How do you deal with weird punters

fastonebaz

At the gig tonight there were some colourful punters for sure.  One weirdo looked like a skinny mr Bean who hadn't washed for a month and kept standing really close, just a few inches in front of our singer just kind of staring at her like a staring competition.  It was awkward,  no trouble though, no touching or aggression.  How do you all deal with that sort of thing? 

Objective = avoid punters getting too close to the musicians in a pub gig. 

merlin

This post is asking for trouble...

Revolting1

I've found out wierding them works well

             

GoldenEraGuitars

I’m not sure I understand what the issue is? You’ve basically said someone (that you didn’t like the overall look of) “looked” at the singer. How close was he? 

fandango

Is she an amazing looking sexy 30-something with a great voice, and you left out the bit that all the males in the audience were staring at her? 

p90fool

fandango said:

Is she an amazing looking sexy 30-something with a great voice, and you left out the bit that all the males in the audience were staring at her? 

This pretty well describes our singer, and some guys stand less than a foot away, staring at her, kind of sneering and trying to provoke a reaction. 

They just do it to impress their mates, which evaporates when I punch them in the throat. 

We always start friendly, smiling at their "banter", then ask the door staff to deal with it. If none of that works it's red mist time for me I'm afraid. 

One guy waved his cock at her a few weeks ago, he won't do that again. 

Sorry to be blunt, but those punters kill the atmosphere anyway, and things soon lighten up again usually. The one exception was when we threw one guy out for grabbing her mic out of her hand his mates booed us for about 20 minutes, until everyone else in the pub (who were all dancing) told them to fuck off. 

Nip it in the bud early, with violence if appropriate. 

Winny_Pooh

^ punched a guy in the throat? 

Just be careful of the implications...









If you're shagging her, then the drummer almost certainly is too. 

fastonebaz

p90fool 

One guy waved his cock at her a few weeks ago, he won't do that again. 

Not had that before lol 

p90fool

Winny_Pooh said:

^ punched a guy in the throat? 

Just be careful of the implications...









If you're shagging her, then the drummer almost certainly is too. 

I'm aware of the implications, I'm not shagging her, and the drummer's my wife!

pintspiller

Thankfully none of the band's I've been in have had anything like that. On one occasion a chap was dancing real close but he was just enjoying himself and I guess the girls were in control all along.

Another notable gig was where there may have been three separate fist fights while we played. Bouncers seemed to have it all under control and we only stopped on one occasion.

fastonebaz

Our singer : 

fastonebaz

I was mainly wondering if mark up some kind of tape barrier on the floor like a "do not cross" type thing or have mic stands with a boom that sticks out or any tricks of the trade that might work. I was thinking a taser might be handy. 

VimFuego

I'm a folky, the whole audience is, at best, weird. 

p90fool

Unfortunately your singer's looks will make her a bit of a creep magnet, same problem with our two. 

http://i63.tinypic.com/22ffy1.jpg

The bass player and I are extremely protective of our singers, and can't figure out why the creeps are so surprised when we slap down any dickishness. 

The boom stand idea is risky, singers can lose teeth when the drunks career into them. I do make barriers out of cases sometimes if there's no stage, but make sure your PLI is well up to date - if a pisshead trips while trying to wrestle the mic out of a singer's hand they WILL sue you. 

Tasers are probably a bit dodge, but we are seriously considering a pepper spray of some sort. 

Jimbro66

^^ Do you take that iron railing to every gig? It looks like a pretty effective way of keeping the weirdos off

p90fool

Jimbro66 said:

^^ Do you take that iron railing to every gig? It looks like a pretty effective way of keeping the weirdos off

We should actually steal that town's bandstand, I'm sure we're the only band who's used it in the last 80 years!

kennedydream1980

The singer in my band is really adept at dealing with folk like this.

He either ignores them as once they realise they aren’t getting any kind of reaction they will walk away. Or if he feels they are invading his space/standing too close he will shove them forcefully away. That’s normally enough to stop this sort of behaviour in its tracks.

It probably helps that he’s 6ft 3 and about 19 stone. 

Lebarque

fastonebaz said:

Our singer : 

Couldn't really see her. Some prick with a guitar was in the way.

fastonebaz

Lebarque said:

fastonebaz said:

Our singer : 

Couldn't really see her. Some prick with a guitar was in the way.

Haha very good @Lebarque ;

dindude

fastonebaz said:

Our singer : 

You employ a lady to dance to your guitar-blazing?

Do you also have a singer? 

WiresDreamDisasters

p90fool said:

They just do it to impress their mates, which evaporates when I punch them in the throat. 

Things that never happened!