Smoking Venues

[HardNHeavy]

anyone gotta light.

i smoke, but i dont like that smell in bars or in my house..so i respectfully go outside. My guitarist chain smokes and i am appalled at the amount of burning to my eyes if stuck at his place for too long with no fresh air and he spends $150 a week on cartons of cigs. When you have a drink you gotta have a cig after. I am actually happy they dont allow smoking indoors.

 

[cacio]

I’m a smoker, nothing to be proud of.
Here in Italy smoke is banned indoor since 2003 and i’m really happy coz it forces me not to smoke during my gigs

 

[bcbassman]

Smoking is banned in most bars and restaurants in the Washington D.C, metro area with one exception in Alex. Va. where there is a cigar bar with a grandfathered exemption for smoking because the venue has a restaurant that is non-smoking- I guess -I don't know the legal situation really.
Of course -the cigar bar has live music every night of the week and my blues band got a gig playing there every Monday night and one Saturday night per month for about 6 years before covid19 hit.
The smoke was horrendous and on top of it, members of the band also smoked cigars.
I played bass next to an open window, which made it bearable for me but it was often bad.
When coming home-I wreaked of smoke to where my wife wanted me to undress in the garage before coming to bed.
I don't miss the smoke, but I miss the gig and the good people we played for, who always came back to see us.
I can understand why you want out of a smoke filled room

 

[gln1955]

I’m not sure if I read that correctly, but you are asserting that a large majority of people prefer indoor smoking?

The Ohio ban of 2006 was a state referendum that was passed by a very strong majority. Anyone spouting the opposite is full of it.

 

[SLO Surfer]

I'm sure this topic has been covered before - I just started a new weekly gig last night, easy 3 hour gig, other players are easy to get along with, venue personnel are cool, all very supportive.

The kicker is it's a smoking venue, and aside from having to strip down and throw my cloths in the wash when I got home, I'm still dealing with a ripping sinus headache since early this morning.

Smoking venues may still be a thing in your areas, though here in both Dallas/Fort Worth and mid-cities, they're against city ordinances.

Different story with the suburbs: Addison and Richardson, just north of Dallas, do not have indoor smoking bans, though most the venues I've played there have their own bans, with outdoor smoking encouraged.

Not the case last night, and unfortunately, I'll be giving two weeks notice to the BL as a result.

I was a smoker, and for many years after quitting, I just accepted playing in smoky bars as part of the package, playing in clubs.

Now it'll have been 20 years this coming Spring since the city of Dallas enacted it's indoor smoking ban, and 8 years since my last weekly residency in a smoking (suburban) bar, and I just no longer have the physical tolerance to be around it on a regular basis. I'll accept a smoking venue gig for one-offs, but as of last night, will no longer accept weeklies.

So what's the smoking situation like in your area? How does that affect you? Do you factor it in when accepting or not accepting gigs?

I think my town of SLO was actually the first city in the U.S. to outlaw indoor public smoking.

I was a smoker for a good ten years in my teens to 20’s, then quit for several years. After that I had some relapses, and they were all due to gigging in smoking environments. Whenever I worked on cruise ships, I ended up smoking because it was cheap, easy, and I was bored. I usually was able to quit back on dry land. Then I moved to Reno for a few years and started smoking again because I was already inhaling tons of second hand smoke at gigs… figured I might as well enjoy it if I’m going to be exposed to the harm anyways.

I’ve been off the cigs for about 10 years straight now, and think I’d be turning down any gigs in a smoking venue at this point. Luckily those don’t exist in my state anymore.

 

[JC BASS 91]

I would comment, but pretty sure my comments would get me into heated debates and end up getting myself or others into a lot of hot water with moderators/admins.

I will simply say that if I can help it, I won't even do a one-off in venue that allows smoking...assuming I know that before the gig.

 

[two fingers]

I’m not sure if I read that correctly, but you are asserting that a large majority of people prefer indoor smoking?

Same thing I thought.

 

[badinage]

I can fully-understand making an "avoidance choice" to help keep an addiction at bay: cigarettes, alcohol, any addictive substance: I get that. But because your gear might "smell" ? Not so much. It's a smelly business: The loading-docks in the bowels of most resort hotels come to mind.

I also agree with @two fingers in that Obesity, not second-hand smoke is a FAR greater, almost omnipresent threat in the USA and a better candidate if we want a serious and costly health problem freak out about.

This thread just seems like farmers going on a Tractor-Forum to complain about mud.

 

[Mysterion]

Meh. You're getting into politics, which we don't do here.

I'll simply say that there shouldn't be many laws banning ANYTHING.

The biggest health issue we have in the US today has nothing to do with airborne germs/bugs/viruses. It's not drinking. It's not smoking. It's FOOD. More people die every single day from issues related to obesity and metabolic issues than any other cause. In fact, the VAST majority of people who have died from COVID HAD metabolic issues (diabetes, pre diabetes, obesity, or at least insulin resistance issues). Most heart disease is related to eating, not smoking. There is a growing group of doctors who want to change the name of Alzheimer's Diseases to "Type 3 Diabetes". It's a METABOLIC issue that slowly destroys the brain.

And yet, there are no hearings regarding potato chips and icecream and Pepsi and cookies. The "Food Pyramid" was BACKWARDS for decades. For YEARS we were told that EGGS were BAD for you! Many nutritionists today literally call eggs "nature's multivitamin". We've been told red meat is BAD for us! If it is grass fed, it is literally one of the most nutrient-dense foods ON EARTH. (By the way, beef liver is even better, nutritionally. So is heart and other organs. But western society throws away millions of pounds of nutrient dense food every single day because the thought of eating heart is "icky".)

Even the latest recommendations are not correct.

Doctors? Don't even get me started. I'm MARRIED to one. Most if then have no desire to read any studies released after they were in med school. Show them one and they roll their eyes. Some go as far as being pill pushers. They don't even WANT to discuss root causes of ANYTHING. They were trained to treat symptoms, not causes. High blood pressure? Here's a pill. Forget trying to figure out what CAUSED the high blood pressure and work on that. (Although I can understand how frustrating it must he to tell a 65 year old 300 pound man that pizza and lack of exercise is killing him only to hear "I'm too old to change may ways, Doc." I see it every single day. I'm in the hallways outside exam rooms, or in next door exam rooms, every single day of work.) Those docs back in the 40s and 50s didn't just push cigarettes because of money. They did it partially because they didn't know any better and didn't WANT to. Many of them smoked themselves and their PRIDE wouldn't let them bash smoking. It wasn't ALL about money. It was also pride and ignorance.

Experts tell us cows are ruining the environment when grass-fed cows are actually a net IMPROVEMENT of local ecosystems. Meanwhile industrial CROP growing facilities spray enough chemicals to kill EVERYTHING EXCEPT the genetically-modified plants they are growing. Bugs and small animals are killed by the BILLIONS every year. Water runoff from those places ruins everything around them. But PLANTS are supposed to be GOOD for the environment?

I don't need that kind of "protection", thank you.

I eat a steak almost every day. I eat nearly a half dozen eggs per day. At 51, my doctor (a functional medicine doctor) can't believe my numbers. No cholesterol issues. No blood pressure issues. And I'm doing everything WRONG.

Do I do cardio exercises? Nope. Zero. No running, treadmills, etc. I lift weights. But my heart rate stays low. My blood pressure stays low. And I have plenty of energy. How can that be???? I'm supposed to RUN or WALK my way to a healthy heart! But our experts tell us everything would be better if obese people simply went for a walk amd ate more fruit. (Many fruits are the metabolic equivalent of eating a Snickers bar.)

Dude, sorry. You hit a nerve. "Protection" my butt.

Mods, if I crossed a line please feel free to delete.

It's all good. I think there was some mutual nerve-hitting. But I wouldn't even have engaged if I didn't respect your intelligence and thoughtfulness--although we are pretty much at opposite poles on some issues.

To wit: As a vegetarian since roughly 1974--and a vegan since the mid-80s--I have my own take on the American diet, and the nature of the food-industrial complex. And as a long-time, formerly competitive cyclist, aerobic exercise is foundational for me--even kinda out of shape due to injury, my resting heart rate is around 47. And yet...At times, I have pulled borderline cholesterol numbers. That's the genetic lottery at work.

I don't think that any one diet is best for everyone, for a variety of reasons. This idea is now embraced to a greater or lesser extent by many nutritionists and health professionals. Some people feel it's based in blood type, some in other genetic factors, some feel it's environmentally linked. In the big scheme, it's not a new idea: Ayurveda has promoted different diets for different "types" for thousands of years.

And I do have sympathy for people with eating disorders, or just terrible diets. I was a fat, unathletic kid, so I know the self-reinforcing, addictive qualities of poor food choices. Which I overcame, but I did so at a time before fast-food purveyors employed teams of food scientists, who studied and deployed the process of balancing flavors and components--fat, salt, sugar, and simple carbs--to create frankenfoods that stimulate physiological reward responses in the brain and endocrine system. I'm glad I saw the light, and changed my whole relationship with food, but I don't spend a lot of time patting myself on the back about it. Is there a huge component of 'personal responsibility?" Sure, but as always...I try to look beyond the individual players, and question the fair balance of the game itself.

Where this diverges from smoking, of course, is that people must eat. Unraveling what they eat, why they eat it, how it affects them, and how it affects society at large, is a big, complicated ball of wax. Smoking is simpler: We know it's bad for you and the people around you, we know it's self-reinforcing. And we know that industry is only interested in profit, and will willfully mislead the public in order to maximize their return. Making it a little harder for them just helps balance the scales.

 

[EatS1stBassist]

I'm sure this topic has been covered before - I just started a new weekly gig last night, easy 3 hour gig, other players are easy to get along with, venue personnel are cool, all very supportive.

The kicker is it's a smoking venue, and aside from having to strip down and throw my cloths in the wash when I got home, I'm still dealing with a ripping sinus headache since early this morning.

Smoking venues may still be a thing in your areas, though here in both Dallas/Fort Worth and mid-cities, they're against city ordinances.

Different story with the suburbs: Addison and Richardson, just north of Dallas, do not have indoor smoking bans, though most the venues I've played there have their own bans, with outdoor smoking encouraged.

Not the case last night, and unfortunately, I'll be giving two weeks notice to the BL as a result.

I was a smoker, and for many years after quitting, I just accepted playing in smoky bars as part of the package, playing in clubs.

Now it'll have been 20 years this coming Spring since the city of Dallas enacted it's indoor smoking ban, and 8 years since my last weekly residency in a smoking (suburban) bar, and I just no longer have the physical tolerance to be around it on a regular basis. I'll accept a smoking venue gig for one-offs, but as of last night, will no longer accept weeklies.

So what's the smoking situation like in your area? How does that affect you? Do you factor it in when accepting or not accepting gigs?

Wouldn’t do it!

 

[gln1955]

I can fully-understand making an "avoidance choice" to help keep an addiction at bay: cigarettes, alcohol, any addictive substance: I get that. But because your gear might "smell" ? Not so much. It's a smelly business: The loading-docks in the bowels of most resort hotels come to mind.

I also agree with @two fingers in that Obesity, not second-hand smoke is a FAR greater, almost omnipresent threat in the USA and a better candidate if we want a serious and costly health problem freak out about.

This thread just seems like farmers going on a Tractor-Forum to complain about mud.

The conflation of diet and smoking totally misses the point.

 

[Confunk]

LOL: "Flavor"

What? Is anyone in favor of or promoting ciggies? I didn't think so.

Thing is, in 'Vegas, money talks, that's why there are no clocks in the casinos, and why drinks are free, and why smoking is still allowed. Smoking (and drinking) relaxes the gamblers, and to deny them the right to sit or stand without their cigs could decrease income, and they (the casino operators) are not going to let that happen.

We made a choice not to book in the smoke-proximity lounges. Too bad, 'cause some of them were cool venues.

 

[DrThumpenstein]

Most if then have no desire to read any studies released after they were in med school.

Sorry, but I have to refute that ridiculously broad and inaccurate representation of the medical profession. Are there doctors who don’t pay attention to developments in their field? Sure there are. Does this represent most doctors? Absolutely not.

I’ve been in medical practice for over 30 years in a variety of settings, primarily private practice, but also for a few years directing a sports medicine fellowship at a major teaching hospital. The ongoing educational requirements of physicians to remain licensed anywhere in the US include continuing medical education, which exposes every licensed physician to medical information published after they graduated from medical school. And most of us use frequently updated sources for ongoing information additions we evaluate and treat, which are more readily available now than at any time in the history of medicine. And training physicians to access that information is important part of medical education these days.

It’s fine to have biases against traditionally trained allopathic physicians; you do you. But please don’t make inaccurate and disparaging representations of the majority of working physicians, who understand that science is a dynamic, changing, field, and strive to keep up with pertinent developments.

 

[HolmeBass]

I try to avoid it. I can’t handle a night of second-hand smoke like I used to be able to. I would not take a weekly gig in a smoky club unless the pay and other treatment were incredible, but I think once a month for a normal “good gig” could work.

I would have to try it to know for sure though.

 

[Hambone70]

26912619[/URL], member: 267022"]The conflation of diet and smoking totally misses the point.

Yep.

Stuffing KFC and Baskin-Robbins down your throat doesn’t directly affect the health and well-being of those around you.

Smoking does.

 

[turf3]

There is a sizeable fraction of smokers who believe that non-smokers who complain about smell, headaches, burning nasal and throat passages, feeling queasy, etc. when subjected to cigarette smoke, are just "being mean" or "want to control us". My mother was exactly that way, so I know the phenomenon well. She died of lung cancer caused by smoking.

Frankly I have less than no sympathy for the whining of smokers. Just like I don't have the right to back my car up and pipe its exhaust into your house, you don't have the right to subject me to your emissions. Want to smoke? Go out in a field somewhere and have at it. Don't blow that s&&t at me.

 

[two fingers]

It's all good. I think there was some mutual nerve-hitting. But I wouldn't even have engaged if I didn't respect your intelligence and thoughtfulness--although we are pretty much at opposite poles on some issues.

To wit: As a vegetarian since roughly 1974--and a vegan since the mid-80s--I have my own take on the American diet, and the nature of the food-industrial complex. And as a long-time, formerly competitive cyclist, aerobic exercise is foundational for me--even kinda out of shape due to injury, my resting heart rate is around 47. And yet...At times, I have pulled borderline cholesterol numbers. That's the genetic lottery at work.

I don't think that any one diet is best for everyone, for a variety of reasons. This idea is now embraced to a greater or lesser extent by many nutritionists and health professionals. Some people feel it's based in blood type, some in other genetic factors, some feel it's environmentally linked. In the big scheme, it's not a new idea: Ayurveda has promoted different diets for different "types" for thousands of years.

And I do have sympathy for people with eating disorders, or just terrible diets. I was a fat, unathletic kid, so I know the self-reinforcing, addictive qualities of poor food choices. Which I overcame, but I did so at a time before fast-food purveyors employed teams of food scientists, who studied and deployed the process of balancing flavors and components--fat, salt, sugar, and simple carbs--to create frankenfoods that stimulate physiological reward responses in the brain and endocrine system. I'm glad I saw the light, and changed my whole relationship with food, but I don't spend a lot of time patting myself on the back about it. Is there a huge component of 'personal responsibility?" Sure, but as always...I try to look beyond the individual players, and question the fair balance of the game itself.

Where this diverges from smoking, of course, is that people must eat. Unraveling what they eat, why they eat it, how it affects them, and how it affects society at large, is a big, complicated ball of wax. Smoking is simpler: We know it's bad for you and the people around you, we know it's self-reinforcing. And we know that industry is only interested in profit, and will willfully mislead the public in order to maximize their return. Making it a little harder for them just helps balance the scales.

You're right. We probably agree more than disagree. I weigh personal responsibility a little more heavily than you do. And I think that industrial crop complexes and food scientists are both killing more people, AND every bit as interested in profits over health as cigarette companies. Plus, I think I would actually enjoy discussing virtues/problems regarding red meat with you. Maybe some other time.

 

[Deleted member 368008]

Ok, here's another area: Sweden/Scandinavia which you can imagine is different. By now, and by any standard.

As I was asthmatic as a kid and never even tried to smoke regular tobacco or any weed, my entrance to the pub/rock/bar playing live scene entered not until in 2007 when the ban struck hard on all venues. When I was at some famous acts concerts, if it was a 700 standing only club, I came later - deliberately - than all my friends, and split earlier too. Before that I played venues that had some kind of ban because restaurants didnt want some people smoking and other people eating at the same time, not only the same table, the same room.

Remember that our local main venue for somewhat famous live acts Kulturbolaget Malmö Sweden had cut their maintenance costs by 2/3rds a year on their in house mixing and lightning desks, just thanks to the smoking ban. In Denmark nothing has happened, they stlll allow it, and I deliberately say no for subbing anyone in a band that will play there (it's just 25 minutes across the bridge). All personell working in the bar, has said that they cut their sick leave, in half compared to what it was before over a whole year. Even if they smoked themselves. They are the ones thanking the goverment for introducing smoking band strangely enough.

However, now it's forbidden to smoke on the outdoor patio of restaurants too. They have to move further. Me myself, thinks outdoors is ok actually. But they still allow fireworks and bengalis fireworks, at soccer games which emits quite a lot of smoke...beats me....smoke as smoke, no diff....

 

[roccobass]

Since I don’t play in Nevada, (I’m in California) the only few times I had to play in “smoking environment” indoors, was a couple Native American casinos. However, both had a dedicated no smoking lounge area with up to date air exhausts. Nowadays, it’s overpowering cologne and perfume that makes me gag.

 

[JohnnyBottom]

Was in the green room at a club recently. A club member comes in and lights up a cigarette. Was so foreign to see that. Had trouble processing it. kept my mouth shut as ive learned is usually best. and walked out. Inconsiderate nerve of the SOB for sure, but probably a nice guy.