I think it really depends on the band.

good band + intrument destruction = kinda stupid
bad band + instrument destruction = a blessing

heads-up everybody. john hiatt wrote a sweet-ass song about smashing instruments. he's totally against breaking guitars, people. he's just a regular guy, too, just like you and me.

BadComrade wrote:If I was in a band that planned on wasting instruments, I'd switch to a "pawn shop guitar" for the last song, and then give it to someone in the crowd, hoping that they'd get off their ass and start a band that sounds nothing like my own.

Should you ever run for mayor, young fellow, my vote is yours.

click-my-heels-midair wrote:heads-up everybody. john hiatt wrote a sweet-ass song about smashing instruments. he's totally against breaking guitars, people. he's just a regular guy, too, just like you and me.

"it breaks my heart to see those stars smashing a perfectly good guitar"

My friend Chris, who is a jobbing musician, was asked to play drums at some ad-hoc event at a hotel somewhere just out of town. When he turned up with his kit, the manager of the hotel showed him their own set of electronic drums and asked if he wouldn’t mind playing with those instead. When the band played, they had dry ice, which disguised from the audience and from Chris himself the fact that the usual rules don’t apply; he couldn’t hear himself, so of course, the thing to do with drums if they’re too quiet is to hit them harder. The manager’s face must have been something to see when Chris showed him the battered and thoroughly fucked electronic drums once the dry ice cleared.

DrAwkward wrote:
If there's a "yes" to all three, i'll bash a cymbal stand into submission. It's fun. I threw one into a river once post-show.

this still makes me Chuckle, I wish we had it on Video...

resurrecting an old thread: Not crap with lotsa waffles. Really a case by case thing.

One time we played a show in an apartment and the guitar player threw his guitar out of the open window right next to him when the set was over (1 story drop). surprisingly I was able to fix this for the show the next day. I thought this was cool.

2 Nights a go we gave a guitar to a particularly rambunctious kid (just turned 17 2 days before show), knowing full well what would happen after a pretty wild show (we played with Monotonix, who set some parts of their drumkit on fire, we brought firecrackers and stuffed them under guitar strings, etc).

So during the last song when all hell is breaking loose, I drag out the guitar and amp from the side of the stage and hand the kid the guitar, and whaddaya know, the kid does a full, overhead, London Calling guitar smash right accross the top of my foot. This guitar was a t-27 (i know, is good guitar, whatever) so it was fucking heavy too. Didn't hurt at first, but then my foot swelled up, couldn't walk on it most of the next day, but the swelling is down now, so i think it isn' t broken. I think this was also cool.

That night my modular synth was giving me attitude, so I lit a pack of firecrackers on top of it and kicked it over. I don't feel too bad about doing things like this and pulling the keys off of my keyboard and dumping some beers into it, because I'm fairly confident that I can fix this stuff, and most of the time I really don't know I'm doing it until after the show. A lot of times I wish I had a big Looney Tunes style plunger that would destroy the whole stage. This may be an indicaition that the band is not working out.

Good? Bad? I don't know, it was pretty funny to see that kid and his friend s totally dismantle a guitar. Better than watching the band on stage do it.

Plus he actually called it a "london calling" which I think is hilarious.

And, two quotes from tv that are funny and appropos to these sorts of situations: "We can't have nice things" (mst3k). and "Now it's ours forever!" (married w/ children).

crap.

crap, mostly. I love my instrument too much to smash it up.

I would never intentionally break something I own. I guess I don't mind seeing other people do; it doesn't give me the jollies or anything.

I do though really enjoy a failed guitar smash where the rambunctious musician, swinging the guitar by the strap, just hits the floor with the side of the instrument causing a mere compression or scratch. It is done with such intent of absolute destruction that he realizes to make another attempt would be dishonest and foray into theatrics instead of the pure visceral emoting he had originally intended. Extra points if he just picks it up and walks off stage with his head down.

Jon