best concert screwup moments

[PalacePrincess]

okay, so at kimock this weekend, i was up front to witness one of the major drum solos by rodney holmes. it honestly seemed like a spur of the moment decision to rememdy an error. he was really off at the beginning of the song, and i think he decided rather than trying to get back into what everyone else on stage was doing, he'd just bust into a hugeass "okay i messed up, but look at what i can freakin' do!!!!!" solo opportunity. which was awesome, he really blew everyone away. but it got me thinking... what are some of the best "screwup moments" you've seen & ways performers have dealt with them? for me, this list would include:

- impromptu drum solo as mentioned above

- kinne starr turning a broken cd player at lee's palace (and therefore a huge portion of her set suddenly kaput, since that's what she was bustin' her rhymes to) into a spur of the moment open mic freestyle competition. set some beats up on her magic box, & opened the stage. it was actually REALLY cool, because it was all ladies who got up to give'r, and wow, there's a whole underworld of female hip-hop i didn't even know existed! very cool indeed.

- kevin bacon taking a moment to announce to the audience that his band makes a point to play ALL the songs from his movies (classics such as apollo 13, and as such, hopefully everyone will stick around for the oh, about 50 more songs or so), when crazy lady fan interrupted the show to demand they play footloose & dance. basically turning crazy lady's interruption into laughs for everyone.

- chris martin of coldplay coughing in the middle of a song, saying "excuse me" in this really funny way & continuing on without missing a beat.

- henry rollins grabbing a bug that was flying around his head & eating it

- heeheehee, at ween's instore performance in toronto, the power went off a few songs in, so gener & deaner immediately stood up & started to unplug their guitars as in "okay yay, this is over early!", but then the power came back on so they sat back down in an "oh drat!" kind of way.

- more ween, at the halloween show in vermont, some girl came up onstage & went right over to gener, who proceeded to put his arm around her and say "well hello there!" and "aww, thanks!" when she kissed him on the cheek

what are some good ones you guys have seen?

[bradm]

I saw The Steve Morse Band at the Diamond in Toronto back in '89 or '90. The audience was (as a guitar freak friend of mind said), "90% guitar freaks, and 10% girlfriends of guitar freaks..."

At one point, Morse is just ripping it up, when all of a sudden I'm hearing a great drum solo...it turned the power to the band hadn't been sorted out properly, and fuses/breakers were tripping.

Morse apologized, and a little while later the power was restored, only to have it trip out again after a few songs.

As Morse is apologizing, somebody in the audience yelled, "Tell some jokes!"

So he did:

Q: How many booking agents does it take to change a light bulb?

A: I'll get back to you on that...

Q: How many record producers does it take to change a light bulb?

A: Don't ask me!

and so on. It broke the tension, made everybody laugh, and set everybody up for the rest of the mad show that was to come.

I also recently got a copy of a Contact show from Montreal (2004-06-01), during which the guitar rig had its power tripped, causing mass silence on the stage. The percussion player stepped up and said, "OK, we're now called The Buzzkillers..."

Aloha,

Brad

[dancingbear]

phish boston gardens 12/30/96 ( i think) in the middle of phunky bitch all of a sudden you counldn't hear anything anymore...something, something critical that is, came unplugged. the band took a moment to realize this ( i presume they could still hear it at the front) but trey kept pretending to play his guitar...including with his teeth, behind the head, pretty much hendirx styles....it was hilarious.

[Esau]

best concert screwup moments

-Bob Weir.

Choose a show.

[mikey d]

funny story, really . . .

i was playing a gig back last novemeber, or 2 novemebers ago i guess, and i went to rip into an organ solo with a sliding gliss, but my keys werent very stable on their stand and the entire thing fell over, my keys falling off stage and into the audience. we got it back up in about a minute, luckily, while the rest of the band jammed on and i freaked out.

[bradm]

-Bob Weir.

Speaking of Bob Weir (why did my typing fingers put a 'd' on the end of his last name?), at a Dr. Huxtable gig in September, 2002, Hux broke a string in the middle of a tune, and stepped offstage with toolbox in hand to change it...the band kept playing, and the sax player from the other band that night stepped up and started jamming with them, in effect taking the role of the vocalist. (The string was broken during "Dear Prudence", and he stayed up for "Broken String Jam" through "New Funk Order" into "It's All Over Now".)

Aloha,

Brad