smoke filled place you ever played..

Terry Kinnear · From: Erie ,Pennsylvania

The worst place , smoke wise ,we ever played was an american legion, to towns away. we got there , to play, we had to set up by back door. the smoke was so bad. everybody in the place was smoking. nobody in the place , let one go out, unless one was lite. Everybody had a cigrette ,even the mice, had one .we took a break, I went out the back door. a trail of smoke followed me out.I was afraid, that someone would think i was on fire , and try to put me out.On the way home i kept the window down.I got home. stripped down to my bvd . went in the hose, took a shower.before going to bed. the next day , i had such a headache, all day long. they liked our music , and want us back.. next time, im taking my only fan. ahhh hhhaa.Tk
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Terry Kinnear [ steel wondering]

Jim Peters · From: St. Louis, Missouri, USA, R.I.P.

The Shanty in Soulard, or the old Mike and Minn's in Soulard, St. Louis. Smoke on the equipment for 2 weeks. JP
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Charles Davidson · From: Phenix City Alabama, USA

I guess the most smoke filled place I play is my music room at home,That keeps me immune from all the smokey honky-tonks.DYKBC.
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Hard headed, opinionated old geezer. BAMA CHARLIE. GOD BLESS AMERICA. ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVIST. SUPPORT LIVE MUSIC !

Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

Where do I start? A bunch of the downtown basement dives during the semester are full of chain-smoking students drinking directly out of pitchers of beer. On a big night - Penn State football game or something like that - the air is so thick with smoke that there have been plenty of times I couldn't see to the other end of the room, and we're not talking about huge rooms. One night I showed up with a gas mask - got a big laugh.

When I play these kind of places - which is getting pretty rare anymore, by my choice - my get-home-from-the-gig routine is to come in through the downstairs, leave all my clothes in the laundry room, don a bathrobe, and make straight for the shower at 3-4am.

I have certain guitars and amps that I take into such places. Let's just say that they have that "nicely weathered and nicotined out" look to them. Why would anybody need Fender to relic out a Tele? They could have just given them to me and let me play it with my rockabilly band for 6 months, and voila - instant relic. Wink

Doug Beaumier · From: Northampton, MA

I hear ya, Dave! I played 7 nights a week for several years in a hazy smoke filled place, so thick you could cut it with a knife. That's what I went through in the 1980s, playing in two house bands. Thankfully those days are over! Everything smelled like smoke, my clothes, my hair, and my guitar and amp were badly nicotine stained. Never again.
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Harry Dietrich · From: Robesonia, Pennsylvania, USA, R.I.P.

Actually nicotine is a clear liquid...it's the tars that do the staining.

Happy picking

Harry Confused

Jim Walker · From: Headland, AL

I'm just wondering how many more of these posts there will be. I'm getting pretty tired of hearing you same ole' non smokers gripe about smoky clothes, gear etc. etc. Enough already! This is the steel forum.. Not the non smoking forum.

Get over it!

JW

Antolina · From: Dunkirk NY

Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

So far, there have been no arguments here on the pro or con smoking-in-clubs issue - the thread is about descriptions of the current scene in various places. That is quite different.

IMO - if forum members want to talk about this - unless b0b says otherwise, it should be open to discussion. I think it's in the right section, since it affects many steel players, and other musicians for that matter. It's a very simple matter to avoid this type of thread if you don't want to be involved. Of course, discussion should stay civilized, and so far it has.

Harry - you're right, it's the tar. But most people I know still describe their tobacco-stained guitars as "nicotine-stained". A perfect example of a "nonsense correlation". I spent all my summers in the mid-late 60s working on a tobacco farm in Western Massachusetts. The tar builds up heavily on the hands when picking tobacco. I'm sure Doug knows all those tobacco farms in Hadley and Hatfield, Mass, most of which are farming other things now. My old boss moved on a long time ago.

Barry Blackwood · Posted 5 Jan 2008 9:55 am

Amen, Jim W.! The answer seems simple - non-smokers, don't book gigs in known 'smokehouses'.....

Tommy Minniear · From: Logansport, Indiana

I agree with what Jim Walker stated above.

I don't like having to smell men that have bathed in some cheap after shave or cologne, but I never turned a gig down because of it. (For some reason women's cheap perfume or cologne has never bothered me... Wink

).

Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

Bill Dobkins · From: Rolla Missouri, USA

Ramada Inn,St Robert Mo. I'm a non smoker but have serious damage to my lungs from second hand smoke.
Especially my left, so therefore I had to quit playing music after passing out on stage one nite and ending up in ICU.
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Antolina · From: Dunkirk NY

Eddie Cunningham · From: Massachusetts, USA

Back in the 60's I played with the Chisholm Bros. in a small smoky club, the Stockade Club. The bass player , Chuck Hodgdons, used to do that song "Smoke, smoke, smoke that cigarette" and one night he brought a smoke bomb in and placed it in his ash tray. As he did the song he lit up the bomb and that place filled with smoke like you couldn't believe !! You couldn't see two feet ahead and you couldn't breathe !! They had to vacate the club and it took half an hour to get the toxic smoke out !! He never did that song again !! Eddie "C" ( the old non-pedal geezer )

Colm Chomicky · From: Kansas, (Prairie Village)

Hey Dave,
Your description of the basement places is extremely accurate because that is where I have seen you play! Let me apologize that I might have been one of those people drinking directly out of a pitcher -- I sometimes regress back to my old college days when I am on vacation.

Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

Hey Colm - drink away right out of that pitcher. I must be finally indoctrinated, 'cause I found myself doing that last week at our CD release at Zeno's. Yep, it's a Penn State thing. Smile

I was just trying to describe the scene as accurately as I could.

Charles Davidson · From: Phenix City Alabama, USA

Dave is right,keep it CIVIL,why can't ANYTHING be discussed without getting nasty,about a year ago there was a post about the correct way to tune a steel guitar,turned into a name calling venom filled post by some famous and not so famous pickers,Think about it,is that not STUPID!!I tune my guitar the way that works for me,The big E does the same,if it's different SO WHAT,I am a smoker,when I,m on a smoking gig I smoke,if I'm on a non-smoking gig I don't[I smoke outside on break]I feel the same way about drinking[I don't,never have,never will]BUT if I had decided to not work anywhere that served alcohol,I would have had a short-lived musical career,Someone mentioned perfume,I played an American Legion one time that EVERY Sat night this old geezette that wore the most foul smelling perfume on the planet[must have paid 99 cents a gallon for it at Dollar General]When she would dance by the bandstand it would gag you[[would make a tumble bug run for cover]worse than any cig,or cigar smoke believe me.DYKBC.
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Dale Hansen · From: Hendersonville,Tennessee, (USA)

I've played alot of clubs, pubs, and joints, where the smoke was so thick, you had to wave out a path to see where you were.
That wasn't ever so bad though.

The worst thing I ever remember, was one time when somebody had emptied a half a cannister of pepper spray in a relatively small bar. Naturally, that set off a stampede for the door, which subsequently became inextricably sealed off; caused by too many Rubenesque (big) Navajo girls with a poor sense of order, and timing. We (the band)were all trapped like a fart in a mitten, behind an iron rail mounted to bandstand.
I wanted to gouge my eyes out with a spoon.

After that incident, the club owner made a change in policy, in the way of discounting the fat girls one dollar off of the cover charge, in exchange for allowing the doorman to coat their hips with Crisco.

Michael Johnstone · From: Sylmar,Ca. USA

I was playing at The Crest in Reseda about 14 years ago and there was a faux 3 rail ranch fence around the bandstand with tables right up against the other side of the railing on either side of the bandstand.One night some old drunk broad with ridiculous long red fingernails was at the table up against the railing right next to me with her hand dangling over the rail with a lit cigarette in it. After informing her nicely a couple times that she was violating my airspace,she flicked the ash in my direction and I finally stood up,snatched that nasty thing,put it out in her martini,sat back down and continued playing Achey Breaky Heart.
I used to play guitar in top 40 bands in joints in Washington DC in the late 60s/early 70s like Benny's Rebel Room,The Hayloft,The Butterfly,The Keg,The Bayou,The Silver Dollar and a dozen others where the smoke hung near the ceiling like a 5 foot thick cloud and they would have some kind of smoke eating machine which looked like an air conditioner or heater mounted near the ceiling that would make this loud snapping,crackling sound like those electric insect zappers.I never saw that it was getting rid of much smoke though. All my stage clothes and the lining in all my guitar cases smelled like smoke for years.It's good that smoking indoors is illegal nowadays and that smokers are few and far between.I'm glad to see it's happening in Europe now too.

Bill Dobkins · From: Rolla Missouri, USA

I think that instead of outlawing smoking in bars ect. the owners should have to invest in a really good exaust system. I have played in places with a good exaust system and never noticed the smoke at all. With me its a genetic thing. Smoke of any kind really chokes me up.
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Custom Rittenberry SD10
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Honor our Vet's.
Now pass the gravy.

Tamara James · Posted 5 Jan 2008 2:11 pm

Paul Wade · From: mundelein,ill

late 80's i played at two place's in waukegan ,ill &Winthrop
harbor ill Clark's lounge and friendly's tavern. they had to be the worst for smoke filled place's i had ever played at... Whoa!

p.w

Bill Hatcher · From: Atlanta Ga. USA

Used to play a place that specialized in fondue (sp?). Anyway imagine on a busy night dozens of these little pots of grease on each table with folks cooking all sorts of junk in them. Worst greasy messy air you could imagine. Clothes stunk like that grease, I would have to hang my tux outside all day long for it to air out.

Barry Blackwood · Posted 5 Jan 2008 3:43 pm

"The answer seems simple ..."

I knew there would be no simple answer here on the forum, therefore my use of the word 'seems.' Muttering

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