Strange Stage Stories

What’s the strangest thing that’s happened while on stage (or adjacent)? The latest edition of Strange Stage Stories includes tales from Jerry Raney (Beat Farmers), Ricky Giordano (Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe), Kimmi Bitter, Dave Gilbert, Pip Lewis, Nico Peters, Baron Lunbeck (Sandollar), Caleb Kaslik (Tsunami Sound Waves), and more!

Jerry Raney. Photo by Bart Mendoza.

Jerry Raney/The Beat Farmers: Eric Burdon (the Animals) ran up to me and gave me a hug at a Street Scene in Downtown San Diego, saying “Great to see you again, brother!” I’d never met him but always loved the guy. I was standing there thinking “That was cool, but what was that?” His roadie came up to me and said, “He thought you were Bob Dylan.”

Baron Lunbeck/Sandollar: At a show, we featured Sloat Dixon on a rapping part. He was over-served a bit that night at the bar. When it was time, he jumped on stage to rap and he forgot his part. I tried to cue him with the beginning of his verse, so I sang the lyrics: “Take your shoes off.” And he missed the cue. He bent down and took his shoes off, which took a couple of minutes to get the knots out. We just kept jammin’ cause no one could figure out what was happening.

Jeff Bloom/Army of Love: We opened for the Kinks in 1984 at Golden Hall. There were clear instructions to us, the opening band. Do NOT walk out on the catwalks. Those were only for the Kinks. Well, I walked out on the catwalk. The feeling was overwhelmingly “strange.” We got a big response and cheers from the audience, and a “strange” feeling of “how much trouble” am I going to get in for this.

Doah’s Daydream

Doah Lee/Doah’s Daydream: Not too many strange things, but I had couple of outfit malfunctions, ha ha. I try not to repeat that. But one thing that I do want to do is crowd surf. I’ve never done it and that will be my dream come true.

Pip Lewis: I had someone stop me when I was performing in more of a busking setting to ask me if I could change my set to sing lullabies and children’s songs to their child. I said no.

Nico Peters/63eatles, the Baja Bugs: The Baja Bugs (Beatles cover band) played a New Year’s Party at the Fleet Reserve Veterans Club in Imperial Beach. Lots of people, food, fun, and DRINKING! As we were playing after ringing in the New Year, two women were in front of the stage and pointing at me, blowing kisses and yelling “Ringo! Ringo!” Because I was concentrating on playing and not acknowledging these women, one of them then really yelled “Hey Ringo!,” lifted her blouse and totally flashed her breasts! Needless to say, that shocked me, but I kept on playing like nothing happened although my bandmates were looking at me and laughing as they continued playing. We were able to finish the song, but it took a few minutes to regain composure! After the gig, I was approached by this lovely lady who had plans to “Ring in the New Year with Ringo,” but I declined, bursting her bubble by dropping the G-Bomb: “Sorry lady, I’m Gay.” And in “The End,” I left her in “Misery.”

Kimmi Bitter: The strangest thing that happened to Willis (guitarist) and me while on stage was right before our set at a real divey bar in Denver. An older lady announced to the entire bar we should all get naked. Then she came up on the stage and took off every single piece of clothing. This was during a really mellow, duo acoustic set, by the way. Then she got kicked out and the show went on. I would say that was pretty strange.

Chris Leyva/Falling Doves: It was back in my early days in Blizzard. There was this club on El Cajon Blvd called the Shamrock Shack where this guy stabbed someone in front of us and ran down the street to this other place where we were pulling double duty. I can’t remember the name of that other place but it’s where Soda Bar is now called Chasers. The guy actually showed up to watch our second set, and I remember the cops showing up and seeing us as they arrested him, and they looked at us suspiciously.

Tsunami Sound Waves

Caleb Kaslik/Tsunami Sound Waves: People have come up to grab the mic. We don’t condone this, our singer almost chipped a tooth, but, hey, sometimes you’re just feeling the music and need to rock out.

Dave Gilbert/Dave Gilbert Band, Touchy Subjects: Years ago, my band Touchy Subjects was playing a show at the Spirit Club and a couple of gals in the audience were pretty inebriated or on something, who knows? As we were setting up, they kept putting a chair on the stage where I was supposed to stand, sing, and play my guitar. So, I kept moving the chair off stage and back to the floor. Once we took the stage and started playing one of them walked up to me and threw a full glass of water in my face. I made the comment to the audience that I was just glad that it wasn’t battery acid!

Ricky Giordano/Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe: Of all the things, maybe the one that caught me off guard most is when the City of San Diego reps crashed a show at Belly Up to present my current boss, Karl Denson with a plaque, officially declaring February 17 as Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe Day in San Diego. The dude has his own freakin’ holiday!?! Honestly, I couldn’t think of a more deserving local legend. He plays with the Rolling Stones (yes, with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards), the Greyboy Allstars, Slightly Stoopid, and Lenny Kravitz, also played with the late Phil Lesh and leads his own band, the Ageless Wonder, the Diesel. All of that, and he’s the most humble rock star you’ll ever meet. So yeah, the plaque was crazy.

Sppike Mike Muellenberg/The Spice Pistols, League of Liars: 13 years ago when League of Liars played the San Diego County Fair’s Paddock Stage. I did a deep squat during the gig and ripped my pants from front to back! True story!