What's the most dramatic onstage meltdown you've seen?

[Ben Jones]

Pete wrote:
"Was anyone else actually at that notorious Hank Jr. show? It was in 92 or 93, Sandstone Amphitheater in Kansas City; I was on the side of the stage with the rest of the Patty Loveless band watching..."


I wasnt there Pete. Was it really a mixed crowd with alot of young children as i had heard rumored? He can barely talk on the tape...was he able to stand for all of that 19 minutes? any other tidbits you can relate about that show and his performance would be most welcome

[Pete Finney]

I wouldn't say a lot of kids, but probably a few. It's your typical "shed" amphitheater with reserved seats in the front, and grass in the back. And it was a "Hank Jr." crowd, not the kind of random family crowd you might find at a county fair.

[Ben Jones]

I wouldn't say a lot of kids, but probably a few. It's your typical "shed" amphitheater with reserved seats in the front, and grass in the back. And it was a "Hank Jr." crowd, not the kind of random family crowd you might find at a county fair.

Thanks Pete. i had heard it was at a county fair and was picturing little old ladies fresh from the pie bake-off and lil kids coming straight from the petting zoo sitting on their picnic blankets waiting for Bocephus to come out...only to hear him tell them where they could stick "monday night football"

[Steve Norman]

...now that you mention it I was at a Hank Jr show 86 or so in Shreveport Louisiana. I guess the show prior in Lafayette (Alexandria?) he fell of the stage and broke his leg. To his credit he put on a really good show in Shreveport the next day,,and actually played a dobro really well for a while solo, while sitting down to rest his leg. He did get some heckles on the lyric "I was born in Alabam" when he was in fact born right there in Shreveport. I heard the next tour he changed that lyric out when in Shreveport. Its shame that fair show happened. He used to put on great shows.

[b0b]

It was a 'Battle of the Bands', where one of the criteria was that the show had to be exactly a certain length. This singer/leader had it all worked out, timed to the second, and his band was fully rehearsed and hyped to do it. He hired me for $100 because he figured that, with a steel in the band, they couldn't lose. Yeah, right...

Last song, everything's going well, and the singer gets confused and adds a solo and an extra chorus. As he singing the last chorus, he realizes the time and what he's done. His dreams are going up in smoke and his whole band is pissed at him. Total humiliation.

I felt bad taking his money out in the parking lot afterwards, but a deal's a deal. I did my part.

[George Plemons]

I was playing the Traildust Steakhouse in Dallas a few years ago and we had a new bass player starting with us. I look over in the second set and he is standing over there crying like a baby. I ask the guitar player "what's wrong with him?" He says the guy is just going through a bad divorce and he guessed it had got to him. "There's no crying on the gig!", I said. I start laughing at him and it goes downhill from there, there weren't more than 3 or 4 hundred people watching this farce.

[Mike Cass]

My own......

I was playing a New years Eve club gig, the crowd moderately to seriously alcohol-impaired. A 300+lb. drunken oaf falls into the front my EMCI, pushing me back into my amps and bending a few pedal rods in the process. I regroup, re-bend, retune and resume. A minute later he repeats his feat, breaking the 2 front legs in the process, and I lose it..... After pushing him to the floor I then threw the bullet end of my bar towards the ground in anger and was immediately amazed at how much the sound of the bar hitting the concrete dance floor sounded like a gun going off. Apparently the crowd shared my amazement as people ducked and ran for cover
Retrieveing my bar, I then surveyed what was left of my guitar and announced to the hushed crowd that "I was all through playin' now".." or words to that effect I packed up, said "**** the $$", and exited the establishment, forthwith. Only later did I realize that Id left a digital processor sitting off to the side of the stage. The next day I fixed my guitar and sold every piece of gear I had to Jerry Roller via. the Buy & Sell section, a decision I later came to regret when 6 months later I recieved a call to go to work for Ray Price Sometimes even a nice guy like me can get irritated though

wanted to buy: 1 Roland DEP-5 Digital Effects Processor in good condition and good working order. Will pay shipping.

[Stu Schulman]

Mike,I feel for you.I had a 300 pound guy fall into me once while I was playing my steel.I almost forgot Here's one with me melting down.A few years ago I was playing guitar in the "Soulman Sam" band in Anchorage,Sam is a great Memphis style Soul singer who is actually from Memphis and sadly is losing his eyesight,the stage that we played on was very small the keyboard player was set-up off to the side of the stage,drums,and bass in the back and me,and Sam up front,Over the five years that I played in that band no one ever got by me to knock a mic into Sam's face,I was part linebacker part guitar player,One night a very drunk well dressed older man,and his younger date?working girl?kept getting closer,and closer to falling into Sam while he was singing,I warned them that they might hurt Sam so maybe they should go and sit down which they did...All of a sudden I heard a loud CLANG!I look down and the guy had fallen into my mic stand which hit my guitar and he was holding onto the stand for dear life I was holding the stand and finally let it down and started kicking the guy in the head really hard,The rest of the band pulled me off of him then they took me outside to cool off...Fast forward to Christmas of the same year,A lawyer friend of ours rents the Presidential suite of the Hilton Hotel for his Christmas party and in walks a familiar looking older man,He introduces himself to everyone and tells me that I look familiar...I wish him a Merry Christmas.

[Stu Schulman]

whooops!

[Ron Whitfield]

You must have been wearing the same shoes...

[Mike Perlowin RIP]

We only saw the clip on TV, but surely the worst meltdown of all time must be Michael "Kramer" Richard's racial tirade at Hollywood's Comedy club.

GG Allin had planned to kill himself on stage and take out a few members of the audience at the same time. Assuming he had had actually done that (he died of a heroin overdose before he had the chance,) would that qualify as a meltdown or as performance art?

Allin was a pretty despicable character, but he was also the victim of abuse by psychotic parents, starting with his given name. I don't want to start a controversy by saying any more, but those who are interested can look him up and see what I'm talking about.

[Mike Perlowin RIP]

duplicate post, deleted.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3FnpaWQJO0

[Stu Schulman]

Ron,I never thought of that...It was the shoes! I've got a pretty good Rosie Flores story also,Got any Rosie fans out there?

[Joe Drivdahl]

This isn't really a "melt-down" but its a funny story so I thought I'd share it.

Once we were playing a bar with a dance hall in the back located somewhere around Ennis, Montana (can't remember for sure). Anyway, we were playing "The Orange Blossom Special", one of our fiddle player's 'show off' tunes. He'd play wireless so he could get out in the audience and play on tables and such.

This guy didn't drink but on this particular night, he got to sawing so hard on that fiddle he fell right off the side of the stage into a pile of empty cardboard boxes. Somehow he kept on playing and barely missed a lick. Here he is, completely out of site, in a pile of cardboard still sawin' away. When he finally finishes he yells out, "Take it away, Joe."

I and the band were laughing so hard we could hardly play, but somehow we kept it going until he crawled back on the stage and started playing again.

I may not remember the place, but I will always remember that gig whenever I hear the "Orange Blossom Special."

-- Joe

[Mark Lind-Hanson]

Bob Weir at the Grateful Dead's June 7-9 1977 run at Winterland.
Garcia: "who wants to see Bob destroy this amp?"
Weir: "piece of shit!"
Weir takes a brand new Fender top and begins smashing it, Who-style on the stage floor. One, two, three, four, five above the head to the ground smashes.
Odd behavior indeed, for a band that seemed, most of the time, to Respct Their Instruments...
But also, somehow gratifying, for those of us who loved both bands...

[Ron Whitfield]

I'll never understand why someone would smash up a guitar or amp onstage, when they could be generous and give it to a grateful member of the audience, and let them smash it up.

[Mark Lind-Hanson]

Yeh, or put it to good use...
I see b0b just took it on himself to [edit] Weir's more colorful expression-
ah, it's all in good fun, isn't it?
The run remains my favorite memory of this band at their height...

[Ron Whitfield]

Saw Ted Nugent in '82ish on Oahu get spit on repeatedly by some goof at the front.

Good ol' Ted set's his Byrdland against Carmine's drum riser and strides to the stage edge and leaps high into the air, coming down bootheel's first into this guy's skull and pounds him into the floor, leaving what's left for the crowd to happily finish off.

ROCK AND ROLL!

[Ron Whitfield]

DUNG

[Stephen Gambrell]

I like when chick singers get mad at their boyfriend, or get drunk early, or forget the words, or any combination of the above, and stand around cryin' and yellin'.

[Tony Glassman]

when i was a roadie for the Crazy World of Arthur Brown, during a concert at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit, one of the musicians had a nervous breakdown on stage
Arthur"s show was already "out there" as it was, but this extravanganza was way over the top
the crowd was in awe & we were in a heck of mess
the freakin' musician was kickin' the drum kit, throwin drinks at the audience, whippin' out his johnson, pushin' the bass player, rockin' the hammond B3 on Arthur as he crawled towards it to be saved (that was part of the act but not the B3 on top of him)
the production manager managed to get the cat into the dressing room on the side but he kept jumpin' back out & gettin' back on stage
he finally collapsed & got carried out amidst much applause
i'd never seen anything like that before in those wild times mind you

I was at the show, which was a much anticipated event in the Detroit area, following the release of Arthur's uni-hit "Fire". Never actually heard, what happened to AB after that disastrous performance, though we sure all felt that we got "our money's worth".

Hey, CrowBear.....How does a guy with a Native-American/Teutonic name survive the 70's to live in the French Pyrenees while playing steel guitar.......sounds interesting.

[CrowBear Schmitt]

Tony, i'll have to email you on that

Survival is still the alternative

[Earnest Bovine]

when i was a roadie for the Crazy World of Arthur Brown, during a concert at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit,

The Grande Ballroom today:

[CrowBear Schmitt]

looks like it had a meltdown too
have mercy !

[Ron Whitfield]

If those walls could talk!

Just the Rock & Roll years of history inside that joint would be an incredible tale.

The day's when The Stooges, MC5, Nugent/Amboy Dukes, Alice Cooper, Seeger, etc. would share a bill are long gone, not to mention the Motown shows, but what a monument to Detroit's claim to being the R&R capital of the world!