My Worst Trainwreck

Train wrecks happen on the bandstand. This is the story of a particularly nasty one at a wedding where we totally butcher a perfectly decent Elton John ballad.

Mark Guiliana + other people at the Blue Whale:

Zach Lapidus harmonizes tone deaf singer through modulations

NOTE: Certain details from this story have been altered to protect the innocent, nameless bridesmaid, who was just trying to do a nice thing for her friend.

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Adam

[ShowTheOreo]

Legendary singing performance by that lady. It was so bad that it managed to throw off 4 professional musicians into different keys

[andrewprahst]

Trainreck? Quadratonal modulations are SPICYYY

[doddleoddle]

"there's no way out" ahHAhAhAHHA oh my god what I would give to hear this

[garrettmick]

The drummer couldn’t tell anything was wrong the whole time

[MrIzzy]

I had a cymbal fall over, cut a patch cord to the guitarist mid solo. A friend jumped up to give him a new cable. Tripped up and fell on a trombone player who smashed his trombone into the trumpet next to him.

One cymbal, two instruments broken in 6 seconds...oof.

[bobschroder]

This is so sad. Alexa play "Can You Feel The Love Tonight" in 4 different keys...

[DonyaLane]

Ha Ha...Been there! I haven't played a wedding gig since 2000, but man, did this story bring back some hilariously similar memories!
You know, there's a famous musician joke about it: A cover band is playing in a club, and a girl who likes to sing with the band asks if she could sit in with them. She wants to sing "Misty" (it's an old joke). So, the bandleader turns upstage and says, "OK, listen-up. We're gonna play 'Misty' in Ab... But only for 3 bars. On bar 4 we modulate up a half step to A for about 2 bars. But watch for my cue to take it DOWN a whole step. Probably hang there a couple of bars, maybe... then back to Ab. Play the turnaround in 5/4. When we take the repeat, play the top of verse 2 in 3/4 and..." At this point, the wannabee singer panics and interrupts the bandleader, "Wait, wait a sec! I don't know how to sing 'Misty' like that!" And the bandleader says, "Yeah, ya do. That's exactly how ya sang it with us last week."

[jb-roow]

"White people love uptown funk." Adam has always been a classy memer

[markwilliamson]

By the time you got to "quadratonal" I was cry-laughing so hard that no sound was coming out and I couldn't breathe.
Thanks. I needed that.

[tsg_frank]

I wish there was some kind of recording of that beautiful beautiful trainwreck, I need that quadratonal rendition in my life.
I want that intentionally performed and named "can you feel the cringe tonight"

[Theblueshark]

4:30 Star Spangled Banner but its Giant Steps

[KamilHenri]

Good thing Elton John showed up to the wedding to save the day and play it himself

[lukelyons]

2:50 is the jazz equivalent of getting rick rolled. You could have ended the video there 😂

[tylerehrlich]

I absolutely lost it when you perfectly evoked that MOMENT when everyone switched to four keys at the same time. Thank you for sharing!

[jaseneffendy]

The version the bride was singing is C Suspended-Off-The-Top-Rope 4 with a flat 6

[Devontothefourth]

I would pay $7 to here this recreated as a midi

[BlikeNave]

I had a really rough practice tonight with my band. Felt pretty bad, but this vid cheered me up. 5:30 was great, and hearing "If a few minutes of cringe are the worst thing that happen in your job, then you've honestly got a pretty sweet gig" made me feel happy with what I've got.

[groovylobster]

My worst trainweck was when i was playing drums at a gig using another bands kit (that they set up). The first song begins and i'm playing their hi-hat thinking "huh, this hi-hat sounds like it's from toy drum kit", and then when we reached the chorus, i hit the high crash, and to my horror, it made nothing but a bell sound. We go through the whole set with me being completely dumbfounded by whatever's going on with this kit, and right as the last song starts, it hit me: whoever set up the kit mixed up a hi-hat with the high crash. It was already too late to change it. Astoundingly, no one seemed to notice, and i'm still told that it was a great set.

[michelthibodeau]

3:00 "... soldiered on in atonal ignorance"... also applies to my signing

[noashore]

Thanks Adam. Sometimes it's good to be reminded of that