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1-800-FAQ-YOUU! The Owner|Promoter|Bartender|Manager gripe line is open.
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1-800-FAQ-YOUU! The Owner|Promoter|Bartender|Manager gripe line is open.

Joshua Carl 12:55 AM - 17 March, 2010
Vent away.

Ill kick it off with a classic from about a month ago.

One of the many investors of my club is about 50.
he had his time, knows his people but is pretty much the only person on board
who wants the place a crotch-hair away from "cheers"
the other owner/mgrs ect ect range from 25-38 and understands its possible
to have the t-shirt and belly crowd til 9/10pm (during sporting events)
and then at 1130, the lights go down, sound system comes on and the club night kicks
off.

so one night, and a wild one at that.
Its commonplace for us to hit capacity at 1030/1100 and then 1 in 1 out the rest
of the night...he decides to do 5 wonderful things.

1. "its way too dark in here (turns up all the track lighting) you can barely see."
mind you, we have 1 14 foot HD, 6 50" plasmas, 4 moving heads and 4 LED lgihts.
you could read a book in out room from all the crazy lighting.

2. "Its way to loud...people still want to talk about the hockey game (an hour after its done) turns the master volume down so it bordering background music.

3. out of the 3 plasmas on the left side of the bar he puts 2 on SPORTSDESK.
(I do video on all these tvs) not a live game... SPORTSDESK. Then proceeds to bring bar stools out of the back rooms and plop down in front of it and eat and watch it

4. 1245. packed. room is in full tilt blazing through all sorts of typical big top40 room heat, cheesy rock anthems... great time... drop a transition to The Party Up (DMX) break video... then conversation went something like this:

Kid, you know I love ya...I think your great...
thanks man... whats up?
this shit...this isnt what we are about?
which shit, ive played like 5 songs in the last 5 minutes?
the black one you just played?
black one?
the gangsta shit...I dont want a bunch of gang-bangers in here whipping there shirts
around?
[try not to laugh...all I could picture was a implant on every black man in 3 miles going beep beep beep.... dmx party break at sports bar...GO GO GO!!!]
well, I dont think thats gonna be a problem tonight.
[jedi mind trick:>] what do you want to hear man?
play the greatest music.
me: [dumfounded] OK... but surely man...I got music goin back to the 40's
theres gotta be something you want to hear?
nah... just play the greatest music from the last decade.
well, you know me...I dont discriminate... I played some Guess who earlier,
and I played some akon 2 minutes ago... so its fair to say I try to do just that.
okay, okay...I love ya.... just play "the greatest music" (picture him holding his hands up like its written on a billboard in the stars)


thank you 1 800 faq youu!
Dj-M.Bezzle 1:01 AM - 17 March, 2010
Quote:


[try not to laugh...all I could picture was a implant on every black man in 3 miles going beep beep beep.... dmx party break at sports bar...GO GO GO!!!]


gotta love hearing one of my older jokes rehashed!!!
tehBEN 1:21 AM - 17 March, 2010
promoter: can it go any louder? ( it was already loud enough to cause some damage without ear plugs.)
me: ask the sound engineer.

promoter: this is my girlfriend, she wants you to play the flintstone song (i assumed she meant "bedrock")

promoter: keep the hood in inglewood, cut this shit off now (while montel jordan's this is how we do it is playing)

promoter: play more top 40's (the club just opened and no one came through the door yet)

promoter: turn up the bass on my mic, i want to impress this chick
SELECT 2:55 AM - 17 March, 2010
Boston nightlife for the most part is very black and white. Manager- "Its getting too dark in here (black), we need quality over quantity, play some dance music now!" Mind you the room was literally 85% white and I had just put on Sean Pauls, get busy... smh.

The one that really irked me for the longest time was, "you still use turntables???". "Why cant you use the (rackmount) CD players". This came from everyone, promoters, managers, owners. They'd get mad I took so long to setup cause I would ask for a table to put my equipment on or I had to unplug and move everything. Now everyone and their momma switched to techs since serato blew up.
Joshua Carl 3:00 AM - 17 March, 2010
^^^ true story.
Dj-M.Bezzle 3:01 AM - 17 March, 2010
Quote:


The one that really irked me for the longest time was, "you still use turntables???". "Why cant you use the (rackmount) CD players". This came from everyone, promoters, managers, owners. They'd get mad I took so long to setup cause I would ask for a table to put my equipment on or I had to unplug and move everything. Now everyone and their momma switched to techs since serato blew up.



im having this issue now, i have a residency in the works but the owners hesitating because he thinks my gear takes up too much room where people could be dancing and wants me to just use a laptop
DJLRock 3:56 AM - 17 March, 2010
^ relocate to a new city
SELECT 1:01 PM - 17 March, 2010
Quote:
^ relocate to a new city


Man if it were that easy I would. You cant find a job anywhere nowadays.

As far as the DJn thing goes, you learn quick what to play and what not play in order to survive in this town. Its a tough business, but there are other outlets where I do get to play more "urban" music and its encouraged. In essence its made me a better DJ because early on I learned to adapt to certain crowds and play all forms of music.
DJ.Maximus 4:18 PM - 17 March, 2010
Here's a story where I got screwed over.

My friend who was good with this promoter brought me in to work with him. My friend kept on asking me to join and work with the promoter and his promotional group but I wanted to remain independent for the main reason is I don't know what to expect.

So the promoter had a meeting with all the DJs that were involved with this new weekly. There is a big/main DJ at this weekly that pretty much runs the show along with the owner.

I told him I could bring a birthday for the week coming up, with around 100 people. My friend who is bringing his birthday along with two other birthdays was going to get a cut from me, since he's helping me out and I want to make a good impression on these guys.

Two days before the promoter calls me, and told me he had a falling out with the main DJ there and they are no longer going to be doing weeklies with this DJ at this club. Meaning that my friend doesn't get money from me, I can't DJ and in short everyone got screwed.

Now he's asking me to promote this big university party and bring people, but there is no way in hell I'm going to even bother as this guy already screwed me over. Granted it's not his fault but then again it might because his ego probably got in the way.
Dj-M.Bezzle 4:32 PM - 17 March, 2010
Heres my "Owner screwed me over" story

I got invited to be a guest DJ at a new years eve event at the club, the place normally dosent charge a cover but to cover my pay plus the residents plus the other DJ they decided to do a $10 cover (there was also supopsed to be a band) so the band cancels and me and the other DJ start playinig around 9pm...now remind you this is New Years Eve Downtown, and this club is not only downtown where the big ball drop is but attached to a major club so theres NO WAY its not going to make a killing.....around 10 theres still not alot of people there (10 -20 people) but as i said theres a big ball drop and event going on for new years eve...11ish and people start pooring in, im on the decks doin my thing readin the crowd at the same time countin people thinkin hell ya im gonna get PAID tonight (the other DJ decided to leave early for some off the wall reason), around 12:30 one of the other "djs" that works in the spot comes up to talk to me and were just shootin the shit and i mention how excited i am cause im now the only DJ for the night and theres at least a thousand dollars worth of people in there, the other dj looks at me funney and is like huh?...then i find out the owner got scared because she thought people wouldnt pay the $5 cover so she told the door guiy to go work the other club and was letting everyone in for free so she still made money at the bar, i DJed from 9 to 3am (usually that bar closes at 2 because noone stays and not only that but everyone was telling me that there was more people in my lil area than the big club its attached too) and made a whopping 90 bucks......ya that was my first experience where i learned a contract and money terms need to be met regardless of how much of a gaurentee i think it is
tehBEN 4:36 PM - 17 March, 2010
did you have a verbal agreement atleast? I think that still constitutes as a contract.
Psyphris 4:39 PM - 17 March, 2010
Quote:
did you have a verbal agreement atleast? I think that still constitutes as a contract.

Verbal agreements do count as valid contracts, they're just harder to prove in court...
tehBEN 4:47 PM - 17 March, 2010
yea
Joshua Carl 4:57 PM - 17 March, 2010
money.

my friend Paul and I got booked to play a popular Rhode Island After hours through
a promoter... places is always packed. great vibe (now closed)

so, we show up luggin record cases 30 minutes before they open [1am]

went like this:

(Buddy & I walking up to door with sole bouncer)
>>hey man, Im josh, this is Paul we are playing here tonight, hows it looking.

<< its looking like 20.00

>>hahahaha...thats good... we have a good list you guys should make a killing.

>> no, everyone pays 20.00

<<oh, can we just ensure people on our list dont have to wait in the line, Im sure
the cover wont be a problem

>>sure, give the girl at the door that list...she'll be out here at 1.

>>cool, thanks man.

<<but its 20.00 bucks for each of you

>>hahahahah...... right..

>>dead serious, everyone pays.

my boy continues to talk to him, while I jump on the cell to call the promoter who
booked us...

{promoter]
Oh, just pay it Ill tap it back into your pay at the end of the night...and btw we had
to bump you guys to the 2nd room...

so, we kick out 40.00 to goto work, on top of the 15.00 for parking and probably
20.00 for gas from Boston to RI.
we get in, the 2nd room is a complete shit show...
they went ahead and put 4 1200s and 2 ttm54s (which was nice) but it was total
amature hour... but we were happy with it. The main room (caps @ 200) had about
40 people in it...and in our room (caps @ 100) you couldnt move...

ya know... one of those nights where everything in your set kills.
1am to 6am
at the end, the promoter is no where to be found.
but one of his boys come hands us 110.00 each.
"the extra 10 is for the cover...."

I thought my boys head was gonna pop off his shoulders....
we "found the silver lining"...through that gig we made tons of connections
probably booked 5-6 events within a week of that night...

unreal
DJ.Maximus 7:10 PM - 17 March, 2010
Quote:
Quote:
did you have a verbal agreement atleast? I think that still constitutes as a contract.

Verbal agreements do count as valid contracts, they're just harder to prove in court...


Where I live there's no contracts at all, just straight verbal agreements. No one here signs contracts and if I show them one they won't even sign it. In my area, you got to trust these people.
Joshua Carl 7:17 PM - 17 March, 2010
alot people places are intimidated by print contract/riders.

I lost a night becuase I gave them a rider, basically they didnt want to
"ensure there were 2 working technic 1200s for saturday nights"
I downsized it to a verbal...

"can u guys just make sure there is turntables here...."
"cant you just bring yours?"
sure... tack another 50.00 onto my fee.

I coulda have gave 2 shits about the place, the only reason I played hardball
DJ Dynamite - NJ 9:54 PM - 17 March, 2010
Quote:

>>dead serious, everyone pays.

You should've asked the bouncer if he payed to work there too
Dj-M.Bezzle 9:55 PM - 17 March, 2010
lol id been like lets see how many people pay when theres no dj