🚀 go-pugleaf

    For those interested in live music in and around Washington, let me
share the following:

    Ruthie and the Wranglers (of which I'm one. No, not Ruthie.) has
been gigging for about 2 years and doing fairly well. We've done
charity shows (Easter Seals, etc.) and we've done shows for big money.
We once played a club where the band collects the door, but they have
to pay the bar a flat fee to use the stage. When the door receipts were
counted, we each made a dollar a piece. (But that was the deal we made
so we didn't gripe about it. Hell, it was a fun night.) Washington,
D.C. seems to be blessed, at least judging from my experience, in that
the club owners generally seem to be honest and straight upfront with
the bands. However, that doesn't apply to all of them. "Why do you
bring this up?" you might ask.  

    Recently, someone posted to rec.music.makers a list of clubs across
the country that have open-mic jam sessions, and included in the list
was: 

>
> Washington, DC: Grog & Tankard, 2408 Wisconsin Ave NW, (202) 333-3114
>

The manager of this place, Kahled, has proven himself several times to be
'dishonest'. (I'd use more colorful language, but I might get
carried away and this post would be five times as long.) As for our own
experience with him, we agreed to play there for a small $100 flat fee,
sharing the bill with two other bands. We arrived on time, played the
whole time we were supposed to, and had a good sized audience. At the
end of the night, he called me back into his office, and after giving
me a sad story about there not being many customers and they weren't
buying many drinks, he told me he could only pay us $60. (That wouldn't
have covered the band's gas money and bar tab for the night.)
Eventually, I had to take what I could get from him. As I was leaving I
found out he cheated one of the other bands out of 40% of their money.
(The third band had already left, so I never did find out how they
fared.) 

    Eventually, we discovered Kahled has treated a lot of other
bands similarly. Some of these bands have been working professionally
for decades and are very well known around town and elsewhere. (Since I
haven't discussed this message with them, I won't mention their names.)
They are all hard working talented entertainers. His cheating appears
to be arbitrary, as he's proven he's even willing to cheat a band for a
paltry $40. 

    After a while we forgot about him, figuring he wasn't worth our
while and that we'd just never deal with him again. But when I spotted
his bar getting free international publicity on Usenet, I figured I
should share my experiences. In some cities, you just have to grin and
bear it because there aren't many places for bands to play. This
doesn't hold for DC. There are plenty of other places for bands (and
anyone else) to go. I'd suggest they do just that. As for people
looking for open-mic jams here in DC, I could easily provide the names
of a few other bars, not included on the jam session list, that aren't
gaining a reputation for cheating musicians. Don't give the Grog &
Tankard, or Kahled, your business. He's proven he doesn't deserve it. 
  

Sincerely,

John Shepherd (wes@ian.stx.com)

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Standard Disclaimer: My opinions are my own and not necessarily my
                     employer's. (although they should be!)
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