live review of  bar's mgr giving a bad show at The Peppermill lounge!

Tonight, Sept. 10th 2004 ExquisiteDeadGuys were booked for a full night's performance at a bar in Ft. Worth called The Peppermill lounge. The gig was booked on July 3rd, (the night of a previous performance at said bar - which coincidentally garnered an awsome  review by Grady Smith) We, (the band) arived at the club at approximately 5:30pm in order to load in and get a sound check well before the actual performance. When we anounced our arrival to the bar's mngr. we were told that we weren't booked and that another band was scheduled for the night's performance! Obviously we were dumbstruck, we asked if she would double check her calander, she ignored our request. After a second inquirey, she reluctantly pulled the calender from under the bar and flipped to Sept., she quickly scanned the page and repeated that we weren't booked, we asked if perhaps our name was crossed out, she looked again and muttered under her breathe, "yeah looks like there's a name crossed out here"... of course, it was OUR name. When asked WHY our name had been crossed out and WHY we weren't contacted beforehand, we were told that the bartender who had booked us did not have the authority to do so. She also said that she did not have the means to contact us... even though we had given the establishment 2(TWO) presskits! The mngr. said that there was nothing she could do for us and went about serving customers. We had no choice but to leave, confused, frustrated and very upset. We decided that if we offered to play for free and the promise of at least 35 paying fans who would show up, she might let us perform, so we called her from homebase and made the proposal... No dice. Her reason - "I can't just cancle a band because some other band offers to play for free, no matter how many people they bring in." (But she obviously has no problem canceling us!?) We tried to explain that is was very bad buisness practice to treat a band the way she was treating us... she eventually said that she "...didn't need us fuckers." That was the last straw. We could care less about the $100 we lost... the question was, How are we going to explain this to the fans who would have shown up to see a well promoted show...? After a last ditch effort to contact as many clubs as possible, looking for ANY open slot we were left empty handed. We called our fans and told them to spread the word that there would be no show. About five minutes after the thoroughly depressing call to our fans the phone rang... it was a gentleman by the name of Josh who works at a coffee bar in Ft. Worth called Artistic Blends... he was responding to a message we placed in an act of desperation to book a show... After listening to our story about the Peppermill Lounge incident he said that we were more than welcome to play the MAIN STAGE at our earliest possible convience! The show was saved though we told our fans only five minutes beforehand that the show was cancelled... we frantically called everyone back to tell them the good news but we still figured on only half if not less of the original number of fans to show up... Josh was made aware of the situation and was completely understanding. We arrived at the club ontime and were eagerly invited in, the atmosphere was extremely pleasant with the entire staff just as friendly as you could hope for... The stage area was AWSOME, well lit, with full sound reinforcment, (although we brought our own PA)... after setting up, we were greated with free coffee, (which was excellent!) and told that we could begin at any time... we started soundchecking to a crowd of 3, five minutes later becoming a crowd of 6 then 10, etc. all total by the end of the first set we had amassed roughly 25 people give or take those who only stayed long enough to indulge their curiosity... we played a fun, energetic show to a very receptive crowd... the night was a complete success all thanks to the very fine and generous people of Artistic Blends - folks who know how to treat a band that do everything in their power to do right by other people. We would like to sencerely thank Artistic Blends for ther hospitality and professionalism, warm atmosphere and friendly staff! And to the Peppermill lounge we can only ask bands to stear clear of this horrible excuse for a venue, The Peppermill mngt. are not to be trusted and should be boycotted by bands far and wide.

                                                                      Thank you for your time.

                                                                                        James & Benjamin - EDG.

this does in no way reflect the feelings or thoughts  of dallasmusic or ftworth music.com