05.24.2014 - Rockin' Parrodise - Lewisville, TX

Well, I guess things had been going too good lately and we needed a dose of reality? 

When I started doing this blog, I stated that it was going to be the good, the bad and the ugly. We haven't had any bad shows for a while now. Last night broke the trend...

The Good...

We show up, load in and start doing our thing and am greeted with a familiar "hey" from a few feet away. Wow, my friends Susan and Terrell were in town from the Austin area and decided to come out to the show. I was really glad to see them. Ages ago, Susan and I worked together at a software company in San Antonio. We see each other every once in a while, but it had been too long. Really good to have seen them and I really appreciated them being there.

The Bad...

I am going to dub this post, "lessons learned." I was talking with my friend, Mike, this morning about last night and the process for this particular show. For the first issue, he summed it up with a simple comparison... 

Jasper the Wonder Dog goes to the dog park. He really wants to play with the collie that just entered. The collie isn't interested. He tries to play with the collie again. Still not interested. Regardless of the fact that the collie has never played with Jasper before and doesn't know how much in common they might have, the collie is not interested because Jasper is a new dog in the park and the collie likes the familiar. Jasper has to accept that the collie isn't open to new dog friends and he needs to move on. 

I'll explain... For a year or longer, I have been trying to get the band exposed to the Lone Star Parrot Head Club (aka the Dallas club). As a former Board member of the Rhode Island Parrot Head Club, I know some of the LSPHC members would have fun at our shows. We also get a nice response, nationally, in the trop rock (parrothead) music scene. So, I have made a good effort to try and do something with the club. 

I've sent free stuff, one year we offered to play free at their Christmas party, I've emailed the board members multiple times and don't even receive the courtesy of a "thanks, but no thanks." I'd be ok with that - it's a response and I can accept it.

This particular show was going to be my final attempt to win the Dallas folks over. We booked a show at a venue they are known to frequent for live music. We made sure there was no cover charge. The bar ran specials on Rum Jumbie. We worked it out with the bar so we could start and end earlier than most of their bands, as we know the parrotheads aren't quite the night owls these days. 

I emailed the Board members inviting them to the show and asking if they would share the information with the club members, possibly make it a club social. I created special flyers with a free download on them, threw in a cover letter and a couple koozies and mailed them to their physical address. No response. I submitted to their online calendar and DID receive a reply from the webmaster (thank you), letting me know that he had forwarded it to the Board for approval to add. Fine, that's normal procedure for a club. As usual, no response from anyone on the Board. I checked their calendar a few weeks later and they had added another show or two, but no mention of our show. Once again, the gatekeepers blocked us from the membership. 

I am pretty sure that no one on the Board has seen us live. When we played Angels in Tropical shirts, we weren't billed as SDR and it was a totally different setup from how we are now. Regardless, it's a large parrothead club and I am pretty sure not everyone in the club has the same taste in music. If I were still a member, I would love to know that there was a local band that played stuff I might like. 

Long story short, the Dallas parrothead club didn't show. Hell, I am pretty sure that, aside from whoever received the flyers and email, they didn't even know about it unless they were friends of mine on Faceplace. So, that bird has flown, fine, we'll move on without them and stop wasting time and money.

Speaking of money...

The Ugly...

There are expenses that come with our presenting a live show. Aside from Heath and I , maybe, enjoying the thought of a few dollars for gas, dinner and the work we put into this stuff every day, we have to pay the other guys in the stage band. While I'd like to think they're just in it for the fun, we do have to pay them whether we get paid or not. 

That being said, we make a point to make sure we're guaranteed a certain amount to cover all of our expenses. Tonight, we wound up not being paid that certain amount by the bar. 

I found out, upon arrival, that the guy who booked us was no longer employed there.  In retrospect, we should have been more diligent in confirming the pay before we ever loaded in. At the end of the night, we were met with "we don't pay that much" and a refusal to pay the originally agreed amount. I understand that it wasn't a busy night and that the guy that setup the show was no longer around. But, in my opinion, they should have either cancelled the show once the original guy left or they should have honored the amount. 

In the end, we took what we could get. I won't get into how little that was, and I do appreciate that they paid us something, but we wound up having to make up the difference to pay Brian, Tony & Trey out of pocket. Combine that with gas and dinner expenses, yeah, not a good financial night for the two us. Probably needless to say, but we will not be returning to Rockin' Parrodise - as a band or as a customer. 

It was an educational night, for sure. I think Heath and I both agree that we are done playing bars. In the past, the only times we have had pay disputes, it has been at a bars like these. They're the only places I have ever seen that get away with paying what they think is fair rather than what is agreed. Could you imagine showing up at your day job on Tuesday and, after working all day, finding out that you're only getting $2 an hour because it was a slow day? Yeah, welcome to the world of bars. So much for that. We'll stick with the fests, BBQ joints and true live music venues from here on out. 

The funny thing, I didn't have a horrible time last night until afterwards. Yes, I was terribly disappointed by the Dallas parrothead club blowing us off. Stuff like that happens, though, and you make the best of it and give 100% for those that DID come to your show... and that's what we did! 

Next show, we're back to familiar turf... it will be good to see our Willow Park friends at Railhead. Until next time...

Stay gold, 

RH