Lee Ving has left the building.
The lead singer of “Fear,” one of the world’s foremost anarchist punk rockers, apparently had a saliva phobia. The contract with his management neglected to mention the important fact that we at Stache’s ought to have a spit guard in front of the stage. Thus, a 45-minute show was cut short to 25, all because I failed to provide adequate spit security.
We may never know whether a beer was sloshed, a bead of sweat flicked or an offending loogie was indeed hocked, but Ving stopped the show, stormed off and refused to even encore. Mr. Ving, when asked how I could stop spitters, said “you throw one out and make an example for the rest of them.” How he transformed from anarchist to middle school principal left me baffled.
It became clear to me that he would not go back on stage, so I went out to inform the angry mini-mob that had formed stage front, still begging for a brief dessert after the slim musical meal provided.
I foolishly thought that they would turn their anger to Mr. Ving. Instead, they began to form a posse to find, capture and punish the vile, unknown mucus-hurling desperado.