“One of the most memorable ones we played was up in Wisconsin called Nudestock. It was a nudist colony. Foreigner was on the bill and Alan Parsons. But you expect up in Wisconsin there'd be all these beautiful blonde women. But the reality is never what you imagine. You get there and it looks like you walked into a Piggly Wiggly grocery store and suddenly everybody was naked. And you're standing there playing and there's some guy with a baseball hat and tennis shoes standing in front of you, wiggling around and playing air guitar with his pecker swirling around. It bothers you.” — Rich Williams, Kansas
Gack. From the Worst Gig... link here.
I played in a metal cover band in Sioux City, Ia. in the mid 80's - Paralyzed. We didn't have any really bad gigs, unless you want to count playing in empty bars in the middle of nowhere Iowa. Then again, nowhere Iowa was never much of a metal hotbed.
In any event, I remember coming back from a break at the Silver Dollar Salloon in Sioux City and a biker was talking to our drummer, making him nervous. When our drummer came up to the stage, he told us we needed to play Ted Nugent. But, we explained, the next song wasn't a Nugent tune, probably something on the order of an Iron Maiden or Black Sabbath tune. Then our drummer, 15 years old and panicked, told us "we fucking have to play Nugent" or the biker was going to "kick his ass." So we played Nugent.
Then there was the gig in Hartington Nebraska on Christmas Day 1984 where a guy in the audience pointed at our drummer, pointed at his own beer, then pointed back at our drummer, and then crushed the can on his own head. I don't think he liked us much.
Link via Newmark's Door.