What was the worst run-in with the police that related to your music playing?

jet_king · #1 12-14-2010, 10:55 PM

i know this may seems lame but i wanna put the question out there

What was the worst run-in with the police that related to your music playing or when you were playing a show?

My neighbors literally like 10 min ago called about me being too loud, and i was curious to see if anybody has experienced anything like this as well and if to a higher degree.

RBrownBass · #2 12-14-2010, 11:00 PM

I had a Synchronicity tape get stuck in my car stereo once

5StringBlues · #3 12-14-2010, 11:03 PM

^ YES!

Snarf · #4 12-15-2010, 10:52 AM

Long story ahead.

I was in a jazz-funk/jam band in Boston for three years. We had a gig one fall night at a party on the roof of an apartment building downtown. We were a pretty loud band, so sound was echoing between buildings and making a ruckus.

Oh yeah, keep in mind most of the people at this party were gorgeous German and Russian women.

So we're playing, and someone yells "cops!" Our buddy who was tagging along tossed his bag of weed into the back of my rack bag. Just a little unnerving for me, to say the least.

The cops were pretty cool to us. We started packing up quickly. It was a difficult breakdown because we could only get amps and larger drums down through a window to the kitchen of the top apartment.

So once we had everything loaded into the cars, our friend Becky started yelling at the cops. She was a seriously diehard fan of ours, and she was actually super angry that the cops had stopped us from playing. Oh yeah, she was also incredibly drunk.

She was following the cops into the middle of the street and getting in their faces. After a couple minutes, they grabbed her, dragged her to the ground, and cuffed her. She was then taken downtown. During the car ride, according to her, they were swerving all over the place so as to send her bumping around in the back all the way to the station.

So then our guitar player went and bailed our friend out of jail. And that's my musically-related police story. Lesson: BPD don't take no ****.

jnuts1 · #5 12-15-2010, 10:54 AM

got shut down 10 minutes into our set at the chicago blues & bluegrass festival because it turned midnight. he literally jumped on stage & stopped us like we were robbing the place.

hoshbrown41 · #6 12-15-2010, 11:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jnuts1

got shut down 10 minutes into our set at the chicago blues & bluegrass festival because it turned midnight. he literally jumped on stage & stopped us like we were robbing the place.

what a nark

BigOldHarry · #7 12-15-2010, 11:14 AM

I'm 17 years old... Me and NoStatic (on guitar) are playing a house party in Del Cerro (a rich part of east county San Diego) that turns out to be for a 13 year old boy... And they have a keg... So after our first set, as we're standing around pointedly NOT flirting with the 13 year old girls who are getting drunk, the cops show up. We smartly start tearing down, seeing where this is all going when one of the kids hits a cop with a water balloon...

Ah, 1979 - where have you gone...

johnboy65 · #8 12-15-2010, 11:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Auriaprottu

I had a Synchronicity tape get stuck in my car stereo once

HAHAHA! That's funny!

johnboy65 · #9 12-15-2010, 11:21 AM

A buddy of mine (and fellow bass player) was detained in Alabama (two days maybe) for being black and without ID as a passenger in a van on the way home from a gig.

Hoover · #10 12-15-2010, 08:10 PM

I think the worst run-in I ever had was when I was 16 years old and we spent a summer rehearsing on the outdoor patio at our guitarist's dad's house, and the neighbors would call the cops every single day and the cops would come and ask us the name of the band and we'd tell them "Ragnarök" and they'd ask us how to spell that and we'd tell them "two dots over the o, Officer" ('cuz we didn't know what an umlaut was called at the time) and then this one time the neighbors called the cops and they came and they DIDN'T ASK US HOW TO SPELL THE BAND NAME! It was awful! That was definitely the worst run-in with the police that related to my music playing.

voodoobassist · #11 12-15-2010, 08:23 PM

1974...... Leaving from a gig in south Texas after a week long run. Driving down some God forsaken back Texas hiway at 3:00 in the morning, two vans full of gear. We get stopped by the cops, asked what we're doing, where we're going, etc etc. The cop then tells us to unload all the gear from both vans, wants to "check what we're carrying". Never did figure out if he was hoping for drugs, illegal aliens, or just felt like being a complete dillweed. I think it was probably the latter myself.

In case you've never experienced it, after playing a 4 hour gig, tearing down and loading out. It really sucks to have to unload and reload two vans full of gear on the side of the hiway while being stared at by a smirking Barney.

Deluge Of Sound · #12 12-16-2010, 01:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jet_king

i know this may seems lame but i wanna put the question out there

What was the worst run-in with the police that related to your music playing or when you were playing a show?

My neighbors literally like 10 min ago called about me being too loud, and i was curious to see if anybody has experienced anything like this as well and if to a higher degree.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Auriaprottu

I had a Synchronicity tape get stuck in my car stereo once

Sig'd!

jet_king · #13 12-16-2010, 11:18 PM

Brilliant!

Zoa · #14 12-16-2010, 11:58 PM

I think I can top this. . .for ridiculousless if not for severity. . .

Ten o'clock at night. Rural country crossroads. License check. Heading back home Sunday after an extremely involved weekend out of state.

I am a reenactor/historical interpreter, and my reenactment unit had been at a pretty big event that weekend (Saturday and Sunday). In addition, me and my friend had been booked to play that Saturday night. We were driving a van, and as you can imagine, we had a ton of stuff piled in it. My reenactment unit portrays soldiers, and in order to do this, we need weapons.
We were driving exhaustedly down the road, almost to my house, when we see the blue lights flashing. We look back at the contents of the car. *&%$. I stop, and am about to turn around, when my buddy goes "No! That is so sketchy, they'll think we're up to something and chase us." So we pull up to the license check. The officer walks up and looks in the window.

Picture this. An old, battered, rusty van. I'm in the driver's seat, wearing a black leather jacket, long hair, and bandanna. My buddy Alan is in the passenger seat. The heater doesn't work, so in addition to his hoodie, he is wearing a scarf around his neck and mouth. Sitting next to him is a .76 caliber musket. Draped over the seat is a belt, complete with sword and bayonet. There is a cat o'nine tails on the dash, and two dirks on the center console. In the back, there are two more rifles, a pitchfork, and a claymore. Sitting quite prominently in view are two large metal boxes marked "DANGER! EXPLOSIVES." All our music stuff is back there two, so there are all these contextually sketchy-looking instrument cases. For some reason, I also have my hockey gear in there, so there are a couple of duffel bags and two large hockey sticks leaning against a window.

As soon as he comes over, I'm like "Officer, I'm declaring that I have weapons in the car, please don't shoot me." This is probably nothing new for rural NC cops, so he takes it in stride. Once he gets to our car, though, he looks inside and does a double take, jumps back, calls for his buddy, pulls out his gun, and tells us to get out.

They search us, and we have to spend like an hour sitting on cold roadside while one of them interrogates us and the rest dig through the piles of archaic weaponry. I tell them that I'm not doing anything illegal, but they have to spend like an hour talking to the dispatcher trying to figure out what to do. Luckily, one of them lives nearby, and was able to confirm that he knew that someone with my last name lived where i said I did, and that he thought he had seen me before. So they finally clear us, but we had to drive to my house with one of them following to make sure we didn't do anything funny.

I'm sure they'll still telling stories about me.

onionpuzzle · #15 12-17-2010, 12:25 AM

awesome Zoa !!! simply awesome.

Back in ~1987, my friend the Guitarist and I were wasted drunk ~20 year olds actually driving around (yeah...stupid) and came up to a house where a drummer lived. (drummer was brother of bass-player Brian Wheat of Tesla ). Guitarist said "pull over, that mofo stole my Beatles albums" he gets out of my car and starts to slash the tires of the drummer's car, makes a rukus......semi-seedy part of town anyway, and cops get called.

Next thing I know we each are sitting in the backseat of seperate cop cars. They let us go, but made the Guitarist drive, since it seemed I was more wasted. I guess they couldn't prove it was him that slashed the tires.

Sidenote---Guitarist's heavy drinking and drug use ended his life in ~2005. I got married instead of persuing rock stardom like him, cleaned up my act and took the entire 90's off of music. Now I do jazz.

JohnMCA72 · #16 12-17-2010, 07:13 PM

Many years ago, 1st gig with a new band. We had huge PA, lights, etc. & had to rent a Ryder truck to haul it all. Mid-afternoon, we loaded up all our gear from the "band house" & were about to pull away. All of a sudden, what must have been half of the Anoka (MN) PD pulls up, all lit up & ready to get after it!

Turns out that some neighbor had called, suspecting that the house was being burgled by a bunch of 20-something long-hairs (us). Short explanation, show of IDs, & we were on our way.

pica · #17 12-17-2010, 07:33 PM

Couple years back I gone to see my buddy's show. He played bass and I hadn't started to play yet. After his first set, him and I, his girlfriend and his drummer went out to his van to smoke one. His gig was in a hotel bar. There were several fancy hotels in the area. So just happens a cop was on patrol in the hotel parking lots and saw us. The situation being what it was I thought he was pretty nice. He just confiscated what my buddy had left which wasn't much and took down our names. Not sure what he did with our names but I never heard anything else from it.

millsbass5 · #18 12-17-2010, 07:41 PM

Does the band running massive amounts of trains count???

MrFawkes1605 · #19 12-17-2010, 07:44 PM

[quote=Zoa;10141586]I think I can top this. . .for ridiculousless if not for severity. . .

Ten o'clock at night. Rural country crossroads. License check. Heading back home Sunday after an extremely involved weekend out of state.

I am a reenactor/historical interpreter, and my reenactment unit had been at a pretty big event that weekend (Saturday and Sunday). In addition, me and my friend had been booked to play that Saturday night. We were driving a van, and as you can imagine, we had a ton of stuff piled in it. My reenactment unit portrays soldiers, and in order to do this, we need weapons.
We were driving exhaustedly down the road, almost to my house, when we see the blue lights flashing. We look back at the contents of the car. *&%$. I stop, and am about to turn around, when my buddy goes "No! That is so sketchy, they'll think we're up to something and chase us." So we pull up to the license check. The officer walks up and looks in the window.

QUOTE]

Hahaha man Ive been there once... colonial era reenactor. Contents of the back of my car: Musket. Flintlock pistol. Scalping knife. Tomahawk. Plug-style bayonet. A **** ton of blackpowder and my open cartridge box, also filled with gun powder. Comin home from a gig, front light out. Cop pulls me over. You know how in some cars the center storage area flips up vertically to make room for a center seat? Well, I put my wallet in there, and stupidly put it up- my wallet fell on my floor in the back. So this cop comes up, asks for my license, and I tell him I gotta look for it. Long story short, I end up reaching back for my wallet, he (not liking my hand moving towards the weapons in my back seat) pulls his gun, and it was the most awkward time ive ever been pulled over for a broken headlight.

Mofo-Kang · #20 12-17-2010, 07:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by voodoobassist

1974...... Leaving from a gig in south Texas after a week long run. Driving down some God forsaken back Texas hiway at 3:00 in the morning, two vans full of gear. We get stopped by the cops, asked what we're doing, where we're going, etc etc. The cop then tells us to unload all the gear from both vans, wants to "check what we're carrying". Never did figure out if he was hoping for drugs, illegal aliens, or just felt like being a complete dillweed. I think it was probably the latter myself.

In case you've never experienced it, after playing a 4 hour gig, tearing down and loading out. It really sucks to have to unload and reload two vans full of gear on the side of the hiway while being stared at by a smirking Barney.

unless you gave them permission or they had probable cause, he had no right to do that--it's illegal as hell.