Always have to be sure it's obviously only in self-defense, and only when you've got enough of them on your side - otherwise RUN AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Yakety Sax makes everything better!
Seriously, though, I played a biker party about a month ago. The guitarist, who booked the show, gave us a pep talk before we went on. "If a fight breaks out, keep playing. Whatever you do, don't stop. Unless guns are drawn. If guns are drawn, head for the exits!"
Nobody fought and everyone was quite respectful.
madbass6
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What!!? in over 1,100 shows that's the first and only stage drunken fight you've experienced? I guess you don't play snt pats gigs much !
By the way what the hell was your guitarist thinking! not a smart move on his part!
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Spoken like a pro.
I was in a Kebab joint in London called the Marathon at about three in the morning - anyone know it? Across from the Roundhouse --
and a small group of soccer hooligans came in and started a fistfight. The place was packed with a jazz band in the corner and the flurry of punches, and the pushing and shoving, had the whole room staggering en masse. A pair of the hooligans stripped of their shirts to reveal painted chests and began kicking in the front glass door and window. Got a little hectic as glass began shattering.
The sax player did strike a defensive posture, but he and the boys played valiantly throughout the melee. Show must go on!
St. Paddy's, not St. Patty's. Padraig was a man not a Patricia 
Carry on...
Carry on...
Years ago we played at a bar that was, according to the owner (a wonderful older black man), a black bar by day and redneck fisherman's bar at night. A guy slammed his girlfriend's head in between our monitors and when she "came to" she "took him OUT"! Never happened before or after.
I have several stories like this. Here’s a couple:
Played five nights a week in the house band in a roadhouse in Central California that had members of the local Hell's Angels chapter present every night. Never had a problem (who's gonna start anything with these guys around?). The one night they weren’t there a couple of guys starting brawling on the dance floor in the middle of one of our songs. The female singer and I were at the front of the stage singing parts together as one of the guys comes hurtling over the monitors up onto the stage right at us. Without missing a beat Jill and I simultaneously put up a leg on the guy, kicked him back onto the dance floor and went on with the song. It was like we had choreographed it. What fun!
Another time I was playing in a fairly nice venue in Carmel Valley California. In the middle of our last song of the evening a fight broke out at one of the tables and within seconds it had spread all over the room. It was like a scene from a John Wayne movie—bottles and bodies flying around, table getting turned over, more and more people getting drawn into it. It was especially scary for our blind keyboard player because he couldn’t tell when to duck. We got him and ourselves off the stage and out of the room as quickly as possible. The fight finally spilled out onto the parking lot; it took three or four county sheriff's vehicles to break it up. We saw at least three or four ambulances at the scene. We never did find out what started it all.
Played five nights a week in the house band in a roadhouse in Central California that had members of the local Hell's Angels chapter present every night. Never had a problem (who's gonna start anything with these guys around?). The one night they weren’t there a couple of guys starting brawling on the dance floor in the middle of one of our songs. The female singer and I were at the front of the stage singing parts together as one of the guys comes hurtling over the monitors up onto the stage right at us. Without missing a beat Jill and I simultaneously put up a leg on the guy, kicked him back onto the dance floor and went on with the song. It was like we had choreographed it. What fun!
Another time I was playing in a fairly nice venue in Carmel Valley California. In the middle of our last song of the evening a fight broke out at one of the tables and within seconds it had spread all over the room. It was like a scene from a John Wayne movie—bottles and bodies flying around, table getting turned over, more and more people getting drawn into it. It was especially scary for our blind keyboard player because he couldn’t tell when to duck. We got him and ourselves off the stage and out of the room as quickly as possible. The fight finally spilled out onto the parking lot; it took three or four county sheriff's vehicles to break it up. We saw at least three or four ambulances at the scene. We never did find out what started it all.
Played a club once were over the night 3 fights broke out. After the show the drummer said "did ya notice they started fighting every time we did a Skynyrd song?"
Oh and FYI....I found out the HARD way...
Oh and FYI....I found out the HARD way...
We had a gig same place Friday and Saturday night this weekend. Friday was dead. Saturday was a crazy night. No fights but..... way more severely intoxicated people than normal. My guard was up driving home.
Well, it implies that there are people who drink and frequent bars on a regular basis, vs those that go out a few times a year and can’t hold their liquor.
I used to play bars like these. Now I play in churches. Although I don't get paid, the gear lasts a lot longer when it isn't abused and soaked in beer on a regular basis, so the expense side is lower.
Marathon is a local legend
I'm going to a gig at the Roundhouse on Friday, might pop in...that sounds about right based on my memory of the place, athough i never saw a fight there.
No fights for me but I once met a guy whose bass had stopped a bullet. He said he didn't even know it had happened until it was all over and he was safely away.
Played a gig a few weeks ago. Band was taking a break. Some overly intoxicated dude, walks by the band-stand. and just falls down on the guitarists guitar on a stand. ( passes out cold. )
Guitar player runs over and finds his $3500,00 Les Paul with it's neck broken in half. He freaks out. Two other dudes jump in, and it's the WWF Passed out dude, has to be taken to hospital.
Cops show up. Just another Thursday night Jam ???? Sometimes it pays to be the bassist in the back.
Guitar player runs over and finds his $3500,00 Les Paul with it's neck broken in half. He freaks out. Two other dudes jump in, and it's the WWF Passed out dude, has to be taken to hospital.
Cops show up. Just another Thursday night Jam ???? Sometimes it pays to be the bassist in the back.
I guess I'm lucky, in all my years I never saw a gun at a gig, and I hope to keep it that way. I'll make just one personal observation: 25 years ago I mostly saw guys swinging at other guys. In the last couple years, the ladies seem to be making up for lost time. There was an ugly, frightening episode where two women, one of them pregnant (the part that shocked me most), went at each other out in front of a club while we were loading out. Blood, pulled hair, screaming, the whole bit. A couple months later, we watched a woman sitting in a booth across from a guy reach across the table and punch him in the eye. He fell out of the booth, onto the floor, and she started kicking him. The cops showed up pretty quickly, and I remember we helped the manager mop the blood off the floor. We always wondered what the hell he said to her.
Playing for a wedding reception (we were not a wedding band, heavy rock) at a local PACC circa 78ish. We are setup outside big picture window facing beach. Inside the Brides father finds out the groom was smoking a joint. They start going at it , all of a sudden they both come thru the picture window onto the drum set, glass everywhere, wedding party trying to break it up. Needless to say we packed up, got our check and got out of there. Felt bad for the bride then, wonder if they are still together.
Hi Fender05
Yes! Back in the 80s, each and every time we played!
Pogo was the thing!
When you go to a punkrock gig: Don' t put your drink on a table.
Never sit on a chair or be close to a table.
Don' t order food (even when your table is 50 yards away from the dance floor!).
Empty your drink before you go to the toilet
(or rather, empty your drink as fast as you can, as soon as you get it).
Always wear security shoes (your feet will thank you).
...... and another 100 rules to know!
respect these rules = party
forget only one of these = trouble!!!!!
Greetings
Wise(b)ass
1974 playing a Wedding in almost rural Wisconsin
We pull up a ski resort, leaving was an ambulance and a deputy Sheriffs car. I was thinking oh crud some great uncle of the bride or groom just had a heart attack. Nope not that at all.
We start to set up and I hear the sheriff tell the bride, groom and both sets of parents (but mainly the groom)” If I have to come back here, you are going to jail (pointing at the groom, and you (pointing at the bride) do not want that.” The groom tux was a bit ripped up and slightly bloody.
Last set, we hear a ruckus in the next room and tumbling out of the entry way is four guys pounding on each other. This assemblage of guys rolls into the band area. I see the bartender on the phone. The song stops, and the keys kid (16cor 17) asks what to do, and we fire up another song.
In rolls the Sheriff and 6 deputies. The Sheriff walks up to me and yells stop playing and this party is over. Then the big guy looks at the whole band and says one more song and you go to jail too. In the mean time they are cuffing and stuffing real fast, as they call for more cars. First to go is the groom, and his father. The bride gets all whacky and she is next.
It took us close to an hour to load up a get out of there as we had to slip in line between people going to jail and party goers.
In 1970 I was a tag along with a band that I knew well. A fight spilled onto the stage, I hid behind a B25B cabinet.
1976 playing in a rough country bar in a rough area of St. Paul MN, we had replaced a band because we made more money for the owner. After closing, the drummer from the band we replaced, started knocking over tables and chairs and was headed for the table with my case on it and a friend of mine stood up and said not that table, not now. Wisely, the drummer left.
We pull up a ski resort, leaving was an ambulance and a deputy Sheriffs car. I was thinking oh crud some great uncle of the bride or groom just had a heart attack. Nope not that at all.
We start to set up and I hear the sheriff tell the bride, groom and both sets of parents (but mainly the groom)” If I have to come back here, you are going to jail (pointing at the groom, and you (pointing at the bride) do not want that.” The groom tux was a bit ripped up and slightly bloody.
Last set, we hear a ruckus in the next room and tumbling out of the entry way is four guys pounding on each other. This assemblage of guys rolls into the band area. I see the bartender on the phone. The song stops, and the keys kid (16cor 17) asks what to do, and we fire up another song.
In rolls the Sheriff and 6 deputies. The Sheriff walks up to me and yells stop playing and this party is over. Then the big guy looks at the whole band and says one more song and you go to jail too. In the mean time they are cuffing and stuffing real fast, as they call for more cars. First to go is the groom, and his father. The bride gets all whacky and she is next.
It took us close to an hour to load up a get out of there as we had to slip in line between people going to jail and party goers.
In 1970 I was a tag along with a band that I knew well. A fight spilled onto the stage, I hid behind a B25B cabinet.
1976 playing in a rough country bar in a rough area of St. Paul MN, we had replaced a band because we made more money for the owner. After closing, the drummer from the band we replaced, started knocking over tables and chairs and was headed for the table with my case on it and a friend of mine stood up and said not that table, not now. Wisely, the drummer left.
