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Pit Stories: Volunteer's Francisco Ramirez Shares Two Tales Of Pit Mayhem

Gather 'round metal heads, it's Pit Story time!

This week we've got two for the price of one, as Francisco Ramirez of Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based group Volunteer shares two epic tales of live mayhem in Chicago.

The first deals with cops breaking up a show... while beating down some Nazi punks! The second shifts focus to a different venue where free flowing beer got the fans a little two rowdy. Ramirez spins these tales like this:

When I worked at the Fireside Bowl in Chicago there was some show that drew a crowd of SHARP (Skin Heads Against Racial Prejudice) and old fashion Nazi skinheads. I don't remember the band but I remember the Nazi's bum rushing the front door with lead pipes and attacking people in the show. My staff and I stopped most of the violence but there was still a lot of damage done. Lots of blood and people on the ground. The bartender called the police as soon as everything happened. 5 paddy wagons and 10 police cars showed up and dragged out all the Nazis. The police beat the fuck out of all the Nazi skinheads and arrested them for assault. The image of Chicago Police pressing and crushing the skinheads outside the venue is still vivid in my head. By the way, after the cops demolished the skins, one came up to me and showed me his Ramones and Crass tattoo, I offered a beer and he drank it. I know cops suck most of the times, but there are are moments.

I was playing the Blue Flamingo in Austin, TX in the late 90's. I was in a fast drunk punk band called Traitors from Chicago, we had songs no longer than a minute and half. Anyways, the Blue Flamingo was a drag bar earlier in the night and they had punk shows late night. We had to headline for some reason, but they kept giving us free beer all night so we said fuck it. So it turns out that we were not only the people getting free beer. One of the bartenders threw up in one of the beer coolers and they were just washing off the beer and giving it away. This meant that everyone was drinking for free and was getting rowdy. The place was tiny and the bands played in the front of the bar in front of a window, the crowd was having fun. By the time we started at 1AM, shit was bonkers. We played 15 songs in 20 minutes. The crowd wanted one more and we had learned Joan Jett's "Bad Reputation" so we decided to play it. With in the first 10 seconds people were jumping off the bar, which is right next to the stage, into the crowd. Bar stools were flying and people were having fun, then someone dove out of the front window. Yep they ran through the band and dove through the window. Everyone stopped for a second and once he got up, we finished the song.

Volunteer joined in on an anti-Scott Walker charity compilation earlier this year and also just launched a new split with Buildings, which can be heard below or picked up at this location.