Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready falls off stage mid-solo – and keeps playing anyway

Along with the PA dying mid-show, or snapping a string in the middle of a big guitar solo, falling off the stage probably ranks highly in a guitarist’s list of nightmare scenarios.

Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened to Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready during the band’s set at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver on 4 May.

• READ MORE: Ozzy Osbourne names the “best f**king guitar player” he’s ever played with

All was going so well during the rock giants’ hit-packed set – which included classics like Alive and Yellow Ledbetter, and a bunch of tracks from new album Dark Matter – until they played the final song on the pre-encore part of the night, Porch.

And then disaster struck as he played the song’s solo, when McCready approached the edge of the stage to interact with front-row fans, lost his footing and took a tumble to the ground below.

Most impressively, though, to anyone in the nosebleed seats, they would have been none the wiser if looking away briefly, as McCready managed to continue holding a hang note as a stagehand nearby helped him back to his feet. He then proceeded to finish the solo as if nothing had happened.

Watch McCready’s professionalism in fan-filmed footage of the incident below:

As shown, even the pros at the top of their game – and a meticulously planned stage show – aren’t immune to onstage mishaps.

In July last year, for example, Metallica’s Kirk Hammett suffered a leg injury while playing Master of Puppets to thousands of fans in Gothenburg, Sweden. Like Mike McCready, though, he managed to shake it off while barely missing a beat.