Several. In three different countries.
Two military-related, one between two rival biker gangs (I wasn’t in a gang–just friends with one of the combatants).
Two things I learned about bar fights:
There’s usually not much of a build up. More like a sudden explosion.
Fucking cue balls hurt!
Way too many. I used to be a deputy sheriff.
I actually helped break one up two nights ago. That one wasn’t too bad. It was 3 on 1. . .women (who generally fight dirtier, at least in the hood where I was) but there were lots of regulars there to help break it up before it really got out of hand.
I was a bartender for 15 years (until a month ago. . . yea for me!) and saw some doozys. I had a run where for 4 out of 5 shifts I worked one week someone brandished some sort of weopon, thankfully no guns though. The worst one I had to attempt to break up was probably the giant dude swinging a bar stool like it was a conductor’s wand.
I also worked in a college town for a long time, and had some crazy fights involving fraternities, generally over women. Chairs flying, tables flying, the whole 9. The name of one bar was The Brew, but was known around town as The Brawl until we started 86ing anyone even involved, whether they started it or not, for 30 days. When they figured out how long 30 days was at the bar all the soroities hung at they straightened up, and it became a really cool job.
So happy to have a boring 9-5 now!
Sitting in a pub in inner city Sydney having a quiet beer. Also in the pub were some local motorcycle enthusiasts having a quiet drink, along came a bunch of skinheads who then starting to point out that one of the bikers was of Maori descent. Of course this was not taken well and BANG it went off. There were pool balls flying and cues snapped, a couple of knives. One of the bikies pushed me and missus behind the bar and said keep you fuggen heads down and we will look after you. We were friends of the owner and I thinkt he bikers did not like anyone smashing their bar up.
It was scary and at one stage I hit a skin with a cue, don’t know who was more surprised.
And then it was all over and we sat there for about 3 minutes in total silence untill one guy started laughing and then we all just cracked up.
I’m actually surprised that I have not actually witnesses such an occurence.
Less than a year ago, in a small pub with a musical act. My buddy kept getting pushed by a drunken slob, and an explosive fight happened. A couple guys were knocked out across the little round tables, with drinks and beers spilling everywhere. The whole thing was over in 15 seconds.
The coolest thing is the band kept playing and began singing about the fight and the people in the room.
Do you mean that the drinker caused the fight? If so, it isn’t clear.
Posted not to be mean but a) out of curiosity and b) so, if my supposition is correct, Arnold doesn’t fluff the punchie if he tells this again.
I thought everyone knew that “A man walked into a bar…” joke. The bartender asks “why do you think there’s going to be a fight?” and the man answers “because I don’t have any money to pay for the drinks.”
Ah. I did not know that one.
ETA: I saw a full-on bar fight in 1992 at a biker bar in Morrison, Colorado. Started with bikers dancing (quite formally too) and ended up with bar stools being broken on people’s heads. Me and my girlfriend went and hid in our car in the parking lot, where we ended up sleeping the night.
England v. France in 2004 (or 2006? Can’t remember). England lost. My friends and I had been watching it on a big screen in a pub with a packed room behind us. Literally two seconds after the game finished the whole room ignited. People were picking up chairs and glass ashtrays and throwing them around at each other. We ended up hiding in a corridor until the police came.
I used to DJ a couple of clubs and saw a few large scale fights. No one seriously hurt, but these things escalate fast. Someone gets drunk and does something stupid. Bouncers come and a scuffle starts. Scuffle winds up disturbing some other drunk who decides to get involved. Friends of both drunks get involved. Repeat until 30-40 people are shoving each other.
The one club had these double emergency exit doors just off the dancefloor. While most of the bouncers would grab the unrulies, one would man the door so they could easily be thrown out. They had it down to a science. The thing I liked about this club was they hired the biggest, meanest looking guys who were also calm, intelligent, and had no temper.
The only time I was involved was on a night off. Some drunk got pissed after he asked my wife to dance (or actually had his friend ask my wife to dance) and she politely said no. He was so drunk he took a hard right hook at me, missed and punched my beer.
I saw a group fight break out in a club full of Slurpee Indians. My friend and I laughed all the way home.
Drill a hole first.