I sit here pondering my career path after experiencing a disgruntling truth about the corporation I work for. My thoughts turn to the kink community that is under fire from within. Unfucking believable that one old school vested business would employ such tactics as to hire private investigators and leak results to the media. It seems to have backfired on them and they are the victims of boycott now after shooting themselves in the foot.
Cutthroat. The bar business is just that. I’m truly blown away by some of the shit that goes down in any scene. I have been on the receiving end of it more than once.
I was fuming last week after I learned that it seems my employers don’t really think that much of any of their employees as they threatened to take my peanuts away if I didn’t pack the bar every show. This happens when the powers that be don’t understand the ebb and flow of the music business. If there are big shows or cross booked shows on any particular night, turnout will be a crap shoot no matter how carefully you planned your booking sheet.
The slumlords were just as unappreciative of my hard work when they stabbed me in the back after keeping their shit hole bars alive for a decade. I put my reputation of the line for them a few times to assure the venues would stay open. I worked with the ‘man’ to meet conditions to avoid closure. The Cobes volunteer army was the best. We met every challenge.
It always blows my mind when your overlords pick the busiest show to wield their demands. I’m sure it’s because you are super fucking busy multitasking and provide the least resistance. Hilarious examples are firing a bartender and bringing in a corporate newbie while there are 25 people lined up for drinks and the manager is on vacation. How about this Cobes gem, as we’re at peak volume, 11pm at a Dayglos show they roll in, screaming about bad press, waving papers at me about something I said in an interview article about shitwater raining down in the venue.
Facebook is so timely sometimes. My Facebook memory of today was the poster for the show that got me indefinitely barred from the slumpire on Dec 4th, 2009. Dayglos / SNFU / Lummox / and my buddy Fat Joe Satan at the Asbalt. I made them almost 10K in bar sales that night. Stacked as fuck lineup.
When I approached the bar ‘manager’ about that ‘Homeless from the Cobes’ show, I stated I needed x amount of promo for the performers which was agreed to. Courtesy beverages had never been an issue. At the end of the night, I was presented with a bill for promotional beverages. Cutting right to the bone was being charged full dime on my Red Headed Sluts. Unbelievable. Greed was in full flight that night. I flatly refused that salt to the wound. It didn”t end well.
I miss the family atmosphere working conditions we had at the Cobes. It’s very rare to get to that point when you have no control of the hiring processes of your workplace. Relationships take time to build. Camaraderie is an achievement. I miss Sheri at Funkys. She took a lot of shit from above to get as close to that atmosphere as possible. We are starting from scratch again. I’m used to that. Another new regime.
Also on my Facebook feed this morning was a message of love in a memory shared about helping a girl out with a job when I first got into the business many years ago. That’s what keeps me going. Not the ‘horrible bosses’ factor of the bar business, just the outpouring of love from you guys, the bands, the fans, that appreciate the labor of love that I put into the shows, venues and gatherings I had a hand in building. Even Steven.
SUBCULTURE 