We got bumped for.....Pitbull?

[doctorpunch]

So a big promoter, probably one of the more well known Long Island promoters, hits us up last weekend to play a gig Thanksgiving Eve. Last minute but whatever, this dude can draw a place with nobody playing. First he tells us its this bar he's never been to but I have....total hole in the wall. A day before the show I see the flyer that we're playing a club about half hour away. It takes a few hours for him to confirm but now we're playing there. I played there before and this is what I remember: it has a backstage for the bands(which we turned into a weedsmoke aquarium), decent sound system, awesome sound guy, and A LOT of people went. I was stoked.

4 bands
First band at 9
One hour per band to set up, play, break down
We're on at 11

I get there and the backstage are is now nothing more than a crappy kitchen and we have to go out to the backstage patio to go burn. Whatever, I didn't mind. It was amazing what we got away with last time. I walk into the club and EVERYTHING is different: everything is covered in marble, there's curtains in places that they don't need to be, all sorts of clubby, fistpumper stuff. I walk over to the stage to see a brand new RAILING right in front! Okay, so this club got kinda weak, still better than most places.

My first thing at shows is to say hi and make nice with the sound guy. I like to get an idea of the PA and we all know how much it sucks not being in his good graces. I noticed there's no mics/DI's for the guitar and bass cabinets and no drum mics. Once again, laaaaame, but It's been worse. I say hi and immediately he goes "What! I'm busy?" Not like he's doing much except drinking a Heinekin and level the mic for the single singer on stage. I introduce myself, and let him know the vocal mics he needs(we need 3, which at some places is a stretch) and he cops the worst attitude ever.

The promoter comes up and here's the convo between the 3 of us:

Promoter: Hey man, I noticed that railing is removable, can we take it off before the next band?
Sound Guy: No, it takes too long
Me: It's cool dude, you get 3 or 4 guys on that and it's off in seconds
SG: No, we're already pressed for time as it is. The stage is going to be part of the club after the bands are done at 11 and we don't want someone falling off
Me: 11? That's our set!
SG: Sucks to be you
Me(to promoter): You might want to look into this....

I grab a brew, smoke a blunt with the bassist in the band about to play, and try to chill...

The rest of the band gets there and almost instantly one of the guys in the last band asks our drummer to use his kit. Our drummer, while a great dude and one of my best friends, will kill a man if he tries to touch his babys. We(in the band) aren't even allowed to touch it. After this dude pretty much begs him our drummer says "maybe" he IMMEDIATELY turns to his drummer and goes "he said you can use it man!" I walk up to our drummer and say "Yo man, if you don't want this dude using your kit stand your ground. If it were me I wouldn't...." there's a tap on my shoulder and it's this guy again and I'm thinking "If this dude asks he's getting punched in the face"

"Hey man, can I ask you a question?"
"You just did."
"....right, so I was wondering....we're on after you and I think it'd be cool if you played some Sabbath with us."
"Sabbath is pretty easy, your bassist doesn't know ANY Sabbath?
"He does, but I think it would be cool if YOU came on to jam with us."

I don't wanna toot my own horn here, but I think he just wants the crazy headbanging guy with the fast fingers play instead of his old bass-picking geezer so people can be like "wow, they're cool with each other!"...which at this point I'm not. I want to hit him...in the face. But, I like Sabbath....

"There's a problem, we play in C#"
"Can you tune up to Eb?"
"No"
"C'mon man, just for..."
"No, it's bad for the neck"
"Okay, I'll get you a bass"
"Maybe"
"So yeah?"
"I said maybe, I have to play our set first and I was hoping to party after. I'll think about it"
"Lemme buy you a beer man"
"OK...."

WOOHOO! FREE BEER! As I drink my beer....

"HEY GUYS! WE'RE GONNA JAM WITH KILLJOY'S BASSIST! TONIGHT!"
"Listen, your not exactly in my best graces right now because you took an obvious 'maybe' from my drummer and heard 'yes'. You're not pulling this on me man. Both of us said 'maybe' not 'yes' and if you don't knock this $#!% off it's going to be a definitive no. You MIGHT be borrowing our drummer's kit and I MIGHT jam with you...are we clear?"
"Okay man, sorry"

Now, for the rest of this story keep it in the back of your mind your mind he buys me a CRAPLOAD of beer to persuade me and asking me EVERY TIME he sees me.

I go outside to see if we're even playing and I meet the owner of the bar, and he's the biggest douche EVER. Here's the deal: the place got double booked. They're having a club-style party and Pibull(raggaeton dude, B-list celebrity) is emceeing. Our friends, who play at 10, are setting up. Bar Owner says he's gonna cut their time down to 45 minutes and "Let the last 2 bands share the last 45 minutes"

Que me, with 3 (4?) beers and copious amounts of weed in my system...

"#^@% THAT! How about you let both bands play and let this party happen after?"
"Nobody's gonna stick around until 1 for the party to start."
"Nobody's here to see Pitbull!"
"Well show me how many people are here to see Killjoy and I'll reconsider"
"Nobody is here to see us because I told everyone not to drive all the way out here because we MIGHT play for half of a 45 minute set. What kinda of idiot double books his own club? Don't you own a calendar?"
"Show some respect, how about I don't let you play at all?"
"How about you give the bands 100% of the door and let them play their sets you piece of $#!%! Let's talk about respect, you're cutting down 3 bands sets for a guy nobody cares about"

There's about 10-15 people outside smoking, and I address them...

"Hey guys, who's here for Pitbull?"
:crickets:
"Who's here for the bands?"
All of them of them raise their hand, "woo!", or otherwise give me a yes-like gesture.
"Tough $#!%, after this band the show's over and this place is guidoville for the rest of the night."

One guy is PISSED and goes to the owner "I payed $10 to see 2 bands? I want my money back!" This causes a ruckus, and I hear my friends playing so I slip back inside and I run into....yup, SABBATH GUY! He has a nice cold beer waiting for me.

"Hey man, did you think about it?"
"I'm not sure either of us are playing, I'll be right back."

I go to the back with the last of my free beer and I see our drummer

"We're not playing a half of a 45 minute set. We're letting Circadian Skism(our friends, who are playing right now) do an hour set and letting these chumps play after. They're not using my kit, you can jam with them if you want"
"Well that's good, because I think I started a fight outside and pissed off the owner."
"F### him."

I go over to our friends who are playing and in between songs I say to the bassist "Dude, we just got screwed, play as LONG as you want!"

They stopped playing at 11:20. The house lights go on and they start converting the club. Sabbath guy, who has NO CLUE what's going on, gets into an argument with the sound guy and finally finds out that he just bought me about $30 worth of beer for nothing. He storms out, but on the way...

Me: "Hey dude, let's play War Pigs!"
Drummer: "Yeah, I'll get my drums ready!"
SG: "You guys think this is funny, we both got screwed out of this show you know."
D: "Yeah but it's all worth it to see you go home angry, I'm going home to #^(% my wife and our bassist got drunk for free."

Now, I go outside because I'm done with this place and what do I see? Fans! About 10 people came anyway, and they've been hanging out out back with the guitar players with a bottle of tequila they stole! The drummer goes home for some marital humpin', the guitards head out with our fans, and me...I was talking to this cute little chicky and we head our own way to another bar.

:BONUS STORY:
There's a cover band player at bar#2 and they're....OK. The bassist is lousy, The crowd of 50+ old rockers are boogieing down. The singer says "How about some Metallica?" Alright, this could turn out cool. "FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS!" Aweet, a few old metalheads and myself roar in approval! As a bass geek I turn to the bassist and I expect to see him stomp the wah and hit me with a nasty wah slathered, distorted chromatic! Nope. He plays DUNDUN DUNDUN DUUUUHH with the rhythm guitar player and the lead guitar player plays the bass lead. I violently boo. The girl I was chilling with and the old metalheads start booing. Oh no, what did I start? I feel bad honestly, because I started the boo-fest, but he deserved it. I just wanted to be "that guy."

After they're done the bassist comes up to me, heated, and says "Listen man, you don't know! You don't know what it's like to go out there and play in front of people!" and storms off.

He's right. That night, I didn't know...

[sobie18]

That was cool! The club goofed and should have stuck to the original plan with 4 bands. Good story!

[modulusman]

So the moral of the story is. If you don't want to play crappy gigs like this then don't get drunk and high before the show.

[DwaynieAD]

I find your need to mention smoking weed constantly in your story despite it having nothing to do with the actual story very childish

actually on a second read through I find the entire story rather childish

[Ivan M]

Originally Posted by DwaynieAD

I find your need to mention smoking weed constantly in your story despite it having nothing to do with the actual story very childish

actually on a second read through I find the entire story rather childish

Very true, and boooing another musician while the guy is playing tells me he is also immature.

[Ivan M]

Originally Posted by modulusman

So the moral of the story is. If you don't want to play crappy gigs like this then don't get drunk and high before the show.

Ditto!

[slaps76]

Awww, I remember the first time I got drunk too.

[hdracer]

I think it is a great story.
Isn't that what Rock & Roll is all about?
Getting drunk, stoned and stupid?
It was just a crappie bar gig.
Boo'in the bass player wasn't cool though.

[Joey3313]

You sound perfect for Long Island.

[JAUQO III-X]

Originally Posted by hdracer

I think it is a great story.
Isn't that what Rock & Roll is all about?

Rock and roll will even tell you that there is no such thing as rock and roll any more.

[Darkstrike]

How lovely...

[John Wentzien]

Originally Posted by JAUQO III-X

Rock and roll will even tell you that there is no such thing as rock and roll any more.

[thombo]

...and that's why i moved from long island to denver.

a light-bulb went off when i was in my 2nd hour of LIE traffic. i called a buddy, and told him i'd be in colorado in three weeks. i havn't looked back.

[MEKer]

[Ivan M]

Originally Posted by slaps76

Awww, I remember the first time I got drunk too.

Now this here is HILARIOUS....Omg, i cant stop laughing...great stuff!

[ExurKun]

Pitbull, like the latino rapper?
if so no offense but I am not surprised at all they would bump you out he's a huge name idk why you called him a "B list"

[SuperTbass]

You sound douchier than the Pitbull fans.

[dj150888]

Christ, I'm sorry, that story could be summed up much quicker.

"Hey guys....I like to smoke weed and I'm so awesome that some dude was buying me drinks all night. My band mates and I are assholes, so we won't give a definitive answer to a simple yes or no question. Did I mention I'm awesome and I smoke weed?"

Lame isn't the word for that "story".

[scobis215]

Originally Posted by dj150888

Christ, I'm sorry, that story could be summed up much quicker.

"Hey guys....I like to smoke weed and I'm so awesome that some dude was buying me drinks all night. My band mates and I are assholes, so we won't give a definitive answer to a simple yes or no question. Did I mention I'm awesome and I smoke weed?"

Lame isn't the word for that "story".

that's about what i got from the story as well...

[rr5025]

Originally Posted by scobis215

that's about what i got from the story as well...

Me too.