Why I'll never have anything to do with the Bishop Street Pub
Simply put, the guy running it, Russ, is a delusional (and possibly bi-polar) psychopath.
Yesterday, after I inquired him politely just why we weren't getting paid for performing on a Tuesday at 11 (and having our set cut short without any kind of warning and therefore possibility of adjustment), I was showered with verbal abuse. He called me (well, rather, yelled at the top of his lungs) all sorts of variations on the words "idiot," "jerk," with the occasional "fucking" and "such a fucking." The bear of a man also kept getting really close to me physically, prompting a well-masked but very sincere fear.
While his initial statement was that we "won't get paid much," he decided to take that back and instead pay us nothing because "you brought five fucking people, you screwed me over, you fucking jackass. You expect to get paid?" While it is true that there wasn't a great crowd there to see us, it's also true that the band that was getting paid $200 a head brought about 10. And last time we filled the bar up, which didn't seem to matter at all in this conversation. "I don't fucking care about last time, man." The rest were people from the street. Leaving my personal opinions of this ridiculous scheme and modality of payment aside, I'll just say that noone I've ever done business with in this town operates that way. You get paid for entertainment, not for promoting the bar. If noone cares for your music, that's your problem. If noone came, it's the bar's.
I was keeping the fact that we "won't get paid much" in mind, and really, I just wanted to get $10 so that I could take a cab home and not have to drag my amp, pedal board, and guitar home on my back, especially since I'd only had about 3 beers (out of the infinity that we were promised)
The dude's insults were punctuated with things along the lines of "I love your music, man, and I think you're a great guy" (which almost immediately followed "you were the second shittiest band of the night, you fucking jerk"), and he then proceeded to shake my hand and apologizing. Seconds before launching into screaming into my face again.
So he bough us shots, did the whole "good guy" thing and I left with 35 cents in my pockets, having to borrow money to get all my shit home.
So maybe think twice about lining his pockets next time.
Edit: Also, like I told him, had he told us from the start that we wouldn't be getting paid at all, that would have been completely fine.
Yesterday, after I inquired him politely just why we weren't getting paid for performing on a Tuesday at 11 (and having our set cut short without any kind of warning and therefore possibility of adjustment), I was showered with verbal abuse. He called me (well, rather, yelled at the top of his lungs) all sorts of variations on the words "idiot," "jerk," with the occasional "fucking" and "such a fucking." The bear of a man also kept getting really close to me physically, prompting a well-masked but very sincere fear.
While his initial statement was that we "won't get paid much," he decided to take that back and instead pay us nothing because "you brought five fucking people, you screwed me over, you fucking jackass. You expect to get paid?" While it is true that there wasn't a great crowd there to see us, it's also true that the band that was getting paid $200 a head brought about 10. And last time we filled the bar up, which didn't seem to matter at all in this conversation. "I don't fucking care about last time, man." The rest were people from the street. Leaving my personal opinions of this ridiculous scheme and modality of payment aside, I'll just say that noone I've ever done business with in this town operates that way. You get paid for entertainment, not for promoting the bar. If noone cares for your music, that's your problem. If noone came, it's the bar's.
I was keeping the fact that we "won't get paid much" in mind, and really, I just wanted to get $10 so that I could take a cab home and not have to drag my amp, pedal board, and guitar home on my back, especially since I'd only had about 3 beers (out of the infinity that we were promised)
The dude's insults were punctuated with things along the lines of "I love your music, man, and I think you're a great guy" (which almost immediately followed "you were the second shittiest band of the night, you fucking jerk"), and he then proceeded to shake my hand and apologizing. Seconds before launching into screaming into my face again.
So he bough us shots, did the whole "good guy" thing and I left with 35 cents in my pockets, having to borrow money to get all my shit home.
So maybe think twice about lining his pockets next time.
Edit: Also, like I told him, had he told us from the start that we wouldn't be getting paid at all, that would have been completely fine.