Winner of the Halloween Gig Horror Story Contest...Alanfc gets electrocuted

Posted on Nov 13, 2003 04:54 pm
dbmasters
Administrator Since: Apr 03, 2002

Here it is:
Electrocution. My Life saved by girlfriend's roundhouse right.

It was about 8:55pm. Going to go on from 9p-2a.. Our cover band was
playing at a bar in Molalla Oregon. (I can't remember the name of the bar
but it had a gigantic white horse statue over the entryway overhang.)
So its 855pm, we go on at 900pm for 5 hours of Brian Adams, Richard
Marx, Bill Idol, Van Halen ,etc, covers. Earlier in the day when we were
setting up the lights, one of our band members got a little shock from
the light trees. We thought nothing of it. OK, cut back to 855pm: The
stage at this joint is elevated about 12 feet above the main dancefloor
and bar area, accessible by stairs at stage right. (It was a murderous
setup getting stuff up those stairs.) I was the single guitar player and
we had a keyboardist, drummer, bass player. They were all tuning up and
chatting onstage waiting for me as usual. I saunter over to my guitar
"gimme an 'A'" tune up a bit and traipse over to my mic. I had a loud
dirty Marshall sound and my amp was right close to me, so I had the heel
of my right hand on my strings to control my sound. (what about your
volume knob Al ?) Anyway, with right hand on strings I traipse up to my
mic, to adjust its angle, with my left hand. Then, all the sudde!
n, Dzzzzzzzzzztt ! My left hand was sucked on to, clamped down upon,
the mic. My body was full of electricity - I could not get my hand off
the mic ! I am yelling, "get me off of this" and "O my god" over and over
. I could not pull my hand off. Not a chance. With all my strength, I
was still helpless. I was sure I was being killed, electrocuted. Right
there, on the spot. I was thinking "this is it- I'm dying , I'm dying
this is it, I'm going to be dead. Is this what its like? , O my god"
While still yowling like a wolf. I could feel my bandmates groping and
grabbing at me and being cast off by my electricity. I'm yelling at them
"grab me. turn it off !!" They could not get a hold of me, and couldn't
think fast enough to turn off the power. I was clamped down on the mic,
expecting death, thinking "oh no oh no" for 6 seconds. It was an
eternity.

Now, my girlfiend at the time, to whom I became engaged to (on the way
home from this very trip!), heard my first cry out and immediately knew
something was really really wrong. She quickly scrambled up the friggin
stairs within 6 seconds, and got onstage. She sprinted over to me. She
didn't try to grab me like my bandmates, she didn't look for the power
source to turn off... Instead, she wound up with her biggest strongest
roundhouse swing- right into my left hand and the mic. BOOOOOM ! She
punched my hand off that mic. And then another BOOM- three of the
channels on the mixing board blew up. Then yet another BOOM ! The bass players
amp head, blows up..... I faintly hear screaming from offstage and
heavy breathing right above me. The screaming came from the crowd (it was
big that night) And the heavy breathing, that sweet sweet breath, it was
my hero girlfriend covering me, collapsed upon me.

I was on my back. My beautiful ossum Kramer with the Floyd Rose tremelo
was off of me, face down on the stage about 4 feet away from me. My
body was tingling. I was laughing. It was sort of an insane type of
laughter. I was alive. I was SURE, more sure than anything else ever in my
life, I was sure I was going to die. Positive. Dead. So I was laughing.
And my left hand was throbbing, probably because of that big punch from
my girl.
Then the confusing chaotic sounds of people rushing up those stairs to
the stage, alot of noise down below in the main dancefloor bar area.
Mostly womens higher pitched voices I heard. And about 20 people saying
"call 911, call 911". That was going around in my head. "Call 911".

About a minute or so passed (according to my girlfriend) and we started
hearing sirens. And the heavy sounds of big paramedics' boots and gear
traipsing up the stairs to the stage. I heard one of 'em say "Whoa". I
blurr out the next part, except the fact that I was carried down the
statirs in one of those upright position stretcher/chair things, and all
the people looking at me as I was carted through the crowd to the front
door and to the ambulance. It was a small town and apparently this was
a big event.

When I got to the hospital after a 30 min. ambulance ride, they
observed me for about 4 hours and I got to go home. By then my mom had driven
out and was there to take us. My gold chain was split in two and
embedded into the skin against one of my neck vertabrae. My cotton parachute
pants (yes cotton, yes parachute!) were split down the back!.
Vertically split fabric down each leg from butt to calf. My Budweiser t-shirt
was OK though thank god. My father in law to-be, a cornoner, said that
people that are struck by lightning have their clothes mangled and
shredded. I think he said it was something about the gasses in their bodies
burst out and cause that, maybe thats what happened to my chain and
pants.

That night, the sound rental company we had rented our board from,
drove all the way out to Molalla from Beaverton and went in and repaired
the blown out channels. That night ! Like quickly. Maybe they were
worried about their responsibilty in the event. I don't know one way or the
other. We did learn later that the building hadn't been inspected since
1971. My dad got payment from the club for my bills the next day!
Pretty quick. The police report was evidence enough I guess. I bet the club
owner was relieved. I didn't care... I was alive !! And still am
alive today !

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