The Worst And Craziest Gig/Concert Stories You Will Ever Hear

Last year in June, my friend suggested we attend a famous Kenyan reggae dancehall artist's album release party. We purchased advance tickets at $5 each then waited for the much anticipated Saturday.

We arrived at the sports stadium hosting the album release party an hour after opening time. It was a challenge getting through the entrance because the event organizers didn't bother to designate different queues for attendees with advanced tickets. Plus, the event bouncers kept pushing people in the queue.

After struggling for 25 minutes, we finally get inside and purchase a couple of cold beers since it's a hot afternoon. We had to endure an entire hour of confusion for the show to officially begin since the sound technicians were setting up speakers at the last minute. Due to this sluggish attitude, only half of the artists scheduled to perform graced the stage.

Finally, the hyped dancehall artist appeared three hours later. He was psyched and the crowd reciprocated his energy. However, the speakers seemed unreliable as they went frequently went mute for no reason. This made sections of the audience angry and they hurled bottles onstage. A mini stampede occurred as everyone in the front tried to flee from the crude projectiles.

Contributor: Maina Ndugo | LinkedIn

Back in 1988, I was headlining a show at an outdoor concert in Fayetteville, NC and back then in hip hop it was just the emcee and a deejay.

We were standing on stage in front of a crowd of about 10,000 people and my dj (DJ Money Mark) was putting records on the turntables when the wind started blowing hard. It was so crazy that every time the needle hit the record and I was going into a rhyme the record would fly off the turntables.

We were looking around and the crowd was getting antsy and I looked back and my dj kept grabbing the records and picking them up off the stage and it was just hilarious. I ended up doing an impromptu rhyme but the entire crowd was just laughing the whole time.

Ironically they ended up giving us a huge ovation but it went absolutely terrible.

My deejay and I still laugh about it today.

Contributor: Sean XLG

Worst concert I went to was The Fixx at Irvine Meadows, ca 1985. Gosh they were boring. They just stood there the entire concert. They had this great, moody music, some of it energetic, all of it suffused with feeling aided not only be great musicianship but the singers tremendous vocals ... and they had no showmanship to match. Watching paint dry while listening to their records would have proved more entertaining. At one point I wondered whether they were piping in the music and what looked like musicians were actually 3D cardboard cutouts. That's how little they moved.

Contributor: Brian O'Neel

Company: Saint Luke Institute

David Bowie, Anaheim Stadium, ca. 1987, Glass Spider Tour.

What made this concert such a drag was the fact that the previous tour, The Serious Moonlight Tour, was so special. That one had tremendous showmanship, great sets, phenomenal music.

Glass Spider, however, was just over the top.

Dancers everywhere, repetitive dance moves, way overdone sets, utterly lacking in the class and panache of the previous concert, and the musicianship wasn't as good.

During Serious Moonlight, every person on stage had a part, and it was choreographed so beautifully in a way that complimented the music.

With Glass Spider, the parts were played by Bowie and the dancers, and it all clashed -- with the music, with each other, and ultimately with the audience.

Contributor: Brian O'Neel

Company: Saint Luke Institute

Poison ca. 1991-92 at Irvine Meadows.

I wasn't in to hair bands. I went because my two best friends were, and it promised to be a fun evening. Instead I was made nearly nauseous -- not by the smell of reefer hanging like fog over the grass seating at Irvine Meadows. No, by Riccky Racket/Rocket/Who Cares' guitar playing.

First it was evident he was completely blitzed. Second he thought he could show off what he obviously imagined were his virtuoso guitar skills by ripping his fingers like lightening back and forth across the fret board.

Which, as a guitar player who can't do that, is impressive ... for five seconds. The problem is Riccky did nothing but that. Yes his fingers were exploding on his guitar's neck, but to what end? The original Duran Duran guitarist Andy Taylor showed he could do the same thing when he played with Power Station, but on Duran Duran's music, his playing is spare yet complimentary.

No such luck with Riccky. Just the same lightening fast fingerwork over the fretboard ... and I do mean the same ... song after song after song after song after song after song after song after ... Get the picture? Had they played a waltz or a funeral dirge, he wouldn't have varied a thing. Good thing the grass seating at Irvine Meadows had no trees, because I would have hung myself just to put my ears out of their misery. I could wait for the concert to end. Neither could my friends, and they actually bought Poison records and wanted to be there.

Contributor: Brian O'Neel

Company: Saint Luke Institute