I get this too when I drink alcohol, sometimes are worse than others. It is the muscle between the left shoulder blade and spine. It gets tight, hot and restricts movement, when I deep breathe in I can feel the tightness. It often causes me to have a migraine, and is worse if I am stressed tired or emotional.
I also get this pain without alcohol, when I am stressed tired and emotional. I have been having Amatsu therapy (Japanese therapy) which has taught me a lot about the body and this may be relevant to you.
My liver is struggling, which is also effecting the gall bladder. My liver could be under stress due to a car crash where I got server case of whiplash, (basically the liver hits the ribcage at high impact and then is weakened).
The liver is then pulling on other muscles which are often up the back etc. when you drink alcohol and high sugary drinks the liver then has to work hard which causes it to tighten and then pulling on other muscles on the upper back causing a cramp
My cramp doesn�t go unfortunately as there must be other problems there.

Monitor your pain and see if it is at its worse when you are tired or under stress, I�d be interested to know.
Also try drinking a hot cider vinegar before you drink alcohol, 2 lid fulls to hot water called with cold water. This wakes up the liver and gets it working.

Try Amatsu its amazing.

Thank GOD! I thought I was crazy or something was seriously wrong with me. Only with wine coolers my neck and shoulders hurt immediately. Afterwards everything is back to normal.

I usually wake up with a terrible neck ache the next morning after drinking at night - sometimes only after one glass of wine.

Yesterday, I got a terrible neckache right after drinking wine. I also get regular tension neckaches, but I'm starting to notice a connection between my alcohol consumption and those neckaches.

So glad I found this site. I have been getting a strong burning sensation in the muscles between my neck and shoulders for years when I drink alcohol. People think I'm crazy when I try to explain it. I guess the good thing is it stops me from drinking too much! I thought it might be an allergic reaction, but looking at all the sites on alcohol allergy, these symptoms still weren't explained. The idea of it being the muscles relaxing and stretching could be a good explanation. I'm going to go with that one!

I also experience muscle pain and achiness within a few sips of drinking any alcohol. I also experience this same exact muscle pain (in my right upper arm and neck only...not my left arm which is weird) when I take strong pain relievers which is very rare of course in part due to this pain and because of the whole addiction risk. But weirdly enough, sometimes even Benedryl will give me this pain. Definitely something to do with the drugs relaxing our body, but definitely something that concerns me.

I had this happen to me for the very first time last night. I thought I might have to go to the hospital! It was so excruciatingly painful - I thought I might be having a heart attack or stroke - my neck, shoulder and legs hurt really badly. It faded after about 30 minutes and taking a hot shower. I got the pains after a 1/2 glass of white wine! I think it may be due to tense muscles too -- and something in the alcohol tries to relax them too quickly... I don't know but I was going to mention it to my doctor next time. If you hear of anything let us know!