Venting - LS can't handle playing in a bar that serves shots.

[Mike Whitfield]

I saw REM in a couple of small venues in the 80s before they became big. One time, Michael Stipe was so wasted he just mumbled something into the mic then lay on the stage for the rest of the gig. Mick Miles sang all the songs. Pete Buck looked pretty angry and occasionally went over and kicked the recumbent singer.
poopie happens I guess.

I hate it when that happens. I saw Conway Twitty in the 70s and he was so drunk that he was swaying, stumbling and screwing up words. And I did NOT get laid afterward, which is the only acceptable reason to ever attend a Conway Twitty concert anyway. Total lack of professionalism. It was a disappointing night on many levels.

lat said it best: "whether it's 10 or 100 dollars or just the price of your drinks, you are spending money to go out and it's up to the band to put on the best show possible." Serious disrespect of his bandmates. Too bad there's not a video tape of his performance, because he probably only remembers the parts that went well.

 

[lat]

Not for me.

I don't want to be the one who worries how he's getting home.

Those who disagree can say its not my problem, but I have a conscience and woukd hate if he killed someone in your family in a DUI.

Yes, drinking and driving is another story...

 

[MrLenny1]

You should have got some video of his buffoonery.
It doesn't lie, then have a talk.
Booze is always an issue at any age.
There's no fool like an old fool.
Good Luck, it's such a poopy business.

 

[DanBass]

Venue with beer / wine ... venue that serves hard liquor. I fail to see the difference. If this dude truly has an issue, any type of alcohol will be a problem, period. Hell, if you play a supermarket, hide the maraschino cherries.

Stout, vodka, merlot - same same same.

 

[nomaj]

I'd have band meeting to show him the door. Plenty of wannabe singers everywhere these days.

A good enough singer is much harder to find than a good enough musician.

 

[Ross W. Lovell]

I hate it when that happens. I saw Conway Twitty in the 70s and he was so drunk that he was swaying, stumbling and screwing up words. And I did NOT get laid afterward, which is the only acceptable reason to ever attend a Conway Twitty concert anyway. Total lack of professionalism. It was a disappointing night on many levels.

lat said it best: "whether it's 10 or 100 dollars or just the price of your drinks, you are spending money to go out and it's up to the band to put on the best show possible." Serious disrespect of his bandmates. Too bad there's not a video tape of his performance, because he probably only remembers the parts that went well.

Saw Lou Reed a looooong time ago at the Shaboo in Wilamantic, Connecticut. This was an old mill that was "converted" into a music venue a la Blues Brothers.

The mixing/sound equipment had chicken wire or chain link around it. There was probably at least 50' of linear bar to service the patrons. The building was built of brick, inside and out. There were walls busted out roughly in the shape of an arch that I hope were not load bearing to make the space bigger. Roughly meaning, you could grab pieces of brick if you wanted a memento.

The headliners here always came on around 11:00PM and rarely went past 1:00AM.

This was back around Rock and Roll Animal.

Lou kept everybody waiting to around midnight. Something seemed "off". The band was playing the intro to Sweet Jane for at least 5-7 minutes, we were loving it. Then when Lou walked out, it was pretty clear he was under pharmaceuticals.

Lou proceeded to say thanks to "all the little people" and promptly passed out in his leather pants.

Music stopped, his people started to attend to his "problem". A pretty large stainless steel ice bucket appeared from the back of the bar and was brought on stage. Meanwhile, two roadies were attempting to remove his leather pants right there on stage. Once the necessary "region" was exposed, the ice pail was upended into his crotch area.

Eventually he was removed, but the show was over.

The owner of the venue considered the concert ended, the artist took stage, and then finished, there were talk of refunds but they never materialized.

One of the few times in an SRO when I ended up with really good standing area, about 8' from where Lou had been standing.

Lou "dresses" to the right.

Saw him a couple of times after that, very good, but different mode of dress.

 

[Feral Feline]

Not assuming that it will happen again.... but also wanting to make sure it doesn't happen again... and also... Venting

Understood. I totally get the need to vent.

Sorry to hear he was oblivious about being alcohobliviated; I understand — I was in a band once where the frontman (guitar/vox) was a "functioning" alcoholic, showing up to gigs 2 hours late etc, or as the band is getting on the cruise ship, him calling us and saying "I can't make it"...

 

[Steve Dallman]

Uh, the drummer is a shietbag for hitting his SO, no matter what his excuse was. That's not 'on' anyone's but his own shoulders. Just like your drinking issue was your problem. Couldn't let this slip by without pointing that out.

As for the topic at-hand, since LS has not fessed up, I would def bring it up. Doesn't have to be a terse thing. Just tell him, "Man you were really fornicated up by set 3 and kinda staggering around. Maybe your family needs to stop with the shots. Lol" and see what he says. If he still denies it, then tell him "Really, it was embarrassing. Don't go that overboard again buddy. I don't play with sloppy drunks." Otherwise, hopefully he'll just apologize and think twice about downing shots at a gig again.

I'd give him a mulligan, personally. A bunch of drunk family/friends can override one's sense. Sounds like he hasn't had prior issues drink-wise in the band.

Our drummer was an a-hole for that. Not to make any excuses...he had just had a medical issue that wiped out 90% of his hearing and was stressing bigtime. Today (35 years later) he is married, has been for decades, has a wonderful grown son, and is a kind and generous man. Those violent outbursts ended many decades ago. I know I wasn't responsible for his abuse, but that my behavior had anything to do with it bothered me. It wasn't the reason I soon quit drinking. FWIW, there was no abuse after I quit drinking, but that relationship did dissolve. He was not abusive to anyone after that.

Your advise to the OP is sound. What is unknown is if this guy is a habitual drinker or alcoholic. Getting drunk on the job is not right. Our guitar player and I don't drink. Our drummer does...two beers a gig. Never been a problem in our 9 years.

 

[Steve Dallman]

1978 our drummer and I backed up Merle Travis at the Indian Bowl in Lac du Flambeau. I provided the PA, our country band opened, we provided backline for another band.

Merle showed up drunk, after an afternoon drinking and shooting pool. I had to tune his Gibson 400. He was too drunk. He drunkenly stumbled through half a dozen songs over the 30 minutes he stayed on stage. The audience was booing when he left the stage, and our band got right up to settle them down, and played another two hours.

Merle got paid $2,000 for that gig. I got paid $40. It was an honor to be asked to play behind him. It was a real disappointment to actually do it. Still leaves a bad taste.

Drunks on the job suck real hard.

 

[Wfrance3]

I usually don't wade into these, but the obvious to me is that he was drunk on the job. How would that go if you were an Machinist, School Teacher, Cab Driver, you pick the next one...

What we do can be a kinda laid back proposition, so maybe a little refreshment between sets is acceptable, but impaired is impaired. get it together. Willie Nelson said it best in regard to his personnel policy; if you're wired, your fired...

Good luck on this one!

 

[callofcthulhu]

Yep... what is a good time? what is my expectation for pay based on? Was I expecting to be asked back or not? After the second set, yes, after the third set, not as much yes. That's all based on how I felt things went... which happened in my head...

Ok so it's all in your head. You have power over everything that happens in your head, and can choose to exist in a reality beyond such petty concepts as success, failure, even the concept of expectations themselves. Just live in the moment, bro.

 

[callofcthulhu]

Sorry. I know of no "reality" or "perspective" where being falling down drunk in public is in any way acceptable.

The band played a sold out show to a receptive audience, got paid more than they expected, and established a positive rapport with the venue.

If they did anything "unacceptable" to get that result, seems to me that if anything they should be figuring out how to do it next time too.

 

[Mike Whitfield]

Saw Lou Reed a looooong time ago at the Shaboo in Wilamantic, Connecticut. This was an old mill that was "converted" into a music venue a la Blues Brothers.

The mixing/sound equipment had chicken wire or chain link around it. There was probably at least 50' of linear bar to service the patrons. The building was built of brick, inside and out. There were walls busted out roughly in the shape of an arch that I hope were not load bearing to make the space bigger. Roughly meaning, you could grab pieces of brick if you wanted a memento.

The headliners here always came on around 11:00PM and rarely went past 1:00AM.

This was back around Rock and Roll Animal.

Lou kept everybody waiting to around midnight. Something seemed "off". The band was playing the intro to Sweet Jane for at least 5-7 minutes, we were loving it. Then when Lou walked out, it was pretty clear he was under pharmaceuticals.

Lou proceeded to say thanks to "all the little people" and promptly passed out in his leather pants.

Music stopped, his people started to attend to his "problem". A pretty large stainless steel ice bucket appeared from the back of the bar and was brought on stage. Meanwhile, two roadies were attempting to remove his leather pants right there on stage. Once the necessary "region" was exposed, the ice pail was upended into his crotch area.

Eventually he was removed, but the show was over.

The owner of the venue considered the concert ended, the artist took stage, and then finished, there were talk of refunds but they never materialized.

One of the few times in an SRO when I ended up with really good standing area, about 8' from where Lou had been standing.

Lou "dresses" to the right.

Saw him a couple of times after that, very good, but different mode of dress.

Don't think I'd try again after that, but hey, at least he wasn't Conway Twitty.

Building sounds awesome.

 

[Ross W. Lovell]

Don't think I'd try again after that, but hey, at least he wasn't Conway Twitty.

Building sounds awesome.

Yeah, but at least you HAD a chance. Lou Reed show was like a Who show back in the 70's.

There were no women to speak.

Oh they existed, just not at the shows. Not sure where the groupies came from?

 

[Mike Whitfield]

Except those things aren't really irrelevant are they?

If I'm paying $200+ per ticket (or however much the "good" seats are at one of those artists' shows you mentioned) my expectations for what I'm going to get at that show are completely different from the expectations I have than I have for the show I payed $10 to get into.

I get it, you're a professional, you have standards, and you hold yourself and anyone you're associated with to those standards, bring your a-game every time, it's a slippery slope if you start telling yourself "this gig doesn't matter", etc. etc.

I just think a healthy dose of perspective is in order. Standards are meaningless if they're not grounded in reality. We're all only human, we're all only here once, and none of us have as much time as we wish we had Why waste what little you have being upset about something that by all metrics of success met or exceeded expectations, aside from the abstract ones in your head?

I'd turn that around. If you're selling $200 tickets, people will still book you - for awhile at least. If you're selling a $10 cover charge, you are eminently replaceable. Pretty clear that lat enjoys playing gigs and didn't enjoy the last half of that gig. Also pretty clear that if the lead singer gets a reputation for being staggering drunk on stage, he isn't going to get gigs moving forward, which means that lat won't be playing in front of a crowd. I have no idea if the LS has an ongoing problem with alcohol - one point does not a curve make, and this may be wildly unusual for him - but it's concerning enough for an intervention if lat wants to continue in the band. One caveat - as the junior member of the band, it may well be that the other members have enough history with the LS to have some measure of confidence that his alcohol consumption is under enough control to not affect their bookings or pay. If so, then it's entirely up to lat as to whether the LS's drinking is enough to ruin the band for him. There's no moral obligation to put up with a drunk ruining your pleasure, and how often he's willing to tolerate that happening is purely his call. And personally, if it's not my livelihood I'd have zero problem avoiding certain gigs to dodge a problem with people with whom I otherwise love playing. Better to take fewer gigs than lose them all, or lose his enjoyment of them.

 

[lat]

Ok so it's all in your head. You have power over everything that happens in your head, and can choose to exist in a reality beyond such petty concepts as success, failure, even the concept of expectations themselves. Just live in the moment, bro.

Tell that to my voices... They won't listen to me...

 

[Darth Moley]

His family should've respected the fact he was working and they shouldn't have pushed the shots issue. The LS was between a rock and a hard place but as an adult he should've made an adult decision.

Maybe it's his whole family that has a drinking problem? I'm sure I'm not the only one who's seen this, but I've been places where the whole community seems to have a collective drinking problem, and when one person or group gets going on the sauce, they all kind of drag each other into the depths.

 

[lat]

Maybe it's his whole family that has a drinking problem? I'm sure I'm not the only one who's seen this, but I've been places where the whole community seems to have a collective drinking problem, and when one person or group gets going on the sauce, they all kind of drag each other into the depths.

His wife and two sons were loaded... so, for that night, I'd say yeah. But again, they have been at gigs where no hard liquor was served and were fine, from what I saw. One difference with this bar gig though, is that since he was bent out of shape, I was paying attention to the folks at his table and making note of their various states of inebriation. That never happened at previous gigs...
But really, that's all window dressing. The bottom line is that our band policy needs to be more clear about what behaviour we will collectively accept from band members.

 

[Brad Johnson]

I'm glad so many people in this thread live perfectly perfect lives and can sit in such judgment of someone they don't know from Adam. You are the most awesome people on earth, and I'm sure none of you ever made a mistake in your lives ever. Congratulations.

If they had they would initiate the self-firing mechanism and called it a day. For consistency's sake.

edit: SARCASM

 

[nomaj]

That one's not exactly cutting it if he can barely stand up, misses cues, and has difficulty staying in key.

The singer got drunk one time.

If the OP is also the band leader (rarely are bass players band leaders unless they also sing), then he can do what he wants. Otherwise, this part-time band is gonna be infected by suspicion and ill will, and, besides, the other band members just might think that the OP is a prude who is not "one of them."
Best to let this drunken episode slide.