Band in the bar.Diners in the restaurant. Obviously?

[bassjim]

I was going to put this in the how was your gig last night but thought although its been talked about before here, its yet another why oh why and how is the stupid person in charge allowed to be in charge moment, that I would like to share with the class....

Its an essay I'm afraid.....

So this venue....

We played here in the summer when, there was a big beer festival thing going on, it was a hot sunny day, it was a day time event and the place was packed. We went down really well.  But that was then and the circumstances were what they were at the time.

This Saturday night just gone  however was a complete disaster.  Its a Pub/ restaurant in the middle of nowhere with just a small village up the road. Very nice food, well served.  This is the venues strong point if you ask me. The venue has one big dining area where the stage is located and no bar. The pub part with the bar in is in a separate area of the building that can not be seen by the dining area, nor can we be heard from the bar unless we play very very loudly. 

Anyone that wanted to, or might of liked to hear the band was in the bar , and the diners, in the big room with us, wanted to talk amongst them selves, not listen to a band of any kind, and enjoy the food. We were told to start at 9pm and so we did ,but played very quietly and politely and tried to not irritate. Which we clearly were . People in the bar that wanted to see us, would gingerly hang about at the entrance to the dining area but feeling uncomfortable and probably thinking this was perhaps a private do shrugged off. There was nowhere for them to sit anyway,  as any free tables that were available were  laid out for potential dining customers. 

Could they sit there, couldn't they? No real clear indication from the venue what the score was there. What happens if you want another drink? Go and get another or wait to be served? Who knows? Do the staff know? No they are not sure either. Best go back to the bar area then..

Anyway, as soon as the last irritated diners, and probably the by now cant wait to get going nominated sober drivers , had up and left (about 10pm) we played to  the last hand full of drinking punters ( 6 or so)  that had till now been hiding in the bar area. They were enjoying it. The room  had a bit of a private exclusive feel to it now. Just them and us. But by 10:30pm their pre arranged taxis (arranged whilst bored in the main bar)  arrived and off they went. Apologising for leaving early but thanking us all the same.

By 11pm the whole place is , bar the bar staff and 2 punters, empty. Completely empty. We pack up the gear and in turn proceeded to empty the till by £400.00 plus 2 free drinks each , as agreed in advance. So.... I guess that's the end of that with this venue.  Chatting to a member of the very nice bar staff before we left, we were told that this was the worst last couple of months they had ever had. I wondered if it had anything to do with putting bands on. It would make sense. If only someone in the management could work it out. Band in the pub. Dinners in the restaurant.

Deflating experience. 

[ped]

What a strange idea. Are you sure you weren't booked for a wedding 

[spectoremg]

You're right, it was an essay 

[Monkey Steve]

I've had, well, similar if not exactly the same sort of experiences, certainly similar ones of getting to the pub and finding that nobody there has given a single second's though to where to put the band so that the punters who want to hear them can do so. 

Worst one I had was in an oddly shaped pub with two separate, large bars and an alcove/snug that was round the corner and through some doors from both of them.  We turn up, ask where we're playing, the barman scratches his head and points at the snug.  we set up and while there is room for one or two dedicated punters to fit into the room with us nobody else can either see or hear us.  When we tried to address this through the cunning use of volume we had to turn it back down as it was uncomfortably loud just to get any noise to make it through into the next bar.  So we played for about three people, and everybody else who had come to see us arrived, saw that there wasn't a band playing in the main bars, and left.

Usually an indication that the chain has given them an allocation for hiring a band and the manager thinks that having hired a band he's done all the hard work and they just need to wait for the punters to roll in.  And no doubt they'll be blaming you for not bringing the crowds in, so next week they'll try another band and the same thing will happen. In the case above we couldn't believe it when they paid us and asked when we next had a gap in the diary...we took the money, and did the same thing the next month before giving it up as a bad idea.

[Krysbass]

Been in the same situation a couple of years ago.  When we soundchecked, the landlord must have realised his mistake as he was straight away telling us we were too loud.  Problem was; our drummer in that band only had one level of playing - deafening; so it fell on the rest of us to turn the volume rigt down, but with the drums still so loud;  I was struggling to hear myself all night and couldn't wait for the gig to end.  We were literally a few feet from where people were tucking into their fish & chips or whatever. 

That landlord has since moved on from that venue and I have moved on from that band.  Played the same venue a few weeks ago with new landlord and current band and it went fine........

[MrDaveTheBass]

I always like to entertain diners by using the right bass frequencies to make their cutlery levitate off the table, and create the most impressive standing waves in their soup.