The following is taken from the DIARY found on www.thestragglers.com
Okay, so I'm the worst person ever about updating the diary. Might as well just call it "Bi Annual Update Page" cause it seems I never write unless there's an update. In all honesty, I got my own little private blog I release tension, stress, humor, wisdom and opinions through, although rarely does it get updated either. And further, I've been doing what I do for over 6 years now, you just don't see much new stuff these days. So maybe some drunk does something really dumb, really funny or really annoying, but 2nd or 3rd pass through the story and you're over the novelty. Well last night something happened that I don't think any of us will soon grow tired of recalling.
Bossier City, Roper's Night Life, Saturday night in the other big town. Played in New Orleans the night before to a good crowd, not spectacular, growing pains I believe is what the booking agents call it. Left in the morning and pulled in to town about 1:30, a little ahead of schedule. Never been to Roper's before, didn't know what to expect with the bar or the crowd. Room is cool, open and good sized stage which comes into play a little later on. Normal day, load in, wake up the guys to set up, Greg and Ross set the stage while I set up merch and stock up the bus, get rooms, screw off…typical road manager duties. Day is half over and it's only 5:00, so take a nap, take a shower, take a Red Bull and go inside.
Gray Schuler opened the show, first time to play with him and that guy loves being on stage maybe more than anyone I've seen in a long time. Truly having the time of his life, or at least acts that way. I'm believe it, so bravo. JB&S gets up there and starts playing, everything seems to be running smooth. The last time we were in this area was a little bar called Sharpie's that was packed but could only pack so much. So to have about 450 people at a new bar seemed like a grand success…well, minus one of the 450 people.
I didn't know the song at the time but was later told it was "Dirty Fightin' Love"…which is kinda weird. I glance to the stage and see some guy kinda running but not so much, maybe slumbering yet faster but not a jog or trot however not briskly walking, or maybe my perception was such. This guy, we'll call him Jackass since I don't know his real name although will be finding out tomorrow, is onstage and kinda running towards the drums. I jump over the merch box (have you seen my new merch boxes? They're pretty sweet) and almost fall myself, dodge a couple people and get to the stage to find the whole band stopping and putting down their instruments to make their way to the back of the stage. Jackass for whatever reason thought it would be cool to jump on stage and "dive" into the drums, tackling Brad off the back of the drum riser in the process. And then it gets interesting.
Ross is the first guy to get back to Jackass as he's trying to get up after taking Brad down. Now details were fuzzy then and not much better now, but the guy acted like he wanted to ask Ross something on the side of the stage then shoved Ross off the steps so he could get to the stage. Once he tackled Brad and tried to get back up, Ross jumped on him and took him to the ground. Now this is when Jason, Brad, Noah, Grant, Roger and myself did our best to restrain him to the ground waiting for security, being that we didn't know if this guy was armed or drunk or begrudged or the first of a bunch of stage rapers soon to ruin a show.
We tried to help him to his feet but unfortunately he just couldn't stand up and he accidentally took down Newt. Newt is our friend from Little Rock. Newt weighs about 400 pounds and can lift cars. Newt took offense to Jackass' treatment of Ross, Brad and the overall enjoyment of the show. Newt decided it would be in all our best interest if he saw to it personally that Jackass was carried from the stage. So Newt picked him up like a bag of horse feed and carried him to the side of the stage, where the stairs were. Sadly, none of Jackass' friends wanted to help him further off the stage, nor did the security so Newt and I tried our best to help him down the stairs. He didn't do so good on his own, but he did make it down the stairs quickly.
This is the point where bar security and the police took Jackass into custody and we attempted to put the stage back together to continue the show. Props to Brad who had twisted his ankle (more on that later) while falling off the riser yet sucked it up and finished the show. Once the band was playing again I went outside to talk to the cops and see how fast Jackass was being arrested. As I walk outside, Jackass is sitting on the hood of a police car, no cuffs, no Miranda Rights being read to him, nothing. I've been witness to Roger and Jason being arrested for way less and be cuffed faster than Jessica Alba cuffs me in my dreams. So I questioned why he was being arrested and I was approached by two cops initially, soon to be several.
Apparently, the police didn't understand what happened so they weren't quite ready to arrest Jackass yet. Once I told them the story, they actually tried to reason with me to let him go under the care of his wife and his friends. I didn't see the need for that, for some one to do what they did and go home under the care of his wife so I told them I would press charges. Charges for assault on Brad AND Ross. Charges for destruction of private property as I didn't know the condition of the drums at that point (props to Shine Drums as well, the entire kit was leveled yet not one scratch on the whole thing, can't say the same for Brad). And if nothing else, charges of public intoxication. I tried trespassing but that didn't work. After discussing this for 20 minutes and informing the cops there was no way that guy wasn't spending the night in jail for what he did, they finally told me that he was being charged with PD (public drunk) and would spend the night in jail.
This is how bad the police were at the club, during the ruckus someone threw a bottle on stage (I'd like to assume they wanted to hit Jackass) but accidentally hit Roger in the back of the head. That guy was immediately detained and arrested, gone before the guy that tackled the band was even out of the building.
That was enough to shut me up for the time being, the guys had finished their set and Jason was back selling the merch in my absence…which if nothing else, is a funny site to see. He's actually real quick with the hats in case you're in line sometime waiting on me…but I still have the money.
Slowly get everyone's stories straight and put together what actually happened. Roger didn't see the guy so he though Brad had just fallen off the back of the drum riser. Jason didn't see any of it either and turned around to see Ross wrestling some guy and the drums in disarray. Noah saw the whole thing and put up his instruments immediately since he didn't know who was coming up next. Some guy that USED to own the club offered me $200 in cash to forget the whole thing, offered it to me twice. He should've been arrested for his fashion and idiocy, then sterilized.
Let it be known, JB&S does not hold the incidents of Saturday night against the fans or the club. Almost all the true fans apologized for what happened even though it wasn't their fault. Their concern was for our well being and hoped we wouldn't hold this against Bossier City. As for the club, we were treated great, the show was going off incredibly and I'd say the crowd was getting more their money's worth (evident by the 'beat his ass' chants during the incident). The club's security was actually outside at the time dealing with a dispute in the parking lot, furthermore couldn't have prevented this from happening for the most part. JB&S doesn't feel the need to hide behind body guards or security at every entrance cause let's face it, we are pretty much our own security.
The guy known as Jackass should have been arrested, although part of me thinks they just drove him to the end of the parking lot and left him with his wife. I just got a weird vibe as the cops were giving me attitude about demanding he be put in jail. Apparently it is who you know and the cops knew this guy. Sorry officer, but my taxes pay your check, and my taxes pay the checks of the people that wrote laws saying certain types of behavior will not be tolerated in the eyes of the law. I think that was a shining example, yet you argue whether or not jail was the proper solution to the problem this guy caused? I know it's not easy being a police officer but don't take the easy route just cause you're working a Saturday night.
Then I get a text from Brad Sunday night that simply says, "my foot is broke." I call him, it's the top of his foot and they didn't cast it. He's got a boot to wear and keep off it as much as possible for as long as possible…which that doesn't help the 3 shows scheduled for this weekend, two days off and then 5 shows next week. But like the man that he is, Brad will play those shows. And he'll probably be in pain, but at least he's not hobbled.
Tomorrow I'm going to begin the process of filing charges. The night of the show we all agreed to not much harm, not much foul. But now that there's an actual broken bone and one bent piece of drum hardware, Jackass isn't getting away with a PD and one night. If nothing else, there's got to be some sort of monetary reimbursement on civil side of it. It's not about the money, it's about some guy needing to learn his lesson. As I told the police officers, I've been drunk off my ass and did some pretty dumb things, but not once did I do something that could've caused another person physical harm or possibly loss of employment. That guy, no matter what his intentions are, cannot saying that diving through a drum kit in the middle of song was not reckless. Alcohol or drugs or straight up stupidity is only an excuse, but not a reason to be excused.
So there are already comments on the Myspace page, possibly Galleywinter and no telling where else. I'm all about perspective, I'd love to hear the fans' take on what happened that night. But this is, to the best of our collective knowledge and my astute literary skills, what we thought happened.
Maybe in a couple days I'll give you guys an update on the legal process. And I promise I'll do my best to update on more routine basis…I just hope it's not more nights like this.
mR.m, JB&S
p.s. The views and opinions expressed in this blog don't necessarily reflect all the feelings or opinions of all members of Proud Souls Entertainment. I just have the password to the blogs and the biggest mouth.