s0c9
Supporting Member
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
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.
Ever been afraid for your life at a gig?
- Thread starter Mike JV
- Start date
The phrase “danced with the devil and did a split” has been said many times over the years. Usually said during travel to and from gigs
The actual gigs themselves I’d say whatever band I was in at the time had luck on its side.
The actual gigs themselves I’d say whatever band I was in at the time had luck on its side.
I have a MP3 of that tune on my old iPod!
- Oct 7, 2000
- 18,619
- 38,939
- Disclosures
- Endorsing artist: Musicman basses
I once played a blues gig on west Chicago Ave, in Chicago, back in the '70's. Right after we all got started, a guy standing at a table in front of us pulled out a pistol and shot it next to a patron ...at him, but it didn't actually hit him - it went through the floor, I guess. We all ducked for cover, though there was really nowhere to go. An Acoustic 106 bass cab wouldn't even slow a bullet down! The Cops came and sorted things out and eventually the show got back underway. We heard later that the shooter came back at the end of the night and shot the bartender. ...scary place - it's gone now.
Played there a few times, most memorable was getting cancelled because at the last minute Roy Buchanan was booked.
We were good for it, had great seats.
I'm a fan.
Was trying to buy the old grand or baby grand piano they had.
Came back to talk to someone, place was burned to the ground.
Guessing some kind of lightning.
Saw a lot of good shows there, it missed by many.
Wow. I don't even have that!
I was a fan of the Nerve back in the day..
Just loaded up the iPod and it reset!
I had a couple of tunes. Probably had you on MySpace as well
In the eighties I used to play beach bars in Miami, Hollywood (Florida), Dania, Ft. Lauderdale... All the way up to West Palm Beach. The craziest stuff happened every year during spring break. I saw a lot of bar fights, some of them were pretty ugly. The bouncers were pros. They would approach fights as a three man team. One guy would try to get in between the principle protagonists to distract them. A bouncer would come up behind them each, reach between their legs and grab their belt buckle and lift. They would then grab them by the back of the neck and steer them to the door where police were waiting. I saw one fight from a stage that got too big for the bouncers. It looked like a scene from a movie, there were so many people fighting. They had a Ft. Lauderdale riot squad in there in under five minutes. A lot of people got hurt that night, and most that didn't were hauled away in police vans. We played to a mostly empty room the last set, that never happened. Was I afraid? That night I was. I had a flying broken bottle just brush my ear.
Some years ago my band was booked to play at a fairly reclusive and as far as I know, largely English "hippy commune" in the west of Ireland. Was about an hour's drive away, we headed down in the van on a given evening, didn't play until 2AM or so. Thereafter we were sitting around some campfire drinking. Sometime after dawn we were joined by a couple of paper-white, red headed men, one of whom accused our lead singer/guitarist of being a detective from Dublin. I tried to intervene, one of them turned to me..I don't recall what he said, but the guy was clearly a throwback, likely severely inbred and with the eyes of a feral animal. I decided to save my own skin and locked myself into the back of our van, where the drummer was sleeping. Meanwhile, the guitarist was taken away to a field and almost choked out - the guy has his own problems...while they choked him he invited the redheads to kill him, this apparently impressed them and they let him go.
Talking to the "hippies" in the AM, they explained that these gentlemen are allowed to free-roam on condition that they render the area off-limits to police and outsiders. I spotted a mugshot of one in a paper a few years later, was locked up for murder. Terrifying f*ckers.
Talking to the "hippies" in the AM, they explained that these gentlemen are allowed to free-roam on condition that they render the area off-limits to police and outsiders. I spotted a mugshot of one in a paper a few years later, was locked up for murder. Terrifying f*ckers.
Last edited:
One evening in Kentucky we had a guy who kept asking for Ghost Riders in the Sky, a tune we didn't know. After the third request our singer told the guy we just didn't know it. He guy got up and walked to the stage and pulled back his sport coat to reveal a very large sidearm. The singer looked back at me and said "Get in E minor". We learned it real quick!
I was never in danger, but I always thought my P-Bass would make a formidable weapon if I swung it like a bat, and it'd probably stay in tune.
No one should face the possibility of violence, while on the job. Any job. When I was a kid, I was left on my own to somehow survive. I did, and can now spot trouble of any flavor,from 500 miles away. I've been told by bouncers that I have the "I've seen all the trouble I will ever need to see, and don't need any more" attitude, and a poker face, which is helpful, as I grow older. The first thing I look for before I set up for any gig is; Where's the back door. The second thing I look for is security, and the third thing I need to see, all night, is the front door. It has served me well. Only when my concentration is broken during a song, do I "get ready", which is not too often any more, unless we're playing an "after hours" situation. I hope you all have the same such luck, but don't need it.
kind of different than all of these stories but here it is. My power supply exploded while I was plugging it in once & i got electrocuted pretty badly. It sucked. I played the gig without pedals.
Yeah, played a gig in Miss in the mid 70's, had the wire fencing around the stage. When I was unloading, the owner asked if I was carrying, of course I was. She just said good, 'cause we don't provide arms! haha Interesting night. No one got hurt that wasn't 'supposed to'. Been a few like that, but never as up front about not providing guns for the band. ha Used to carry a short ball bat, too, for 'Just in case' moments.
Been many moons since I played anyplace like that. Hahaha, play churches and revivals now, but still carry.
Yeah, did a gig in Brooklyn in the mid-80s with two people were killed and 4 injured in the bar we were playing in. Apparently a drug deal was going down in the bar and when the shots rang out we were about 7 rows deep when the shooting started. To make matters worse we never got paid.
Back in the 70s from about the age of 19 I played in the resident band of the 'Sugawn Kitchen' in London (a high-profile Irish venue that had people from the Chieftains, Planxty et al drop in and they'd jam with us).
It was the time of Republican and Loyalist Bombings and I was never allowed to announce anything as I was the non-Irish element and being English was to some like being the Devil Incarnate.
The only thing that happened to me was a bottle thrown , but whether it was because I'm English or because of my playing, I'll never know!
It was the time of Republican and Loyalist Bombings and I was never allowed to announce anything as I was the non-Irish element and being English was to some like being the Devil Incarnate.
The only thing that happened to me was a bottle thrown , but whether it was because I'm English or because of my playing, I'll never know!
