I arrived home from tour on Monday. The jaunt was fun and successful, and as always I am refreshed and exhilarated. The years of practice, toil, and hardship that I have put into my music career really are paying off, as some of the venue owners have real personal appreciation for me as an artist. Most musicians never experience being treated as anything more meaningful than a statistic in a venue's revenue calculations, so I am very happy with what I've achieved on that count. My reputation is growing with the fans at some of these venues I've played over and over, too. I saw some familiar faces this time around. Everyone was real happy to see me again.
Of the seven shows that were scheduled, I played six. Little Angie's in Duluth tried pulling a fast one on me, and they flopped on their belly. You see, the one time I played there previously (last spring), the booker handed me my paycheck, and then later on after I performed, the bartender told me that they weren't able to make me my check, but that they will mail it out to me the next day. I thought "You moron, if I hadn't been given my check and you said that, the only way you would be able to get me to leave tonight is to have the police tell me to leave." I said "The booker already handed me my paycheck." The bartender, appearing baffled and a bit nervous, said "That's weird." Weird, huh? So, fast-forward to this fall. About fifteen minutes after I walked into the venue, a woman who identified herself as the supervisor who's acting as the manager that night, informed me that the manager, on her way out, nonchalantly mentioned in passing that they don't have my check for me, but that I can come in the next day and get it. So, I ordered up my free meal, texted the booker who replied that he'd mail me the check the next day himself, then I walked back into the venue and told them that I'm not playing. I left, happy to have had them prepare a meal for nothing. It's the least I could do to them for having a scam going where they tell musicians that they don't have their check for them. Lee Harrison (Monstrosity's founding member) taught me by example on the tour I did playing for them in 2008- he sucked up loss after loss of hundreds of dollars spent on gas getting to this or that venue, rather than stick around and play the show and give in, just to recoup some money and keep it cool with the fans. Lee's attitude was "Let the fans express their dissatisfaction to the venue in whatever ways they choose, and teach the promoter a lesson about what happens when they commit fraud on us." Those experiences helped shape my way of conducting this aspect of my solo tours.
Of the seven shows that were scheduled, I played six. Little Angie's in Duluth tried pulling a fast one on me, and they flopped on their belly. You see, the one time I played there previously (last spring), the booker handed me my paycheck, and then later on after I performed, the bartender told me that they weren't able to make me my check, but that they will mail it out to me the next day. I thought "You moron, if I hadn't been given my check and you said that, the only way you would be able to get me to leave tonight is to have the police tell me to leave." I said "The booker already handed me my paycheck." The bartender, appearing baffled and a bit nervous, said "That's weird." Weird, huh? So, fast-forward to this fall. About fifteen minutes after I walked into the venue, a woman who identified herself as the supervisor who's acting as the manager that night, informed me that the manager, on her way out, nonchalantly mentioned in passing that they don't have my check for me, but that I can come in the next day and get it. So, I ordered up my free meal, texted the booker who replied that he'd mail me the check the next day himself, then I walked back into the venue and told them that I'm not playing. I left, happy to have had them prepare a meal for nothing. It's the least I could do to them for having a scam going where they tell musicians that they don't have their check for them. Lee Harrison (Monstrosity's founding member) taught me by example on the tour I did playing for them in 2008- he sucked up loss after loss of hundreds of dollars spent on gas getting to this or that venue, rather than stick around and play the show and give in, just to recoup some money and keep it cool with the fans. Lee's attitude was "Let the fans express their dissatisfaction to the venue in whatever ways they choose, and teach the promoter a lesson about what happens when they commit fraud on us." Those experiences helped shape my way of conducting this aspect of my solo tours.
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