I am going to attempt to describe last night's show at Lupos.
It's certainly not going to be easy to do...
We were slated to play with 5 other bands.
Even though we were going on first and probably wouldn't be playing to a ton of people, we were excited to perform on the Lupos stage.
We arrived what I thought was on time, although we quickly learned that we were in a range of 1-2.5 hours late. (although there was no reason for us to be there as other bands were still soundchecking long after all of our gear was loaded into the club).
Many of the stage staff went out of their way to make our first 20 minutes (and whole evening as it turns out) at the club uncomfortable.
It was unusual, to say the least.
Our drummer Dave was the 1st to get the guff that the staff was dishing out.
He was approached by a stage-hand and asked "is this your stuff?".
Dave said he wasn't sure, and that 2 members were out parking their cars.
It led to the stage-hand saying "you guys are this close to not playing this show at all..."
We got back, set up our stuff and began doing a level test of bass, drums and the rest of the instruments.
Someone appeared from the side of the stage and told us that we couldn't check our stuff as the "doors were open", and "the sound guy had gone for dinner".
This left our amps untested with no microphones in front of them.
We got off the stage and had a drink while we waited for our set time.
We were scheduled to go on at 7:45. but the time got pushed up to 8:00pm for us to begin.
We played about 6 or 7 songs of our 13 song-set when were abruptly told "last song".
I saw that it was 8:30pm, and I assumed that we had a "last song" left to play.
I told the other members what song we were going to do (i planned on rolling 2 songs into one for the most bang for the buck) when the same stage hand (who i had now figured out was the stage manager) said "get off the stage".
That was our cue that it was definitely over...I appraoched the microphone, thanked everyone for coming and said that we were going to play anothe song, but "the man wont let us,", i finished off with some snide remarks, and began to put my stuff away.
After about 5 minutes I was approached by the very aggressive stage manager who got into my face immediately and began barking at me "get your stuff out of the fire exit lane and take it outside".
i responded in a defensive way and explained that my car was on Empire Street, and that I planned on staying for the whole show and I wasn't taking my stuff outside.
the stage manager proceeded to yell at me some more and tell me that I had to take the stuff out right then and there.
i responded with "no i don't...none of the other bands have to take their stuff out when the show is over,"
he said "this is how its done in this club,"
i decided that i would go and get the owner of the club (someone i know personally), and we would straighten it out.
this infuriated him further, and he proceeded to yell at me some more.
i finally ended the converstaion with a "fuck you, i'll have you fired"....probably not a good idea...however, it seemed like the right thing to do at the time.
i went to the front of the club to obtain the owner.
in the meantime as i waited in the lobby, a 2nd, unmarked person came and told me that i had to take my stuff out of the club immediately.
this is where it got really ugly.
he walked me to the back, the stage manager was still there, and they both began yelling/barking orders at me.
i was angry at this point.
this was the MOST unprofessional treatment i had ever received at a club.
me and some of the equipment moved outside, and it was here that i am convinced they planned to beat me up.
the arguing continued, some band members intervened, i certainly was not backing down, and in retrospect i was provoking them.
i hurled at least one more "fuck you" at the stage manager, but by any measure, he deserved that and more.
it ended up that me and our equipment was ejected from the club.

i have several thoughts about what went down and why...

#1 the staff had it in for us from the time that we got there.
there are probably multiple reasons for this.
i know that the fire inspector was there and scrutinizing everything that was behind the stage.
i know that the soundchecks didn't go as the staff had planned.
(how we had anything to do with this is beyond me).
#2 the staff chose from the beginning not to be reasonable.
they were yelling at me because i did not do something (move my stuff to a certain spot after we were done) that they never asked me to do.
they started off with each transaction by being aggressive and/or threatening.
#3 it can be a mistake to counter this type of behavior with sarcasm and the f-word.
doing that definitely made the situation more explosive.

i will write more about this as I get my head around it.

p.s. i was able to get back into the show and watch several of the other bands.
it was a good night for music, but a horrible night for harmony.

k.