• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Drunk guy didn't like my playing.

bassplayer1494

bassplayer1494

Jan 23, 2009
558
267
Myrtle Beach, SC
#1
Hey everyone, wanted to share a rather bizarre story that happened to me last week at a gig.

We were going through the third and final set at a bar/restaurant, business as usual. IIRC, it was the first night of 4 consecutive shows.

As were rapping up a song, the crowd is cheering, people are enjoying themselves, dancing, etc.
This drunk guy gets up out of his seat at the table next to the stage, and this is where the fun begins.

Drunky: "Hey! Turn down your f****** bass! You suck!"
Me: *Suprised pikachu face* "Oh thank you so much man! I appreciate your support!"
Drunky: "A Monkey with a guitar could f****** play better than you!"
Me: *Nods and laughs* "I really appreciate the support! Have a good night!"

Dude storms out of the backdoor and disappears into the night. BL overheard some of this, and during the next song proceeds to walk off stage, while playing, and look around for the guy. Couldn't find him

BL was like "man I was about to find that MFer and beat his ass" which I guess made me feel better, but you know if push came to shove, I did have the high ground on Mr. Drunky...

BL is the kind of guy who would throw down for his friends/bandmates in a heartbeat. We had a good laugh about it, but we were still confused about why that dude was so irate.

Turns out though, the drunk guy was with another drunk guy who kept bugging the drummer in between sets to let him play a few songs on drums, was rude to the staff, etc. So I am assuming that the dude who lashed out at me was maybe a musician who wanted to get on stage and play bass in his intoxicated state? Who knows...

The whole thing became an inside joke the rest of the week/weekend, and I had a great time playing.

Anyone got any funny/crazy drunk patron stories?
 
  • Like
Reactions: javi_bassist, kesslari, Jimmy4string and 28 others
#5
Best I can do is a story from the 90s. I was in a glam band, we were playing a gig in Shoreline, Washington, north of Seattle. Little dive bar kind of place, as usual. I don't even remember what the name of it was, I just remember it being on Aurora Avenue.
Anyways, drunk guy in the audience found out that our singer had slept with his wife, so he decided to pick a fight as soon as our set was over. I don't know how it started, but when I looked over I saw drunk guy standing at the end of a very long table, our singer at a dead run across the top of the table, launches off the table in a full on Jacky Chan flying karate kick pose, foot heading right at drunk guy's face, when out of nowhere our drummer literally snatches our singer out of mid-air and knocks him to the ground.
My guitarist and I looked at our drummer and at the same time we both yelled "WHO'S SIDE ARE YOU ON?!?!?" :roflmao: :laugh: :roflmao:
We left in a pretty big hurry, never got paid, and were told never come back. :woot:
 
  • Like
Reactions: Nunovsky, bassplayer1494, tblurker and 21 others
#7
I have had run-ins with drunks at bars many times (I've been going to bars since I was 16, now 65), but I've never been singled out due to my playing..
1 Drunks have accused me of hitting on another's girlfriend/wife (i've never had a reason to hit on someone else's, mine are just fine)
2 About a year ago a drunk accused me of "perving" at a nightclub - I go to this nightclub every time I'm in that city because they have live music 7 nights a week, and I support them. The staff and many of the patrons know me, but it is a pretty young crowd.

Most people that know me these days know I can talk my way out of any situation, but there was a time when I did not take this sort of thing lightly, and gladly would work things out another way....
 
  • Like
Reactions: bassplayer1494, instrumentalist, EddiePlaysBass and 1 other person
#8
All of the drunks that say anything to my band at all just go on and on about how great we are and how we should be playing better places or how they are going to hire us for their next party. We are an average bar band and play where and when we can.

There was this one dude one time who wandered outside with us on break and began telling us how he's been sick the past two years because "they" hacked his WiFi and were controlling his mind. We couldn't get away from him or shut him up, so we cut break short and got back on stage.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Nunovsky, bassplayer1494, Dan Robbins and 5 others
#9
had a drunk guy come up to me after a gig and say "Man you were awesome on the drums tonight"... I just laughed and said I'd been playing the bass all night. He replied "Oh so you play the bass as well - that's pretty cool dude" and then he staggered off outside

another guy came up to me once after a gig and asked for our singers phone number (singer was female). I told him the singer was standing right next to me and he could ask her himself... he said "she probably won't give it to me so that's why I'm asking you".. he didn't get the singers phone number

funniest one was a few years ago, this guy used to come to a lot of our gigs, was usually drunk and kept asking for us to play 'Freebird'... we ignored his requests until one day drummer said this guy was going to be at one of our gigs and it would be good if we could learn Freebird.... now for a bit of context we were guitar / bass / drums and vocals. So we did learn it and did a stripped down version of it without the whole 10 minute double guitar solos.
The guy turns up to the gig so we played Freebird - just for him
After the gig we are packing up and the guy comes over to us and criticizes us the the way we played Freebird and said that the original version has a longer guitar solo.... blah blah blah.... so without batting an eyelid the guitarist gets his guitar out, hands it to the guy and said "Maybe you can show me how it goes then"?
The guy hands him back the guitar and said "I don't know how to play guitar mate" and walked off
We never did play Freebird again
 
  • Like
Reactions: kesslari, Bass V, Jimmy4string and 20 others
#10
Mmmm, had a drunk girl step up and start playing the tambourine from the singer and when she leaned forward, she tried to not fall over by standing up fast and falling backwards into the drums. That was a good one.
Then the time the drunk guy told me I was an idiot because if he were playing this gig (at the yacht club bar) he would be using his Ampeg 8x10 and a real bass, not some piece of crap like my Squier. Good times, good times.
 
  • Like
Reactions: bassplayer1494, instrumentalist, Admiral Akbar and 1 other person
#12
Hot Rats said:
Mmmm, had a drunk girl step up and start playing the tambourine from the singer and when she leaned forward, she tried to not fall over by standing up fast and falling backwards into the drums. That was a good one.
Then the time the drunk guy told me I was an idiot because if he were playing this gig (at the yacht club bar) he would be using his Ampeg 8x10 and a real bass, not some piece of crap like my Squier. Good times, good times.
Click to expand...

Yes - in my old band singer had her fair share of tambourines go 'missing' because some drunk idiot has taken it

My bass is a Squire and I use a rumble 500 and no effects pedals.... just DI the amp straight to the desk for FOH
Some guy came up and asked me what gear I was using because my bass sounded 'mint' (in his words)
I showed him my setup and he was dumbfounded that I didn't have a more expensive bass or amp or any effects
 
  • Like
Reactions: Fretless1!, instrumentalist, Crazy_Jake and 2 others
#13
bassplayer1494 said:
Hey everyone, wanted to share a rather bizarre story that happened to me last week at a gig.

We were going through the third and final set at a bar/restaurant, business as usual. IIRC, it was the first night of 4 consecutive shows.

As were rapping up a song, the crowd is cheering, people are enjoying themselves, dancing, etc.
This drunk guy gets up out of his seat at the table next to the stage, and this is where the fun begins.

Drunky: "Hey! Turn down your f****** bass! You suck!"
Me: *Suprised pikachu face* "Oh thank you so much man! I appreciate your support!"
Drunky: "A Monkey with a guitar could f****** play better than you!"
Me: *Nods and laughs* "I really appreciate the support! Have a good night!"

Dude storms out of the backdoor and disappears into the night. BL overheard some of this, and during the next song proceeds to walk off stage, while playing, and look around for the guy. Couldn't find him

BL was like "man I was about to find that MFer and beat his ass" which I guess made me feel better, but you know if push came to shove, I did have the high ground on Mr. Drunky...

BL is the kind of guy who would throw down for his friends/bandmates in a heartbeat. We had a good laugh about it, but we were still confused about why that dude was so irate.

Turns out though, the drunk guy was with another drunk guy who kept bugging the drummer in between sets to let him play a few songs on drums, was rude to the staff, etc. So I am assuming that the dude who lashed out at me was maybe a musician who wanted to get on stage and play bass in his intoxicated state? Who knows...

The whole thing became an inside joke the rest of the week/weekend, and I had a great time playing.

Anyone got any funny/crazy drunk patron stories?
Click to expand...

I don't seem to attract drunks. I started playing music in bands to attract the fairer sex, but all I seem to attract are other bass players...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Nunovsky, kesslari, aus_bass and 20 others
#14
My two all-time favorites (among hundreds of all-star drunks I've encountered in my 35+ years of doing this).

1) I was 16. I was playing in a band with guys who were all in their 30s. We were playing a hotel bar in South Hill, VA. This would have been '86 or '87? Usually we played Friday's and Saturdays only. But this time we had played Thursday night. I had been to school all day and then played the gig Thursday. Then I got home at 5 a.m. and had to go to school again.... before playing the gig on Friday night. So Friday night I was exhausted. This really pretty lady kept flirting with me all night. Maybe she didn't know I was a kid? I don't know. She was HAMMERED. After the show I went to the bar to get a Pepsi or something with caffeine. She stumbled over and dropped her hotel room key in my Pepsi. My drummer (35 year old gronw man at the time) was sitting next to me "guarding" me. I pulled her key out of my drink and wiped it with a napkin and said "Ma'am, I've had about two hours of sleep in the last two days. 20 minutes with you would kill dead as hell right now. But thanks." She turned around and stormed off and tripped and fell flat on her face on the way out. My drummer laughed so hard he fell off his bar stool and broke his tailbone! He couldn't play the next weekend!

2) Dive bar in the tiny little town of Ahoskie NC. We're killing it in there. The place is going nuts. This pretty, and DRUNK, girl comes up to me during the break. She's hanging with a Bachelorette party. She offers me all kinds of.... favors. She says we can go out in the parking lot right now and take care of business. The worst part? It was HER Bachelorette party! SHE was the bride to be. I politely refused. She and her friends left, and she was pissed.

Drunk people. Gotta love 'em.
 
  • Like
Reactions: kesslari, Jimmy4string, bassplayer1494 and 22 others
#19
Tony In Philly said:
For about 20% of the tunes I play live, I will use a pick because the song demands it. Every so often some weird drunk will bring that up as a complaint as if I used one the entire time. Very odd.
Click to expand...

Funny. A couple of decades ago, there was a "real bass players play with fingers" thing going on. I'm embarrassed to admit I was on that bandwagon. These days that's a lot more rare. I use all kinds of picks for different attacks. I keep half a dozen kinds on my mic stand pick holder.
 
  • Like
Reactions: bassplayer1494, Dega60, Jimmy Howe and 5 others
#20
As far as alcohol and musical spectating together are concerned...
uhl68.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: aus_bass, Jimmy4string, Gibson Victory and 4 others

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back