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bar fights...

B

bladerunner

Aug 18, 2003
28
0
44
Århus, Denmark
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#1
I have never experienced a bar fight while performing...so this Friday the club is packed and rocking, and during our second set, a fight erupts right in front of the stage. I had the feeling that it would be appropriate to stop playing until things got sorted out, but everybody in the band continued to play. This was nothing serious (lasted only a few seconds), and the bouncers were right on the spot within seconds.

Still, it was a surrealistic experience just playing along while some dudes were tossing themselves around making the dancefloor really interesting...

This one girl told me after the show that the band looked really funny during that moment because nobody concentrated on the music and everybody were focusing on the fight...

This probably happens all the time...anyone got similar experience?
 
#2
Not while in a band, but I was working in a pub/club which was usually frequented by Sailors and we had a disco, which was run by the drummer of the band I was in at the time.

So anyway - this one night a "stag night" of guys came in the pub, liked it and started to act like they owned the place - then the Sailors turned up and all hell let loose - every single person in the pub was hitting somebody else - except me!!! ;)

It was all happening so quickly I felt like time had slowed down, like in the Matrix and I just had time to grab somebody's arm as they were throwing a chair into a huge antique mirror on the wall ...

Then it was all over as we heard the sirens and the Military Police turned up - suddenly the pub was empty and every square inch of the whole floor was covered with broken glass, watches, debris...

It had taken a few minutes to trash the pub and then silence - totally surreal experience!! :hmm:
 
#3
I've seen (and been in) quite a few bar fights.
But while in the band, when one would break out in the club, we would start playing "Lovin', Touchin, Squeezin'" by Journey (I know, old tune-maybe showing my age ;) ).
Our regulars knew this and the whole place would be singing along. Funny as hell actually! Especially the "Na Na Na" parts with the whole place swaying and singing along.
 
#4
We've had a few.

First thing we do (as directed by the bar owners) is quit playing. I then unplug my bass, put it on the stand and prepare to unleash the dogs of war on anyone who hits my PA system.

After they're done, we break into "Keep Your Hands To Yourself" or something else corny like that.

My guitarist is a big guy (weightlifter) but he stands there with his guitar on. You never know what can happen in a bar fight and I've told him every time that he needs to get the guitar off just in case he needs to defend himself.

I don't get involved in any of that crap unless I have to (someone I know is involved, or whatever). I stand back and let it run its course. If someone gets in my face, it's much easier to hose down their face with pepper spray and step over their writhing, screaming body while they are clutching at their face, and walk calmly away. Obviously, you don't really want to do that in an enclosed room, though.

There are no winners in a barfight.
 
#5
After 20+ years of performing live, here are the rules I live by...

1) Always stop playing! If someone is trying to call the police, the last thing you want to hear (I have experienced this) is the dispatcher couldn't hear the person calling over the music!

2) Know your Security/Bouncer's name and give him/her a shout-out when you are on stage mentioning they are working tonight...they appreciate it and also, if something happens, you can hollar for them over the PA :help:

3) Put my gear aside and watch like a hawk for possible threats to my life!!!
 
#6
An area I shouldn't be joking about, somebody I know was playing trumpet at a wedding party when a fight broke out and something happened which involved a pen, fractured skull, and other details I can't remember. I believe the band stopped playing in that instance.
 
#8
and when we pulled up we saw an amulance leaving and heard the Sheriff explaining that "if they come out here again the groom ((the instigator)) is going to jail." Well sure enough the groom got torqued and KO'd a guy, cops and amulance came, groom went to jail.

I also saw a guy I knew and didn't like, hit his wife (who was a decent person) in the bar we were playing. The Highway patrol came in, just as he popped her, the the clown one punched on of the patrolman. Dumb move. When they got done with him he was a bruised and bloody. She had, had enough and they got divorced.

Don't like fights,
Wesley R.
 
#9
wow...
i've seen so many fights in bars over the years ...
but only been involved physically in two or three .
nothing more than a few stitches ...



there have been some very bad ones too ...
the one i remember most took place at a place called 'The Trap' ,
a few years ago ... a nice little southside dive .

... two guys fighting over a woman in a bar is not unusual , but this
one escaladed into a parking lot brawl in which one of the guys
pulled a pistol and ended the other guy's life .... very bloody , very nasty .

cops , EMS , sherrifs deputies , and security guards were all involved .

and yes , we stopped playing ...
 
#10
we were playing a hallowe'en bash one night and our guitar player (quite the scrapper by the way) brought his girlfriend for the gig ..... she was dressed as a pirate with a plastic sword and eye patch and everything

i think we had just started the second set when some drunk buffoon decided he was gonna take her sword and start poking her with it in a joking manner ..... my guitar player didn't see it this way and proceeded to put down his guitar and pounce on the guy from the stage ..... he beat the livin' crap outta the guy before the bouncers got to him

the other guy got tossed out, gf got her sword back and we continued on with the gig ..... our guitar player played REALLY agressively for the rest of the gig ..... it kicked a$$
 
#11
Played with a former band at a bar up in Idaho Springs, Colorado once and a doozy broke out between sets (fortunately).

The place was pretty packed and this particular joint was a local, roughneck kind of bar. Two guys got into it, one of them took a swing and the rest of the bar joined in.

Soon, it was as if an amoebic mass of people had formed and punches were being thrown, tables getting tossed, etc. Everybody joined in, save for one hapless soul who was too late to get in on it , but decided to stand outside of the pile while literally poking randomly at the pile with his pool cue, wearing a goofy grin the whole time.

It was a stupid fight, started over a stupid issue, involving truly stupid people. But it was jilarious, nonetheless.
 
#17
I dunno about the rest of you, but it seems that bar fights seem to occur during slow slongs. Don't fully understand why, maybe it's because a good slow tune can get the emotions stirring. Anyway, had been involved in a few.

One memorable one was at the Broadway Grill (Planet B might know this place). It was during a slow R&B tune, and all of a sudden two dudes just broke into a fight. A bouncer jumped in right away. We kept on playing, and to see some dudes fighting while a smooth Curtis Mayfield like tune was being played was pretty ironic.

The other is at Fast Eddie's in Fairfax. Something with pool halls and fights...sore losers. Anyway, another slow tune, this time a Blues. A fight erupts in the back pool hall, and it works it's way to the front room. Bouncers and fighters embroiled and taking out things in it's path. Women were hiding under tables and bars, and we stopped playing. It was like the Tasmanian Devil - a whirlwind moving from the back to the front creating a swath of destruction that ended up outside. Cops came quick on this one.

A couple more at the Sunset Grille, but it's seems so fitting that it doesn't faze me when it happens there. I dunno why. Also, it happened during a slow song. Another interesting tidbit, is that the fights there happen in the back room where the pool table is, not in the front where the band is.

Straplocks are good for getting your bass off and out of the way of flying objects.
 
#20
this past halloween we let a few friends sit in(they were at the pub that night)...the guest guitar player(who I've known for 25 yrs.) starts a song and all is going well until another friend(who was very drunk)comes up and starts singing,but too early.the git player tries to get his attention(un-succesfully)by yelling to tell him to wait a few more bars before singing. so git player goes to other side of stage to give a nudge to get his attention..well drunken singer sees this as an act of aggresion and sucker-punches and tackles git player while playing the song...well the most god-awful noise erupts from the git amp.bodies,tables,broken glass everywhere..what a night :rollno: we did stop playin...for the rest of the night. I was really pissed because they are friends of mine (they don't know each other).the next day I get phone calls from both parties wondering ***..I proceed to tell guest singer that he acted like a drunken ass and ruined MY gig and MY night and I will NEVER let someone come up and sit in ever again (guest git player was totally innocent and I will not hold it against him..I apoligized to him)..the worst part is the guest singer is a git player that I'm in a second band with,and he absolutely hates it when some drunken ass asks to sit in on guitar or wants to sing a song or comes up and grabs a mic and starts singing at one of our gigs(he needs to practice what he preaches)..on a good note the PRS guitar came out un-scaved,we still got paid in full and I was home by 2a.m...BTW the song was "gimme three steps"
 

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