. Were you supposed to stop looking and hope this guy would fit the bill? How long were you supposed to wait to start doing gigs and performing? It seems to me this guys ego was way out there as he was only thinking of himself. Just my opinion though.

[kanker.]

Originally posted by Phred:

People are chatting all the way through it, and in the middle of the song she says "Whoa whoa - stop playing everyone..." The band ignores her, "I MEAN IT STOP PLAYING!!!" we reluctantly stop.... "I am going to start over and you guys (refering to the audience) are going to sit quietly and listen. I am going to keep starting over until you can sit quietly through this song.".

There's a drummer here in town who's had a long standing Wed. gig at a local jazz club. He's not the most stable cat to begin with, but one night while the band is playing your typical up tempo-ish BeBop number, he decides the crowd is talking too loud, stops the band, and starts yelling at the crowd about how rude they are and that they're supposed to be listening to the music. After he finishes his profanity laced tirade, he turns to the piano player and yells 'Now play a *&^damn ballad!'

[David Loving]

Buddy Rich? Garrafon: You cannot be more interested in his success than HE is !

[Garrafon]

Thanks SilverDragonSound and daviel. That's how I felt and thought (obviously), but I was sort of taken back when he flew off the handle like that. I really wasn't expecting it. I thought he would understand and, well, be a man. I mean, that's the way the cookie crumbles. Early bird gets the worm kind of thing.

 

Thanks for your input.

[Garrafon]

Originally posted by Phred:

People are chatting all the way through it, and in the middle of the song she says "Whoa whoa - stop playing everyone..." The band ignores her, "I MEAN IT STOP PLAYING!!!" we reluctantly stop.... "I am going to start over and you guys (refering to the audience) are going to sit quietly and listen. I am going to keep starting over until you can sit quietly through this song.".

Good thing I wasn't in the audience, cuz I might have thrown something at her (but not my beer, I wouldn't want to waste that).

[Darren Landrum]

You know, it's stories like these that make me glad I'm just some guy in a basement studio somewhere.

[musicbysterling]

Years ago, I was playing in a blues/funk quartet fronted by a talented, but very self centered bassist/lead singer. The drummer at the time had a habit of disappearing on the breaks with his girflriend of that evening and always returning 15-20 minutes past our usual break. One evening, as the three of us were doing our usual waiting onstage for the drummer to come back, he began to have heated words with the bassist. Suddenly, the drummer said, "Fuck you, I'm outta here!" and proceeded to pack up his drum kit. The guitarist and I just looked at each other incredulously, not believing what were were seeing. Then the bassist, looked at us two and screamed "(One, Two, Three, Four!" and the three of us, sans drummer began playing the first tune of the set. The club was jam packed and while the three of us mowed through the tune, the drummer was weaving his way through the crowded house, carrying his gear over his head. And this was on the one night that my wife and a bunch of our neighbors came out to see me play, one of which was a drummer himself.

Some months later, at a large casino we were playing, the leader kept telling me to turn up. I should mention that the "PA" this guy carried around was nothing more than a couple of Peavey monitors and a Peavey powered mixer. I was never allowed to run a line into this piece of crap, so obviously, I could not be heard much past the stage. I told him (during a tune), that I couldn't turn up anymore thanks to his crappy PA system. He then started in on me, telling me that his PA was not the problem, and I should shut up and turn up. I simply told him that he should get another keyboard player after this gig, but his condescending attitude made me feel like that dummer I imagine. I played the evening, collected my check and never spoke to that guy again.

[Bobsk8]

Originally posted by daviel:

Buddy Rich? Garrafon: You cannot be more interested in his success than HE is !

Speaking of Buddy Rich, I was in the house band at a Catskill Hotel and they booked Rich's big band in to do a show. Our band did the pre-show dance set, and then Rich went on. He played about 3 tunes and the audience got noiser and noiser. Seems this 50-70 year old crowd wasn't into Rich's big band charts. Finally he does this really long roll in the middle of a tune, followed by a couple of loud rim shots and the entire band stops. He gets on the Mic and tells the audience that it is now obvious to him that his band is there to play, and the audience is there to talk to each other. So to solve the situtaion he is going play for 12 bars and then the audience can talk for 12 bars and repeat the cycle until the show is finished.

 

He counts the tune off and they start playing, and at the 12th bar they stop. You could hear some people talking, but not as loudly as they had been. Gradually the talking stopped, and then 12 more bars of band and another 12 bar break. By the 3rd break, you could have heard a pin drop out in the audience. He finished the show normally, with everyone listening intently. I think they were afraid to talk anymore, fearing what he would do next. He was an amazing drummer to see in person, and frankly I think he did the right thing.

[Phred]

He was an amazing drummer to see in person, and frankly I think he did the right thing.

I don't. It makes a great story though, and is a clever way to get people to stop talking, but you can't force people to like your stuff.

[Garrafon]

Originally posted by Phred:

He was an amazing drummer to see in person, and frankly I think he did the right thing.

I don't. It makes a great story though, and is a clever way to get people to stop talking, but you can't force people to like your stuff.

I agree that he did NOT do the right thing.

That is a very self-censored, egotistical attitude. The people who paid good money to be at those resorts were entitled to do as they please. They could listen to the music if they want, or talk amongst themselves if they want. I'm guessing it is very unlikely that they specially took a vacation in the Catskills to see Buddy Rich.

 

His behavior (and that of the lead singer in Phred's story) sound like that of spoiled little brats.

 

Hey, I'd love audiences to actually listen to us when we play out, but just as often as not, they are just engaging in their usual club drabble.

[Eric VB]

Great stories, everyone!

 

Blue JC, just be glad you ended up with the bassist and drummer. Can you imagine trying to play as a trio with a guitar and singer?