Obnoxious audience member tries to take the mic

behemecoytl · #1 10-17-2010, 12:37 AM

so we're finishing a slow song- and a quiet slow song too, and while we're still a few bars away from the end, this lady walks up to the band and starts yelling "Excuse ME! Excuse ME! Can you make an announcement?!" and proceeds to dictate the announcement... before we've finished the song. We finish, and she's going on with her Excuse Mes and demands that we make an announcement to her friends. she tries to grab the microphone, but our singer pulls it away... at this point, I'm pretty pissed off, so I tell her that she's being rude, and that it's not our job to make her announcements...

and she gets all bent out of shape and starts ranting and yelling and demanding that all her friends leave the bar immediately. she was so persistent about it that her friends did leave, albeit begrudgingly, and probably just to shut her up.

my question is- how much should a band accommodate an obnoxious audience member?

this was a paying gig at a local bar... so part of me feels like the band is kinda like the bar's employees for the night, and should try to make customers happy... on the other hand, if she was not overtly rude in her approach and waited until we finished the song, things might have been different. we probably would have just ignored her.

M0ses · #2 10-17-2010, 12:40 AM

F her. Dumba** drunk bi***.

puddin tame · #3 10-17-2010, 12:41 AM

it's not like she wanted to sing, but then again if she was trying to interrupt the song she can **** off

behndy · #4 10-17-2010, 12:42 AM

shouldn't the bar have done something?

she's kinda lucky she didn't get kicked in the teeth. that's how some bands roll.

pnut166 · #5 10-17-2010, 12:50 AM

[quote=behemecoytl;9855790]
my question is- how much should a band accommodate an obnoxious audience member?

QUOTE]

Answer: As much as their skull will accomodate a Jazz body

kcole4001 · #6 10-17-2010, 06:29 AM

Would she be allowed to start mixing drinks if she was insistent enough that she was a bartender?
I don't think so.
No difference.

RNV · #7 10-17-2010, 06:32 AM

I would've handed her a turned off mic to make her announcement and left it at that.

fleabee · #8 10-17-2010, 06:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RNV

I would've handed her a turned off mic to make her announcement and left it at that.

+1

THORRR · #9 10-17-2010, 06:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by behemecoytl

so we're finishing a slow song- and a quiet slow song too, and while we're still a few bars away from the end, this lady walks up to the band and starts yelling "Excuse ME! Excuse ME! Can you make an announcement?!" and proceeds to dictate the announcement... before we've finished the song. We finish, and she's going on with her Excuse Mes and demands that we make an announcement to her friends. she tries to grab the microphone, but our singer pulls it away... at this point, I'm pretty pissed off, so I tell her that she's being rude, and that it's not our job to make her announcements...

and she gets all bent out of shape and starts ranting and yelling and demanding that all her friends leave the bar immediately. she was so persistent about it that her friends did leave, albeit begrudgingly, and probably just to shut her up.

my question is- how much should a band accommodate an obnoxious audience member?

this was a paying gig at a local bar... so part of me feels like the band is kinda like the bar's employees for the night, and should try to make customers happy... on the other hand, if she was not overtly rude in her approach and waited until we finished the song, things might have been different. we probably would have just ignored her.

Sometimes, you're better off forgetting about "what's right" or "who's in the wrong" and doing what's BEST in the moment.

I always hated drunks on New Years Eve who used the mic stand for a subway pole to help them keep standing. One almost knocked my teeth out in the middle of a song by driving the mic into my face like a hammer when he did that.

That said, while she was obnoxious and rude and a jerk, I'd have made the announcement after first focusing the entire audience on her like a little kid, and follow up with an announcement that the next round of drinks are "ON HER".
This would've diffused the situation, given her the ego stroke she needed for the night, made you some fans, and got a laugh in the process. It's just making the best of an already bad situation that's all.

Like I said - it has nothing to do with "what's right". It's just being an entertainer. Non-confrontive when possible.

But that's just me.

somegeezer · #10 10-17-2010, 07:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by behndy

shouldn't the bar have done something?

she's kinda lucky she didn't get kicked in the teeth. that's how some bands roll.

+1 I'd be guilty of that if ever it happened.

You're right, you are the employees for the night, so should treat customers with respect. But you have to give respect to earn respect. The bar can kick a customer out at any time.

elzeder · #11 10-17-2010, 07:33 AM

These situations do kinda suck, and she seemed like a bossy one, but like said before it is nice to try and make the best out of a bad situation.

Just curious but what was the announcement???

Tampabass · #12 10-17-2010, 07:40 AM

WWPTD - What would Pete (Townshend) do?

PJSShearer · #13 10-17-2010, 09:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tampabass

WWPTD - What would Pete (Townshend) do?

In the new version of the Woodstock movie (with stuff added as compared to the original movie), I'm told he said:

"Get the ***k off my stage!".

projectMalamute · #14 10-17-2010, 09:34 AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4uahL_tQWc

Jim Nazium · #15 10-17-2010, 09:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by THORRR

... while she was obnoxious and rude and a jerk, I'd have made the announcement after first focusing the entire audience on her like a little kid, and follow up with an announcement that the next round of drinks are "ON HER".
This would've diffused the situation, given her the ego stroke she needed for the night, made you some fans, and got a laugh in the process. It's just making the best of an already bad situation that's all.

Like I said - it has nothing to do with "what's right". It's just being an entertainer. Non-confrontive when possible.

That's a good solution. I'm impressed.

behemecoytl · #16 10-17-2010, 09:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by elzeder

Just curious but what was the announcement???

something about her "BS Posse needs to meet somethingorother", but I wasn't really listening...

Rocker949 · #17 10-17-2010, 09:47 AM

Most of the time it is obviously not okay for someone to just jump up on stage and grab a mic. The one exception was once when someone jumped on stage to make an announcement about a medical emergency when my band was playing a 4th of July gig. In this case, I willingly offered my mic to her, since I kind of knew her and could tell something was definitely wrong.

behemecoytl · #18 10-17-2010, 09:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by THORRR

Sometimes, you're better off forgetting about "what's right" or "who's in the wrong" and doing what's BEST in the moment.

I always hated drunks on New Years Eve who used the mic stand for a subway pole to help them keep standing. One almost knocked my teeth out in the middle of a song by driving the mic into my face like a hammer when he did that.

That said, while she was obnoxious and rude and a jerk, I'd have made the announcement after first focusing the entire audience on her like a little kid, and follow up with an announcement that the next round of drinks are "ON HER".
This would've diffused the situation, given her the ego stroke she needed for the night, made you some fans, and got a laugh in the process. It's just making the best of an already bad situation that's all.

Like I said - it has nothing to do with "what's right". It's just being an entertainer. Non-confrontive when possible.

But that's just me.

you're right... this would have been the best way to handle it. I've seen similar situations where Brides with a bridal party storm into bar with the SuperEntitlement demands to announce her news and play her favorite song- and these times we've always tried to accommodate, but this is the first time i've seen someone stomp all over the ending of a song like that.

pjmuck · #19 10-17-2010, 09:56 AM

I have done hundreds of gigs at bars, weddings, etc. This constantly happens, and you really have to gauge what kind of individual you're dealing with quickly. Will they make their quick comment and go, or will they Bogart the mic and declare themselves part of the band the rest of the night? Bottom line: you're being paid to entertain your audience, and few people find it entertaining to listen to some drunk rant or butcher a good song at length. Problem is, you're often left dealing with the situation because the establishment's staff is either too busy to notice or their equally entertained by the awkward situation you've been put into, leaving you holding the bag. That's when you make a simple announcement that if unauthorized personnel do not leave the stage at once, you will not be able to continue playing. No reason you should have to deal with it, it's the club's responsibility (ESPECIALLY if you don't have insurance!). Most of the time, at least in bar gigs, I've allowed people to do their thing (i.e. play a cowbell, tamborine, sing backups, etc) for a song, and we even have a couple of songs specifically for that purpose. Most of the time they will leave the stage thereafter, but sometimes people are stubborn. That's when you consider pitting the crowd against your adversary. make a simple announcement over the mic: "Cheer if you'd like to hear us play some more music for the rest of the night? Okay, now cheer if you'd rather hear "Rob" scream into the mic about how f*ckin' awesome he is for the rest of the night instead?" Works every time. When you're doing a wedding, you have to be careful because it may just be someone close to the bride and groom (or even the married couple themselves) who's causing the problems, so you try to be accommodating. But I can tell you that drunks do not take no for an answer very well, and we actually had a wedding guest complain to the bride and groom about us because we wouldn't let her disrupt the event. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

I can also say with a certain degree of confidence (and complete lack of concern whether or not anyone thinks I'm being sexist or not) that women are 10 times worse when it comes to this sort of drunken behavior. They're constantly climbing up on stage to grab tamborines, try to make "shout outs" to their other drunken friends, or show you just how talented they are at not singing.

"Women: Can't live with 'em,...pass the beer nuts"
- Norm from Cheers

rolandm · #20 10-17-2010, 10:09 AM

We had a three-piece thing going and had a gig out of town and there was a lady there who was a truck driver, had been drinking since 2 in the afternoon and was bloody plowed. After an encounter where she told us were were all "Ahshum" and invited us back to her hotel room to party (she was 25 years past her prime), we were already pretty sick of her.

She started glomming on the guitar player, and then, to appease her, apparently he decided that if she's gonna sing backups, it was better if she sang to his mic than 2 inches from his nose. Off-key notes everywhere, singing the wrong words, it was a mess.

All in the spirit of non-confrontation and keeping a bar patron happy. While we laugh about it now, it sucked at the time, and before one of the bartenders told her to get off the stage, it was really starting to screw up the show. And it was also kinda gross, considering how many times she referred to me as "baby."

Yeah, I was sorely tempted to test a Jazz to her forehead in an "Ooops, did I do that?"

On another occasion, this one not as bad, this gal was up dancing. She was a big girl, and was wearing a blue satin prom-style dress. By the end of the first set, she got up to dance again, was dancing in front of the band, and all the sudden it smelled like some had sharted. Then she left, the smell went away, then she came back and it was Shart 2.0. With a slight tint of BO in there.

The entire night, whenever she came up on the dancefloor, it cleared. Apparently, for some folks, personal hygiene is challenging, and when you're drunk and sweaty and flailing around on a dancefloor, that fact becomes much more apparent.

My point? It's not just the crap that comes out of these folks' mouths sometimes, it's the crap that they couldn't get properly wiped off that can be a problem at gigs too.