Hooray for the Melvins! No Pay To Play!

[The Golden Boy]

I heard last night that the Melvins cancelled their show in Milwaukee for this evening because of The Rave's policy towards local/opening bands of "pay to play." From the Melvin's Label's website:

http://www.ipecac.com/news.php

We wanted to let our friends in Milwaukee know that we are disappointed to announce that the Melvins/Trevor Dunn show at the Rave Bar has been cancelled. The Melvins found out that the opening bands were not being treated fairly and voiced their displeasure. The club decided not to change their policy. Somebody has to speak up for local openers. This is very unfortunate in that it is not the first time one of our bands has had a problem in Milwaukee. Hopefully fans in the area can make the trek to Chicago.

As some of you know the Rave will charge up to $400 for an opening slot on a "good" show. It really is a no-brainer not to play there- as far as from a local band perspective. But the lure to open for a big band is too much to ignore for some bands. The Rave building houses the Eagles Club Ballroom- a massive room, the Rave- a large room, The Bassment- a large entirely concrete room in the... basement, and the Rave Bar- a bar with a stage against a side wall. Both the Rave and Eagles Club are horrible sounding rooms, even packed. The Bassment is even worse (although I haven't played there, I've seen enough shows there) and the Rave Bar is an excuse for a live music venue. You might get a couple drink tickets per band member to drink crappy beer out of tap lines that have not been cleaned in who knows how long...

[superbassman2000]

well, people will pay the money, i mean, i went to go see soil in the rave bar, and there were 4 opening bands. several of which i would have payed them NOT to play!

[Bassic83]

Pay-to-Play is still being allowed to happen? That's why I left L.A., partly...clubs that do this do not EVER get my business, nor that of my friends. We actually had our gear confiscated by club manglement once in L.A...they told us we owed them $850, and refused to let us have our gear. They had a bunch of big goons take our stuff to a locked metal cage while we were in the green room. I don't recall which club it was, it's hopefully been burned to the ground by now, with the owner/management inside. Took two days of fund-raising to get our gear back, when we showed up, they had the balls to try to charge us a cartage fee and a storage fee. I was ready to murder at that point. I was actually telling the bassist (I was playing keys that time) we needed to go to the gas station NOW...they relented on the extra "fees" but still held out for their stinking $850. This was in the mid-80s when this happened.

[The Golden Boy]

Taking Gear? That's calling the cops type stuff unless you signed something stating they can do that. Go ahead and lay your hands upon me as I'm packing my stuff up...

There's another pay to play thread, incidentally, about the same place:

Pay to Play rears it's ugly head

It used to be a fun place, but it's just business. Heck, they can pay for the headliners with what the opening bands have to pay...

[xyllion]

The basic problem is that bands give in to the demands of the club. If no band would be willing to pay the fee, then they would stop charging it. Young bands need to be educated. Clearly pay-to-play is not the way to make it in the business.

[Stingus]

On a side note...

If you have a chance to see this tour GOOOOO!!!!!!!

I saw this show Monday and it was one of the best shows I have seen for a while: Trevor's upright playing is unbelievable and The Melvin's were outrageous!

[Frank Martin]

Originally Posted by Bassic83

Pay-to-Play is still being allowed to happen? That's why I left L.A., partly...clubs that do this do not EVER get my business, nor that of my friends. We actually had our gear confiscated by club manglement once in L.A...they told us we owed them $850, and refused to let us have our gear. They had a bunch of big goons take our stuff to a locked metal cage while we were in the green room. I don't recall which club it was, it's hopefully been burned to the ground by now, with the owner/management inside. Took two days of fund-raising to get our gear back, when we showed up, they had the balls to try to charge us a cartage fee and a storage fee. I was ready to murder at that point. I was actually telling the bassist (I was playing keys that time) we needed to go to the gas station NOW...they relented on the extra "fees" but still held out for their stinking $850. This was in the mid-80s when this happened.

Thats unbelievable... Now those are some @$$holes!

And pay to play? I mean, they get the profit from the tickets, but they also want you, the band, for whom the crowd comes, to pay? That is ridiculous!

[vegaas]

That is awesome of The Melvins! Very cool.

My band did the pay to play thing at The Rave. I hate it, but; it did expose our music to people who wouldnt have heard of us yet.

We didnt lose money, but we didnt make any money either. I chalk it up as a way to get exposure, however; we did it twice in a short period of time, and will not being doing it again anytime soon, if at all.

[fastplant]

This is what I hate about club managers. When ALL you care about is money, that's when your club starts to fail. There's far too many clubs like this. Alot of clubs around here only care about how much money they can make off the bands and hire crappy bands that draw in money. Eventually, people catch wind that only crappy bands are playing at certain clubs and then they stop going. Now even the crappy money making bands are losing money for the club and it turns into a DJ/dance club. If owners were willing to take a risk on good music then they can create a reputation as a cool club to catch good music, they'll make the money over longer periods of time.

[peteroberts]

word to the Melvins, although I don't really care for them.