From: gak@wrs.com (Richard Stueven)
Subject: Skankin' Pickle - Modesto(METROS)
Reply-To: gerry@gakhaus.attmail.com
Organization: Skankin' Pickle
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 17:03:43 GMT

thanks to everyone who came to the show at METROS
in Modesto. you made it fun. as for the club, club
owner, and manager, METROS has some growing up to
do. what a bunch of serious bastards.
as chuck and i walked through METROS before sound
check, we both thought it was going to be a fun,
skankin', and profitable show for both band and club.
huge place. many rooms, 2 bars, restaurant, and a 
good stage and dance floor. we'd also heard that
Fungo Mungo sold the place out (500 persons) a short
time ago. great...
the club bought us dinner in the restaurant. dinner for
seven; 4 vegitarians, 3 burgertarians. although i'm one
of the latter 3, we were, and rather rudely, told that
'everything's frozen, and no veggies on the band menu.'
foul, dry burgers and onion rings was it. that was fine
for me 'cause i walked over to St.Stan's brewpub and 
curbed my appetite with a pint of barleywine. tasty!
back to the club to hang out in the band room and 
drink more St.Stan's supplied by the brewer himself!
he brought 2 cases. we promptly iced them down for
future enjoyment. but for now, all band members were to
report to the band room for a 'club policy' speach before
performing. the manager, Mark Anthony, told us not to smoke
dope, do coke, or shoot heroin in the band room. "we found
used needles after The Tubes played," he said. that was about
it.
Hoodlum Empire went on first, and might i say they were in
rare form. Rob, the lead singer, fell off the stage 3 or 4
times. the crowd was building and diggin' it. this is the first
time i'll mention the sound system. unsound! by the time
we went on, with no sound check, things, mainly vocals, 
really sucked. the monitors were non-exsistant, and our
singers made that clear by telling the crowd,"this
sound is terrible!! come to our Slim's gig if you want to
hear how we're supposed to sound!" a fairly harmless jesture
in my opinion. it sure did make the staph at METROS mad though.
when we got done playing, i noticed that all of our stuff that
was in the band room had been piled outside the door, and
the door locked. they took our Slim's comment way too
seriously or something. friends of ours in the bandroom, at
the time of eviction, said that the club was boycotting
Skankin' Pickle from now on. there was also talk of
witholding our pay. from then on it was mayhem in METROS.
strong words were exchanged between band members and 
employees; mainly about the money for the gig. the lady who
served us the dinner, turns out, is an owner or something
and had the job of paying the band. she told us to get out,
and the several very large bouncers backed her all the way.
mike made an attempt to collect our pay and was harshly
denied. he said he'd just take the tv set for pay then.
wrong thing to do in front of dedicated gorrillas.
one bouncer jumped on mike, then another. lars, trying 
to break it up, was put in a throat crushing headlock
by the biggest goon. when all that was left but the yelling
and screaming, the stage manager, Mark 'psycho' Anthony
pulls out a handgun and starts shaking it in faces (band
and guests') yelling,"get the hell out of here, get the
hell outa here!!!" he'd lost it. at that time i noticed
a lady screaming to 911. help! send help! time to leave
i thought. bollocks to cops and the place would soon be 
swarming with them. people were still screaming at each other
when the fuzz arrived. at least 20 people told the cops what
they saw happen. blah,blah, gun, blah,blah, pointed it at me,
blah...
i had planned to spend the night in modesto but found that
leaving sounded great at the time.

i think it's time for clubs to cut bands some slack and
visa versa. many times the sound system and operators are
rented by the club or promoter. that was the case in
Modesto. 
from now on we communicate only with the soundman, however
inept, for monitor volumes, and no matter how bad it
sounds, live with it! club, bar, tavern, dancehall, where
ever we play, they are our employer for that night, and 
our job to represent the club and the music we play.

gerry


we've built a great wall around our power
economic great wall around our power
worldwide great wall around our power
                         
                           j. biafra
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