plain out weirest thing you ever saw on the road touring...

[powderfinger]

Ok, this thread is about weird things you have seen on the road while touring or travelling to a gig. In this partiuclar thread though, I don't want to share stories from the actual gig itself (we have plenty of those threads already). I want to share road stories that might have taken place at a rest stop, in the van, the hotel, a gas station, a fast food joint...

Here's a few just plain, weird stories... lets see who has the flat out weirdest, creepy story..


Late 90s. Was travelling through Atlanta GA on the way to a gig. We stopped at a Mc Donalds outside of the city to grab a bite to eat. There was a nice looking, well dressed couple in front of us in line. The guy whispered to the woman, "I have to take a #2". The woman looked at him and said, "maybe you should go to the restroom...". Pause. He then looked at her and grinned, "it's too late....". She then, I kid you not, lightly tapped him on the rear, and whispered back, "mmm... nice". We all about died laughing, but decided to go through the drive thru instead.

[CauliColin]

Subscribed, this should be good!

[semiprohooker]

Just two days ago my buddy decided to catch an armadillo that was roaming through a back yard of one of our friends. He dragged him over and says, "check this out guys." One of the girls tells him, "you know those carry leprosy right?" He proceeded to scream like a girl as he flung him by the tail towards the woods. He ran inside and washed his hands for about 20 minutes.

[Stiggs]

We were on the road in the mid 80's. We were in our late teens and early 20's punk rockers from NYC in Amarillo Tx, way before punk rock was mall chic. We were in a parking lot of a convenience store and our singer was rummaging through his bag out in the open and pulled a clear bottle of liquid(label fell off) out of his bag as a cop rolled in. We'll the cop saw it and stopped real abruptly got out, grabs our singer throws him against the van cuffs him and and calls for back up. We are all standing around shocked..***. They start questioning him about the bottle and he's practically crying say "Yo man that my Witch Hazel for my zits." The police were threatening us that it may be moonshine and that they may have to hold us until it's tested. Either way the bottle gave the probable cause to search the van in which they found a sesame seed and try to say it was a "reefer seed"...more testing. BTW....as this is all happening we were all lined up against the building. In the end I guess they just were hoping to find something and scare the **** out of us. All over some Witch Hazel astringent.

[powderfinger]

Originally Posted by Stiggs

We were on the road in the mid 80's. We were in our late teens and early 20's punk rockers from NYC in Amarillo Tx, way before punk rock was mall chic. We were in a parking lot of a convenience store and our singer was rummaging through his bag out in the open and pulled a clear bottle of liquid(label fell off) out of his bag as a cop rolled in. We'll the cop saw it and stopped real abruptly got out, grabs our singer throws him against the van cuffs him and and calls for back up. We are all standing around shocked..***. They start questioning him about the bottle and he's practically crying say "Yo man that my Witch Hazel for my zits." The police were threatening us that it may be moonshine and that they may have to hold us until it's tested. Either way the bottle gave the probable cause to search the van in which they found a sesame seed and try to say it was a "reefer seed"...more testing. BTW....as this is all happening we were all lined up against the building. In the end I guess they just were hoping to find something and scare the **** out of us. All over some Witch Hazel astringent.

For some reasons I am picturing the movie Sid and Nancy, then the Sex Pistols go down to Texas and get jacked up by those cowboys.

[Fishheadjoe]

We were playing a club that doubled as a strip joint during the day. We had made "friends" with some of the dancers, to help pass the boring day time hours when one of them asked us, to attend her show as there were no patrons in the bar. We agreed and assumed positions in the front row.
She began her routine very much like most do, clean the pole etc... it wasn't until she got on her back, lifted her legs straight into the air and spred them like a V, that we all noticed that she had a string hanging out of her, uhm, ba, doop do.
Needless to say we LOL and she was pretty embarassed!
Fishheadjoe

[waynobass]

Originally Posted by semiprohooker

Just two days ago my buddy decided to catch an armadillo that was roaming through a back yard of one of our friends. He dragged him over and says, "check this out guys." One of the girls tells him, "you know those carry leprosy right?" He proceeded to scream like a girl as he flung him by the tail towards the woods. He ran inside and washed his hands for about 20 minutes.

Ha ha, animal cruelty is hilarious!

[powderfinger]

We were at a hotel in 1999. And they were having a "Swingers Convention" there that weekend. Late that night on our floor, as we were going into our room, we saw a buttnaked gentleman walking down the hall, and proceeding to knock on a door. Not ours though.

[Jim Nazium]

Driving home through Hollywood around 2:00 am one night, I passed a hair salon. It was the only shop on the block (or several blocks) that had the lights on. I looked through the window, and there was someone sitting in the chair getting their hair done.

[bassman1185]

When my last band was doing our final "tour," we had a show in St. Joseph, Missouri, which is where our drummer's grandparents lived. Their 60th anniversary was that weekend, so we were invited to stay at their place (outside of town) and attend the celebrations. By the time we got to their house, we were informed that other relatives had already arrived, and that we would need to camp out. It was pretty late, and the mosquitoes weren't too thick yet, so we just decided to roll the tent out and sleep on it to keep our sleeping bags out of the dirt.

Fast foward to about 4:30am. I am awakened by the sound of the porch door opening. A second later, there was a shotgun blast. The door closed.

The next morning, our drummer's grandpa came over and said something along the lines of "sorry about the shotgun last night. We have a nasty racoon problem out here."

[4stringsolution]

I was on tour back in either 2000 or 2001 and we had stopped in the mid-west at one of the massive truck stops that line I-80. I saw a woman standing outside of the diner talking to her pocketbook. Well, I am a sucker for weirdness, and after a moment she caught me watching her. "Want to see?" she asked with an impish little smile. I took the bait and peered into the depths of her enormous purse. Staring up at me was a giant, ugly possum! Before I could really think of a reply she declared "he likes you!' and hooked her purse around my arm. Trotting into the adjacent store she instructed me to take care of her friend until she returned, leaving me holding the bag! If I had to hear one more joke about that bag matching my outfit from the drummer.....

[jordy_on_bass]

Try driving the band's tour bus whilst the rest of the band, the manager and the tech are all off their head's on acid...and it was a 7 hour drive. I may not have seen anything weird whilst on the bus, but it seemed they sure as hell did. Apparently at one point, I had to go faster as both guitarist's believed the horizon was falling apart and cracking and we were going to be sucked into oblivion.

I don't think my head stopped hurting until we got to our location and I relaxed with a beer...and some peace and quiet from the wild animals...

[mongo2]

One the way to a gig one night I saw a guy dealing drugs...in front of the local police station.

On the way back from a gig in Asbury Park, NJ I saw the gun of some guy who was trying to carjack me while I sat at a red light...very shortly after I saw three red lights pass over head after I stepped on the gas and got the hell out of Dodge.

[hotrodjohn]

Um, that would be the dead guy in a car in the parking lot of the club we were setting up to play at, who shot himself in the head after a police chase...

[Stingray89]

We were on 95 heading towards South Carolina and decided to get something to eat. We go to some hole in the wall Chinese place and as I'm outside smoking and I see a cat come running from behind the alley and some Chinese guy come running after it. I don't know if it was on the menu for the night or was his actual cat, but I lost my appetite for Chinese food after that.

[John Wentzien]

Guy at the bar...f'd up real bad....Bartender gets sick of his s@@t and whacks him over the head with a ball-bat..DOA..You could smell the blood!....Kept rockin'!!!! I still have nightmares!

[rodl2005]

LAst year, We were playing a Private gig- a 40th B'day party. We turn up at the venue during the afternoon to set up for that night. 1/2 way into set up there's a "THUD" from the public bar area-it was at a 'Motor Yacht Club' - & then some commotion, then a few minutes later an Ambulance arrived...

Apparently a guy sitting at the bar just keeled over & died!!

Sure enough a few min's later the paramedics wheel out the guerney with a covered body!

Thats ONE... I got a few more from 30+ yrs of gigging!

[JimB52]

Originally Posted by powderfinger

We were at a hotel in 1999. And they were having a "Swingers Convention" there that weekend. Late that night on our floor, as we were going into our room, we saw a buttnaked gentleman walking down the hall, and proceeding to knock on a door. Not ours though.

Darn?

[mongo2]

Originally Posted by rodl2005

Apparently a guy sitting at the bar just keeled over & died!!

OMG, that happened at a factory where I used to work, the woman at the assembly station next to mine just keeled over dead.

[Ubersheist]

Originally Posted by jordy_on_bass

horizon was falling apart and cracking and we were going to be sucked into oblivion

I HATE when that happens. It does about two times a month.

Great story. Certainly weird!