It's 1980.... epic battle of the bands. We're in the final 3. Onstage, we hit the first chord, and lead singer/rhythm guitarist discovers he is hopelessly out of tune (gack!!!!). Grabs his spare Axe... and apparently he used the same tuner for that one too (choke!!!). So he just leaves the stage... and the remaining three of us start calling tunes until he comes back three songs into the set... too late. I thought he went out for a pack of smokes, and just kept walking. Got the whole thing on a rented VHS recorder.... makes me cringe/lol to this day. Epic fail. But a great lesson learned (I think).
Similar....
I was filling in as a vocalist only for a 'signed' original band. Their singer quit and they had a charity gig at a bike rally.
My friend was the drummer, so I said - sure, I'll learn 6-7 of your tunes and well do a quick set.
They were a mediocre band, but they were young and trendy...hence the record deal.
The guitar player....JMC800 stack on 11, and a novice player at best.
A couple of rehearsals and I'm good to go.
Gig day...
The guitar player brought a full length mirror...yes A MIRROR to the back of the stage, so he could make sure he looked good before he stepped on stage.
He said to me - "hey, I brought a mirror in case you want to do a quick check before we go on stage"
Me - "yeah guy, I'm all set"
First song...first note....his guitar is amazingly out of tune.
He plays a couple of chords, and then just unplugs and walks off the stage to tune.
We play the entire first song with NO GUITAR. He comes back on close to the end of the song....hits a chord. Nope, still out of tune. Walks off again.
We wait until he's finished tuning again to start the second song....and while he's tuning I try to make some meaningless chatter with a crowd that is looking at us like - WTF is this?
Could have been the most embarrassing gig of my life.
That band broke up not too long after.....god I wish I said no to that gig.