Mark Bryan (guitarist of Hootie and the Blowfish, operator of Chucktown Music Group), suggested I start providing examples of Nightmare Gigs. Both humor and as cautionary tales, it sounded like a good idea. I have a few, but I opened this up to many other people and the stories are rolling in. This idea of his is snowballing. So I will pepper the other pieces of advice with stories from some friends.
The first Nightmare Gig story comes from Giselle Fleming. In the 90's Giselle was manager for Queue Up. There was one showcase in a Pittsburgh club called the Electric Banana that she remembers well. There are more stories from this club, but this was one of the first I heard back then.
After soundcheck and before the first set, the club owner decided he was not happy that he had a bunch of bands in the club, yet they were not drinking enough. The bands, Queue Up and Ivet were getting national buzz and hoped this showcase would broaden their reach. So of course, they were being pros and not getting too tipsy.
Nah, that ain't good enough for the Electric Banana owner. He needed money in the register. So he locked the freaking doors. Nobody could get in and nobody could get out. Then he demanded they all start drinking and paying. No show until they fed the register.
It was known - from another tale to be related later - that this owner carried a gun and had fired it in his club. So yeah, he was crazy.
The manager of Ivet put his foot down because everyone in his band was underage and the owner could not afford to be cited for serving minors (but holding people against their will and extorting them was OK? see - crazy).
Queue Up, Giselle, the manager for Ivet and the few people already in the club did drink up and pay up. Eventually the owner opened the door and the showcase was able to go on. I imagine the room was a bit more tense after that.
But karma took a little swipe back that night. Around midnight, while standing on the sidewalk outside the bar, the owner had a heart attack. Flashing red and white lights outside the club announced the glorious arrival of payback.
He did survive and did provide more nightmare gigs for other bands.
Giselle Fleming is back into band management with one client, Davey O., from Buffalo. Catch him at Folk Alliance this year.
http://www.myspace.com/daveyomusic
Giselle's blog: www.eclatdefemmeblog.com
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