A joke! And don’t stop me if you’ve heard this one before.
The Boston Symphony was performing Beethoven’s Ninth. In the piece, there’s about a 20 min long passage during which the double basses have nothing to do. Rather than sit around the whole time looking stupid, some bassists decided to sneak offstage and go to the tavern next door for a quick drink. After slamming several beers in quick succession (as double bassists are prone to do), one of them looked at his watch, “Hey! We need to get back!”
“No need to panic,” said a fellow bassist.