Have any of you gigged in some rough places?

[Blooby]

Just curious.  John and I have a unique opportunity to play in a situation that could quite possibly morph into the sequel to Roadhouse.

Blooby

[kenny mac]

Haaaaaaaa, where do I start....Im from Glagow,one time a guy told me,"son you are a great band but play that song again and ill torch your cars(the song will remain nameless but it obviously struck a chord with him),another time we played a gig with a barrier in front of us which at the time rang a few alarm bells,we got a return booking only to be called up the following week to be cancelled by the owners saying, "That's the third guitarist to have his guitar taken from him and smashed so we are not doing anymore bands,and there I was the week before playing my cherished 90s Gibson les paul,I've also had a barrage of fights while we played away,one springs to mind,we were playing a place for the 5th time and every time there had been a fight,we got to the last song and thought yeh home safe then to the strain of wonderfull tonight we stood and watched a battle  unfold,when I played the last note they had finished lol.   SHOWBIZ

[Farrell Jackson]

Yeah I've played in a few rough dives over the years......mainly in my younger years when I didn't have any sense. I've seen fights unfold and then they fall into the band stage. All you can do at that point is to kick them off and hope you don't have to swing your good axe at them. We once played a place that had a fence in front of the bandstand. I thought it was to keep us from falling off the stage but it was to keep the brawlers off the stage, lol.

We've been in places where we didn't dare refuse requests from the burly customers...wherther we knew the song or not, lol! Yeah I've played my share of rough joints.

Good luck with it Blooby....

Farrell

[pjd1]

Hi blooby  interesting thread , I have played in many rough places over the years , I did learn any sign of trouble les Paul goes straight in the case ASAP , but the worst situation for me was the " can I play your guitar" by some drunken tossa ! my answer was always no , but got me into some scrapes , I started looking at the venu and took maybe a copy guitar just in case of any trouble or nut cases , we learnt as a band that the dodgy places just we not worth the effort, so we just stopped playing them .

Good luck blobby

Paul

[tom r]

Hi I played a gig once and a group of hells angels came in. Half way through our second set one on them pulled off what was a false leg and threw it at me.
Apparently they liked us . God knows what they'd do if they thought we were shit?

[bruno]

Hi blooby  interesting thread , I have played in many rough places over the years , I did learn any sign of trouble les Paul goes straight in the case ASAP , but the worst situation for me was the " can I play your guitar" by some drunken tossa ! my answer was always no , but got me into some scrapes , I started looking at the venu and took maybe a copy guitar just in case of any trouble or nut cases , we learnt as a band that the dodgy places just we not worth the effort, so we just stopped playing them .

Good luck blobby

Paul

Strangers asking to borrow guitars - I friggin' hate that. Had this lots at open mikes - I always said no, unless I knew and trusted the person. But strangers, no way - they would go off and sulk, but that's tough sh*t. I've seen to many guitars dropped to let that happen to one of my babies! I always think that an instrument is to be played, and not put on a pedestal, however it makes you want to bring the crap instruments rather than the nice ones - which kinda defeats the purpose of having nice instruments.

I did play a gig in a pub in Pusey, in Wiltershire - that was really rough and really odd at the same time. Skinheads standing right in front of the singer, staring at him. But we did a version of Jail House Rock, that seemed to mellow everybody. Glad to get out of there!

B

[Blooby]

Hi I played a gig once and a group of hells angels came in. Half way through our second set one on them pulled off what was a false leg and threw it at me.
Apparently they liked us . God knows what they'd do if they thought we were shit?

Good one.

[Vanncad]

My band played a biker bar when I was still in highschool.
It was Monday to Wednesday night gig (aka "front-ender"), and I had to get up and go to school each morning.
Our lead guitar player ended up staying with a stripper - but that's another story. 

One thing I learned was to always keep these three songs in your back pocket no matter what:

• "Born to be Wild" (Stepenwolf)
• "Bad Motor Scooter" (Montrose), and
• "Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers" (ZZ Top).

We played those three songs, and we never had any problems with those guys.

[tom r]

At the time I was playing comedy country n western music as a duo called the tombstone asskickers (see YouTube) so steppin wolf wasn't on the set list :-)

[chip]

All our gigs are in rough pubs/clubs, wouldn't have it any other way. We play this Friday at a bikers rally ( indoors).

I did have someone try and knife me once, a girl no less, I think she got a bit jealous, in the end she threw a bottle then got attacked herself and eventually was thrown out the bar. We did a makeshift gig at a Stonehenge festival, now that was rough, everyday someone had ODD and died, drugs galore, hells angels, kids driving cars and I mean kids, you name it... I just love playing dangerous places. Strange that, because we occasionally rehearse in a Church! Far out indeed.