# What was your worst concert experience?



## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

It can be for any reason. What was the worst experience you had during a classical performance? Had a bad cough that wouldn't stop? Sat next to someone you hated? Program didn't match the music?

I can think of mine--and it's quite embarrassing--so I thought maybe it'd be nice to see a few others before I post mine!


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

T. Rex, in about 1975. It was so loud that my ears rang from Friday evening until Sunday night. The music was distorted and I was worried about my ears  Dr. John, in about 1976, was so drunk he could barely stand up. That was another bad one. A third one was when Alice Cooper played at the stadium and the speakers got blown over by a freak wind storm. They finally finished the concert with only the left speakers. That one was still a pretty good concert, though.

Oh, I just reread the OP's question: "classical performance."


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

Sorry. It's fine, any concert will do; I suppose it's probably more difficult to have a bad experience in a solemn classical performance setting  Thanks for your answer!


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## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

Every concert I've been to has been great, with few bad experiences. Except for one: A few years ago my parents and I went to see the CSO preform Poulenc's Concerto for 2 pianos and Strauss' Ein Heldenleben. The music was great, though there were three problems

1. The pianists of the concerto were the Labeque sisters, Katia and Marielle. While they were wonderful, one of them had that Glenn Gould trait of humming what she was playing, and at some points that hum was grunting, and even slight shouting. That really distracted me from the music and I was slightly annoyed.
2. Our seats were at floor level, close to the stage, so I could see the first strings perfectly (I could even read the violinist's sheet music at this range!) but the rest of the orchestra was blocked from my vision. As much as I loved hearing the Strauss piece for the first time, I wish I could have seen the whole orchestra at once.
3. Near the end of the Strauss, an old woman a few seats over had fallen asleep and started snoring. Many of the people around us turned to her in irritation, and her ancient husband, sitting right next to her, did not seem to notice. When he realized people were staring, he nudged his wife awake, and she let out drawn-out "rudely-awakened-and-confused-grunting". I managed to supress laughter.


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

^Oh man, that last one would've been pretty embarrassing for him!

One time I saw a piano concerto and I was sitting on the far right side of the hall, so I couldn't see the piano keys or the pianists' hands at all, so that was not ideal.

But my worst experience was when I was 14 and going through puberty and I was having a bit of trouble keeping up with it. I went to see _Sleeping Beauty_ in SF with my mom, and it was a warm day and I was wearing a suit and when we got there I realized that my underarm area was not smelling so fresh. So I was sitting there in a tight seat, between my mom and an older lady on the left, trying to keep my arms squished against my body as tightly as I could, hoping that no one would notice or say anything. It was the most awkward 2+ hours of my life and I tried to be as immobile as possible the whole time. The quintessential awkward teenage phase experience. Luckily nothing like that EVER happened again.


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## Winterreisender (Jul 13, 2013)

I had a terrible experience once during Stenhammar's 2nd Symphony at Birmingham Symphony Hall. Midway through, a man near the front started grunting very loudly. At first I thought he was snoring, but then it became apparent that he was suffering a heart attack. The grunts continued and the paramedics rushed in to try to save him. All this time, the orchestra kept playing. At the end we saw the body being wheeled out. I assume the man died... If so, I can't help thinking that passing out during a Stenhammar piece is a pretty good way to go.


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

> What was your worst concert experience?


When it was supposed to be piano/flute/cello trio concert AND THE CELLIST DIDN'T COME and it was meant to be recorded BUT THE RECORDING CREW DIDN'T COME


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I went to a Mostly Mozart concert one summer in NYC back in the 1970's. The concert was interrupted with the announcement that President Nixon just resigned. It was hard to concentrate on the music after that.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

A few sorta happened at my school of music, more like awkward moments than bad experiences for me personally. One concert anyhow that I didn't enjoy was where Bartok and Beethoven were programmed on the same concert >_<. I enjoyed it from a musician's perspective, but not as a listener really. Again, I heard a piece I actually didn't enjoy from the upper level Wind ensemble before, and I thought it was too absurd that they decided to post Roadrunner cartoons overheard while one of the movements called "Roadrunner" was being performed (The Adams Chamber Symphony). But that's just musical.

Last year at one university concert I went to, right when it was done, this guy from a balcony started yelling at a guy on the floor where I had been sitting, and accusing of him being distracting because he had his laptop on almost the entire time. I guess the guy in the balcony had moved himself from him during intermission or something, but it was awkward anyhow because the guy on the floor was just saying "Thank you. Thank you." and never actually apologized.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

This may have been one of the worst experiences ever recorded though (for a whole audience but particularly for the culprit):

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/11/new-york-philharmonic-interrupted-by-chimes-mahler-never-intended/?_r=0


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## ahammel (Oct 10, 2012)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> This may have been one of the worst experiences ever recorded though (for a whole audience but particularly for the culprit):
> 
> http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/11/new-york-philharmonic-interrupted-by-chimes-mahler-never-intended/?_r=0


He brought it upon himself, really. Not because he forgot to turn off his phone, which could happen to anyone, but why on Earth would you not just silence it after it rang once instead of trying to bluff your way out of it?

What key is the iPhone marimba ringtone in, I wonder?


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Winterreisender said:


> I had a terrible experience once during Stenhammar's 2nd Symphony at Birmingham Symphony Hall. Midway through, a man near the front started grunting very loudly. At first I thought he was snoring, but then it became apparent that he was suffering a heart attack. The grunts continued and the paramedics rushed in to try to save him. All this time, the orchestra kept playing. At the end we saw the body being wheeled out. I assume the man died... If so, I can't help thinking that passing out during a Stenhammar piece is a pretty good way to go.


Ha! Someone had a heart attack right behind my history teacher from last year during the Ring Cycle a month ago!


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

I can't remember when last I have been to a concert - can't remotely afford it. If someone's cellphone rings in a concert I am attending, I'll make him eat the damn thing. 

In his book _Timequake_, Kurt Vonnegut relates a hilarious episode that happened during a concert he was attending. A few seats from him, two old ladies were discussing something while the music was playing. It was one of those pieces where the music slowly gets louder and louder, and then very suddenly stops. So the ladies were talking ever louder and louder. Suddenly the music stopped.

The one lady shrieked: "I fry mine in butter!!!!!!!!"

I had to stop reading at that point and first finish rolling around on the floor laughing.


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## drpraetorus (Aug 9, 2012)

It was at a concert given by Phillip Glass. Sometime in the 1970's as I recall. He was performing with his traveling group. Not really an orchestra but a group with a fair amount of electronics and keyboards. It was probably a very good concert but I had too leave early. Being as it was Phillip Glass, I had heard it all, multiple times, before the first half was over.


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## guy (Jan 4, 2014)

Well, I was performing this christmas piece at a nursing home (not much of a concert, more of a recital, very informal), and I was reaching the climax of the piece, and guess what? 

I FORGOT THE NEXT CHORD.

I was searching around for the right F major chord for the next 2-3 measures


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