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bar fights...

#21
After years of playing and seeing many fights I have taken to following this rule. When we arrive at a gig the first thing I do is locate the exits. I try to make sure my gear is near one without blocking access. People are CRAZY these days and you need to keep your eyes open and have a plan ready to get out. That Great White tragedy comes to mind. We have actually played a show where someone was murdered outside after leaving our show. Truly tragic! I worked the door for several clubs over the years so I have a sixth sense for who might be trouble so get lost in the music but keep one eye open for trouble.
 
#22
Earlier this year, while playing at a (sorry to stereotype) redneck bar, 3 black men come in and wander up to the bar. While ordering a drink, someone walks up to tell them they should probably leave for their own good. Which was fine until they started spewing "f$&# you's" all over the place on their way out, which could be heard above the roar of our pa. So as the band continues to play, we were watching a race riot out the window in the back lot. Nobody killed thankfully, but a few people mentioned that it was pretty funny watching the band play while all of us were standing, backs to the audience, watching out the windows. Even the drummer :-)
I'm really looking forward to playing there again this weekend :hiding:
 
#23
I played a gig once and a fight broke out right in front of the stage, it didn't last long because one guy sucker-punched the other into a mic stand which hit me in the face. They're alot heavier than the look :(
 
#24
redwood said:
Earlier this year, while playing at a (sorry to stereotype) redneck bar, 3 black men come in and wander up to the bar. While ordering a drink, someone walks up to tell them they should probably leave for their own good. Which was fine until they started spewing "f$&# you's" all over the place on their way out, which could be heard above the roar of our pa. So as the band continues to play, we were watching a race riot out the window in the back lot. Nobody killed thankfully, but a few people mentioned that it was pretty funny watching the band play while all of us were standing, backs to the audience, watching out the windows. Even the drummer :-)
I'm really looking forward to playing there again this weekend :hiding:
Click to expand...

If I was there I would have gotten in to help the black guys. I saw a situation similar to this, but the black guys didn't need help even though they were fighting 2 to 1, it was interesting.
 
#25
Hi! New here...

One of the outdoor venues I play a lot used to have a stock tank off to one side. They kept it full, but not necessarily *fresh*, ya know? Water got kinda nasty after a week or so.

When fights would break out, you could always count on a couple of big guys picking up the angry folks and...

Dumping 'em in the tank!

That cooled off the hotheads in a hurry, and provided entertainment for everyone, band included!

We kept on playin'...
 
#26
I've seen a few brawls over the years. Of two memorable fights, one was in a dive bar in the early 80s when I was first starting out - we called it the "Star Wars" bar to give you an idea of the setting. I think the fight started at the pool/billiards table. There were sticks and balls flying overhead - quite dangerous. I remember we were playing "Shooting Star" which is a rather mellow song. We stopped playing after one of the bartenders motioned for us to stop.

The other was at a bigger club in 1996 when the movie "Pulp Fiction" was popular. We used to open a set with that surf guitar tune "Miserlou" (by Dick Dale?) from the movie. It actually provided a fitting soundtrack for the fight. Bouncers were on top of this one and we kept right on playing.
 
#29
I'm Irish...play in bars.....Drink...FIGHTS!!!!!!!!! put down the instrument, pick up a mike stand (the metal ones are best) and start swingin..

to paraphrase the simpsons "sure I took many a lump but 'twas all in good fun" :D

Seriously though..in my younger years I played in some of the most lethal "dives" in the country and yeah MAJOR fights would break out....but they'd never come near the band.

I found out later that because a lot of these areas had really bad reputations it was very hard for them to get bands to play there, so, if a band actually showed up and did a gig they really really looked after them.

some of the best gigs I've ever done were in some of the worst sh*&^holes you could imagine...places where even the dogs walked around in pairs.
 
#30
Murf said:
some of the best gigs I've ever done were in some of the worst sh*&^holes you could imagine...places where even the dogs walked around in pairs.
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I second that, although I've only played two gigs in bad areas of town(the bar/lounge/pub was really nice however...couches galore, really chill atmosphere, fun to play in). The stage is right beside a set of windows, and in the beginning of one of our sets this dude gets shoved into the window, startling me(I kept playing), a fight breaks out and the cops were there in about 10 seconds(I believe they came out of the alley where I had seen them cuffing a couple of people 5 mins before we started). It was nuts.
 
#31
txbasschik said:
Hi! New here...

One of the outdoor venues I play a lot used to have a stock tank off to one side. They kept it full, but not necessarily *fresh*, ya know? Water got kinda nasty after a week or so.

When fights would break out, you could always count on a couple of big guys picking up the angry folks and...

Dumping 'em in the tank!

That cooled off the hotheads in a hurry, and provided entertainment for everyone, band included!

We kept on playin'...
Click to expand...

Welcome to TB! :)
 
#33
Well, the other night I'm takin pictures of my lead guitar player's other band, and our band's whole entorage was there.

Everyone's havin a good time until one of our roadies (6'4" 250ish jersey irish dude who likes to mix it up) was getting too friendly with some dude's lady. She pops him, and he pushes her away and her boyfriend jumps on our roadie and all hell broke loose.

Eventually his drunk cousin (also one of our roadies) got involved and my rhythm guiarist and I went outside to try to keep them from getting killed or arrested. Eventually the bouncers kicked everyone's ass enough to get control and somehow I avoided getting sucker punched but our guitar player did wind up in a headlock - which is kind of funny in retrospect - since we were out there trying to keep the peace.

Buncha dummies.... :help:
 
#34
in the early 70s i played a wedding where a huge fight broke out involving both families. the bride and groom were both hauled off as were a lot of the wedding party and guests.probably about 30 or 40 people going at it.total chaos w/ some folks hurt bad.
this one made the local tv news.
30+ years later people still remember this "event" as it happened at a respectable place.
i just sat up on stage and watched these idiots go at it for a long time. the cops tried to control the situation but everytime things calmed down another fight would start.

big fun !!!
 
#35
I used to bounce and play in a couple of bars in the local area . One night My band is playing in a bar I used to bounce in . The Bar tender who was an Ex girlfriend comes up to me during the second set and says to me " Can you go out back and rescue our bouncer ? " So I stop playing and go out back the "Bouncer In Question is lying face down and three Guys are perpetrating a New York Style Mugging on his A@# . I turned around and Went back in told the Bartender to call the cops and Started Playing again :help:
 
#36
I was playing what turned out to be my old bands final gig in a small bar. We were playing an original song that was a real slow ballad love song type.(our singer says it isnt a love song since he wrote it but he probably thought we would of taken the mikey)

One of the lines in the song was "Lay your head upon my shoulder" sung softly and sweet. suddenly this couple erupts into a row in the middle of the bar and could be heard over us. She nearly knocked the PA speaker over. I thought it was hilarious with this song being played while the couple rowed like crazy

Another time after a gig the band went to a night club to meet up with some chicks we met at the gig. Night club had finished by the time we arrived. We were waiting outside when suddenly this huge fight breaks out.There was about 20 or 30 people involved. Guys were running in swing punches before they even reached the brawl. No one was really injured though. There was six bouncers in the middle of it all and they somehow managed to break it up. I never saw anything like that before

but as murf suggested we certainly likes our fights here. ohhhh toora loora
 
#37
da_wabbit said:
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$$
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Wabbit, what bar was this at? I'm form Brampton, too. Wasn't the Skidmark (Landmark) was it?
 
#38
i have a couple of good ones. The instant we stopped playing for the night at a rather hot spot for brawls an all out brawl started. it was huge. It went into the parking lot. Anyway, right in the centre of it all was a guy with a colostamy bag... need i say more? The bag and its contents were everywhere to be seen after that.

Another good one, I forgot my bass one night when playing out of town, and had to play this piece of crap that wsa quite embarassing to look at. Our sax player was laughing and being a tool all night because of it, but when a brawl broke out and a table landed on his sax rendering it unplayable, he was laughing no longer, in fact, I was the one laughing.
 
#40
Some 40 year old spaced out crack head touched some 14 year old girl at our show last weekend and he got his ass kicked and dragged outside fast. It happened right before the break down in our last song, I could hear the guy's head hit the ground over our playing. I thought it was just a joke or people getting carried away dancing at first. Then I saw half the room leave. It was crazy but it was over too fast for us to stop playing.
 

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