Almost/kinda Got Ripped Off

[RadioactiveGuy4]

I remember reading a thread about a list of mostly bad things that had to happen to you before you could consider yourself a pro bassist one of which was getting ripped off by the club owner/show promoter. Well it almost happened at our show last night.

We have played this bar a few times and it is know for being one of the places in my area for seeing good live shows. The guy that handles the booking and the promoting knows us all by name. Well we headlined the show and after we got done playing we packed up our gear and loaded it into the van and went back into to chill before the place closed. The drummer said he was going to go get the money for the show. He came back about 10 minuets later all pissed off saying that the Promoter was drunk and that he was saying he had already paid one of the other band members. So as a group we all returned to the guy and asked him which one of us he had paid. The guy looked at all of us for a minuet then "remembered" that he had not paid us surprise surprise. He then pulled out $100 wrapped in a piece of paper with the name of the opening act on it. We were all pissed now. Our cut of the show should have been about $150. It turns out that the guy got drunk and gave the wrong bands the wrong amount of cash. We called the owner over and told him what was going on and we were able to get another $20 out of the promoter.

I guess in the long run $30 is not a big deal but we use the money we make off of shows to pay for our CD's, stickers and our recording equipment. I would still play the place again because it is one of the best places in town to hear original music but I'm not sure how to handle this issue if it were to come up again.

:rant over:

[kcole4001]

What would happen in any other business: the guy would have to pay you the remainder out of his own pocket.
He screwed up and created the discrepancy, not the band.
He's at fault, he pays.

I'd suggest that the issue be brought up when booking another show there and the pay be made up on that occasion.
Talk to the owner if necessary.

You probably won't get anywhere, but at least they'll know you're not pushovers.

[Floyd Eye]

Not kinda, you did get ripped off. You accepted $30 less than the agreed upon fee? You never should have done that.

[Texan]

This happened to us years ago. We took 10 or so cases of liquor and called it even.

[JGbassman]

Happens to everyone at least once. My spin goes like this. Roadband doing one nighters across the west and end up in Boise Idaho. The band was good and had a reasonable crowd but promoter didnt do his job as well as the owner though he should have for a bar type show. Blah blah and we got shorted.....everyone's pissed and waiting to go at hotel waiting on crew to finish. Next thing we see is the roadie and light guy covered in a white substance. (no not that stuff). Seems they decided to let off a few fire extinguishers before they left to show their displeasure in what happened. Needless to say we hit the road and get out of town about that time. Gotta love crazy roadies. Funny part was they got their cut.....took the sting out of a little burn.

[RadioactiveGuy4]

Originally Posted by Floyd Eye

Not kinda, you did get ripped off. You accepted $30 less than the agreed upon fee? You never should have done that.

In fairness the amount we get paid is based on how much the door takes and with out knowing exactly how much the door took it is hard to say what we should have gotten. So it is in the realm of possibility that are cut was only $120 but I find that really hard to believe.

We do plan on going back and talking with the guy again to see if he will make it right but at the time we saw no point in trying to argue with a drunk.

We know this guy and have had many dealings with him in the past. Hopefully this was a one time mistake that he will fix. In the future we will make sure we get the numbers so we can make sure we get our fair cut.