Gig from Hell - Troy, NC

By Edward C Adkins in Stories From The Road Giants
This story should be filed in the, “GIGS FROM HELL”, folder. About 93% true

We, Grinderswitch (GS), were to play a show in Troy, NC. On the bill were maybe 13 or 15 acts. Headlining were Charlie Daniels and Marshall Tucker. Also on the bill, about 9 acts down, was a new group from Seattle called “Heart”. This was sometime in 1976.

The site for the gig was located outside of Troy a few miles. Previously there had been a growth of pine trees at this location which had recently been cut and the land had been cleared in the shape of a rectangle that covered about 30 acres. Stumps had been removed and the ground had been leveled. A small stand of pines had been left up next to the highway to act as a wind break and to obstruct the view from the highway for safety sake, I think. A new stage had been built at the far end of the new field next to the remaining pine forest with room behind the stage to park trucks and buses. It was an open stage with no canopy. Electricity had been run in and porta-pottys had been placed at various places around the site. The only access road in or out was directly adjacent to the field where the audience would be gathered.

The sun was shining and cumulus clouds were spread out across the sky and the temperature was warm. It looked like a great day for a concert when we pulled the truck behind the stage. The show started early in the day and was progressing along nicely. CDB had their amp line on stage. Maybe MTB had their rigs in place also I don’t remember but everyone else had to drag their gear out on the stage and set up as the show went along. GS played and cleared the stage. The next act might have been Wet Willy
. They played and cleared the stage and MTB was next. I believe that MTB started to do their set when the clouds that had been gathering through the day burst open a shower of cool rain covered the stage and all at the show. The band played for awhile and might have played if the rain had been lighter but the water was forming puddles on the stage and the musicians were getting shocked when they touched the mic stands. someone's guitar touched the mic stand and an electric arc zapped through one of the strings. They had to stop playing at that point explained to the audience that they were getting shocked and it was to dangerous to continue but, he said, when the rain stops and we get the stage dried-up a bit the band would continue. The band hustled off the stage.

The rain kept falling for about another hour. The crews in the mean time had covered the equipment with plastic sheeting. The audience was huddled together and waited for the rain to stop. When it finally stopped the crew sped about unwrapping the equipment and removing the water puddles. MTB was about to resume the show and was on their way to the stage when it started to drizzle again so they turned around and went back to the bus; another delay.

The crowd started to get angry, first at the rain gods; Boos and hisses and yelling. Then as the crowd amped up their anger turned into rage and was directed towards the band; then all the bands; then at everyone in the crews. The once calm and happy audience had transformed into a seething mob. Beer bottles started exploding on the stage and in the trusses showering glass shrapnel across the stage and surrounding area. The crew on stage dove behind the amp line for cover. The speakers were all uncovered because the band was about to play when it started raining again. Bottles were smashing into the PA stacks and into the guitar speakers. Moon and the crew made a valiant effort to rotate the speaker cabinets around 180 degrees in an attempt to save the speakers, dodging the barrage of amber missiles, many of them flying over the stage and crashing into the cars and trucks parked behind. It soon became evident that too many speakers had been destroyed and it was now impossible to repair them that day. The show was over.

Tory Torstenson, my partner with GS and who I have previously described as a real living hero, walked out on stage and grabbed a mic. The sound guy (Mule Breath?) must have seen him and opened the mic because it was working. Tory yelled at the crowd, “Now knock this shit off” and then he repeated it and mob quieted down and the bottles stopped. He said, “If one more bottle comes up here I’m coming down there and start kicking some ass”. About ten rows back a guy nudged his buddy and said, “Bull Shit”, picked up a bottle and hurled it at the stage. Maybe he thought he was invisible in the crowd, who knows, but Tory saw him and leaped down from the stage and charged into the crowd pushing people out of his way. The crowd opened in front of him leaving a path directly to the wise guy. Tory charged straight at him and with one punch laid the guy out flat in the dirt. The crowd went silent in shock. What was happening? There were several thousand people there but I can’t tell you how many. All mouths were silent and all eyes were on Tory. He could have been King Kong or Godzilla at that moment. Then he said something like, “who’s next”. There were no volunteers.

I was standing next to Charlie’s bus talking to David Corlew. The picture in my mind of David at that moment is this: he was wearing a gray wide brimmed cowboy hat with a round dome that had a single crease in the middle of it. It reminded me of the hat worn by Hopalong Cassidy. He had on a duster coat that extended almost to his ankles and was, I think, made of denim. His mustache was hanging over his lip and reminded me of Yosemite Sam. He had a baseball bat or some type of club in his hand and he was smacking it into the palm of his other hand. He had a long barreled revolver tucked in his pants at the waist. I had been talking to Sid Yochim at the truck. Sid said he had heard on his CB that the mob was ready to rush the stage and burn it down. That's what I was relaying to David. He was ready to defend the bus and all aboard, all by himself. David had been a Golden Gloves champion in Nashville years before and the warrior in him was alive.

Tory came by and we headed to the truck. Inside he started the truck and we rolled back up the dirt road that was now packed with people walking out of the concert site. I recall only one person yelling at us that he wanted his money back still blaming the bands for the cancellation of the show. We were just creeping along because the dirt road was jammed with people exiting to their cars. Tory told the guy that we had played, we did our job, what did he expect us to do?

When we finally reached the highway we saw the first cop we had seen all day directing traffic so the folks could walk across the road to the parking lot. We told him that the crowd was rioting and were going to burn-down the stage. He just shook his head. He wasn’t going in there and I don’t blame him.

We traveled a short distance, maybe a quarter or half mile toward Troy and were flagged over by another cop who was parked along the side of the highway. He said he wanted to search the truck. He had no probable cause, no warrant, his job was to stop the bands as they exited and search them for drugs. He did and found nothing. We told him about the rioting and that the mob was burning-down the stage, just to distract him. He just sneered and he his smirk told me he was thinking, “serves you right you filthy hippies”.

I, to this day, do not know what kind of damage or how much was inflected to the CDB and MTB buses, trucks and equipment. The Marshall Tucker Band suffered heavy losses to their equipment and Blackie, the lighting director, was struck by a flying bottle. There may have been other injuries.
. I’d like to hear someone's recollections of that “Gig from Hell”.

Written by Edward C Adkins February 8, 2011
“Cap” from Grinderswitch.

P.S. The picture at the top left of the Stories page is Tory (in front) and me (behind Tory) taken about the time of this story sometime in 1975 or 1976.





Unlike · Unfollow Post · Report · February 11, 2011 at 9:04pm
You and Michael Swaggerty like this.
Barry Bozeman Whew - nothin like a mob of drunk nasty wet mad concert goers Cap.
Well told and well worth the read. Thanks
February 8, 2011 at 12:19pm · Like · 1
Barry Bozeman Which company provided the sound for this gig from hell?
February 8, 2011 at 6:34pm · Like

Arthur Moon Mullins Probably one was of the worst shows I ever worked. MTB was on stage when the show was rained out. Lots of fighting, Blackie clobered with a beer bottle, all our equipment destroyed, hell of a ride out through the crowd. First time I saw the "Roy" side of Toy. We did a show shortly after with rental equipment. Puff what so you remember about this show?
February 8, 2011 at 9:32pm · Like

Arthur Moon Mullins Can't remember the promoter Wilson ? from Charlotte maybe, Beach Club Promotions? Corlew had that single action revolver out waving it around. He was wearing that duster, looking right out of Deadwood. Tough night for everyone.
February 8, 2011 at 9:45pm · Like

Keith Glenn Dang, I guess this blows Dibby's horror story about not gettin' enough Buffet Coupons for the band at the Indian Casino clean outta the water!...
February 8, 2011 at 10:33pm · Like

Edward C Adkins Moon, Did you see the part where Tory ran out into the audience? If so what
was your take on it?
February 8, 2011 at 10:56pm via mobile · Like

Arthur Moon Mullins Seems to me we had taken enough shit and waded into the crowd to get them to back off. There were several guys trapped at the mixing console. I remember smashing anyone I came upon. It started with us returning bottles and rocks that were on the stage. Biggest fight I was ever involved in. It went back and forth several times until we drove the crowd far enough back so we could load out.
February 9, 2011 at 8:45am · Like

Edward C Adkins Moon, Was Blackie trapped at the mixing board and is that where he was hit with a bottle ?
February 9, 2011 at 9:22am · Like

Edward C Adkins Did they trash the mixing boards?
February 9, 2011 at 9:23am · Like

Steve Shropshier I remeber getting off the bus and Wilson Howard was standing there---all I could say was "Wilson, this ain't gonna work !" boy was I right on that one
February 9, 2011 at 9:44am · Like · 2

Edward C Adkins I rushed to get this story posted and my memory's hindsight was not 20/20. Marshall Tucker Band was on stage when the rain started.
February 9, 2011 at 2:47pm · Like

Arthur Moon Mullins Thanks Puff. Wilson Howard it was . I think Blackie was on stage. Maybe Kevin Mc.at the console. They never really did anything to the mixer platform but the guys were freaked out. We beat the crowd back in waves until we got there. First and maybe only time I saw the Marine come out in Toy. It felt like a war zone and everyone reacted that way.
February 9, 2011 at 10:20pm · Like

Arthur Moon Mullins I remember Sid's "Elrod"? Peterbilt got stuck behind the stage. Johnny Lawson was helping get that rig out while we were defending our shit.
February 9, 2011 at 10:23pm · Like

Arthur Moon Mullins My wife Nesie was there as a spectator. Maybe I'll get her take.
February 9, 2011 at 10:24pm · Like

Edward C Adkins Toy Ran out there too? Who else? I didn't see or hear about that part. Maybe you could write it up, start at the beginning. I'll scrap mine.
February 10, 2011 at 12:03am · Like

Edward C Adkins Oh Moon, I see what happened here. Your story picks up after Tory and I depart and are down the road being harassed by the cops. That's why I didn't see it. Perfect, Great. You can just pick it up and run. ( Meanwhile back at the ranch)
February 10, 2011 at 2:36am · Like

Edward C Adkins Did Tommy go out into the crowd too?
February 10, 2011 at 2:42am · Like

Arthur Moon Mullins For sure we all have different memories of thesel stories. Every year at the crew party I'm reminded of other guys details. All this was a long time ago.
February 10, 2011 at 8:43am · Like

Arthur Moon Mullins Don't scrap anything. I think think the show restarted more than once. The crowd had been there for a day or 2. Most everyone went into the audience at some time, not Tommy, but Toy. It was in waves and then finally we just waded in and kicked ass. That's when I met "Roy".
February 11, 2011 at 8:27pm · Like

Edward C Adkins ROY?
February 11, 2011 at 8:28pm · Like

Arthur Moon Mullins I want to use one of Toy's greatest liberties and favorite line "Never let the truth get in the way of a good story" as a warning here.
February 11, 2011 at 8:31pm · Like

Edward C Adkins I just completed a rewrite and raised the truth level to 93%.
February 11, 2011 at 9:07pm · Like