Mogwai blowing the speakers in Vancouver in 2001 and cutting the gig short.
Fire alarm went off at KCLU just as Menomena were just starting their set in 2008.
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Oh also, going to see Mark Kozelek play with the Album Leaf. But it ended up just being Kozelek, who was grumpy as fuck and slagging everyone/thing off. But I think thatās just standard.
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Friendly Fires interrupted mid set by the fire alarm at King Tuts. Everyone evacuated then back in about 15mins later. Singer was properly pissed off though, like heād been taken out of the zone and couldnāt get back into it.
Good gig otherwise from what I remember.
Sure somebody went to the Boris gig last year Endless Hum put on? If so, please tell that story as it was a good one!
My Bloody Valentine did a warm up show in Birmingham and there were a few false starts.
Miraculously, Iāve seen Radiohead twice and I donāt think they fucked up Idioteque at either show
OH
One of the support acts for Dry Cleaning a coupla years ago was an absolute champ. They were an electronic band, and the battery ran out on one of their bits of kit and they had to change batteries mid-song. Fair play, they played through it but you could see the panic in his eyes trying to play the one part while swapping batteries.
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I imagine the singer from Friendly Fires would have personal beef with the kinds of fires that set off alarms
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I was at the Huggy Bear āriotā (as described in the NME). They made it through one song before abandoning the gig, however Bikini Kill (the support) were good. For extra indie points Jyoti from White Town and Tajinder from Cornershop were in the crowd.
Maria Hackman at end of the road 2017 where the rain got through a leak in the tent and fucked the sound desk
Oh yeah, Laura Marling at Queenās Hall for my first āproperā post-lockdown gig faced similar smoke/fire alarm issues
She got through one long multi-part song (10 mins?) and then the overly effective smoke machine set off the alarms, fire brigade came out and everything! Luckily sheās pretty chill and I think everyoneās tolerance for novelty was quite high at the time, so it was pretty seamlessly back into the show once we were inside again
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Chicks on Speed supporting Red Hot Chili Peppers in Hyde Park - Booed and bottled off.
Margo Price at Scala - All the lighting packed up so Margo and band played light by the audience mobile phones. Brilliant.
Springsteen in Hyde Park when they pulled the plug on him and McCartney in the middle of the encore.
LCD Soundsystem at Brixton Academy - Keyboards packed up in the middle of the opening song āUs & Themā. Tech problems fixed the whole band leaves the stage and we start the gig all over again.
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Fennesz had something (PA?) let go on him at St. Giles in the Fields Church in 2009. Completely in the zone, then a short boom, followed by pindrop silence. A couple of shrugs, applause, then everyone filed out. Somewhat anti-climactic end to the best pound-for-pound ticket Iāve ever bought (also featuring Grouper and Natural Snow Buildings).
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When all you need is a spoon
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Was waiting for you to post this
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Iād forgotten about that one. Great show that.
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Nas gig when someone fired a gun!
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The headliner of Sounds from the Other City a couple of years back was Simon Armitage doing poems over some ambient noodling in a church. They kept losing power and gave up after 15 minutes, which was fine because it was just as dull as it sounds from that description.
DJ Scotch Egg having to pause and reset everything because some prick unplugged one of his Gameboys (the prick in question got ejected about as violently as Iāve ever seen anyone kicked out of a gig by the bouncers).
Brian (the drummer) from Lightning Bolt getting into a fight with someone when they played at Tufnell Park Dome.
Bloc 2012, literally everything about it.
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Not in love with this being a seemingly valid sentence tbh
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My dad ended up with free tickets to see Tidelines (cheesy Scottish trad pop) somewhere around March 17th 2020. In retrospect Iām not sure why I tagged along given alarms were definitely being raised but it was a BBC gig so seemed pretty legit.
Anyway the singer had a hell of a cold from minute one and the room got very tense very quickly. Led to the singer spluttering āitās not what you think!ā Into the mic whilst the bbc host patted him on the back and gave him a tea.
They played one more song, moderate applause and everyone filed out feeling pretty uncomfortably
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Also.
Dishonrable mentions:
Bobbie Gillespie hitting a bloke in the face with a mic stand at the J Mascis and the Fog/Stooges gig.
Honourable mentions:
David Yow losing his voice for Scratch Acid at the garage.
The support band (Putting on the Ritz?) coming on after Deerhunter at the dome, getting presumably hammered, naked and the drummer trying to sit on his hi-hat stand.