playing for the door

[on1ne]

I'd like to believe this but I don't know it for a fact, may be another urban myth of sorts.

This concerns certain well known club in Woodstock NY. They had changed owners a few times in the 70's and their reputation for paying bands was murky.

So this band played there with the agreement that they would get paid the door, i.e. whatever was taken in at the door.

At the end of the night the owner was nowhere to be found and no one from management was around.

Faced with with prospect of going home unpaid, they chose another option...yup, they took the door...the front door to the club.

Turned out the door was worth a lot of money, more than the band would have been paid. I don't know the specific amounts but eventually the band got properly paid and the door was returned.

 

[debassr]

I don't know if that story is true either - but it's a great one!

 

[Spinal Tapper]

I love it!
What if you already discussed splitting 50% of the door with the other band???
Hope someone has a saw

 

[chaosMK]

I always prefer to take a piece of the bar.

 

[invader3k]

That's pretty amusing, if true.

 

[heatsky]

I guess it's safe to admit this now ... we did a gig in northern Virginia in the early 1990s for the door. Very nice club, good crowd, and at the end of the night? That's right -- the manager took off without paying us. On purpose. I know that's hard to believe.

We discussed prying the actual door off, but we settled for backing the van up to their kitchen dumpster and knocking it over into the club through a set of open double doors that we loaded out of. You should have seen the dumpster juice come outta that thing.

 

[cutthroatmolloy]

-makes a note to include door removal tools with other required equipment for gigs-

 

[The Golden Boy]

I'll be first in the thread to call BS on the story.

As an aside, I don't know of any clubs in Woodstock NY.

 

[thehangingmist]

I don't know if that story is true either - but it's a great one!

yes indeed its a great one no matter if its true or not!

 

[bassbully]

I played a gig where the week before a band felt they got stiffed on the door so they took the bars mic's and cables 4 or 5 of them...good thing we brought our own.

 

[T-Bird]

Hi.

Great story, true or not.

In the music bussines You'll be screwed over like it or not, so it's usually wise to have a back-up plan.

I used to work for a less honest dude as a soundman and a roadie, and I told him beforehand that if the pay isn't on my account or in my hand by the end of the tour, I'll take some gear as an insurance.

Well as can be expected, I was a couple of gigs short by the end of the tour so a couple of DI- boxes, a couple of mics and the PSU of the mixing desk came with me (easy to take along with a MC). The PSU was supposed to be the only one in the country, but as my luck goes, there was another one, dang.

In no time my phone rang and the dude told me that the money is in my account.

Don't get mad, get even. In advance if necessary.

Regards
Sam

 

[LumpyGravy]

Yeah. We got ripped one night. My guitarist broke in to the bar after they were gone and lifted the liquor supply. Not the well bottles, but the scotch and rum. That was the Chinese Shoehorn circa 1999.

 

[mothmonsterman]

-makes a note to include door removal tools with other required equipment for gigs-

Bah, nonsense be a man and have 5 or so people just rip the bastard off the wall.

 

[mattofash]

we were promised by a venue faithfully that wed be getting a hundred or so for the gig and got half the amount we were meant to. That was bout the time a few bottles of vodka and whisky mysteriously went missing from the venue as well to make up for it, since then that venue has been a lot better with our money

 

[punkbassistfc]

haha, great story