I thought I might share an episode as the owner of SingleCut Beersmiths.
I opened this brewery some 2 years ago, and our branding revolves around guitars and music: Our tap handles are guitar necks, are beers are named for our favorite guitarists, and we feature a stage for live bands which we promote enthusiastically as part of our Tap Room experience.
Well, in my day as a guitarist that would play out at various gigs, it was well understood that while setting up gear you keep the noodling / drumming / general playing to establish sound at a bare minimum. A strummed chord, a few solo style notes are all I needed to set my amp, guitar, pedal board and be ready to rock (making any additional tweaks during the set). The same goes for all the other members of the band. No one in the audience or venue staff wants to hear endless noodling or drumming - it comes across as amateurish and is just plain annoying. Not hard to understand IMO.
Anyway! The great majority of our acts know this, and the more experienced and professional the band, the less fiddling occurs. For example Nels Cline played our stage and he didn't even play a single note before going on, he even brought his own backline and had never played our place before. He sounded sensational.
So we had a band come in last night that hadn't played our Tap Room before. For reference, we try to head off any miscommunication beforehand by stating in the contract respective bands need to sign as to what our policy is on "noodling" so everyone is on the same page.
As the band is setting up, the drummer is playing along with the music playing on the PA. This is going well beyond testing your sound. One of our staff reminds him of our policy. Twice. The 2nd time he does a drum fill as she walked away out of spite. So that should give you some indication of what we're dealing with here.
As the owner, I was informed of this, especially since everyone knows no one finds this kind of noodling more grating that myself. We have an amazing customer base in our Tap Room that frequent our place not only because of the experience and service we provide, but because of the atmosphere we have worked very hard to create - a band behaving in this manner does not fit the professional vibe we project. I should state that once the band starts playing, we generally don't put limits on volume or set length assuming it sounds good: we really do love our musicians and like for them to have a great time. We aren't asking for much. Oh, and our fee is generous and includes all the free beer they can drink and food they can eat. We do our very best to make sure everyone is happy.
Well, after another 5 minutes of the drummer continuing to f'around (I kid you not) I'm personally insulted. I go up and suggest they cut the crap immediately if they wish to perform and I exit the stage. Guess what? Within minutes it continues. I go back and by this time I'm really upset by the rudeness and amateurishness of these guys. They are incredulous as to why I might be upset! They claim they need to fiddle in the way they are to get their sound right. (BTW, we are a small brewery, not Earls Court). I had enough and told them to leave. On their way the band had some choice words to say which underscored I did the right thing. Footnote: they didn't draw a single person so kicking them out disappointed no one and immediately restored the pleasant vibe (we went back to doing what we always do when there is no band which is playing vinyl, which our customers love to begin with).
Anyway, I think it's important Yelp readers understand our motivation for kicking out this band - it was in the interest of our customers solely. read more