In 1987 I played a gig in a VFW hall in south Chicago. We showed up early, set up, performed a sound-check (11 band-members, a lot of sound-check) and I was really pleased with my NEW 36-channel board, amps, effects, and speakers. I had recently purchased a complete 1800-watt P.A. system and I was looking forward to hearing it for the first time.
The kitchen was opened at about 7:00 and no one really thought about it much until we began to play, and the lead singer and I stepped up to the mike.
We did our intro riff and stepped up to "harmonize" when we were both surprised to be getting shocked by the microphones.
Our guitar amplifiers began to smoke and make primal noises and the P.A. system literally caught on fire.
All of the equipment was completely ruined. Apparently when the kitchen manager hired his cousin to install the new fryer in the kitchen he wired the thing up wrong and sent 1/2 of the two-phase 220 through the outlets on the stage.
After the smoke cleared (literally) we all were able to recoup our losses and I invested in an outlet checker (if I remember correctly, $2.99, at the time) to prevent another incident. The lead singer and I had 2nd and 3rd degree burns on our lips & fingers. Mine from the strings & hisfrom touching the mike stand.
A NIGHT TO REMEMBER!