pvris palaye royale worst live performance
[Photos by: PVRIS/Giselle Dias, Palaye Royale/Giselle Dias]

9 musicians relive their worst live performance ever

We’ve all had a bad day “at the office” before. A time that we don’t enjoy looking back at and cringe when we do, remembering what was absolutely not our finest hour is usually made considerably worse by the number of people who were there to witness the catastrophe in motion.

We managed to get members of Parkway Drive, Municipal Waste, Palaye Royale, the Faim, Marmozets, the Bronx, Grayscale, PVRIS and Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes to painfully relive their worst live performance to date.

1. WINSTON MCCALL, PARKWAY DRIVE


We played a show at Jerry’s Pizza in the U.S.; it was a venue in Bakersfield. I’m not sure if it exists anymore. It was literally the basement of a pizza shop. We were paid in pizza. We got one pizza for the whole band. No, it didn’t feed us; yes, we were still hungry. The 15 people who were there didn’t give a fuck that we were playing. It was just a straight-up “I don’t know why I’m here, and I don’t care that you’re playing. I’m literally having a conversation with my friends while you’re gigging.” Occasionally, they’d go, “Hang on, I’ll go and mosh for this little bit,” and then they’d go back to their conversation. We got one pizza. When we went back for a second one, we had to pay.

2. TONY FORESTA, MUNICIPAL WASTE


It was this show in Cincinnati where there were 12 bands on a Tuesday night. I was swinging the mic around like Mick Jagger, thinking I was cool, and I accidentally hit our old bass player in the head with it and split his head open. He was bleeding everywhere. Worst show ever. We finished the performance, and he bled a lot. He probably should have got stitches. Also, that’s not why he left; we’re still really close friends.

3. REMINGTON LEITH, PALAYE ROYALE


We did this high school tour a couple of years ago, and Sebastian [Danzig] went into the crowd, and one of the kids took his necklace. We were playing to 2,000 kids, and he goes on the microphone and starts screaming at the kids through the microphone—we’re only one song in and he’s like, “Someone give me back my jewelry!” The whole crowd just turned on us. I was like, “Oh, my God, this is the most embarrassing performance of my entire life.” We had to play for 30 minutes to kids who did not like us. We carried on, sadly; we should have left. He didn’t get his jewelry back—they weren’t going to give it back.

4. JOSH RAVEN, THE FAIM


It was the first Disney cover set that we did, and it went horribly. It was a random show back in Perth, Australia. The event organizers said we had to do it, and we picked the songs, but it got thrown on us last minute. We had a week to learn eight full covers. We tried to do Frozen, The Lion King, Jungle Book, Toy Story. It went terribly wrong. They’re very melodic, which is fun, but when you try and learn those songs within a week—there are so many lyrics and musically it’s pretty intense. We all learned it, but when it came time to go onstage, because it was only our third or fourth show, we were just so out of our depth.

5. BECCA MACINTYRE, MARMOZETS


One of our shows in Brighton. We met up with Frankie Cocozza. He came to our hotel with his mates, and we all got really, really, really messed up together just before the gig. We had to run across the beach to get to the venue, and we were all tripping over and falling down.

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6. MATT CAUGHTHRAN, THE BRONX


We played the House of Blues in Orange County one time early on in the band’s career. We had a bunch of labels coming out to watch us play, and it was a really difficult time for the band; everyone had a lot of stuff happening and hadn’t quite gelled as a unit yet. I, myself, was in a bad place. I was super late to the show, and it stressed everybody out. When we played, it just sucked. We were terrible. I was terrible. We met up with a guy from Def Jam Records after the show, and he was like, “Well, at least now I can say that I’ve seen your worst show!” So it was good to get it out of the way, I guess. But that was definitely a rough one.

7. COLLIN WALSH, GRAYSCALE


There was one show on the As It Is tour. We played in Anaheim, California, and I was really sick. I could barely stand up. It took everything in me to stand up straight, and we played three, maybe four songs, and then I had to immediately walk away and lie down. I still don’t know what it was. It felt like flu symptoms. It was the most agonizing show I’ve ever played. I’m sure it didn’t sound incredibly good because I was half dead.

8. LYNN GUNN, PVRIS


Our first date of Warped Tour in 2014. I remember we had everybody there to watch us, and everything that could have possibly gone wrong went wrong that day. Out front took forever to set up because our rig’s really confusing and weird, tracks went wrong and everything freaked out. You’ve got to power through it. Shit happens. Sometimes it’s embarrassing, but the more embarrassed you get, the more embarrassing it is for other people watching, so just say “fuck it” and accept it.

9. FRANK CARTER, FRANK CARTER & THE RATTLESNAKES


In Berlin in 2015. I somehow put my back into spasm, and I couldn’t walk, so we finished the set and I crept offstage. The next morning, I still couldn’t walk, so I had to go home in a wheelchair. That was a bad one.