Five Musicians Who Made The Best Out Of A Bad Situation

Creative types are often able to think on their feet pretty well (just search “heckler smackdown” on YouTube), so when things go sideways for musicians – as they usually do – the results can be interesting.

Sometimes they’ll make a bad situation worse, like Beyonce and Axl Rose requesting the internet remove certain images, but a lot of the time the outcomes end up not only making the bad situation better, but more beneficial than the original plan.

Flights being cancelled, power outages, the unforgiving world wide web and rude punters are all uncontrollable elements that musicians deal with on a daily basis, and here are some of the best comebacks.

Dillinger Escape Plan

With Dillinger Escape Plan doing one last lap around the globe before calling it quits, singer Greg Puciato missing his flight to the GWAR-B-Q over the weekend could have spent eternal heartbreak for punters.

Instead, they employed the vocal talents of a random fan from the crowd and local band Dismantle The Architect’s frontman after saxophone player Bruce Lamont joined the band for a couple of songs. If you thought Dillinger Escape Plan songs were chaotic enough already, just imagine a saxophone thrown into the mix.

Ur Boy Bangs

There’s not much you can do when talk show super-celebrity Jimmy Fallon makes fun of you on The Tonight Show. Well, when it happened to Melbourne rapper Ur Boy Bangs he penned a rebuttal that not only got him a lot of attention, but the respect of Fallon himself.

Lady Gaga

Anyone who has seen pop superstar Lady Gaga in action knows just how elaborate her stage production is, but it turns out the singer doesn’t really need all those bells and whistles to hold a room’s attention. Back in 2008 before she hit super stardom, the Just Dance hit maker fell victim to a power outage at House Of Blues in New Orleans. Rather than stop the show until it was fixed, she kept on singing with epic crowd participation.

Time For Three

Touring musicians are often at the mercy of airlines – especially those who frequently cross oceans – so it feels like little can be done when they disregard artists, trash gear or worse. US classical three-piece Time For Three said no more when they were told their violins were not allowed onboard their US Airways flight and unleashed an impromptu protest on the tarmac.

Don’t underestimate the power of classically trained musicians.

Good Boy

In another tail of transport gone awry, Brisbane’s Good Boy broke down about 50kms outside of Coffs Harbour earlier this week.

So, instead of whining about the situation or tearing each other apart (emotions are elevated in the van), they used the opportunity to live stream on Facebook from “the middle of fucking nowhere".