My band has been playing all over Seattle for about 2 years now and we've pretty much gotten use to the poor management and organization of the people setting up shows at venues (not bars). However, on Halloween Eve we were unpleasantly surprised by a bunch of stupid people who thought they are actually something in the music scene by hosting a show in the shittiest venue we've been to..... the Capitol Hill Art Center... aka. CHAC
Well let me start by giving a run down on what happened that night..
4:30 PM, I got off work and quickly caught the next bus to the park and ride
5:15 PM, I arrived home and waited for my band members to arrive for the car pool
6:00 PM, Me, Kenny and Jeff left Bellevue towards Ballard
6:30 PM, We arrived, packed all our shit, and left the studio
7:15 PM, Finally made it to CHAC, parked our trailer 2 blocks away
8:30 PM, Show started, 3 hours till we are scheduled to play
9:30 PM, Shitty rap, 2 hours till we are scheduled to play
10:30 PM, OMG the music is killing us, 1 hour till we are scheduled to play
11:30 PM, Host told us the show got delayed and we will be on at 12:30, that there was only one band in front of us. So we loaded ALL our gear in to the venue...
12:45 AM, Host told us that he made a mistake and there is another band in front of us, we will be on at 1:30AM.
1:00 AM, Everybody is pissed, we are now loading stuff out the door and heading back to Ballard.
1:30 AM, Arrived at Ballard, unload and then left home.
2:00 AM, Arrived back at my house in Bellevue...
Lets me see now, 6:00PM - 2:00AM that's um... 8 hours! 8 hours spent just sitting on our ass for nothing! Fucking absolute bullshit. We were suppose to be on at 11:30... 1:30 is 2 hours late! Not to mention the host didn't fucking think about the fact that the bar closes at 2AM....
Now why was the show delayed? Well the host thought it'd be nice to hire a cheap ass soundman who didn't know what the fuck he was doing. After blowing 3 channels ($$$) on their house mixer, you'd think he'd finally step up to the plate and start figuring shit out. But noooo, instead he got MOODY! Yelling at Kenny "Back the fuck off man!"... dude, before you go around saying you can completely manage the sound booth at a show... you should seriously consider the consequences if you fucked up. I hope you didn't get paid.
We are working musicians, most of us have full time jobs in the morning and accepting a show on a weeknight for us takes a big toll on our sleep not to mention time. So many musicians today are on a one track mind, they are out to only help themselves, and are blind to the fact that they've screwed a bunch over. So long as they get to play... shit... lets take out time... drink some beer, talk to our friends... hurry the fuck up, look at the clock, you're the ones that set up this show...
I'm just glad that not too many of our fans came. For the people that did show up I felt embarrassed and very sorry for coming out to nothing.
I rarely get this worked up over anything, but for something this bullshit, frankly... I just am surprised how low musicians are.
I'm feeling a little better now, thanks for listening.. :P
