Lee Bains Live Oak.jpg

Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires, above, perform at The Live Oak Music Hall & Lounge on Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013. Bains and his band were asked to stop playing when management deemed the performance too loud for the venue. (Photo by Hunter L. Johnson)

Anyone accusing Birmingham-based rockers

of playing too loud wouldn't necessarily be wrong. It happens.

But one venue in Fort Worth, Texas, thought precisely that Bains and his band played a little too loud, so they pulled the plug on the group in the middle of their performance Wednesday night.

The Live Oak Music Hall & Lounge, self-described on its

as "Fort Worth's premiere live music venue with a large selection of craft beer, wine & spirits and full menu of great food," felt Bains' band failed to comply with house rules during their set (opening for musician Austin Lucas).

Bains said his band was booked to play the venue by a promoter. The promoter was not at the show, Bains said.

Bains said the owner of the venue remarked to his band mates that he was not fond of the promoter who booked Wednesday's show.

"There was sort of a weird vibe in the air," Bains said.

Bains said during their sound check, the sound engineer asked the band to turn down their amplifiers, which they did. At the end of the sound check, Bains said the sound engineer walked on stage and covered his amp with a "baffle," in this case a large chunk of Styrofoam with a burlap sack around it.

Once they started their set, Bains said he didn't like the sound, so he removed the baffle from in front of his amp.

"In retrospect, it would have been more up front if I'd told the guy as soon as he put it up, 'Man, that's probably not going to work for me.'"

During the third song, Bains said the sound engineer came on stage and put the baffle back in front of the amp.

"It's kind of a big no-no to come on stage during a band's set and mess with their stuff," he said.

Once Bains removed the baffle again, the sound engineer told him he would cut the power during the performance. The band kept playing, and the sound monitors on stage lost power. Bains said he noticed patrons approaching the sound board and interacting with the engineer shortly after that.

"That has never happened to me, ever," he said. "The only time a sound guy or a stage hand would ever come on stage is if something is screwed up."

At one point, the owner came up and told the band the music was too loud, to which Bains replied, "This is how we play. We're a rock band. You booked a rock band. If you didn't want us to play, then you shouldn't have booked us.

"Midway through the band's set is a pretty inopportune time to decide you don't want that band to play your venue."

When the owner left the stage, he and the sound engineer cut the power to the PA. When the band kept playing, the owner had the stage curtain closed on the them.

"So we kept playing despite the curtain being closed, and then they just flipped the breaker to the stage, completely killing the power, so all the amps are now silent," he says.

Bains has a booking agent based in Nashville. He said that there was a contract drawn up for the performance upon which Bains and the venue agreed. He said that nowhere in the contract was there any stipulation about volume or noise levels.

"I'm not a lawyer, but I would assume when a venue books a rock band, they are going to have to deal with the fact that they play like a rock band, and it's not going to be at a speaking volume or whatever they were expecting.

"If they don't want loud bands playing at their place, they shouldn't book loud bands. If you Google our band and read one article about our show, I guarantee you the word 'loud' will be in there."

The Live Oak released a statement on Facebook (which you can read in full below), noting what happened at the event from its perspective. It said Bains and the band did not respect the venue's rules, so it had to take its measures.

"Our sound engineer and owner made the decision after repeated attempts to get the band to comply to house rules," the Live Oak statement said "After the entire restaurant portion of the venue vacated due to the noise level, more attempts were made to get the band to comply and quite a few disrespectful and inappropriate remarks were made to our sound engineer and owner and, subsequently, the curtain was closed and the plug was pulled."

"It felt like 'Footloose' or something. I felt like I was out of time," Bains said. "I mean, we are a loud rock and roll band, but we're four guys whose mothers taught us to say 'yes, ma'am' and 'no, sir.' This is the first time anybody's ever accused us of being disrespectful."

Most fans and friends would tell you the typically jovial Bains is polite before, during and after shows and would not under most circumstances be a part of any confrontation at an event. But without being confrontational, Bains defended his band.

"I take a lot of pride in treating people well and in being courteous and polite," he said. "But there's a big difference in being respectful and being a doormat.

"We've driven 6,000 miles on this tour and been away from home for a month. I'm not going to show up to a venue and have somebody tell me I need to change the way my band sounds because they don't like it, and particularly when there are people who have driven over an hour to see our band play the way they want to hear it."

The band was not paid for their appearance. Some patrons who came to see the band got their money back and gave it to Bains and his band mates.

"In a way, there's something energizing and absurdly exhilarating about the fact that rock and roll can still anger people so much," Bains said. "We're all kind of tickled, really."

Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires will perform at the Holy Mountain bar in Austin, Texas, tonight.

Tuscaloosa native and Fort Worth resident Hunter Johnson (a contributor to the

) attended the show. Johnson says he has attended a few shows at Live Oak and enjoyed his experiences, but he has no plans to return.

"I'll never go back to Live Oak ever again," Johnson said. "And it sucks because I live here in Fort Worth and I love good music. And that's the kind of venue that books decent acts, one that you would think I would want to support. But they could book U2, and I wouldn't go."

Johnson booked a table at the front of the venue so he could see the band up close, as it was a show the Alabama native had looked forward to seeing for a while. Once they dropped the curtain on the band, Johnson and Bains' younger brother physically held the curtain open as the band continued playing.

"Holding that curtain open for those 30-45 seconds was the most rock and roll experience I'll ever feel," Johnson said. "I'll never be in a band or anything, but that was probably the most rock and roll thing I'll ever do."

During the show, Johnson noticed the venue owner telling Bains to turn the volume down. When Johnson realized it was the owner, he offered a little advice about booking shows at the venue.

Anyone who's seen or heard Lee Bains & The Glory Fires knows they tend to get a little loud during their live shows. (Ben Flanagan/al.com)

"I told him, "Dude, this is a rock and roll show. Don't book a rock and roll band if you don't want rock and roll music. This is how they play," Johnson said. "They didn't book Lee Bains acoustic. They booked Lee Bains & The Glory Fires. When you book a band, you're saying 'I want you to play in my venue.'"

After the show, Johnson got his $15 refund, handed it to Bains and spoke with him outside the venue.

"I apologized to him," Johnson said. "As a Fort Worth resident, it embarrassed me that they would do that."

Efforts to reach The Live Oak were not successful Thursday afternoon. But the venue shared their side of the story Thursday to apologize to those who attended the show, posting the following on its Facebook page on Thursday:

The band has drawn its share of support on social media. Below are tweets published before, during and after the show by those who did and did not attend. WARNING: Some of the tweets contain profanity.