Worst dive you’ve played at

[Playbyear]

So many bad bathrooms in these replies, almost a universal condition of a dive bar.

Even half decent clubs can seriously suck in that regard.

I played a lot at Johnny D’s in Somerville, MA. It was around 250 person capacity, but with bathrooms that would be overworked with 100 people. We packed the place and after the first set, it was just a wet mess with a line to get in.

 

[Killing Floor]

Worst but also one of the Best. Was always a fight to get paid but this is where I cut my teeth. The black scrawl behind John Cale is Iggy Pop's set list.

 

[tekhedd]

Well all this takes me back to one night playing the Pike house "Goat Head fraternity" in Tuscaloosa, but we're talking dive bars, not frat gigs. I can't recall one particular standout among the scary "what, exactly, drug do you think the bar owner is actually on?" moments.

But while playing at Chiller's in Loveland (now closed) I became quite a connoisseur of drug deals: is she buying meth or coke? This other guy has the look of a properly balanced speedball. Yup, she's headed to the back with coke dealer B. Oh no crazy girl is back, is she in friendly or stab-you mode tonight? And there's that time of night when the tweakers all turn up. It wasn't the worst dive I've played at, just the worst dive I've played at repeatedly.

 

[MustangWally]

Interesting. I've played a lot of biker bars and I really like them. The patrons have always been friendly and biker bars are the only place where patrons will come out and help with load in.

Agreed! We used to play biker club-rooms from time to time, usually midnight starts, and they were good gigs. The bikers would usually help with load in/out and we were always assigned minders to keep us safe from any violence. Crowd was always enthusiastic.

 

[ELG60]

Worst place I ever played was in the 80s. We played a little bar in a very rough part of Glasgow in Scotland called the Gorbals (which even sounds like a disease). It's a horrible place (or at least was, I lived there for a while but haven't been there in decades). Very run down, lots of poverty, crime, drugs, violence.
We showed up and the bar was this concrete breeze block cube in an otherwise desolate area of urban decay, looking like a bunker in a war zone. Everything else had been demolished in a 3 block radius and the rubble was still there. Was like some post-apocalyptric nightmare. The bar/bunker had steel bars on the few windows and doors, and the building was topped with razor wire. Of course the whole thing was covered in graffiti and smelled of piss. And that was on the outside. The smell was worse inside. The evening was punctuated by a number of fights and a couple of stabbings.
It was a horrible night, and I hate you for making me remember it now.

Ding ding! I believe that we have a winner!

 

[slagheap]

The Faultline in San Rafael 89-96 was filled with meth dealers, hookers, and paroled child molesters (gotta love meth attractants). Those were the nice people.
$1 Long Island's bring out the best people.

Any backyard party in Long Beach 92-94.

Any squat turned into a party in Hollywood 91-97.
There's really nothing like talking LAPD into battering down a door by saying "SFPD and Oakland PD would have been in there crushing skulls by now, who ate their Wheaties?"

knew that place well in several iterations, but never frightened there. played a hell's angels ( richmond chapter? ) clubhouse, Hilltop exit off I80, and that was weird. for actual dry mouth hair spiking at the back of your neck fear it was the clubs at military bases. some were great, like the uscg at alameda, we used to bring women and grateful coasties would dance with them all night, win/win, everything cool, but others? castle afb way out in the boonies was terrifying, bloody chunks and teeth on the ground outside, seething groups of men in the club just waiting to get it on, us in the middle. same thing at a tiny marine corps' barracks lounge in concord, ca, including knives. nowhere to hide, just pray and avoid eye contact.

 

[Biggbass]

16 years ago, when we were just starting out and trying to build a following, We played at an Indy Motorcycle shop once. Seemed like a good idea at the time. They have a big patio area with about 20 picnic tables and a covered outdoor stage. I stopped by one Sat afternoon the the place was jammin...maybe 300 people there all having a great time.

So we contacted the place and they put us in touch with their booker, who took 10% off the top of the $300 they paid all bands. So we booked a 7pm Sat thinking it would be a great time slot. $270 net for the 5 of us. We figured it was worth a shot.

Showed up around 5p as the afternoon band, a 3 pc blues knock off, was wrapping up. The place was packed. I looked around and noticed all the people were either sunburned and half drunk like they'd been partying all day and thought "these people are done for the day...they're all going to leave before we even start"...and they did.

We set up to the sound of Harleys roaring out of the place. Then, by 7pm when we were about to start, all the sunburned, drunk bikers had left and we had 3 tables of people there.

The owner of the place, a guy who had a tv show on cable at the time, was an ass. He kept walking back and forth in front of the stage complaining loudly about our song selection. Apparently he only only liked blues bands.

So we said F you very much and tore down and left, promptly at 10pm, after fulfilling our scheduled time slot, and never returned.

 

[lfmn16]

I spent many nights there and don't remember the bathrooms that bad (from about 78'-81')
Did see, David Johanson, Johnny Thunders, and a local original band called Razz that was incredible.

I played there from about ‘75 to ‘80. I’m not saying it was like that every time, but it was more than a couple times.

 

[Jim C]

I played there from about ‘75 to ‘80. I’m not saying it was like that every time, but it was more than a couple times.

Well, it could also be I don't remember for other reasons...

 

[somebrains]

knew that place well in several iterations, but never frightened there. played a hell's angels ( richmond chapter? ) clubhouse, Hilltop exit off I80, and that was weird. for actual dry mouth hair spiking at the back of your neck fear it was the clubs at military bases. some were great, like the uscg at alameda, we used to bring women and grateful coasties would dance with them all night, win/win, everything cool, but others? castle afb way out in the boonies was terrifying, bloody chunks and teeth on the ground outside, seething groups of men in the club just waiting to get it on, us in the middle. same thing at a tiny marine corps' barracks lounge in concord, ca, including knives. nowhere to hide, just pray and avoid eye contact.

Yeah, it’s kinda sick but all of that are fond memories.
Buddy’s dad was an O6 out of 6th Fleet, my old man had a 2 tour reputation with 6th and 8th Army.
He parlayed that into a Treasury job as a skull cracker, retired at an equivalent service grade as an Army O8. Rico cases were his thing.
Bunch a neighborhood guys with reputations is what the Bay is built on.

Grandfather owned liquor stores in the Tenderloin after WW2 - 1986 when crack got really bad.
I played there as a kid, Jessie and Stevenson Alleys on 6th.

Sick thing is that all the dives the paramedics know but the cops avoid are my happy zones.
I’m more relaxed, lighter, more contextually appropriate around human rot than “nice people”.

 

[Killing Floor]

Who else misses the swampy yeast and urine smell behind the bar?

 

[Gravedigger Dav]

Agreed! We used to play biker club-rooms from time to time, usually midnight starts, and they were good gigs. The bikers would usually help with load in/out and we were always assigned minders to keep us safe from any violence. Crowd was always enthusiastic.

I played a club for a week in 1975 in Huntington West Virginia. It was owned and frequented by mafia members.
They're like bikers only better dressed.

 

[socialleper]

Some complete sh!thole called The Suzerain in LA. The place was BOMBed the F out. It looked like they had a party weeks ago and never cleaned up after. We had to clean the room we were playing in, chase out a drunk Russian lady that was throwing ice at our gear, and try to wire up the PA ourselves. The promoter was lost. We had a mic taped to a stand because there weren't any clips. It was the most surreal thing I have ever done.

 

[somebrains]

Who else misses the swampy yeast and urine smell behind the bar?

I want to ask my 15-24yo self why I didn't wear a condom with those dirty girls in those dirty places they pulled me into. The backseat of a car would have been sterile and pleasant in comparison to where I've been.

 

[Sam Reese]

I've enjoyed this thread. It made me really think. I've played 1000s of gigs, but I can't answer the OPs question.

 

[zontar]

Either the first place I lived when I moved out from my parents-or one of the other places I've jammed in.
People int heir 20s live in some seedy places sometimes.

 

[Playbyear]

Worst but also one of the Best. Was always a fight to get paid but this is where I cut my teeth. The black scrawl behind John Cale is Iggy Pop's set list.
View attachment 3795409
View attachment 3795410

I looked up the 688 and found an amazing list of acts that played it.

 

[Playbyear]

Worst place I ever played was in the 80s. We played a little bar in a very rough part of Glasgow in Scotland called the Gorbals (which even sounds like a disease). It's a horrible place (or at least was, I lived there for a while but haven't been there in decades). Very run down, lots of poverty, crime, drugs, violence.
We showed up and the bar was this concrete breeze block cube in an otherwise desolate area of urban decay, looking like a bunker in a war zone. Everything else had been demolished in a 3 block radius and the rubble was still there. Was like some post-apocalyptric nightmare. The bar/bunker had steel bars on the few windows and doors, and the building was topped with razor wire. Of course the whole thing was covered in graffiti and smelled of piss. And that was on the outside. The smell was worse inside. The evening was punctuated by a number of fights and a couple of stabbings.
It was a horrible night, and I hate you for making me remember it now.

I've seen a few places that look like that. Last place standing, bars on the windows and all. I never ventured into one...

 

[neurotictim]

The Reef, on Shore Drive next to Shorebreak. It has long since been renovated and turned into a Korean BBQ or something, lol.

The space was about 60 or 70 feet long and at best 15 feet wide. Glass all along one side, bar on the other, bathroom in the back - right next to the stage, more or less. The "stage" (using that term very loosely) was super thin plywood on a very sketchy frame. Tall enough that we almost felt we had to duck our heads, small enough that we could feel body heat radiating off of one another, and sketchy enough that we were always worried about going through it. Bathroom didn't have a working light, but it meant you couldn't see the holes in the walls. Bar only served straight liquor or beer, no mixed drinks, but somehow the floor was always sticky. Owner was a complete tool and would charge a cover after telling the bands there would be no cover, or he'd increase the dollar amount. Power was terrible and there was no "house" anything - lights, sound, etc.

In other words, it was slightly smaller than the Peppermint Beach Club, without the cachet.

 

[MustangWally]

We played a little bar in a very rough part of Glasgow

This sounds like the bar in the movie 'Trainspotting' - if you have ever seen the movie, remember the toilet?