I've pointed out before that there's often more to write about a bad gig than a good one. A good one generally is one that goes to plan, therefore not much to comment on other than it went to plan. A bad one however throws up more talking points.
This weekend, for differing reasons, my intrepid band were faced with 2 bad ones. Friday being bad and Saturday downright ugly!
On Friday we played at the Snooty Fox, Oakworth. Avid readers of this blog (both of you) may remember that this once solid venue seems to be struggling from a terminal shortage of customers.
When this happens 2 things usually occur: 1) The pub is quiet leading to a poor atmosphere, obviously.
2) Those that are present tend to be hardcore locals who don't wish to be entertained, or people who have strayed into the cold atmosphere and therefore also don't wish to be entertained. This leads to a situation where the minority of 'anti-band' audience becomes the majority.
In the case of the Snooty, all this is fairly academic. The facts are that the pub was DEAD, we played at one stage to nobody, and rounded off with a crowd of 2 (they were very enthusiastic though!). The last time we played here in August the same thing happened, except that time we also had the stoney-faced locals to contend with. This time they pissed off into the pool room.
Needless to say, not a good night. Predictable if nothing else (and we didn't get any trouble from the staff). I think it's probably time to knock this one on the head before they do. A shame, but there simply aren't enough people to make the night viable.
This one scores 4. It could be less but I felt we did a good job as a band and played well.
Saturday night was where the major problems occured. Again, I can only say that the one consolation was that it wasn't entirely a surprise. We've played at the Rock n Heifer twice previously and had a good night each time. However, on both occasions I had a bad feeling about the Lady of the House, Mandy. She reminded distinctly of a couple of similar characters we've met in the past.
Let me explain. Some pubs, generally ones that don't have regular weekly entertainment, take the attitude that the band is at their disposal for the evening and get over-involved. Usually this can be mis-interpreted as a good thing as sometimes they are over-involved by being over-keen and enthusiastic. This manifested itself at both the previous visits in us getting a good reception and being paid a little extra to play a little longer. No real problem in that except that at this point we're tired and want to go home, as with July my voice is tired too, and whilst it all seems very polite, it's actually very controlling and the band is 'owned' by the venue at this point. Also at these venues there's a need to extract a pound of flesh from the band and part of the entertainment becomes seeing how long the band will play for.
That's the good part. The downside to all this is that I recognised in Mandy the potential for irrational behaviour and trouble-making, sometimes drink-induced. A few years ago we were stung at a venue when after some great nights the landlady, intoxicated, turned on us for no good reason. Here we faced a similar scenario. The first set was fine, no problem. Then about half-way through set 2 I noticed her body language had altered. She began studying our poster intently and I realised what was coming. By now the band wasn't going down particularly well. It was another thin crowd of mainly locals who'd pretty much decided to talk and ignore us. So we finished the set and I prepared for a confrontation I knew was coming about 20 minutes prior.
We were then lambasted for not playing songs by the artists on the posters, not doing an encour, costing too much, having too long a break, playing too many originals and generally not doing as we did before.
All bullshit. I knew straight away this was an argument I wasn't going to win, so I made sure we got paid the correct amount and left. In response to the series of stupid complaints she made I did my best to use logic and defend what we did. This was pointless as logic wasn't really present in the first place.
For the record, the posters contain a sample of the sort of music we do. This is obvious to anyone with a grain of common sense a guide to the sort of music we do, not a programme. We only missed off one artist. I didn't do an encour because the audience didn't deserve one and I knew what was coming: the bollocking would have happened anyway. I specifically asked what time the 2nd set should start and was told it was up to us. We play there for our minimum fee. We played exactly the same number of orignials (4) as last time and the time before.
etc... etc.... it doesn't really matter. The main thing is we won't be going again and I'm glad I'd mentioned to the band previously that there was the potential for trouble with an erratic landlady here. It amused me that her husband, when called for his opinion, thought we were 'fine' and told her to 'calm down'. It didn't work. I only hope there'll be some sort of phone apology but of course there won't be. And I won't get my chance to say 'fuck off' either.
Sometimes I get a 6th sense that there's trouble. I hope I don't sound paranoid. It's perfectly rational because it fits the pattern of previous ugly events. 2 good nights, then one bad one for no reason.
This one could have scored 6 at 10:00pm, but instead will be relegated to the 'room 101' of my gigging career. Score 2.
What about the good you may ask? Well, only that mixing the Paradise Street album is going well and I continue to be inspired by the comments of fans on myspace. Needless to say most aren't British and I only wish I could play to a room full of these people instead. Bookings are also up for early next year despite the credit crunch. I played a magnificent function with Atlanta Soul on the Monday night to 1500 people, oh, and I've joined the local quiz league...see, not so bad after all!
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