This past Saturday night my band SLIGHTLY OFFENSIVE played @ Jameson's (Joliet). We played here back on 10/30/10 for Halloween & it was a BLAST!!! This night started even FASTER than the last one. After we set up we found out that the monitors didn't work even though they worked fine on Wed night at practice...Murphy's Law coming into play I guess. So we just pigeon toed in the PA speakers and played like that. From the first song we played we had a group of girls singing along and dancing. Man, this is EASY!!! 8) This group of girls came in ready to PARTY TONIGHT & their energy was contagious and it spread throughout the rest of the crowd. I could see people on the other side of the bar singing along, people calling/texting their friends telling them to come out, I had a girl come up to me on my side of the stage requesting “No Doubtâ€, “No problemâ€...we were ROCKIN' the place!!! :D We finished the second set and the house music came on and dance floor stayed PACKED!!! I walked around and visited my friends and my dad (who is 82 and uses a walker) was sitting in a booth by the door where patrons go out to smoke. ALL the young cute girls were coming by and “fist bumping†him on the way out. He didn't understand it but I told him it's a “sign of affectionâ€, he just went with it. He also had one girl grinding her butt on him, sitting in his lap and messing up his hair. :shock: He was having a GREAT TIME too. :D
So we started the 2nd set with Poison's “Every Rose†then into Bon Jovi's “Wanted Dead or Alive†& EVERYONE is singing along w/us. AWESOME, THIS IS WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO!!! :D Then we started playing Buckcherry and 2 guys started fighting on the dance floor...then 6 bouncers jump in and the 2 guys are in headlocks, the owner signals to the waitress near the stage to tell us to stop playing. She signals the drummer and we stop. From this point...we stand on stage for 20min...no music...no house music, nothing. There's a group of people involved in the scuffle and the bouncers TALKING for 20min about WHY they should not be kicked out of the bar and its now “all goodâ€. Well, they wound up staying and I wish they would've just taken them to the back room to discuss because that group of girls that were SO ENERGIZED...left (UGH). :x The vibe in the WHOLE room just changed for the worse. We went from (100%) to like (45%) in 20min. We entertained the rest of the crowd just fine and it still was fun but the 2nd half just wasn't the same... Last time we couldn't take our gear off the stage until 3am...this time that wasn't an issue at 1:30am. I guess word (both good & bad) gets around quickly. The club liked us and I'm sure we'll be asked back again soon, but hopefully next time we don't have this kind of issue. First time I've ever had a fight break out & I talked to both the guitar player and drummer and they both said they've had some break out but they hadn't had one that killed the vibe like it did Sat night. Usually they have the “fighters†subdued and thrown out within minutes before anyone knows what's going on. Oh well...:(
Pics will be up soon on my Facebook page (Tom McLaughlin) & on MySpace (Tommy Gunz) and I'm sure they will be up soon on the band's Facebook page “Rock Slightly Offensive Band†& at slightlyoffensiveband.com. Also check us out on MySpace too!!!
Next Gig is THIS SATURDAY!!! 3/5/11 – Mugshots (7536 S 103rd St, Bridgeview IL). A NEW ROOM FOR US !!! :D
Ambition is the path to success...persistence is the vehicle you arrive in!!!
well, that bites.
Sounds like the bouncers didn't do anyone any favors. (you, the rest of the crowd, or the bar that pays them)
I wrapped a newspaper ’round my head
So I looked like I was deep
Yea defintely sux big time. I'm suprised that everything stopped like that. As many times as I've been in bars when I fight broke out I've never seen the music stop for that long no wonder it was a buzz kill.
And the bouncers let them stay too?
"It's all about stickin it to the man!"
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll!
Yes, I couldn't believe they sat there and pleaded thier cases with the staff on the dance floor. Totally killed the party vibe and after we started playing again it was "ok" but as you can imagine, it pretty much sucked the air out of the room. We were trying to play through it but with all the hand signalling going on you could really tell they wanted us to stop. Who knows, it (the fight) could've been more serious than we thought from the stage. But thankfully it wasn't. Next time we play there I'll be sure to tell security that if it happens again to take the perps out of the room so we don't repeat that again.
Ambition is the path to success...persistence is the vehicle you arrive in!!!
Next time we play there I'll be sure to tell security that if it happens again to take the perps out of the room so we don't repeat that again.
Hopefully the bar manager already beat it into their heads. I'm guessing the bartenders lost a fair bit of sales due to the bouncers poor handling of the incident.
And booze sales is what it's all about, isn't it.
I wrapped a newspaper ’round my head
So I looked like I was deep
Good point Kent, & YES...boose sales IS what its all about. Thats why I'm confident we'll get called back because they had GREAT sales going on up until that point. I saw lots of waitresses with trays of shots passing by us for the first half of the night...could've fueled on the fight too.
Ambition is the path to success...persistence is the vehicle you arrive in!!!
Eek - that sounds like a nightmare! I guess not much you could to under the circumstances, hope the bouncers handle it better next time...
