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Alright, it's time for me to start a thread (work can wait). I just ran sound this weeken for a show for the first time in about 6 months... I needed a break from working a fulltime day job and running sound 2 nights every weekend. The show went great but it got me thinking about all of the strange / funny / awkward situations I run into while working and/or playing shows. So I'll start it off...

A few years back I was running a bluegrass / jam show at the bar I've worked at for the past 5 years. One of the bands, a bluegrass band, were just into their 2nd song when two undercover cops came back to the soundbooth.

Cops: "How much longer until this band is done with their set?"
Me: " They just started and it should be about a 45 minute set."
Cops: "We can't wait that long, we need to talk to <insert band member> as soon as possible. The bartender said that you have a mic that you can talk to the band onstage. Could you let them know that we need them to take a break?
Me: "I'll go talk to them after this song is done" (obviously I didn't want to announce over the whole set of stage monitors that the cops were here to talk to <insert band member>

When the song ended I ran up to the stage and told the particular band member that the cops were here and needed to talk to him now. He gave me the "holy shit" glassy eyed stare, put down his instrument and took off out of the backstage door. Turns out there were two more cops waiting out that door assuming he'd run. So he was arrested and hauled off and the rest of the band was left to figure out how they were going to fill 30 more minutes.

It is the only time I've had someone get arrested while they were in the middle of playing a show.

So... any stories? I've got plenty more (it's rarely boring working shows) but I'd love to hear other stories. Sorry if this topic has come up before... I searched but didn't find anything.

Good topic! One time, I was playing a show in a tiny garage, and people kept running into my amp while moshing around. It got to the point where they were knocking it back further and further, so my roommate and I kept pushing them back (me, with my bass while playing). When our first song finally ended, I apparently (I don't recall ever saying this) held my bass over my head and screamed "IF ANY OF YOU MOTHERFUCKERS RUN INTO MY AMP ONE MORE TIME, I WILL BLUDGEON YOU TO DEATH WITH THIS". We played the rest of the set, and everyone stayed away from my amp for the rest of the show. One guy who lived there came up to me after and said "Hey, you like, threatened to kill me in my own house. That's not cool, man." I just said "Well, you should have stayed the fuck away from my amp".

Seiji from Guitar Wolf kicked whiskey in my face and then hauled some guy on stage to play guitar. The guy didn't know what he was doing and I was like,"God damn it, I could do this better while drunk!"

because threats of violence are fine everywhere else?

playing a show with my old sludge band a few years back we hit into a REALLY slow REALLY heavy song, nearly drone speeds and this girl walks up infront of the stage, it was not a very full show, and slowly with a dead look on her face starts taking her clothes off. Boots, shirt, stockings, bra and right there, on the fucking filthy floor, starts masturbating. like really going at it. our drummer stops probably 5 times in a 9 minute song but we finished and so did she. she then picked up her clothes and walked out the room. came back about an hour later. watched the rest of the show....
i always thought she was on acid or something...

it was weird

... That's awesome...

Gozu wrote:because threats of violence are fine everywhere else?

Dude, it's my amp.

Gozu wrote:because threats of violence are fine everywhere else?

playing a show with my old sludge band a few years back we hit into a REALLY slow REALLY heavy song, nearly drone speeds and this girl walks up infront of the stage, it was not a very full show, and slowly with a dead look on her face starts taking her clothes off. Boots, shirt, stockings, bra and right there, on the fucking filthy floor, starts masturbating. like really going at it. our drummer stops probably 5 times in a 9 minute song but we finished and so did she. she then picked up her clothes and walked out the room. came back about an hour later. watched the rest of the show....
i always thought she was on acid or something...

it was weird

HA! Fantastic.

Let's see, next on the list. At the club I currently run sound at we have a door right next to the sound booth that is technically an emergency exit but during the warmer months we will usually open it to get the 100 degrees of drunk man heat (and smell) out of the bar and let a little cool air in. This door leads directly out to the front sidewalk and street which happens to be the main college bar street in town so it gets pretty busy on the weekends. I've done this for every type of music and even with the super loud metal nights I have never had a problem with it. That was until last summer when Aen's band, The Ronald Raygun, was playing. Door opened and not more than 5 minutes later a cop walked up and told me I had to close the door because it was way too loud on the street.

theavondon wrote:

Gozu wrote:because threats of violence are fine everywhere else?

Dude, it's my amp.

oh yeah i get that! i'd be the same. what i found amusing was that the guy was like 'in MY house!' as if he'd be fine with it at the supermarket

Gozu wrote:

theavondon wrote:

Gozu wrote:because threats of violence are fine everywhere else?

Dude, it's my amp.

oh yeah i get that! i'd be the same. what i found amusing was that the guy was like 'in MY house!' as if he'd be fine with it at the supermarket

hahahahah, well, yeah, he was kinda a bro. I think he's fine with the threats being given, but not received.

prob the most recent was playing a bandito club members bachelor party as a hired band

there were like gonorrhea pussy strippers, drugs, booze and fights
and they made us play for 3 hours straight, it was like playing with a gun in my back


or that time i got arrested for hitting the lead singer.......

back in 1975 i went to see Jackson Browne at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago, which if you aren't familiar with it is a 1890s hall designed for unamplified performance which thus has excellent acoustics for the un-miced human voice. Bonnie Raitt opened, and as part of her set trundled through her version of Jackson's "Under The Falling Sky." after Browne took the stage, i hollered for "Under The Falling Sky." Jack replied "didn't Bonnie play that?" my response, which drew a fair amount of laughter from the packed house, was "well, in a manner of speaking..."

and then there was the Radiohead show at Shoreline Amphitheatre, i think it was in 2001...i'd arranged to meet a fellow there who i knew from an online forum, and we were spliffing wildly at my seat while the Beta Band played when an usher interrupted us sternly and said "YOU CAN'T DO THAT HERE..." and as we looked at each other in glum disappointment she continued "...you'll have to go over THERE" and pointed to a patch of concrete delineated with painted lines as a Smoking Area like they used to have in the high-school parking lot. we cracked up so hard that we could hardly walk to the designated area, and enjoyed additional aerobic content with our spliffage.

very, very, VERY drunk guitarist from Party Line needing to take a piss, getting a pint glass, putting it in her pants, filling it nearly to the brim without any spillage or drippage, putting it down on the stage and then proceeding to play the rest of the set.


Band wasn't that great but they were hilarious.