Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Don't Tread

We had a fairly busy metal night at the venue. These nights usually start with rejecting many underage kids and keeping a few fake Ids at the door. Honestly, we don't care if it's your sisters ID or your brothers. They can get them back from which ever state they are issued from.

That's right kids, even if it's real but not you we take them away. I'm sure we've made some mistakes somewhere along the line but if you look that much different than your ID then you need to get a new one anyways.

The night went fairly well. There weren't a lot of trouble makers in the crowd. The night went by pretty good. Then came the second to last band out of the five. They've played the venue a few times and each time theres a pit.

For anyone who might read this and isn't into the metal scene or has no idea what a pit is here we go. There are a lot of different pits that could really happen but the most common is the norm. Basically, it's just a lot of shoving and throwing people into other people. This is a pretty tame pit. We don't get the hardcore slam pits like we used to after last year and we were throwing out 15 to 20 people a night.

I took my normal position on the outskirts of the crowd when the band started just to see if anything might happen. Nothing exciting was happening at the time so I walked back to the front and asked another person to watch the door downstairs while I was upstairs.

As I walked back up to the crowd I noticed one of my guys had a pretty good hold on a man in the pit area. At this time my man was giving him the one warning statement. It was about then that another man jumped up and elbowed my guy in the back and jumped away hiding behind some people. Startled, my guy looked around but didn't see the guy that did it.

I then walked up behind the man and firmly placed my hand on the back of his neck. This guy was probly about 6'5" and somewhere around 220 pounds or more. He turned to see me and was about to start the normal bullshit of "What I didn't do anything" when I just turned my flashlight on in his eyes and wrapped my arm around him and walked him to the side of the room towards the door.

Once he figured out what was going on he started to put up a little more of a fight.

guy - "Man, whats your problem? I was just having a little fun!"
me - "No one has fun at our expense. You wanna try to make a joke out of us? Lets do it outside."
guy - "Fine with me bitch, I'll kick your ass!!"

With that he walked outside, I smiled, waved good bye and closed the door on him.

As I walked back towards the front of the stage I just laughed to myself. Some people really fall for that. I then took my position again in the middle of the pit where nothing happened the rest of the night. Sometimes you just have to make an example out of one person and the rest fall into place.

Part of me kinda misses the nights we had last summer. We were actually throwing out about 10 to 15 people at every metal show. I think the record is 26 people in one night. I would even carry two people out at a time. I guess the word spread pretty quick or people just started noticing how big our staff was physically at that time.

Of course not all the people were for moshing. They were also for smoking pot, doing drugs in the bathrooms, or people screwing all over the place. Even had a couple once that thought they'd be hidden enough behind the cigarrette machine. I guess dude forgot he'd have to be standing up.

Some people have offered bribes to get to stay in and one even offered his girlfriend. Any woman that would go along with that I wouldn't want anyways.

So make sure your IDs look real and don't try to go after a security guy in the pit. If there's one in there you know there's another.

Monday, July 25, 2005

Quiet night and some Props

Nothing of great deal really happened tonight. I got out early and instead of heading to the next place to finish out the night, I figured I'd just come home to the air conditioning. With the temperatures flying high all over the place it just sounded like the best idea.

I'd also like to take this chance to lead anyone who might actually read this to the blog that gave me the idea to write one of my own. I've been reading this gentleman's blog for about six months now.

He's known on here as The Doorman and his blog is Clublife. You can find it through this link.

http://standingonthebox.blogspot.com/

It's a really good blog to read through and some nights I've found myself reading through the archives just to read more. More or less I find the blog interesting since it's something I do for a living as well. It's always good to get experience through any manner.

Well, at this point, I could go into a story or I could hit the sack and get some extra Z's.

Extra Z's seem to be the winner.

Saturday, July 23, 2005

Rock Star Lines

One thing many people here haven't realized about many bars that have lines to get in. There are certain "rock star" priviledges for certain people. There are usually two different lines to get into a popular late night bar or club. If you don't know what that second line is for then there is no need for you to be in it.

People in that second line also know that its a good thing but everything is done in respect. Heres a perfect example of a situation.

A few nights back I had started a line outside of the bar. This is a normal thing to do for a short amount of time during the week after all the other bars close. One of my normal regulars came up and looked my way. I gave him my index finger which as many know means to wait and it would be a few minutes before I can do anything for them.

At this point in the night due to capacity reasons its solely a one person out, one person in type of ordeal. I had a group of seven people waiting in the front of the line and they had been waiting for at least 20 minutes at this time.

As three people left I motioned to the group in line that I could let in three of them. They got out their IDs and I let them in. Then the regular tapped me on the arm. Which, for future knowledge, is not what you should do to any doorman unless your are personal friends with that person.

He asked if he could go in now. Which I told him I'd do what I could for him but at that time I had to get the rest of that group in first. To this I recieved the eye roll.

After about another ten minutes two people left. I walked out and motioned for another two from the group. As I opened the door I heard 'the regular' say "Hey guys, I guess since your going in before me your not gonna kick my ass now huh?"

I looked at the group that was left and tried to see if there was some kind of problem. 'The regular' was glaring at them and they had the typical look of "What the hell is going on?"

Thinking to myself that 'the regular' was just being his typical drama queen self I let two more of the group in. Then five minutes later I walked out to let the other two in. Once again, as I opened the door I heard 'the regular' say "Hey guys, I guess since your going in before me your not gonna kick my ass now huh?"

I then carded the two and they walked in. Then 'the regular' starts going on about the last one spit in his face. I looked at his face and there was no spit on it and I did not see this happen. Which would seem funny considering it would have happened less than two feet away from me. There was no spit sounds or any type of movement suggesting it happened.

Of course 'the regular' starts asking why I'm letting them in if they spit in his face. I basically told him I didn't see it and if he wanted to come in then to calm down and do so. Which he then came in.

He came in and went straight to the guys face asking why he spit in his face. Now 'the regular' is a pretty small guy, very thin and mostly skeletal. The other guy is about 4 inches taller and thicker. The events happened like this.

'the regular' - "Man, why'd you spit in my face!?!"

Man - "What?"

'the regular' - "You know you did, why'd you do it!?"

At this point the mans friend starts to walk the man away from 'the regular' and of course 'the regular' sticks right to them. I stop the line at the door and start to clear people away from the door to keep an open line from me to them. As 'the regular' keeps badgering the man another friend of the man tries to stand between them. I walk up to the situation.

Me - "IS THERE A PROBLEM HERE?"
'the regular' - "Yeah, this motherfucker spit in my face!"
Me - "Then the two of you need to figure this out outside."
'the regular' - "What are you crazy? This guys three times my size!"
Me - "Then shut up and calm down. Go to the other end of the bar and have a good time."
'the regular' - "What!? This is bullshit! Fuck you, you can't be bossing me around!!"

At this point I grabbed 'the regular' and walked him out of the bar. 'The regular' then proceeded to go on about how he's been coming in this bar for many years and that it was bullshit that I took their side.

I explained to him that my job is to diffuse situations not to take sides. He was in the wrong for trying to provoke a situation among three people and I was resolving the situation before it became a real problem. If I listened to every complaint from a regular and acted upon it in their favor we wouldn't have a crowd as we do or the amount of business. Most regulars are only regulars due to their discounts and favors and definately not due to their tips.

After a good hour 'the regular' decided, with a little coaxing from the manager, to leave.

I guess that even though your a regular and you think your shit doesn't stink doesn't really mean anything. Seven paying customers out weighs one.

Of course, had I seen the man actually spit in his face, that man would not have came into the bar. So if anyone ever spits in your face don't wipe it off.

Welcome

Welcome to my brand new home of cynicisms. I am what many would call a "Bouncer" at a couple different nightclubs in the midwest. Although I would probably go more with the terms babysitter or referee.

I work in two different environments here.

One of them being a 500 capacity music venue and the other being a 100 person capacity bar. Two completely different jobs entirely. I work the frontdoor at both but with different responsibilities.

The venue has a little more of a laid back feel to it, where as the bar is much more strict when it comes to who we let in. This is basically judged on if your already intoxicated, you seem very upset, or if your clothing and looks are just in complete disarray then your not coming in.

The venue really doesn't have much as in a 'guideline' for who we let in or not. There are always exceptions to this but we are a lot easier on it. If you want to pay to get in and then make an ass out of yourself and be tossed out feel free to pay.

When at the venue I work among a group of 3 to 6 people depending on the night and the show. At the bar I work alone with the small safety net that the bartenders, usually 3 at the least, are always willing to jump over the bar to help. This has yet to happen while I have been actually working.

I've been at the bar for close to a year and have had little problems and no forced rejections as of yet. (Knock on wood.) The venue is a totally different breed.