Musicians overexerting or endangering themselves, on video, for our enjoyment
 

I want to see videos of musicians - of any kind - really busting their guts to give incredible performances or an incredible show. Doesn't matter what style of music but they should be almost breaking their heads with concentration and effort - as if their lives depend on it, except they don't of course, they just love their music so much. They should be performances that, if you were there, you would never forget as long as you lived.

Examples: Daniel Lessner playing Wagner's Tannhäuser Overture on piano:



and Herbert von Karajan conducting Beethoven's 7th Symphony:



and Eddie Halliwell perhaps not concentrating (or even thinking) very hard but almost breaking (his head would have broken had that crowd parted) himself with a risky dive mid-mix:

haliwell is a known showboater. Almost to the point of being annoying. he. does. that. EVERY. SHOW.

I want to catch him with my fist one of these days. (not really, but you know, at least just roll my eyes really hard) ;p

Mike Patton doing a flip and landing flat on his back during a song.

YouTube - Faith No More "What a Day" live

John Coltrane doing what he does...trying to blow his sax apart at the seams. The force with which he attacks his instrument has always astounded me. Enjoy.



Best I could find, I've heard him extend himself well beyond this in live recordings.

My all time favorite comes immediately to mind; Daphnis et Chloe, the dance finale. I'm convinced that Maurice Ravel had his heart broken by a clarinet player because only that kind of treatment could warrant the part he wrote for clarinet (and flute and a few ither woodwinds) in the finale movement from his score to Daphnis et Chloe.
Things really his stride for the poor bastard at around four minutes in. If you look carefully, you can see his instrument burst into flames as if reentering the atmosphere at mach 12. The result is one of the most dramatic and emotional moments in all of music, imho.

The most difficult piece I ever attempted (that wasn't basically atonal) was Liszt’s Transcendental Etude No.4. I discovered quickly that this piece is outside of my capability completely. Here's piano superhero Boris Berezovsky attempting the piece:
The piece is so difficult that, upon performing the piece in public, inevitably at least one virgin conception occurs.

i've seen Eddie Vedder do some crazy dives.........he's fucking nuts.

Tom Waits is awesome.

No video, but a story.

The pit orchestras for my high school musicals were mostly students, but we had a couple of ringers as well. The lead trumpeter was a friend of our director. He used to play for the Buddy Rich band. Buddy required them to play so hard that this guy got a hernia in the middle of a performance; that was the end of his professional career.