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1978 - Punks vs Tom Waits food fight


dalsh327

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I just read this today.

http://www.alicebag.com/trashingofthetroubadour.html

It all started at Canter's (a Fairfax district deli which is open all night and was a hangout for musicians
and club-goers). I was with a group of friends and we were leaving Canter's. I remember standing at the
pastry section, just ogling all the pastries we couldn't afford when my friend Lauren said "Let me say
something to my friend," who happened to be Tom Waits. I had no idea who Tom Waits was, at that time.
So Lauren came back over and then introduced the group of us to Tom Waits and his entourage. I
probably said, "We're playing at the Troubadour, please come see our show" because it was right
around that time. I might have smiled or winked or something that was interpreted as flirting, but keep
in mind that my boyfriend, Nickey Beat, was with us at the time.
Later, Lauren came back to us and said "Tom Waits really liked you. He thinks you were great and he
wanted to know who the dipshit was that was with you." When Nickey heard that, he was pissed.
Anyway, I thought it was all forgotten by the night of the Troubadour show, but then someone came
backstage to tell us that Tom Waits was in the audience, at a table in front of the stage. Nickey was
playing drums for The Bags that night and he was livid. Just before the Bags went onstage, Nickey got
on the mic and called Tom Waits an asshole from the stage. So then Tom Waits was pissed off and he and
his entourage sat there at their little table through our entire set while bedlam erupted all around them.
He was very cool, just sitting there while the place was being ripped apart. I remember looking over at
one point and seeing a chair fly right over his head but he didn't flinch.
The Bags played our usual chaotic set and the audience was in a frenzy. Afterwards, we were backstage thinking "What an amazing show," and when we went to load out our equipment, the bouncers locked the doors
and told us we couldn't leave until the whole matter between Nickey and Tom had been settled. I started
to freak out because it was just us and these really burly bouncers, all our punk friends had been locked
outside of the club. Somehow, word spread that we were in trouble and the punks were trying to kick in
the club doors to get inside, but the bouncers were poking people in the face to keep them out. I
remember trying desperately to open the doors and thinking "they're going to wreck our equipment and
beat the shit out of us," but none of that happened.
What did happen was that the bouncers and members of Tom Waits' entourage made a circle around Nickey and Tom so that no one could interfere and then they let the two guys duke it out. I couldn't tell you if there was a winner or a loser. I'd say it was pretty even and they got their aggression out. When the scuffle was over, they let us leave after promising never to play at the Troubadour again. It was the first and last punk show at the
Troubadour for quite some time.
Ironically, it ended up at Canter's Deli again after the show. I heard about a group of punks who went there
and started a 'legendary' food fight with the members of Tom Waits' entourage."
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