Dive Bar Stiffed

Spokane WA

Description

So we have this gig at the Osburn Club near Kellogg Idaho. The manager Lee-sa (not her real name) tells us she's got a huge crowd coming near the end of August. She knows my band is coming up from Spokane so we negotiate a fair price for the one night gig. When we arrive it appears her expectations were sorely missed. The crowd she was expecting wasn't near what she thought, but we decided to do the gig anyway and set up. She told us early that hopefully things will pick up in the evening. It was clear she was distressed. Being the professionals that we are, we played our hearts out even though there was barely a handful of people that even showed in the club. Really it was a dive bar, but I'll call it whatever they want me to call it. I'm easy. At the end of our second set, whenever employees hands us this note and tells us Lee - SA has had enough. I read the note and basically she said that we sucked. Inside the envelope was some cash but $400 short of what we negotiated. Truth be told it was one of the best gigs I ever did. At least musically. Of course having a big crowd always adds to the enjoyment, but my band played very well. I knew the real problem was she didn't make enough money during the entire weekend to even pay us. I asked to speak to her directly, and her lackey told us that she was so mad she couldn't face us. I told her if we didn't get the $400, she would be meeting us in court. She didn't seem concerned about that as she did not come out and talk to me about her issues. Due to unexpected life events, my money is better served outside of trying to get that $400 back. That's unfortunate, I remember early on something similar happening to us at the Black diamond. There's new owners there and I hear that that's a decent place to gig. Lee-sa hopes to one day own the Osborne Club, and at least with her business practices, I doubt that will ever happen. However if she still is the manager, and she's negotiating money from someone in Spokane, be wary. You'll only get paid if she's doing well, but come on, she lives in f****** Idaho.