Worst performance I've ever seen.

Subject: RE: Worst performance I've ever seen.
From: GUEST,kendall
Date: 19 Jul 10 - 08:55 AM

The worst one I've seen recently was a guy who thought he could sing Old Man River like Paul Robeson. Pathetic! He couldn't carry a note with a co signer.

Subject: RE: Worst performance I've ever seen.
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 19 Jul 10 - 08:35 AM

Apparently Judy was so bad at her Talk Of The Town gig (also London) that the audience - in a less forgiving mood - threw food at her. What a sad end for a once-great artist.

Subject: RE: Worst performance I've ever seen.
From: Leadfingers
Date: 19 Jul 10 - 08:34 AM

The worst I recall was Martin Carthy on stage at a festival , solo ,
and the Sound Man working Vocal And Guitar faders constantly so the Ouput from the main speakers was ABSOLUTELY level ! Then , when Martin was doing an Unaccompanied song , fading his vocal Mic TOTALLY for about Ten Seconds !

Subject: RE: Worst performance I've ever seen.
From: GUEST,Patsy Warren
Date: 19 Jul 10 - 08:27 AM

It was a performance of Judy Garland who I loved, in her latter years I think at the London Palladium my parents allowed me to stay up for it (it was school the next morning) but obviously in such a state that she could hardly get a note out and was rolling around. It was so sad but the audience applauded really because of the Judy they remembered.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst performance I've ever seen.
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 08 Apr 02 - 01:16 PM

Well written Jerry. From the ages of 18 to 21 I saw many folk acts at the Riverboat Club in Toronto. I remember some brilliant and emotionally invigorating performances....but oh lordy, some evenings were simply pathetic! Big name people who came on stage so drunk or stoned that it was really painful to watch. Even then, I was simply to 'square' to understand how someone could hate their profession that badly.

I also failed to understand (as I do today) how someone who has totally embarrassed themself onstage warrants applause and hero worship.......but they got it.

Rick

Subject: RE: BS: Worst performance I've ever seen.
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 08 Apr 02 - 09:48 AM

Well, let's see... the most insulting was a concert that the Kingston Trio did about ten years ago. I realize that at their peak they were very limited, but like many people, I was introduced to a lot of folk music by them. I would never got to see them, but I was asked to provide an opening act for them at a big venue, and I recommended by friends Sally Rogers and Howie Bursen. Sally and Howie did a fine opening set, but when the Kingston Trio came out they might as well have just said "You're a bunch of pathetic loosers, trying to recapture your college drinking binge/make out days, and you'll eat up everything we sing, no matter how sloppy we are." And they were right. They got into long conversations about how drunk they'd gotten the previous night, and room service, and all sorts of idiotic stuff that had nothing to do with music, and then they'd launch into the most disjointed stab at Tom Dooley or Charlie and the MTA, and the crowd went nuts. After the concert, I was a little stunned at how awful they were, and everyone was walking out, grinning ear to ear, saying how great they were. It was also telling that I'd been running a folk concert series and festival for at least fifteen years in the same town, and yet I didn't recognize a single person in the audience who came to the concerts I ran. And I knew that even though there were 400-500 people there to hear the Kingston Trio, I'd never see one of them at the concert series that I ran... even if I booked Sally and Howie. It was like going to hear the Platters, when nobody in the group was in the original group. Pavlov's music. Ecccchhh!

Then, I saw Johnny Cash stinking drunk, where he could hardly stand up, with Dylan slumped on the stage with his back against the wall, trying to back him up. You could do a thread "Singers I've seen who were so drunk or drugged up that they could hardly stand, and the thread would run on from here to Cleveland." The spooky ones are those who sound God-awful when they are sober.

Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: Worst performance I've ever seen.
From: Midchuck
Date: 08 Apr 02 - 09:26 AM

Most of the real disappointments I've had at concert performances were not the performers' screw-up.

The great bugaboo appears to be sound techs who are great at doing sound for rock bands, but are trying to do sound for folk or bluegrass acts. Of course, the poor bastards are half deaf, most of them, so it's logical that they'd set everything so loud it's physically painful, and distorted besides, but it's still unpleasant.

Peter.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst performance I've ever seen.
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 08 Apr 02 - 09:21 AM

In the seventies I saw Joe Cocker so obviously trashed that he could barely stand up. His vocal range was almost non existant. I have heard that he has cleaned up his act and is now as dynamic as ever.

I saw Dylan in the 80's, he was awful. I've seen hiem a few time lately and he has been fantastic both times.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst performance I've ever seen.
From: Sorcha
Date: 07 Apr 02 - 09:57 PM

All at Winfield---(Walnut Valley Bluegrass)
Byron Berline so drunk he couldn't play a lick.
Mark O'Connor having been in the studio doing side work so long he couldn't play the melody or read the audience anymore.

Of course, some of the best perfs I have seen were at Winfield, too.

Subject: Worst performance I've ever seen.
From: GUEST,Nick
Date: 07 Apr 02 - 09:50 PM

I saw a Bob Dylan bit on TV once that was hard to understand. I mean he was hard to understand.

What is the worst you have ever seen? The worst!

Drunken rock stars fallig off stages, or Open mike performers peeing where they stand?

Or perhaps something you did?

Let us share!

Ni