Tell us all about you least favorite venue....

[guitfiddle0409]

My personal least favorite venue to play in is a local bar that has the worst beer on tap you can imagine and the smoke is so thick that your clothes smell like an old metal ash tray when you get out the place...

[mjolnir]

There's a place downtown that knocks the headliners off the stage 15 minutes into their hour long set to stage a rave because the hosts are friends with the sound guy.

[MooseLumps]

Played a little bar in a little town in southeast Idaho and the barkeep (barwench) kept telling people that there were better bands at other bars that night (we were the only live entertainment in the town that night, the quality of our performance aside). The stage reminded me of certian postage stamps I've seen, and it was triangular to boot. It barely served as a drum riser for a 5 peice kit... barely. Bar wench kept telling us that we had to play AC/DC. She also wouldent tun on the heater (in december) and so people left cause they were hypothermic. The audience loved us, though, but i'm not playing that bar till the management changes

Oh, and the marquis? Wrong band name. Ya.

[jomahu]

there's a very trendy place we play at. the kinda place where everyone treats you like poo until you get on stage and they realize that you exist.
sound is always feedback central, never a soundcheck. onstage, if i move an inch to the left, i hit the guitarist. and if i move an inch to the right, i either hit the hi-hat or the horn section.

and then there are the drunk people....

[mjolnir]

Originally Posted by jomahu

there's a very trendy place we play at. the kinda place where everyone treats you like poo until you get on stage and they realize that you exist.
sound is always feedback central, never a soundcheck. onstage, if i move an inch to the left, i hit the guitarist. and if i move an inch to the right, i either hit the hi-hat or the horn section.

and then there are the drunk people....

Hehe... Reminds me of every biker bar I've ever played at.

At least at a biker bar it's pretty much a guarantee you'll end up one of those drunk people too, takes the edge off.

[bikeplate]

HI

I dont drink and you cant smoke inside in NY. No issues here

Rob

[thombo]

da funky phish in bayshore, new york... the owner does not pay the bands! we had a $300 contract, brought in 100 people at $5 a head, and he took the $ and split. at the end of the night, the bartender gave us a $50 for gas out of their tips b/c they felt bad.
as a none-union band, we were at a loss with options. one of my band-mates took some mics as compensation, but then felt bad and mailed them back.

[tww001]

There's a place I refuse to play anymore, but it's a multi-leveled establishment. The top floor is a pool hall, the main floor is a bar with a DJ, and the basement has live music. The DJ on the main floor blasts his subwoofers so loud that it over plays the band in the basement, and when politely asked to turn his subs down a little so that people can listen to the band (and plenty of people show up to <i>listen</i>, not just drink), he gets pissy and actually turns himself louder, even after other bar tenders ask him to turn down. The owner doesn't seem to care either way.

[Phalex]

There's a place about 45 minutes south of town that we quit playing like 20 times. Every time we played a gig there we swore it was the last time, and then they'd suck us back in. I quit that bar through 3 ex-guitar players and an ex-keyboard player. The place is a pit. It's dirty and old. The toilets would flush up if there were enough people using them on a given weekend. And the place just never filled up. It would be empty one night, and there'd be 20 people the next night. And they still wanted us back! For over a year we went through this!! When the owner canceled a gig we had had on the books a few months ahead of time at the last minute in favor of a band that would play for $250.00 for the weekend we were finally liberated from the place forever. He kept calling the drummer for a booking for months after that until the drummer explained that we would never ever set foot in his bar again. All the BS made for some interesting memories, but I am very happy to be shed of that place.

[guitfiddle0409]

Originally Posted by tww001

There's a place I refuse to play anymore, but it's a multi-leveled establishment.

I live in Philly, too! What is the first letter initial(s) of this esteemed establishment? Just for grins Also I will never again play at the GSP on Main St. again. The door thugs often lie about how much the bands draw and pocket much of it themselves. Every so often they physically threaten musicians for doing heinous things like leaning to close to car in the parking lot while they're loading their gear and things like that. A pity -- the old place was so much friendlier.

[tww001]

I agree about GSP, but the place I'm mentioning is actually in Harrisburg, on the main strip (2nd St.).

[guitfiddle0409]

Originally Posted by tww001

I agree about GSP, but the place I'm mentioning is actually in Harrisburg, on the main strip (2nd St.).

Thanks! I'll keep that in mind.....

[need4mospd]

At The Balinese Room in Galveston you get to push/carry your gear around 500 feet on a rickety wooden pier over the ocean. That is, if you're lucky enough to park in the loading zone. If you get there a little later, or other bands are already there, you get to carry it another 1/2 mile through the salty humid night time air.

Other than that, it was a pretty cool place to play. Definitely a better place to watch bands play though.

[Vanceman]

We played at Que's Riverbottom in Burbank, CA a few times before it closed, and they served Thai food, and the exhaust fans from the kitchen poured out on to the stage area, directly on me! It took over 8 months the get the smell out of my gig bag. The door maven took the first 15 people, and we got $5 a head after that, split between 6 members. I made between $5 and $10. The bathrooms were disgusting, there were no discounts for the band for beer. Yuk!!!!!

[Thor]

Actually, the 'original' Met Cafe on Pine Street in downtown
Providence RI. Not the new one that was owned by Dicky Lupo.
The old one that got torn down in the late 70's.

This place was a gas station before it was a bar. Saying it was
filthy was kind. I don't think any of the toilets actually worked
or anything. There was no stage, just set up in the corner
by the front door. Nice blast of cold air every 30 seconds.

One pool table in back. They never washed the floor, at best
they rinsed the floor with sour stale beer as is had that really
sour tap budwheeezer smell. Add a liberal dose - fogbank,
actually, of second hand smoke and a crowd of shot'n'a'beer
drunks and it came in right on top of the list as the worst
place ever, bar none.

[wingnut]

There is a place on the west side of Vegas that no longer has live music, but they did back in the day. They wanted you to set up the day before your gig, so people would know there was a band. However they would not be responsible for stolen gear... They would not let you put up flyers. On the day of the gig they wanted you there one hour early in case they wanted you to start early (no compensation of course). They charged full price for all drinks, even soft drinks. Tip jars were not allowed. You got paid 100 bucks a man a night and had to play thursday through sunday, from 9pm until 3am with a ten minute break between sets. Which meant you were there from 8pm until about 4am by the time you packed up your stealable stuff and went home. Then you had to adjust your music according to which owner was there. One was cool and wanted to hear whatever you wanted to play. The other one thought there was two kinds of music, 50's AND 60's ballads. It was the longest 12 weeks of my life!

[bigthemat]

i was playing at a small bbq restaurant a while back. ok set up, but no one was there to listen to us, we had to play wicked quiet, and we got no money. free bbq is nice, and it is good food, but gets old after a while. and having one of the servers tell us that if we are going to party afterwards we can clean up our own F*^%$^ mess (even when we didn't even stay past closing time....) just made it weird.

[stuonbass]

Most every corner bar, beer joint in and around St Louis. No stage, set up by the bathrooms, behind the pool table, etc. But, they are a music club, right! Fortunatley, several newer venues have opened with descent stages, house sound and lights.

[Valerus]

Originally Posted by bikeplate

HI

I dont drink and you cant smoke inside in NY. No issues here

Rob

Sounds good!

[agreatheight]

Phoenix / Tempe has a few places that suck too. Tiny stages, theiving door men, jackass soundmen, jerk owners, bad restrooms, etc. I like to avoid those establishments, but I like to play so I try not to complain too much when we do play them.