When You Fail/Die/Bomb Onstage, What Can You Do to Recover?

 

Have you ever had to perform a show without one of your cast or band members when no understudy was available? I have, and though I never want to do it again, I’ve never forgotten what happened.

I was in a punk-pop-rock band, working with a manager who found us college gigs. It was a Friday night, and I think we’d been advertised as more of a dance band than a concert. We’d have been better off with a seated audience, but a lot of colleges preferred dance bands at the time.

As it happened, our lead singer/songwriter/guitarist was really sick, and could hardly stand. He was willing to go with us anyway, but we couldn’t bear the thought of him falling over onstage and told him we could perform without him. I think we also wanted to show him we could function without him, if we had to — though in fact, it wasn’t true.

Once we arrived and started setting up the stage, I was feeling less and less confident. All we had was a bass player, a drummer, and a vocalist (me), whose signature songs consisted of harmonizing with the lead singer/founder. We tried playing the songs we were used to doing, but they sounded weird without either acoustic or electric guitar.

After a few songs, people in the audience began booing us and telling us we sucked.I hated to hear it, and at the same time, I couldn’t say I didn’t understand. In fact, I didn’t like how we sounded, either. After a few more tries, we ended up leaving and telling the staffer at the door that one of our members was sick and we should have canceled.  As you can probably guess, we didn’t get paid.

Of course, people bomb out for all kinds of reasons, but when it happens to you, it can feel like a monster squeezing his hands around your throat. Was there something we could have done? In hindsight, nearly everything.

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