In the Meantime
My band got fired from our regular gig earlier this year. We had a weekly Sunday night spot at a place through 2011. When 2012 started we decided to switch up to second and fourth Saturdays because we expected Saturdays to be busier which they were. Significantly. Plus playing well into a Sunday night when you gotta get up at 5am the next day to do the thing that pays your bills ain’t no punk. It begins to take a toll on your personal life.
Things were going great after the move. We were actually making money regularly and not playing to half-dead Sunday night rooms. People were coming back and asking about us on the days we didn’t play. It seemed liked the momentum was beginning to build.
But then the bar manager preempted us one night for another band. He gave us enough warning that it wasn’t that big of an issue so we didn’t make a big fuss. We showed up for our next regularly scheduled gig after that and this same other band was there already setting up the stage!
We were done. One of my bandmates also tends bar at the spot which is how we fell into the gig. He found out we were let go probably minutes before the rest of us did even though he could’ve been told as soon as the issue was decided.
Talk about some kick in the gut shit. I don’t even care about getting let go cause that’s the way it is. If the expected results aren’t being produced then we ain’t got a leg to stand on. Besides we’re playing the spot at their mercy anyway so what could we ever say if they told us things weren’t working out? Let’s shake hands and move on.
But professionalism tho! You ain’t gotta like me, we ain’t gotta be friends but if we are going to deal with each other in a professional business type relationship then the respect needs to flow both ways. Otherwise we ain’t dealing. Had I known in advance I wouldn’t have paid for parking that night since I expected to be reimbursed by performing) and I would’ve made other plans.
We learned the hard way that this bar manager is a snake and not only that an incompetent snake. He replaced our rub-a-dub stylee with a drummer and keyboard player that occasionally bring in fill in players. Not only that he gave them a $200 guarantee!!! and all the food they can eat for free!
I won’t go into the specifics of our deal. It wasn’t great. But for perspective, I talked to the man calling the shots for a certain Vancouver based reggae/soul 7 piece (you do the math) and at the time of that convo (early spring 2011) they had a $250 guarantee to play in Seattle.
This is for loading up all 7 of these peeps, dealing with the stupid border crossing to drive 3hrs and play, probably not even bothering with a hotel I’d guess and driving back the same night.
Now I’m not hating on these replacements for negotiating the deal cause we all do what we gotta. However I see it as slash and burn style economics, pure and simple. I’m trying to wrap my head around how anyone, including the players, thought a two-piece playing in the lounge of a small not so well reviewed Thai food restaurant was going to justify this weekly payout.
Did they really expect these cats to pack the place every time they went on especially without doing anything extra to promote their existence?
They didn’t pack the place tho. They lost money. They didn’t bring in anymore folks than we did either. At the the end of their month they weren’t invited back and now there’s nothing going on musically at this spot anymore.
In other words, everybody lost.
Welp. You reap what you sow but if you choose to slash and burn don’t be surprised when the tables dem a turn, ya know?
There are rumblings that we’re wanted back too. People are still coming in asking about us even though we stopped promoting the gig the moment we lost it.
Other fish tho.
/rant
