20+ Music lovers who saw terrible concerts: 'Lead singer had a meltdown and ran off stage'

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Sep 15, 2025 11:00 AM EDT

There's nothing like going to a great concert, but every now and then, you attend one that's a complete stinker. Sometimes, it's the venue's fault. Maybe it's 90 degrees out, and the venue has no AC. Or perhaps the speakers are a zillion years old, and they squawk out every song, making you wish you had earplugs. I've been to plenty of concerts where the microphones give out mid-show, and the sound tech has to come on stage while the lead singer makes small talk until it's all fixed again. 

However, sometimes the blame is easy to pin on the main act. Although this seems to be less and less common, there are some bands who party way too hard and way too often. A lot of the bands I see have members who are in their 30s or 40s, and have kids and side jobs, so they aren't partying 24/7. They show up ready to perform — they aren't like the rockstars of old who show up smashed and wobble around the stage. Some audiences are down to watch their favorite artists act a little goofy, but there's a limit to their patience. Once the artist forgets half the words to a song, can't stand up, or scraps the setlist and starts ad-libbing for 20 minutes, music lovers start rolling their eyes and wishing the show would end. 

Up next, read about these workers who got fired on the spot, like one worker who had a bad idea: "He suggested I should steal [snacks]." 

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  • 01
    Man in plaid shirt, woman in white shirt, and man in gray tee shirt clapping with hands over their heads at concert
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 02
    zack_bauer123 James Brown was the headliner one night at a festival in the early 2000s. He was wasted. Kept singing the same lines. over and over. He introduced the band at least 5 times.
    via u/zack_bauer123
  • 03
    He just laid down on the stage and didn't sing for a while. Terrible concert, funny memories.
    via u/zack_bauer123
  • 04
    Easy_Square_3717 Sir Mix A Lot. The opening act warned us it was going to be terrible, and they were right
    via u/Easy_Square_3717
  • 05
    LayneLowe I love to tell this one on Reddit: Went to see Lightning Hopkins out in the field on a flatbed trailer outside of Fort Worth in 1971. He was so drink he played three songs, and two of them were the same song.
    via u/LayneLowe
  • 06

    Sooo awkward

    CariocalnLA Oasis early 2000s. They clearly hated each other, player 6 songs, left the stage after 40min
    via u/CariocalnLA
  • 07
    Content_Mountai... Aging myself but sometime in the early 90s I was a huge Guns N' Roses fan and they were touring with Metallica. I ditched a prom to go in full "glam" with my date there instead and GNR was very late to set. When they came out, Axel threw a fit and it ended very quickly. Metallica on the other hand K LED it, probably to make
    via u/Content_Mountain5579
  • 08
    it up to fans. I had been indifferent to Metallica before but became a huge fan afterwards. I still can't believe the adult temper tantrum that thousands of fans witnessed that night by a musician they paid a lot of money for.
    via u/Content_Mountain5579
  • 09
    White confetti at concert with raised hands, purple lighting in background
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 10
    Flandersar The Brian Jonestown Massacre... holy sh what a ☐ epic disaster that was. It was like the worst train wreck you've never been able to look away from.
    via u/Flandersar
  • 11
    At one point his whole band left the stage and he started playing all their instruments and saying he could play better than any of them. Rolling a joint on stage, going up to the bar and getting liquor to make his own drink on stage too. It was 3 hours of WHAT THE F AM I DOING HERE... oh and it was a Monday night!
    via u/Flandersar
  • 12
    WitheringWonder Marylin Manson. Was so drugged out he was staggering all over the stage, butchering his own lyrics, and sometimes just sat on stage and made weird guttural noises into the mic.
    via u/WitheringWonder
  • 13
    court_n2000 Six Pence None The Richer in nineties in Austin- lead singer had a melt down and ran off stage during 'kiss me' ...
    via u/court_n2000
  • 14
    Supermac34 Went to a festival concert put on by our rock station in the late 90s. Most of the concert was great with many of the acts being awesome (Collective Soul and Lenny Kravitz were awesome). One of the acts that day was Smash Mouth. Holy crop they were terrible. I think the audience was generally in shock at how awful they sounded live vs their albums.
    via u/Supermac34
  • 15
    nutria_twiga Aerosmith in 2014ish. Steven Tyler kept forgetting the words and called our city like 5 different (and all wrong) names during the event.
    via u/nutria_twiga
  • 16
    Zoraji Joe Cocker. He was so dr_nk he could barely perform and threw up on stage in the middle of a song.
    via u/Zoraji
  • 17
    gogo7891011 Bob Dylan in 2014 :( I love him but unfortunately he sounded like Cookie Monster. Can't imagine it's improved
    via u/gogo7891011
  • 18
    louiemay99 Lauryn Hill the night of T 's first win. Miseducation was/is one of my top 5 favourite albums of all time, and the way she sang every song was so different from the album. It was awful. And she kept gesturing angrily to someone off stage...audio
    via u/louiemay99
  • 19
    tech? I don't know but it was super uncomfortable. Top that with the audience constantly checking their phones for results, it was a pretty night
    via u/louiemay99
  • 20
    SousVideAndSmoke I've worked in a concert venue for the past 20 ish years and have seen almost everyone at least once. Black eyed peas were atrocious, like the truck with their auto tune got lost on the way. Tone deaf
    via u/SousVideAndSmoke
  • 21
    rayword45 I went to see Soulja Boy a couple years back because it was 2 tickets for $15 each (so $30 total) and I expected it to be funny. Soulja himself was fine as were the second and third openers (some local no name rappers). The first opener however... I'm just gonna copy-paste what I wrote at the time, actually
    via u/rayword45
  • 22
    I've seen over 1200 artists live, and few stuck out as much as this for high levels of S K. I saw a BOGO deal for a Soulja Boy concert which made it 2 tickets for ~$30 and hopped on it. The Soulja Boy part was what you'd expect, the openers were not publicly listed before the show, so imagine my shock when the first performers I see
    via u/rayword45
  • 23
    on stage aren't even human, but instead two holograms of NFT apes. When they came on, they moved in the same looping GIF for the next 45ish minutes and bass- heavy club mixes of top 40 songs from this millennium blared. It was soulless, poorly mixed, poorly sequenced and just plain BAD. Once the torture was over and the
    via u/rayword45
  • 24
    GIFs were no longer looping, I actually started screaming "THANK GOD! That was horrible!" and variations repeatedly. Even a bad band on stage whom I think is truly awful has a certain charm to it almost always, like just seeing your fellow man get up on stage and blare out their soul through their
    via u/rayword45
  • 25
    songs is an admirable feat to me. There's a clear human element I can usually feel to a sincere performance even if the music isn't for me. So I've seen bands play that were probably less technically proficient than those stupid NFT monkeys but none filled me with such a sense of disdain and woe.
    via u/rayword45
  • 26
    Highfivebuddha 2009 American idol runner up tour at Wolf trap. I won tickets and thought "what the h_l?" I wonder if any of them remember me, I was the only one there.
    via u/Highfivebuddha
  • 27
    Large crowd of men cheering and smiling
    via Nicholas Green on Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 28
    Bamboozle_330 Rhianna, loved her up until the concert. Wish I never went! She lip synched the whole entire time. We were so upset we went to an entire pre-recorded concert.
    via u/Bamboozle_330
  • 29
    maceman10006 They weren't the headliner but 30 Seconds to Mars was awful to the point where they were nearly booed off the stage. They were the act leading up to Linkin Park and all I remember was their singer kept yapping on and on instead of playing a song.
    via u/maceman10006
  • 30
    At one point he wanted the crowd to cheer louder before they started their next song and he was either ignored or was booed. Not sure what happened if he was drink or on dr__s or something but this was the only bad performance I've been seen by a professional band.
    via u/maceman10006
  • 31
    obi-jawn-kenblomi I once saw a triple feature: Cheap Trick, Joan Jett, and Heart. By God Cheap Trick were bad and their audio mix was even worse. Combine that with 70 year old guys singing about banging young ladies, it just wasn't the vibe for the evening.
    via u/obi-jawn-kenblomi
  • 32
    Joan Jett was quite good and Heart was phenomenal. Heart ended up bringing out John Bonham's son Jason to play drums for the last half hour of their set so they could do Led Zeppelin covers. I don't think Robert Plant's vocal intensity has held up over the years, but Ann Wilson's voice is so good it was like or better than listening to Plant in his prime.
    via u/obi-jawn-kenblomi
  • 33
    Oldrazzledazzle someone got me lil xan tickets for my birthday and it was the worst thing ever
    via u/Oldrazzledazzle
  • 34
    sasksasquatch The worst act I've seen live is Buckcherry. Their radio length songs were what I enjoyed, but their live version of songs just ran on to the point of "this song should have ended 5 minutes ago.". Every other artist that I've seen live has been good to great.
    via u/sasksasquatc
  • 35
    shuasensei Honestly the worst show I ever saw was Sublime. It was their last show. The singer was an absolute high mess. He overdosed the following day or something.
    via u/shuasensei
  • 36
    dtrain85 Alien Ant Farm. They played Smooth Criminal about 4 times and the entire show was just awful
    via u/dtrain85
  • 37
    FunctionBuilt Modest mouse. They were wasted. Isaac Brock would flub the lyrics every other song and was basically screaming into the mic.
    via u/FunctionBuilt
  • 38
    LarcenyGames Mudvayve (opened for Rob Zombie & Ozzy). I swear all four members were playing four different songs. Nothing sounded together. Brutally bad.
    via u/LarcenyGames
  • 39
    HomeboyGR Oasis. Very early 2000s. Stood there and joylessly banged out their songs, barely spoke except to heckle the audience for being too excited (jumping, iirc...but maybe someone also tried to crowd surf?)..."It's a show, not a circus!" rock
    via u/HomeboyGR
  • 40
    Travis opened for them and came with 10x more energy. It was all downhill from there. Lots left during the encore, us included. We all left as Travis fans.
    via u/HomeboyGR
  • 41
    Redrum8608 I was at that Jane's Addiction show in Boston where dude got so drink he attempted to fight the band and they broke up. Perry Ferrell sounded like a the whole night and it was more unpleasant than literal noise shows I've gone too
    via u/Redrum8608
  • 42
    Steve_Brandon Metallica/Guns N' Roses (plus Faith No More) in Montreal's Olympic Stadium in August 1992, the concert where James Hetfield got burned by pyrotechnics and then Axl Rose had laryngitis and quit after just six songs, leading to a small riot. I was only 17 and had a long commute home so I left before things got too rowdy.
    via u/Steve_Brandon
  • 43
    Jay_Rebs Nelly. Almost two hours late. Came out for all of like 30 minutes once he DID show up. Barely really did his songs just did a lot of ad libbing over the backing track. There was also speculation after that it wasn't actually him up there.
    via u/Jay_Rebs
  • 44
    APrioriGoof Ryan Adams just a few months ago. The music was great but there was maybe an hour of that in a three hour show. Incredibly annoying guy, very obvious. why he got cancelled
    via u/APrioriGoof
  • 45
    koreamax I saw Deep Purple once and the singer didnt realize his mic was off for half the set
    via u/koreamax
  • 46
    meat_sandwich80 Cake. The first 2/3 of the show was weather delayed and they only had an hour left once the thunder stopped. not their fault obviously. But instead of playing that entire remaining
    via u/meat_sandwich80
  • 47
    hour, McCrea spent half the time doing some dumb bit about a bonzai tree with the audience. Like if this is part of your act normally, fine. But have just a tiny bit of situational awareness
    via u/meat_sandwich80

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