Tuesday, October 19, 2010

The Drummer Strangled The Bass Player


On Saturday we were meant to play at the Drunken Lass in Prescott, Arizona.

Paxton was eating his damn sushi in the bar. Like taking his own sweet time. And we were 20 minutes late starting already.

So we just started a song and I grabbed the drum stick and was hitting the snare and singing. And Steve was yelling at Paxton about what an asshole he is. I mean we all were.

And Paxton was just kinda going slower and minutes later he came toward the stage and we were like "Finally!"

But he just kept walking past and went to the bathroom. All this time we're playing.

So then he comes out of the bathroom and walks up to Steve and the stage is like 6 feet by 6 feet. Very small.

And he corners Steve and says some stuff. I'm still trying to play the song and ignore them because I'm a professional... or something.

And Paxton says something along the lines of "You need to shut the fuck up" and grabs Steve with both hands by the neck and shakes him around like a rag doll for a few seconds. Then the bouncer comes over and physically separates them. And says "We can't have that in here."

So Paxton has to leave the bar. And the 4 remaining band members, we look at each other like "What the fuck!?"

And I'm thinking "Is the band going to play ever again?"

"Are we going to play right now?"

We're 10 hours from LA. Staying at a friend's. We're 2 hours from where we're staying. We have another gig the next day 2 hours away from there.

All that happens in like 2 seconds. Next thing you know I see Jonny move over to the drum kit and Dutch starts playing "Fire, Blood & Dust" and we're off to the races again. Still not knowing what was gonna happen. With all those questions. And talking to each other off the mics as we kept playing.

Steve made it clear that he wasn't pissed about being strangled. That's like the way he and his brother say hello to each other in the morning I guess. So all was forgiven from the stage over the course of the next few songs.

And then like 20 minutes and 4 songs later. Paxton walks in the bar. And he's kinda unsure about himself it seems. Like "Is the bouncer gonna even let me back in?"

And I see him and wave him up. And he starts walking toward the stage and the crowd starts cheering. And Jonny gets up from the set and hands Paxton his sticks mid-song and everyone in the bar goes crazy nuts.

After a minute or so, I went on up to the bar and ordered 5 shots of Jameson's for the band.

And we played a bunch of new songs. And all the lyrics had all this meaning that was never there before all of a sudden. And it was an off the charts passionate fiery set.

Afterwards, our friend Ralo the booker was like, "That was rock n' roll history."

2 other points of interest:

 Paxton claims he only came back in the bar initially to get his hoodie because he was cold.

And finally, during our set our friends heard the owner of the bar saying, "There's no way I'm gonna pay them." But they actually ended up giving us a little extra.

Sedona, Prescott, Tempe

1 comment:

Zach said...

the stuff dreams are made of!

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