The Worst Gig: From Psycho Fans to Stage Riots, Famous Musicians Tell All

by Jon Niccum

"WORST GIG is Music Appreciation 225, taught by that cool professor everyone wanted to have beers with after class. One fun nugget after another. It was harder to close than my Twitter app."—Matthew James, McSweeney's

"Tawdry tales of concert catastrophes!"—Buzzfeed

"Musicians' 'Worst Gig' makes for best read ever."—Salon

What is the worst show you've ever played?

Sometimes the worst shows inspire the best stories. After hundreds of interviews with national headliners and beloved indie acts alike, entertainment journalist Jon Niccum has crafted a collection that chronicles the most embarrassing, most hilarious and most insane live show moments ever.

THE WORST GIG features outrageous stories from stars such as Wilco, Def Leppard, Tenacious D, Rush, John Mayer, and The Sex Pistols. Be it nature's wrath, equipment breakdowns or even military intervention, get the wild scoop on what really happened, straight from the artists themselves.

Genres: Nonfiction, Music

242 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Jon Niccum teaches in the Film and Media Studies department at the University of Kansas. A longtime writer and critic for the Kansas City Star, he is the author of several books and the writer/producer of many movies. He lives in Lawrence, Kansas.

Reviews

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. The "it was okay" 2 star rating could not be more accurate in this case. Most of the stories are just not that exciting really. I expected complete, outrageous, insanity. I got..."well it rained really hard at one gig, but we just played anyway." To be fair, most stories were a little better than that, but THAT WAS AN ACTUAL STORY! Here's what you do with this book: take half an hour, head to the book store or library, check out the index, and just read the quick stories from the bands you are interested in. I guess if you are REALLY into music and like all the bands in the index, then this might be a buy for you. Just don't get too excited about it.

[Gina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not bad but also just not that interesting. For every 1 great story about a truly terrible gig there are a lot of filler or meh stories about gigs that just don't seem that bad. I skimmed most of it after the first few disappointing stories.

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

A full version of this review is posted on Open 'Til Midnight

Ask anyone who enjoys live music, and they will readily tell you about the worst concert they’ve been to. The reasons will vary — lousy sound, Mother Nature’s wrath, getting dumped between the opener and headliner — but the experience of misery in the realm of performance binds it together.

Musicians are no different, as Jon Niccum discovered. Having once been caught unprepared for an interview, he developed a list of generic go-to questions, but found that asking about the positive career highlights seldom evoked the memorable soundbites he sought. One day, he shifted to a new line of inquiry:

What is the worst show you’ve ever played?

Boom. Every artist had an answer for that, many of them almost unbelievable in their awfulness. Many weren’t fit to print but were too good not to share. In 2011, Niccum launched a website for his tales of misfortune to be consumed by the masses.

The Worst Gig: From Psycho Fans To Stage Riots, Famous Musicians Tell All is a compendium of gems garnered over decades of interviews, with a wide range of musicians including Alice Cooper, Rush, Flaming Lips, Wilco, Led Zeppelin, Garbage, Jane’s Addiction, Tori Amos and The Sex Pistols. Organized thematically, Niccum provides minimal introduction to the artists before turning the proverbial mic over to them to detail the nights where their chosen careers landed firmly in manure.

All of their stories are terrible and certainly fit the question, but it’s the nature of the failure that ultimately speaks to an artist’s passion and priorities. While the stories themselves are highly entertaining for music fans, for the more obsessive minds, this analysis is what makes the book a treasure. A must-read for concert addicts

[Janice Naismith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I saw this book at Barnes and Noble and bought it just based on the cover, which looks like a tour road case. I was surprised to find how diverse a collection of artists were included. It wasn't just stadium rockers but people ranging from Gillian Welch to Gwar. I especially like the stories by old school punk bands such as the Sex Pistols, mike Watt, and X. Most of the stories are really funny. Some of my favorites were by bands that were before my time like the one by After the Fire and their crazy misinterpretation of what a crowd is chanting at their show. My only complaint is it is a fast read. I could have used more. Hopefully there will be a second volume.

[Megalion · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

Some of the stories are no longer than the introduction paragraph of the musician/band. A good number I felt were very tame and not really worthy of inclusion in a compilation like this.

But there ARE laughs to be had. Flogging Molly's story was one of my favorites.

Its a fun, quick read and one that can easily be read in short spurts. Recommended for anyone who enjoys music as the music styles vary from one extreme to another. Meaning its not all metal and rock stories.

[Ina M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many thanks to SOURCEBOOKS for giving me the opportunity to read an ARC of this book. I ended up purchasing a copy because I really enjoyed it and found it a good reference source for my own writing. The stories shared by the musicians who contributed to The Worst Gig are very entertaining and enlightening and shed plenty of light on what really goes on backstage. I would highly recommend this book to everyone with an interest in music and life on tour.

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

THIS BOOK WAS SO FUNNY! :D

[David Stewart · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ever heard of Cross Canadian Ragweed? No? They once had an album that rose to number 30 on the billboard charts. Still no? Shame because this book contains a mildly amusing story about a gig they once had that didn't go well. Perhaps you're a bigger fan of obscure DJ/remixer Treasure Fingers who also had a bad experience onstage? Never heard of him? No doubt you haven't heard of most of the artists in this book which uses a very liberal definition of the word "famous" in order to include anecdotes by musicans who are probably considered obscure in their own home town, possibly even among their own family members.

There are some bigger names among the parade of has-beens and never-were's but even the tales of people you have heard of aren't exactly entertaining. Tori Amos once performed a gig that didn't have the right atmosphere because the lights were on. Dweezil Zappa's volume pedal broke and took a while to fix. Aimme Mann performed a gig which had, prepare yourself for this, a rumbling noise in the monitor.

Boring anecdote after boring anecdote thuds from the pages of this book making the reader wonder how anyone could make music performance sound so tedious.

The Worst Gig bored me from the start and then started to annoy me as I started to appreciate just what a cynical rip-off this book is. The final straw came late in the volume in the Led Zeppelin entry which should be the first thing everyone cites when they take this book back to the place of purchase and demand a refund. Led Zeppelin's worst gig is presented to us by bass-player John Paul Jones who briefly wastes our time with a short paragraph telling us how depressing it is to play for a small audience. Although as he admits half way through: "I don't think it was Zeppelin, but I was onstage with some band...". So the Led Zeppelin entry is a brief account of a disappointing turn out to a gig played by the bass player.

Stay away, save your money and if you happen to end up with a copy then save your time and bin it straight away.

[David Macpherson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun and breezy thing to read, but not that deep. I find it interesting that some of the musicians come up with lame or dull worst gigs. Some get too new age, saying every gig is a good gig because we are learning and imprving. BLah blah. The best ones are long epics of everything going wrong and there was enough of these that kept me entertained.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great read.It is stories from artist ranging from Rap,DJ,Country,Rock,Metal , POP and some Jazz.Working security at concerts for about 8 years, fans have no idea what goes on behind the scenes at most shows.It is great to hear the stories of the worst gigs direct from the artist.

[James Traxler · Rating 2 out of 5]

Shame really, as I would love to hear worst gig stories, if they were told in an interesting way.
Hardly anything of note here though.
A scattering of well-knowns amongst many unknowns.
Which might be fine, if the worst gig situations were shocking or hilarious or at least well told.

[Patrick Tarbox · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s a very simple concept, but it is a very fun read, it is unique and it is a quick read as well. It is a challenge to get subjects to talk about, but the author does a good job presenting the tales in a very human way.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read, loved hearing from different musicians and bands!

[Kris Riley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent collection of stories - keep in mind that most are 2 pages or less. The longer stories are more enjoyable, personally. Wish they would have added more content.

This book is based on the website "worstgig.com" where you can find most of these stories.

[Kris Sellgren · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a pretty funny book about the worst time a musician had giving a performance. Most of the musicians are far from famous, but those are the ones that are most frank about horrible experiences, from being abandoned by your tour bus at a rest stop to audiences throwing piss at you. The more famous musicians are more circumspect, but do talk about getting food poisoning before a show and throwing up offstage between songs.

[C.M. Subasic · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I could recommend this book more highly. It does have its moments. But there's a bit of laziness in here, mostly because the stories the musicians tell are all so similar, or the editor uses the musicians words verbatim (and some have no sense of storytelling).

The one highlight was it introduced me to Jacob Slichter who's book, "So you wanna be a rock star" is one of the most brutal, honest and interesting reads I've had on the topic.

[Patti · Rating 3 out of 5]

I must be really out of touch with music. OK, I admit it, I am. I hadn't heard of 70% of the bands in this book.

That's not to say their stories weren't amusing, or funny, or even touching. I just didn't get as much impact hearing stories about bands I didn't know.

And it was really short.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kind of a fun little book about the worst gigs of some famous, and not-so-famous musicians culled from the WorstGig.com Website. Good for a giggle or OMG.

[Daniel A. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was expecting this to be funny. I don't think there was one story that made me crack a smile.

[Kara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Entertaining enough, but also sort of repetitive, and it was more fun to read about the bands I'd heard of than those I hadn't (the majority of the book).

[David Dewata · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was funny during the first few pages then it got really dry and tiring.