• Ernie Ball
  • MusicMan
  • Sterling by MusicMan

MingusBASS

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 17, 2004
Messages
3,364
Location
Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States
Last night my band played a college bar in East Lansing, MI(I just got home) and while we played great, the crowd loved us, and the booking agent wants to book us out for pretty much the rest of the year, the gig was almost ruined by unruly patrons. You'll have your drunks, but the crowd was just out of control while security did nothing!

Strike 1-
We arrived at the venue and set up quickly so we could grab a bite to eat before we played. We went away for about 20 mins. I come back to find a half-empty beer bottle about 6 inches away from my Ray5. The bottle is on it's side, and after further examination, I see that my bass is covered in beer. By this time, it is dried on the headstock, body and neck of the bass. I asked one of the bouncers that was sitting near the stage if he had seen what happened. He just shrugged and went back to doing nothing. I plugged the bass in just to see if the electronics were fried and lucky for me it seems to work fine. That being said, the neck was so sticky that it was virtually unplayable, and the dried on beer had deadened by strings considerably. Fortunately, I also brought my Bongo 5.

Strike 2-Several times during the night, we had random people jumping on stage, trying to grope our female vocalist, or steal the mic from her so they could sing.

Strike 3-
We also had a group of drunk, "big boned", chicks who decided it would be cool to dance on stage with the band. Yeah, it was REAL COOL, especially when one lost her balance and fell into our guitarist's Mesa Boogie dual rectifier half stack. It tumbles backwards and hits a pile of drum cases. His amp shuts off, and although he tried to remedy the problem mid song, we played the last 30 seconds without guitar. We quickly set up the guitar rig again, and Thank You Jesus, it worked. Again, security did nothing! Finally, I took the mic and informed the crowd that no one but the band was allowed on stage.

Wow-what a night! :mad:
 

Duarte

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 13, 2007
Messages
2,023
Location
Birmingham, UK
'Oh we have both kinds, country and western'

Sounds like the worst possible gig, I sure hope the SR5 is okay now. Here's a tip (that I've learnt from experience) never let you Music Man out of sight and/or more than 5m away!
 

dobs1981

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 7, 2008
Messages
54
Location
Melbourne, Aus
It hardly seems worth the hassel when your gear is at risk.

I had a similar experience with patrons getting onstage and stuffing around with our gear.
Bouncers did nothing.
I went to the management and had them relocate one bouncer onto the stage in between sets.

Never had a problem since.
 

Baird

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 18, 2007
Messages
481
Location
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
I almost got in a fight with a drunk idiot at my gig last night.:eek:

Why, you ask? Becase I told him to screw off when he asked me 10 FRIGGIN TIMES to play the theme from Barney Miller at the end of the night.:confused: I don't know the damned riff, it was after 2:00am and I had already started to break down. People are nuts!

Oh, he didn't like when I said "Do I come to the Burger King when you are working and bug you?":)

At least you (and me) will have some good stories to tell down the road.:D

P.S. I didn't say the Burger King thing. If there hadn't been a knifing at this bar the week prior, I might have.:p:D
 

MingusBASS

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 17, 2004
Messages
3,364
Location
Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States
I almost got in a fight with a drunk idiot at my gig last night.:eek:

Why, you ask? Becase I told him to screw off when he asked me 10 FRIGGIN TIMES to play the theme from Barney Miller at the end of the night.:confused: I don't know the damned riff, it was after 2:00am and I had already started to break down. People are nuts!

Oh, he didn't like when I said "Do I come to the Burger King when you are working and bug you?":)

At least you (and me) will have some good stories to tell down the road.:D

P.S. I didn't say the Burger King thing. If there hadn't been a knifing at this bar the week prior, I might have.:p:D

How do you NOT know the theme from Barney Miller!?!? :p
 

TNT

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 18, 2005
Messages
3,576
Location
Oakland - Raider Nation!
Andrew,

Those kind of gigs are can be such a nightmare, but let me just offer this bit of advice - you're biggest defense is the PA.

One person in the band needs to take the mic and "control" the audience (as difficult as this may be), because if he doesn't the audience will control you!!

And, never begin playing music until it's way understood!! And, if you have to do this after every song, well then it's their loss.

*No one comes onstage and no one ever grabs a mic - the shows over folks!!
 

rhythmCity944

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 20, 2007
Messages
560
Location
Atlanta, GA
Andrew,

Those kind of gigs are can be such a nightmare, but let me just offer this bit of advice - you're biggest defense is the PA.

One person in the band needs to take the mic and "control" the audience (as difficult as this may be), because if he doesn't the audience will control you!!

And, never begin playing music until it's way understood!! And, if you have to do this after every song, well then it's their loss.

*No one comes onstage and no one ever grabs a mic - the shows over folks!!

I agree, lay the ground rules w/o being rude where the crowd doesn't like you. I hope the pay was worth it too because if it isn't, it is not worth your time to play to a crowd that doesn't respect the band and trashes the place...most local venues i play at, the security just hangs out, they don't want to deal with drunks until there is a fight or something...if it were me, i wouldn't play that venue again unless the bookie can promise crowd control for you guys in the event that stuff like that happens again otherwise take your buisness elsewhere...in the end, you got to be having fun playing music and if you dont have fun at that venue because of unruly patrons, don't play there, that's my opinion

sorry about your bass...i know what beer on my bass and bass cases is like...a pain in the butt
 

carpedebass

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 23, 2008
Messages
445
Location
Texas
All those shows have neat basslines, but they really aren't that interesting to listen to..IMHO.
 

the unrepentant

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 15, 2007
Messages
1,191
Location
Bangor, UK
Damn that sucks dude. I would have told the crowd that either they get off the stage or YOU get off the stage. I'd also have told the management unless the security get off their fat lazy arses you don't play there anymore. there's nothing worse than the security just LETTING people trash thousands of pounds worth of equipment. They don't deserve to keep their jobs IMO.
 

SquidLizard

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 4, 2006
Messages
237
Yeah, 'cause if the crowd knows they won't ever do anything, what IS the point of paying them? If they're afraid to deal with the small stuff, they sure as heck won't deal with things if they really get dangerous.
 
Top Bottom