Show cancelled, but no one told us

Jonny B · #1 01-07-2010, 10:12 PM

I was at a prospective bar last night trying to book a gig, and was glancing through The Entertainer (our local weekly free rag on, what else?, entertainment in the area) when I noticed my bands gig this weekend wasn't listed. Now, I know that this particular bar owner always advertises shows in The Entertainer, so I looked again. And again. Nothing.

So today after work I drove out to said tavern, and what do I find? A for sale sign on the door, and a very dark building.

It would have been nice to know this before sending out e-mails to our fan base, and sending invites via Facebook. I understand that these things happen, but man, a phone call would have been nice. Just imagine if I hadn't been paging through The Entertainer last night and we all showed up Saturday evening to a dark and locked up bar. Just imagine how ticked off our friends, family, and fans would have been showing up even later that night.

/end rant

Gopherbassist · #2 01-07-2010, 11:02 PM

Well, if they had any outdoor outlets, you could have set up, played a few songs, and torn everything down hopefully before the police arrived. You can't say that wouldn't have been fun.

walterw · #3 01-07-2010, 11:10 PM

just be glad it wasn't a house gig and all your gear was stuck inside!

ProfGumby · #4 01-07-2010, 11:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by walterw

just be glad it wasn't a house gig and all your gear was stuck inside!

That is what axes and cordless power saws are for. Pesky locked doors barring one from their gear are no problem then...

I keed, I keed....

gus1894 · #5 01-07-2010, 11:13 PM

Really bites. In my last band, my guitarist and I learned the hard way to call ahead two and three weeks before the show to make sure all was still happening according to plan. We've established an unofficial network with some other bands who play at our level now - info gets around. Call ahead, talk to other bands. And good luck!

Kenner · #6 01-07-2010, 11:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by walterw

just be glad it wasn't a house gig and all your gear was stuck inside!

+1

southshoreconor · #7 01-07-2010, 11:40 PM

i'll one up you.

my band had a couple days off between dates in san francisco and picking up in the midwest to head back home (boston). we spend the night after the gig in san fran, get some lunch the next day and start driving. our next show was three days later in Rapid City, SD. no big deal. after lunch, we pack up and get on i-80 and just go. we stop for the night in a town called Elko, NV where i fell in love with the girl working at the econolodge (but that's another story). we check out the next day and get back on the road. somewhere in wyoming it starts snowing. it's getting late so we decide to stop again and get another room. just as we decide this a sign comes into view "LAST SERVICES 75 MILES". no way im driving another hour + in this snow. we stop at the exit which is just a gas station and close to 100 18 wheelers. we park, leave the engine running and sleep in the van. we get up from a rough nights sleep around 7 am. get coffee, gas and get back on the road. only, whats this? a gate blocking the highway entrance. we sit for about another hour before the staties open the highway again. no more than 1/2 a mile east of the exit we had stopped at, we see the band Against Me who had crashed their tour bus/trailer early that morning. road cases and boxes of t shirts littered the median. (check the date, it was oct 22nd 2008). i'm glad we stopped when we did. anyway we still had a hell of a drive to rapid city. so we just kept on driving. finally around 8 pm, we pull into the venue's empty parking lot. i call the promoter (who provided the wrong phone number in our itinerary). called our booking agent, who got in touch with someone who then told us the show was canceled. 1500 miles, no gig, no pay. some kids noticed the van and trailer and figured it was us and took us out to eat and let us sleep on their floor. we woke up the next morning and drove to Fargo, ND and played one of the best shows of that tour.

m0nst3r · #8 01-08-2010, 01:56 AM

No offense, but if the owner put a "for sale" sign on his bar, I'm pretty sure your band was probably the last thing he was thinking about. I do agree with you though. It would have been nice to get some kind of notice. Good thing you caught it when you did.

IanStephenson · #9 01-08-2010, 04:20 AM

You've lost a gig for one night. The owner and staff of the bar are now out of work indefinately. I wouldn't be too mad on them.

Lesson to learn: Call the venue a few days before the gig, just to "check the details". Confirm the times you're playing, load in details etc, and check that the guy that booked you still works there!

It's a pretty regular occurance that a bar changes hands, and the old owner just takes the diary with him - the new owner has no idea who's been booked, and starts over with new bookings.

jnuts1 · #10 01-08-2010, 10:43 AM

we had 1 bar close down without telling us but luckily i drove past it the day before & saw it was closed down.

i have showed up to our monthly acoustic gig only to be told we forgot we booked you. how can you forget? we play the same week every month!

willgroove2 · #11 01-08-2010, 01:53 PM

I had a club go out of business WHILE we were playing

In the early '90's my band at the time had a every other weekend gig at a upstairs club connected to a restaurant. We had a small following of about 15-25 people who showed up at most of our gigs and because they had a dinner and show deal going we pulled more people than usual to this place.the thing is we noticed that our people would usually be the only people at the gig or the restaurant for that matter. so we load in for the gig(up 3 flights of outdoor stairs, in winter, in Chicago)and the vibe was very odd,turns out that the restaurant got slammed in a review the week before and the owner/chef and his business partners were having a meeting right when we supposed to play.

While we were playing we saw the owner walk out the office and tell the bartenders and wait staff to come in the back room. they did and came out 15 min later and 2 of the waitress just got their coats and walked out.The bartenders started asking people what they wanted to drink and sent a bottle of wine to every table. When we got off stage we asked what was going on and the manager told us that the Business partners had pulled all their money out and they were closing down that night,they didn't make payroll and since the food and liquor were paid for they we just giving it away.the owner walked up to us and paid us for the night plus a little extra and told us that he enjoyed the band and he was just going to get drunk and party. So we played the rest of the night and even called a few friends to let them know there was free food and drink happening.

The strangest thing was watching the kitchen crew take everything that wasn't nailed down as they left,I guess if your not getting paid you gotta get something.

Modulator · #12 01-08-2010, 02:01 PM

I always call the venue a few days before a show and ask who the band is for the night we're booked. It assures that the bar knows we're playing and that the staff is telling people if they call. I guess it would also prevent traveling to a show to find out the venue was closed.

acleex38 · #13 01-08-2010, 04:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by m0nst3r

No offense, but if the owner put a "for sale" sign on his bar, I'm pretty sure your band was probably the last thing he was thinking about. I do agree with you though. It would have been nice to get some kind of notice. Good thing you caught it when you did.

This happened to us in September (the band the weekend before us found out the venue was closed when they showed up for their gig - our pianist went to drop off fliers and found an empty venue and a hand-written sign from the other band).

Our attitude was exactly what you're saying - we're local, we're not a "big deal" and their business/livelihood just fell apart - compared to them, we have no real complaints.

1500 miles though...that sucks.

kesslari · #14 01-08-2010, 05:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by m0nst3r

No offense, but if the owner put a "for sale" sign on his bar, I'm pretty sure your band was probably the last thing he was thinking about. I do agree with you though. It would have been nice to get some kind of notice. Good thing you caught it when you did.

Have to agree.
We had a similar thing, but caught it ourselves.
A reggae band I was in had a regular gig at a restaurant club. The owner developed a nose candy problem and managed to stuff the entire restaurant up his nose. We'd been playing there for a couple of years or so, and started to notice stuff.
First there were fewer items "in stock" on the menu, and the bar selection was noticeably down. And week to week, it got worse.
Then it was like "um, are there fewer tables and chairs than there used to be?" Sure enough, he was slowly selling the furniture.

One night we had to really wrangle to get our pay, and just after we had managed that, in comes a sherrif and sits down - it was clear that there was some "stuff to be settled".

We had a quick band meeting and decided that was our last night there. The following week some fans came by (didn't know we had cancelled) and the place was boarded up.

It was a great gig while it lasted. And it provided proof that, yes, you can fit an entire restaurant up your nose, or at least, some people can.

Tom_RCJ · #15 01-08-2010, 05:44 PM

This might qualify; We got double booked a few times by bars. One time in particular we showed up and there was around 5-6 bands with all their gear waiting. It was one of those places that books 2-3 bands per night, which I find is like begging for a migraine. But I guess that one night got double booked. We all sat around discussing and decided we'd all stay and play really short sets.

BAD IDEA!!!

If 2-3 bands with different gear/set-ups/mixes is a migraine, 5-6 is a full-on epileptic episode. I know it gets done all the time in festivals, but it's just not my idea of a fun gig. Didn't even get paid either for that one. Not that money is the only reason I play, but at least it's a small consolation on rough nights.

::Saint:: · #16 01-08-2010, 06:42 PM

This happened to my band on our first show -- we had booked it at a local club probably 2 months in advance and at some point they fired their booking agent and nobody bothered to follow up on anything he booked -- we kept calling the gut trying to get details on when to show up, etc, and eventually went down to the place to find out the details and were basically told that they had no idea who we were or what we were talking about.

Keeping in mind this was less than a week before the show, and we had already designed, printed posters and paid for them to be put up for about a month, so we were totally out of pocket on that one, which sucked.

Jonny B · #17 01-08-2010, 11:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by m0nst3r

No offense, but if the owner put a "for sale" sign on his bar, I'm pretty sure your band was probably the last thing he was thinking about. I do agree with you though. It would have been nice to get some kind of notice. Good thing you caught it when you did.

You're absolutely right. I highly doubt my band was on his mind at all, and really can't fault the guy. But I just found out last night, was pretty ticked off, and decided to vent here at TB.

1500 miles... Ouch.

Unrepresented · #18 01-09-2010, 01:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by m0nst3r

No offense, but if the owner put a "for sale" sign on his bar, I'm pretty sure your band was probably the last thing he was thinking about. I do agree with you though. It would have been nice to get some kind of notice. Good thing you caught it when you did.

First thing through my mind as well. Seems like a crappy situation for everyone involved.

Have had similar experiences with shows being cancelled without notification. A lot of the promoters around here are pretty crappy and the local bands can certainly be flakey too. There was a streak where we were averaging at least 1.5 bands bailing on gigs, which sucks when you're an originals band who's hoping to get some exposure to a larger group.

konodl18 · #19 01-11-2010, 06:09 PM

Johnny B, I'm in NE WI! I'm assuming you are somewhere nearby because the Entertainer is a local rag. What bar closed down?

Derek

tlwaps · #20 01-12-2010, 07:22 AM

A few years ago my old band was working with a local scumbag promoter who had Mistress Juliya from Fuse TV and 2 national bands coming to town. We were slated to open the show but after we met with said scumbag we found out that there's 7 other bands playing that night plus us plus the 2 national acts. The guy wanted 10 bands to perform between 9 p.m. and 2 a.m. Plus it was a pay to play show, which i'm never happy to do and never encourage anybody else to do. We get to the show and find out that Mistress Juliya and the 2 national acts have cancelled, but he told us AFTER he collected all the money. Not to mention they cancelled 48 hours in advance. Needless to say we were all pissed and he has since gone out of business.