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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
dealing with unexpected stuff on the gig
dealing with unexpected stuff on the gig
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kudzurunner
5566 posts
Jul 17, 2015
4:45 PM
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I'd like to hear from gigging players. What is the strangest s--t you've ever dealt with when you're on the bandstand? From the audience, I mean. Does the audience ever cross the line and become the crazy chick--or guy--sitting in vocals?
Clarksdale blues party 1 (Deep Blues Festival 2014) from Adam Gussow on Vimeo.
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Meaux Jeaux
90 posts
Jul 17, 2015
4:57 PM
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There isn't enuff room on the page for me to even start suffice to say the old axiom, "just when you think you have seen it all". Man-O-Man Man I have been to the mountain. You cats handled it with equal aplomb,
but, sometimes, as I am sure you well know, one must draw the line. Hell, I remember Tito Mambo shot his bass player in the foot for dragging, then made the poor soul finish the set. Man those were some times!
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Prento
4 posts
Jul 17, 2015
5:27 PM
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Get her people to talk to your people.
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shadoe42
324 posts
Jul 17, 2015
7:11 PM
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The weirdest thing for me... I was playing with some friends at a small bar session. The platform was quite small so I was actually just to the side on the floor.
I launch into a tune, honestly can't recall what it was, and this girl who I had seen come in with a guy earlier suddenly gets up and walks toward me. She literally leans onto my should while I am playing the song. Drunk... all "OMG I Love your voice, I love you"...
Now I am just trying to get thru the song. I shoot her dude a look, he does nothing, my fiance (this is before she started playing with me on stage) is sitting at the bar doing a good job of just letting me handle it.
I am doing my best to ignore her and she finally starts to wander off gets about two steps away turns around and is back all over me.
My fiance at this point has had enough and she comes up and slides up behind me. Not sure what she said to the girl but it was not that effective. I finally lean back and give my fiance a quick kiss and the girl finally gets the hint and wanders back to her dude. Who walked her out a couple songs later.
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Dr. Rev. Mr. Cheeks Miller
My Electronic Music World
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nacoran
8588 posts
Jul 17, 2015
7:54 PM
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I've told this story before. I was doing an open mic, and I have a spot in a song where I stop and jokingly ask the audience if there are any cops in the audience. (It's a song about driving fast cars, and the stanza is 'And now the cops have got my car/and I'm sitting in this cell/(pause for banter)/next time I'll build it faster/and the cops can go to hell.
Anyway, the place didn't have a formal raised stage. I asked if there were any cops in the audience and a guy raises his hand and starts walking up to the mic. At first I thought maybe he was really a cop. No problem. I'd just work it into the joke. (My friend who is a cop has been in the audience other times). Anyway, as he gets closer he starts explaining that he was actually part of a secret police force he wasn't allowed to talk about it. He got up right in front of me, back to the audience and kept trying to explain that he was part of some secret police force. It only went on for maybe a minute but it was really awkward. He obviously had some mental health issues. I guess he'd caused problems before. I felt bad for him from the perspective that he had mental health issues, but it really through me off.
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Nate
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Greg Heumann
3050 posts
Jul 17, 2015
8:10 PM
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1) Cupla fights that had us grabbing the mic stands as possible defensive weapons. Fortunately didn't need them.
2) Drunk fell into my vocal mic, which launched the head of the SM58 into my lip - I was bleeding. Didn't know it until the end of my sax solo and saw the blood all over the reed and sax. A friend brought me a stack of napkins. Finished the show. That's the blues, baby!
3) Finished a tune at a small pub and a drunk lady right next to the stage says loudly "do you know anything better?" I said "I'm sorry I don't know that one and we launched into the next tune."
4) played one gig at a saloon where the audience changes a good bit from day to day. Normally there's a good blues crowd there but it was spring break or something and there were a bunch of twenty-somethings there that couldn't give a crap about our music. Backs to us the whole time, no applause, every break they had hip-hop on the jukebox cranked up louder than we were. It was really weird.
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***************************************************
/Greg
BlowsMeAway Productions
See my Customer Mics album on Facebook
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harmonicanick
2270 posts
Jul 18, 2015
12:45 AM
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Did a gig at a large city centre pub catering for 'stag' and 'hen' parties, very well paid, and I was soon to discover why..
I'm playing away and hear a lot of clapping, I thought thats weird because the drunk and getting drunker guys and gals were not interested in the music.
So I glance at the guitarist who is grinning and nods me to look at something. I turn to see four young lads with their pants down leaning over a table while being 'spanked' on their bare arses by 3 girls who were dressed up as hookers!
beerbitches.co.uk printed on their t shirts
Overindulgence in alcohol is taken to a whole new level these days in city centre Britain
Couldent get out fast enough..
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jbone
1985 posts
Jul 18, 2015
5:43 AM
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@ Greg- Solid base mic stand across shins, very effective. People tend to fall down. I helped a guy exit the stage many years ago with that method. He didn't like it but he didn't come back.
I've seen the whole bar surrounding one 400+ pound drunk guy, after he'd drank shots for 2 hours and then became belligerent. Band took a break and we came back in to total mayhem. Beer and broken glass all over, part of the stage knocked over, etc. etc. We straightened up and carried on.
We played one about 17 years ago where we were on a deck by the water. Lead guitarist kept kind of trailing off as he was supposed to be playing along with the songs, and I finally followed his glance to the upstairs part of the bar. A gal was waving her chest out the window at him! Bare in all its glory.
Very early on I had a small amp that was not grounded, and the place we played had old and crappy house wiring. I had a spark jump from a vocal mic to my lip as I was singing a song and knock me back pretty good. Come to find out the plumbing under that deck leaked and was getting the wires under there wet sometimes. They fixed it and eventually actually built a whole new restaurant.
Same place, we had a big bass player actually step through a weak spot in the stage floor at the old place. Scratched the heck out of his leg but they fed him 3 shots of top shelf liquor, patched his leg, and he finished the gig sitting in a chair!
One place Jolene and I played a couple of times was the old train station in Clarksdale Mississippi, when it had a restaurant inside. One side was the food side, the other was a bar. First time there was no crowd really but we said what the hell and blew it out anyway, just let everything hang out, had a great night musically, and got paid double by the owner. Amazing. Second time we had gotten through 3 sets and a storm had come through north of town. I went to pull the car over to the door so Jo could stay dry and stepped into about 8 inches of water! Clarksdale was flooded! A gal who worked there led us out of town the only way we could go since we were staying at Hopson south of town and the streets all had to pass under the railroad, which meant 2 feet of water in each underpass. maybe not a big deal if you have a truck but we were in an old Honda Accord! We made it out but next day as were headed for Friar's Point to head back home, we had to turn around due to trees and power lines down for several miles. It was actually a small tornado that came through.
Couple years ago I was working with a guy who was getting some good gigs. One night a guest at a joint kept buying beers for us. I don't drink and my partner at the time had like two beers, and there were like 8 longnecks on our table by set 3. The guest came over and stood there and drank about 4 of the beers and wandered off. 15 minutes later he comes back and drinks the remaining 3 or 4 beers. Turns around, walks about 6 steps, and sucker punches a total stranger, knocks him down. Fight almost ensues but security gets them outside.
More later. I'll tell you about being replaced by a portable sink.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbTwvU-EN1Q
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asilve3
140 posts
Jul 18, 2015
8:10 AM
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When I was about 20 years old I was playing a random gig at a bar on Long Island and this guy comes up to me while we are playing a song and talks right into my ear. He basically tells me to sit down and stop playing because he didn't like what I was doing! He went on blabbering about how he spent 40 years in radio and tv and he knew what he was talking about and that I should just sit down and drink beer with him instead of playing hahaha! He wouldn't stop bugging me for a while and even though everyone else seem to enjoy it he just stared at me disapprovingly the whole night. Very strange!
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JustFuya
798 posts
Jul 18, 2015
8:46 AM
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There is a wine festival once a year in the downtown park. People wander from tent to tent sipping the region's finest in heat that reaches 100 degrees and higher at times.
Several years ago I was playing flute with a 5 piece band at a saloon on the fringes of the park. We happened to be doing 'Locomotive Breath' when a pretty woman approached the stage and appeared to be heading in my direction to say something. This was a very loud band and I was fairly busy so communication would have been impossible at that moment. She stood in front of me, opened her mouth and emptied the contents of her stomach at my feet which I artfully dodged (for the most part). We all witnessed this. Our drummer decided to harmonize, backed from his set, and joined in with her as did a member of the crowd.
From that day forward the owner of the place always locks the front door and hangs up his 'CLOSED' sign during this daytime event. Only the regulars know to enter through the rear door.
Side Note: The captcha for this post is "tumlav".
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MichaelMc
46 posts
Jul 18, 2015
8:46 AM
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About 20 years ago, I was playing drums in a punk band. It was a fun gig, but we had some weird fans.
One guy would come to our shows regularly and try to pick up girls by exposing himself to them. Apparently he was rather "impressed" with himself and thought women would swoon at the mere sight. Admittedly, it seemed to work about 30% of the time.
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Barley Nectar
852 posts
Jul 18, 2015
9:23 AM
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Beautiful drunkin girl climbed up on top of a booth table behind the band and rubbed her monkey!
Several encounters with women flashing there boobs in appreciation of our music.
A young lady walked up between songs and whispered in my ear, "mister, I don't know what you are doing to me but you are making me wet" I looked at the fellow she was with and he was grinning and giveing a thumbs up!
A couple were dancing and the man took the womans top off, no bra! She didn't even flinch, just kept danceing.
An old timer who was so smashed he could barely walk asked if he could play his spoons with us. Looked like he slept in a barn. He seamed harmless so we said OK. He sat on the lip of the stage and blew us away. Man could he play those spoons. We miced him up! LOL
Last Edited by Barley Nectar on Jul 18, 2015 9:29 AM
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LSC
734 posts
Jul 18, 2015
2:34 PM
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Just two off the top of my head out of the gazillions.
Show in Holland. An inch of beer mixed with a bit of sawdust on the floor. I stepped back from the mic and put my foot into the middle of this guy lying on his back, no shirt, with his head stuck inside the kick drum. Between songs a bounce came up and dragged the guy away. My bass players says to the bouncer, "Somebody give him two Excedrin now for the headache he'll have in the morning."
Then there was the the gig in Belgium when we were playing You Done Lost Your Good Thing. I'm locked into the heartfelt vocal, all emotional like, when this wire haired terrier sort of dog appears from the wings. Apparently he'd escaped from one of the dressing rooms. The dog trots calmly across the stage, pisses on the guitar player's leg, and calmly trots off. It was, shall we say, a show stopping moment.
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LSC
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LSC
Last Edited by LSC on Jul 18, 2015 2:35 PM
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harmonicanick
2271 posts
Jul 18, 2015
2:57 PM
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@ LSC lol
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shakeylee
313 posts
Jul 19, 2015
10:38 AM
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oh god,i've got a gazzilion of them.delaing with drunk ,unruly,drugged audience is normal ,so how about this?
while playing through a backup amp,a SS peavey that belonged to someone else,i went dancing in the audience.
i touched a wall near a light switch,with the hand that was not cupping the mic.
i had so much electricity go through me,that my body shot out parallel to the ground. then i dropped to the ground with the wind knocked out of me.
it was very hard to finish the song and almost as hard to finish the set.it was a mark furman gig,so it was probably a 2-3 hour set.
this took place at the cemetery inn in reading,which is no longer the biker bar it was
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www.shakeylee.com
Last Edited by shakeylee on Jul 19, 2015 10:39 AM
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shakeylee
314 posts
Jul 19, 2015
10:50 AM
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also,one time,playing a festival, a guitar player,dan lange(now VT) and i were doing a duo show. we made the mistake of talking about how much weird stuff we'd been through on stage and how we could handle anything now.
MISTAKE!!! we jinxed ourselves.there was almost no festival security.a group of acid dropping deadheads wandered on stage and started playing anti-rhythm .it was awful!!
i also did three shows in full heart failure.but i thought it was lung cancer or emphysema ,both pretty bad for a harp player,so i wouldn't go to the hospital ,haha.when i finally did go,my blood pressure was zero. they had to zap me.
i started singing gospel songs about dying,like "when i lay my burden down" in the ER.my wife told me to stop.she said it wasn't funny,there were people really dying in there.
the doctor came in and said"he is not very likely to make it,so let him make his peace ."
she said"you don't understand,he is agnostic and is singing gospel to be sarcastic!"
to this day,those doctoors still come to my shows.
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www.shakeylee.com
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arnenym
356 posts
Jul 19, 2015
11:28 AM
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I've seen a woman giving a man oral sex in the middle of the crowd. At one gig a 350 pound heavy man stripping and throw away his underwear up in a lamp that get overheated. On another gig a woman started to undress. She danced in underwear and bra and after 2 songs she just put it on again and just get out from the club as nothing peculiar happend.
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A440
413 posts
Jul 19, 2015
11:33 AM
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Wow - you guys have seen some pretty crazy stuff!
In 5 years of gigging around Europe with a six-piece blues-rock band, the main issues I have run into:
1. equipment issues
2. sound man issues
3. warm-up band plays too long, eating into our time slot
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harmonicanick
2273 posts
Jul 19, 2015
11:43 AM
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@ A440
Actually I love the crazy stuff!! I want unexpected things to happen at gigs..
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Littoral
1271 posts
Jul 19, 2015
11:45 AM
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shakeylee, that's, ah, awesome.
Not sure what word to use so I picked awesome.
A gorgeous chick masturbating from a door where only the band could see her was my favorite experience.
Nipples dipped into shots of liquor and sharing them stage side was pretty special too though.
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shakeylee
315 posts
Jul 19, 2015
12:39 PM
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littoral,that is wild!! i think you win the internet today.
here's another one. i was recently playing a wedding and the bride started humping my leg. :)
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www.shakeylee.com
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garry
582 posts
Jul 19, 2015
6:26 PM
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So it's late one weekend night. A friend's band is playing, and they've invited me to sit in. Second set goes well, but it's getting late; most people leave at break. By the time we start the third set, there're only a few people left at the bar. Among them, at the far end, are some late arrivals, a striking looking young blonde woman and this big scary biker looking dude. They're having a drink, talking, enjoying the music.
Well, she is, anyway. Enjoying it a lot. After a while she gets up, walks up the aisle to the band and starts dancing. That's cool. Always nice when people dance. Then she starts *dancing*. Whoa. A little distracting. This goes on for a bit, while we try to remember what song we're playing, alternating between watching her and wondering when her boyfriend's going to come over and stomp us into the ground.
But no, he's just watching. He seems amused by the whole thing. After a bit, she heads back to her seat, but only briefly. After rummaging around her purse, she comes back with a fistful of dollar bills. She continues to dance, but weaves in and around the band stuffing bills in our clothing. When she runs out, she goes back to her purse and comes back with more. More dancing, more clothing adjustments, more bills stuffed in shirts or thrown at us. This goes on for 3 or 4 rounds. All told, she dropped around $50 in singles. It was crazy. Who has that many singles?
I'll tell you who. Strippers*. Turns out her name was Tiffany, and she'd just gotten off her shift at a nearby "gentlemen's club". The scary biker dude was her best customer, not her boyfriend, which explains why we're all still alive. She explained that she was mad at her husband for being jealous (I wonder why?), so she kicked him out of the house and was hanging with this guy to piss him off.
Crazy night. First time I ever had a stripper throw money at me. And sadly, probably the last.
* Well, waitresses too, I'm told. But she didn't seem like a waitress.
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kudzurunner
5571 posts
Jul 19, 2015
6:51 PM
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garry wins. Who can top that?
Then again: shakey lee!! Jesus.
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Bilzharp
95 posts
Jul 19, 2015
8:27 PM
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Lots of interesting moments but I did have a particularly crazy gig a couple of years ago at an out-of-the-way restaurant/bar next to a ski resort. During the first set a drunken woman dancer fell into and knocked over one of the pa speakers. The steel guitar player managed to keep it from going through a plate glass window. Whew. During the break the dancer's partner got into a fist fight with his best friend in the parking lot. The guitar player looks at the rest of us and says "I guess we're a fightin' band now." During the last set we launch into a fairly fast-paced version on "Folsom Prison" and a fella jumps up from the bar, says "yeah, YEAH!" and hops up on a table and starts table surfing. The bouncer and another big guy get him to step off the table but instead he just steps onto a chair and hops onto a smaller table - which promptly collapses under his weight and he falls flat on his back. Apparently the table was the only thing that broke as he was still laughing as they escorted him out. Of course, the band played on. For some reason we often close with AC/DC's "I'm a Rocker" after a night of playing jump blues, swing and rockabilly. This time it prompts a young woman to get up and approach my vocal mic while I'm playing harp through a bullet. I figure she wants to sing and think "what the heck, it's a two minute song and then we're finished" - but no, she's there to grind dance during my solo. I'm sure it's just because I didn't have a guitar in front of me as I'm the "old guy" in the band. Made me pretty uncomfortable but my bandmates sure were entertained and thought it was a perfect ending for the evening. We're not going back unless they put up the chicken wire.
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Rhartt1234
192 posts
Jul 19, 2015
8:45 PM
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Here's something I wrote on Harp-L on a thread called "Hecklers" May 3, 2005:
I am more a than accommodating and gracious musician. I
genuinely appreciate the audience whether they have
come specifically to hear me or just happened to be
where we are and enjoy the music. Having said that I
have no tolerance for people who try to mess with my
axe. I've had dudes just grab a harp out of my case
and start wailing. I've had guys ask "Can I try one?"
to which I might reply "Sure If I can spit in your
mouth because it's practically the same thing." Not
too long ago I was playing one of the nicer joints I
play with a pretty upscale audience. I had a guy
literally trying to grab the harp out of my hand while
I was singing, motioning like he could/wanted to play.
I told him loudly but off mic "No!" and he kept doing
it. I'm a peaceful guy and this guy was out of control
but I told him in between lines in the tune "I'm gonna
punch you!" When the tune ends I say to the guy half
on the mic half off "Hey man I don't come to your job
and mess with the fry machine, do I?"
This guy was probably some NYC stockbroker and could
buy and sell me but he put on his jacket and left.
Mission accomplished. I s'pose I could have handled it
better but so could he.
I have never seen an audience member just jump up and
grab the guitar out of the guitarists hands this would
only happen to a harmonica player.
Ryan
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PropMan
58 posts
Jul 19, 2015
9:17 PM
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Drummer got us a gig playing his cousin's wedding at some 3rd rate winery about 200 miles north of here. Sounded like a great gig- $200 per man plus hotel rooms for 3 hours. The piano player and drummer did a 45 min cocktail set as well.
None of knew it was a gay wedding - about 40 gay women and a few assorted family members. The girls were dancing and carrying on and having a grand old time until an old fashioned barroom free for all fight broke out. 4 or 5 women beating the hell out of each other. Cops came rolling up as we were loading out.
We only played an hour and we never got paid.
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MarioMS
112 posts
Jul 19, 2015
10:14 PM
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Hi folks,
there are many stories from experience. I wish Quentin Tarantino pick them all up...
BTW: in 2011 I was in Greenville,MS at the Walnut Street Bar. The Band was playing and a young woman gets on the stage and starting to dance. OK. That?s fine with me. But then she starts the enclothing. Well, I was at the front door, far away from this special show piece. I don`t wanna get close, cause I`m not into this kind of "art". For me this could have been the end of her performance to see her boobs, but wait, there is more: she exposed her....how do you call that?.....I think you get it...and people starts putting dollar bills into....yikes.....
After she noticed that she was filmed by a couple of guys she interrupted immediately...
Nice story? Nothing special here, I think.
But I have some photographs !! But I must say, I made them familiy friendly.....you wanna take a look? They are on my blues travel blog from 2011. Here is the link:
Sorry folks, I hope nobody find this disturbing. If so, please delete my comment......
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xU0Qv8-l0-A/Tln1U2FMztI/AAAAAAAAFZ8/RYaO2auBaSg/s640/Image00031.jpg
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-86h6rit6KKI/Tln1V4aWFZI/AAAAAAAAFaA/nrS2n41HSiA/s640/Image00032.jpg
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fJU4fn3Cd1g/Tln1XcLqHqI/AAAAAAAAFaE/FwE4zbdlDl8/s640/Image00033.jpg
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jbone
1986 posts
Jul 20, 2015
4:20 AM
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We were doing pretty well at a farmers' market not far from here a couple of years ago. head of security would have us set up and not charge us. The head lady did not like live music for whatever reason even though the crowds and vendors dug it. One morning we headed for our nice spot and discovered that management had come up with a portable sink with a water pump that was plugged in right where we'd been playing for most of the season. Hence, replaced by a sink.
We had a couple- drunk as usual- who were dancing to our music- fall ON TO the stage and take out the drum set, narrowly missing landing on Jolene as she sat and played. Kind of a weird compliment.
Drunk guy followed us onto a stage once and knocked a mic and stand onto the house band's guitar, which shocked the hell out of him, and out of Jo, who had grabbed the guitarist to keep him upright. The show went on minus the drunk guy.
Had a guy at a "cowboy" bar south of Dallas jump on stage while I was singing. He'd been heckling and harassing between sets as well as during songs. He leapt onto the 2 foot high stage and went to grab me or the mic stand, and got the solid base of the stand across the shins, HARD. He fell down and rolled off the stage and lay there yelling and cursing. About half the place was cracking up. Apparently this guy was the local pain in the butt. Two of his friends came and half carried him to their table and poured whiskey down his throat until he quieted down. Later he did something to poss off security and got walked out for it. I half expected slashed tires or worse when we were loading out but he was thankfully gone.
I once had about 1/3 of a pool cue come sailing past me from the side of the stage where there was an alcove with one pool table. I looked that way and there was a guy laid out on the floor and another standing there shaking his hand. Turns out the guy on the floor had hit the other guy- in the head- with the pool cue. The "victim" turned around and told him he should not have done that and knocked him out with a single punch. That guy had a concussion but was still standing and also had broken several bones in his hand. Liquor is powerful stuff. The fight was over fifty cents on the pool table.
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6SN7
558 posts
Jul 20, 2015
5:24 AM
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Well, those are some pretty good ones.
These days, I consider the area around our "footprint" to be our terriotory and will defend it. Too many crazies and drunks have grabbed the mic or my harps in the middle of songs to make impotant announcements or guss along with the band. This can be pretty tough, but when we are using monitors, you can fortify your position....sometimes.
On several occassions, we have had dancers breach the rampnarts and come flying thru the stage and crash into us. Sometimes a cymbal stand or mic stand falls over. Once a woman lost the grip of her partner and flew into my Sonny Jr 4x10 and knocked it over. I happen to be soloing, but I manage to pick up the amp and didn't miss a beat. Another time, some guy fell into a monitor and came up with a bleeding mouth and a missing front tooth. And then there was the guy who offered us 2 one hundred dollar bills to play with us, he was stumbling loaded!
But we have also had some happy unexpected stuff happen and hopefully, we can also hear some of those. We were once doing a benefit gig and just before the set , I was asked by the MC if we would let a woman sing a few songs along w/ a sax player. I knew the horn player, Doug James, as he has played w/ the Roomful of Blues and currently / Jimmie Vaughan, so that was cool, but didn't know the woman. Turn out it was Robin Banks from Canada who was in RI recording a CD. We played 3 songs and she just tore the house up. Now that was a lot of fun
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jawbone
576 posts
Jul 20, 2015
6:16 AM
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Hey - I know Robin, sat in a couple of times. That girl gets around!! She sure knows how to work a crowd.
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If it ain't got harp - it ain't really blues!!!!
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