Oof…my band just got fired!

[sean_on_bass]

OP, sounds like a potential blessing. I've played at more than a few establishments where i was somewhat embarrassed by the level of customer service the patrons were being given. To the point of not even inviting any of my acquaintances to see the band. Some were weekly residencies too, and when the residency was cancelled i breathed a sigh of relief. Then when they were out of business or changed ownership, another sigh of relief.

 

[sean_on_bass]

But they did fix the issue. Most of us don't agree with the way they fixed it because it doesn't serve our interests as musicians. I've spent 40 years booking my bands, working with club owners to make things smoother, and I can agree with most of us that there are some obvious solutions to make things better on band night. I have also run my own businesses in other industries for 30 years, and I can easily see many very valid reasons why having band night may not be a good idea for this venue. Many of the comments seem to be of the opinion that more dollars in the door is ALWAYS better. I can absolutely say that is not always the case. Trying to bite off more than you can chew to make a few more dollars on an occasional night may very well not be a good idea for them. Could they come up with entirely new systems which would only be in effect on occasional nights? Sure. Does that mean they are stupid or bad managers for deciding not to? Absolutely not. They made what struck me as a reasonable, although disappointing, decision.

Agreed. More people in the door sometimes just exposes more people to the crappy service. If you can't offer every customer a good experience, then you shouldn't want the customer to even be there.

 

[Bullitt5135]

OP follow-up...as is often the case, when one door closes another one opens.

A couple of weeks after the brewery canceled three dates, I got a call out of the blue from a friend asking if we were available for a last-minute fill-in gig at a local social club. This is a room we've been trying to get into for a while now, but their calendar is always packed well in advance with the same acts in steady rotation. We heavily promoted the show amongst friends and family and Facebook. The turnout was better than expected – the place is frequented by older townies that love to sing and dance and socialize, and they loved us. I think we offer something a bit more current and energetic than other acts in the rotation. We picked up a bunch of new fans, including several people who are very active on social media that have wasted no time in championing our band. In two gigs since then, these people are coming out to support us and bringing friends. It's already opening new doors for us at another venue we've been aiming at. The whole thing has been a real shot in the arm for our band.

A good friend of mine told me "I'm never upset if a gig falls through because it gives me an opportunity to land a better gig."

 

[ChrisB2]

OP follow-up...as is often the case, when one door closes another one opens.

A couple of weeks after the brewery canceled three dates, I got a call out of the blue from a friend asking if we were available for a last-minute fill-in gig at a local social club. This is a room we've been trying to get into for a while now, but their calendar is always packed well in advance with the same acts in steady rotation. We heavily promoted the show amongst friends and family and Facebook. The turnout was better than expected – the place is frequented by older townies that love to sing and dance and socialize, and they loved us. I think we offer something a bit more current and energetic than other acts in the rotation. We picked up a bunch of new fans, including several people who are very active on social media that have wasted no time in championing our band. In two gigs since then, these people are coming out to support us and bringing friends. It's already opening new doors for us at another venue we've been aiming at. The whole thing has been a real shot in the arm for our band.

A good friend of mine told me "I'm never upset if a gig falls through because it gives me an opportunity to land a better gig."

Wow, what a rainbow after the storm. Good to hear.

 

[Marko 1]

Great news!

 

[Derry Murbles]

Read the whole thread, and I noticed almost everyone just sort of ignored this…

...our singer's wife ordered $60 worth of food from their online takeout menu. When she picked the order up at the bar, the kid said "I can't allow you to take that outside." Besides being confused and perplexed and politely asking "why...are you sure...can I talk to the manager?"...she eventually got tired of waiting and just walked outside with the food when the kid walked away.

So, not even just a customer, but the singer's wife just blatantly ignored the venue's rules about food, and you're surprised that you're not invited back? I'm curious how many more of your fans/group did the same. Seems innocuous, but a couple folks brought up something that perhaps you're not considering:

I don't know about your state, but Maryland has weird laws about serving food and running a microbrewery. They mostly do food trucks to get around the serving food limitations and then there are restrictions on where the beer can be consumed, etc. It makes no sense on the surface, but bigger crowds do not always equal more profit. More revenue? Almost certainly, but not necessarily more profit.

There was a bar near me a few years ago that had all kinds of headaches from the town code enforcement people. When they had live music, the place was packed, the parking lot would fill up, and people would park on the street in the neighborhood behind the bar, which got the residents in an uproar.

More than once, the fire marshal told them to shut it down due to exceeding occupancy.

The place built a really nice outdoor area for live music, but couldn't really have night shows because the neighbors would complain.

They finally threw in the towel and did away with live music all together.

Without knowing if any of the above scenarios are in play, I wouldn't be too critical of management.

If your crowd/crew is disobeying rules of the establishment, and thereby creating the potential for code violations that could cause fines or other headaches for the place, on top of the place being understaffed for the volume, I'm not surprised your remaining gigs were cancelled.

Definitely sucks, but it sounds like there's a touch more to the story than "we brought a big crowd and the venue couldn't handle it so we got canned."

ETA: Happy that it turned out to be a positive and your band has some new opportunities on the horizon. Always nice when something seemingly negative works out for the better.

 

[Astronaut]

What place is that?