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Just thought I'd share my experience last night. We were overly crowded as the hotel where our Tuesday night gig is at took in 80 railroad workers last minute. I was called before I got there to be ready for a packed house etc. I would estimate that 50 of them were in the bar drinking....heavily....all night. My regulars (the younger ones) stayed most of the night, but the older ones bugged our pretty early. Now I have 2 rules I stick to without exception, and they are "NO beverages on stage and NO cigarets on stage". It's 4 minuets of your life, you can manage. We have 2 QSC KW 153's on stands and 1 K12 as a floor monitor. Having drinks splashed &/or spilled onto or into them is something I will not stand for. Blowing cigaret smoke into the mic offends a lot of people so leave it on your table. I finally said "if I have to say leave your drinks off the stage one more time I'm shutting down". UGH....not to mention they started to get 10-15 people on stage to sing and dance at once. Bumping into everything I might add..So again, I had to limit it to 4 people..Of course getting bitched at etc. One guy was even kicking at my K12...I quickly corrected his action.
And yes, the inevitable fight broke out too....what fun. As there is not a bouncer, just female bartenders and my boss, who is also female (and her husband happened to be there thank God) I had to play Bouncer....Pulling people apart, escorting out of the building and warning that everyone was going to leave and if one more occurrence a ride in a police car.
I have never been more happy to be done with a gig in my life

you should have called the police on the first fight.... you just let them know what they can get away with.....

me personally i would have just shut down for the night, my equipment is not worth keeping the job. and if the bar can't respect that then it's time to find a new bar.

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It's all good!

You just listed about 10 reasons I no longer do public karaoke shows. Thanks for reminding me.

Had something similar happen recently and it was so unexpected and not characteristic of that venue that I really didn't have a plan for it. Guess I do, now.

It is one of those things where it is fine to say what you should have done afterwards but at the time it is as if you are fighting for your life. I had some "new drinkers" get too into it all and start swinging the mic stands around which I had to pry from their hands and substitute inflatable guitars. But then they decided they liked my announcing mic and were trying to pull it off the table and it only has a very short cord--they were about to pull off the mixer and perhaps some of what was attached to it. I had one hand on the mic and one on the mixer and was yelling in the mic for a bouncer but I couldn't slip my hand down the mixer to turn off the music and the owner couldn't hear me. The threat was enough to make them stop, though.

I thought later, why didn't I turn the music off first thing but at the time I just grabbed what was about to go flying off the table. The people had been behaving up until then. They just hit the tipping point of too much to drink and the song they were doing really got them revved up and they just went berserk.

For some KJs........that's just the usual night.....

Yeah, we haven't heard from The Cheese in a while, have we? And I always got a kick reading about how Bill W would have to take his books out to the back yard after each show to hose off the vomit. I just usually don't get booked for those kinds of things.

I wouldn't accept that type of gig to begin with. You have to get a feel for the bar rep before accepting a job.

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Yup. I do one public show and that is only because I like the bar, staff & patrons and have been there since the early days of my business.
Private party's are the vast bulk of my shows as well, not to mention that they pay twice as much as a bar.

My first gig - the one I have for a year and a half - had a few nights like this. I worked there mostly to get my foot in the door, get experience, and as a favor to the bar manager who is one of my wife's best friends. I am by no means a goody two shoes, but i generally reserve foul language during karaoke for any songs I sing that may contain it. On more than one occasion I ended up in F-Bomb battles with patrons at this place though. Fortunately for me, things never escalated to anything more than me escorting folks out of the bar.

I guess one advantage of being 6'3" and 250lbs is people thinking they just have a bouncer running the karaoke show. Can't wait until I start my tattoo sleeve to round out the look

-Chris

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-Chris

sweet!!!

i wish i was 6'3", but at almost 6' and 250 lbs i don't get much crap either of course i have an attitude when it comes to my equipment and my singers know it...

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It's all good!

I should note that the two who were fighting were escorted out. I did warn that anymore like action of ANY sort would be dealt with by Johnny Law. However, I did learn A LOT that night about crowd control and my equipment.
This was an unusual event as I stated, this place is normally a joy to work at and the people are great. Out of towners messed up the night

In the State of Michigan, a local municipality has a great deal of say as to whether or not a liquor license should be renewed. Every year, the State invites the municipality's input as to whether or not a liquor license should be renewed.

One of the biggest reasons why a liquor license doesn't get renewed is because the municipality doesn't support it due to the number of 911 calls. So, many bar owners instruct their staff not to call the police unless absolutely, positively necessary.

It is actually kind of sad that it is like this - I've seen people take brutal beatings because the bartender wouldn't call the police, or took way to long to do so. I've even seen people so sh!t-faced and belligerent that they get cut off and kicked out - and they drive off. I have to believe that if that person was causing trouble and drove off that there is almost a moral obligation to call the police to protect innocent parties on the road from the drunk, and to protect the drunk from himself. Just doesn't happen that way - not here anyways.

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I'm not a cheerleader, but I paid for my pom poms with my own money!

I think that happens at many bars in many states. The more 'police' calls they get, the more likely the liquor control board is going to be on their butts. Which is why many bars try to deal with problems in house first and police as a last resort.

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Iowa, yep.

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KingBing Entertainment C'mon Up! I have a song for you!!! [font=MS Sans Serif][/font]

Florida is the same......some bars have both male and female bouncers as well

Athena

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"Integrity is choosing your thoughts, words and actions based on your principles and values rather than for your personal gain."
Unknown
"if a man has integrity, nothing else matters, If a man has no integrity, nothing else matters."
Lee McGuffey

Look at you go, Athena - with all those quotes from Albert Einstein. It is rare that a KJ/DJ really knows anything about Einstein and his massive contributions to the world, let alone be willing and/or able to quote him.

If you, by chance, watch Ancient Aliens, you would be the most ideal woman ever.

Ever.

And yes, I did digress. And, I apologize to those of you who care enough to be mad.

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I'm not a cheerleader, but I paid for my pom poms with my own money!

Nah, I love that show!

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!