GOD FORBID’S DALLAS COYLE ON SKETCHY CLUB PROMOTERS
Wednesday, May 28th, 2008 at 1:49pm by Dallas Coyle
Promoters
What’s up motherfuckers? Yesterday [last Thursday, May 22 – Ed.] we played a show in Tempe, Arizona. Unfortunately, we played up against the Gigantour. Bad fucking idea. That was just the first bad idea involving yesterday’s show. Second bad idea was booking the show with a promoter who couldn’t cover his ass.
When you’re on the road most people would like to say it’s all about the music. Well, it is and it isn’t. With the cost of gas going up, the cost of crew and the need for the bands and clubs to make money, putting on a show is a risk assessment game. Yesterday the promoter skipped out on the show before we could get paid so we got FUCKED. We played in front of the people who came out so we held up our end of the deal. But this promoter, Gary Gingras at Faceless Music, who was the DUMB ASS who booked us opposite of Gigantour only 20 miles away is the one whose risk management was in the fucking gutter. Last time we played that very club we had a packed, almost sold out club. The show was utterly fucking brilliant. The cool thing was that The Sets crew, Kim and Steve, knew how fucked this guy was and they were ultimately fucking cool to help us get what we needed to have a passing grade show.
Ben and I from Soilent were talking about how good that previous show was. He was with Goatwhore on the bill when we played The Sets previously. It was amazing how far a good promoter and proper planning can make a show. For your info, Soilent didn’t get paid either. This promoter, Gary Gingras at Faceless Music, was a shitbag punk and I hope his balls get caught in a meat grinder. It definitely was “Faceless” Music cause his ass was nowhere to be found at the end of the night!
When we get to the club one of the first things we do is check the local paper to see if there are proper ads for the show. Yesterday there was not one poster in the club and not one ad for the show (including poster; print doesn’t work) in the local paper. Also it was raining hardcore in Phoenix for the first time since February. The day had a feel to it. So what did I do when I got to the club and computed all this bullshit in my pea-brain?
I started drinking. Not heavily but I was buzzed.
Luckily, we had a bunch of good friends who came out. They made the day cool. Also, we were going to Vegas the next day. If you’re having an issue with anything, Vegas can usually make everything better. I don’t gamble but there’s something about those cheesy, huge lights and the addicted gamblers faces that make me smile.
Note to bands: when you go on tour, do your homework. Sometimes it’s great to have other people do their jobs, but most times on the road people don’t do their jobs. Most people are actually trying not to do what they are paid to do. Imagine if your band or my band got on stage and ACTED as if we were not trying. Imagine if we were just standing by our amp with our head down sobbing and not bringing the thunder?
In this business, most people are doing that. Unfortunately, they don’t have stage lights and a crowd judging their performance. We do. But the good thing is, being in a band, you don’t need those lights to kick ass because we grade ourselves and we push ourselves because we’re fucking winners.
I’d like to thank The Sets crew for really being pro. I’d like to thank our tour manager Jeff Hill for dealing with that NIGGER and being professional. Yes, Gary is a white man! He’s a nigger. Stick by your word. I’d like to send ‘No Thanks’ to Gary Gingras.
Give us our money, nigger…
HORNS!!!
[Editor's Note: The views expressed in this blog entry are solely those of Dallas Coyle. MetalSucks does not necessarily endorse these viewpoints.]
Glad to see you named names. I bet this douchebag gets Googled…
and give us an address to send hate mail
Unfortunately in L.A. there are alot of leeches that do this sort of thing….
**COUGH** Jimmy D **COUGH** PALADINOS **COUGH** RESEDA **COUGH**
It especially happens to alot of the much-lesser known bands. These so-called promoters only sit on their ass collecting all the profit, while the bands do all the leg work! And don’t even get me started on the whole Pay-to-Play/Payola bull$hit!
On a side note, my friends & i got to hang-out with the guys from GodForbid & SoilentGreen last fryday in Vegas. You guys totally made it worth our while considering we drove out from L.A. and missed the show.
thanx!!! Cindy, Anthony & Frank
…btw,
the GF DVD & New Soilent Green CD are KILLER!
I bet if this got out on a music esque national scale, it would really fuck his day up, and you guys would get paid.
….”nice” of Dallas to put that in print….I guess he feels he gets a pass since there are 2 black members in God Forbid. Did the band get screwed? yes, but free speech strikes here again and I’m afraid regardless of the true definition of the N word..its ugly and 99% of the time its catagorized as a derogotory comment to one race.
Hope its worth it…
if you didn`t notice there 4 black gf members
More bands need to do this so everyone knows who the douchebag promoters are. If you treat a band like you should they aren’t going to say messed up crap about you.
Subtle as always, Dallas, sorry about the shitty screw-job but you made me crack the fuck up. You definitely gots you some big ones… Fuck that promoter and putting his name out there is fucking awesome!
WOW! We should have done the same thing everytime we got screwed out of money by shitty promoters/booking agents.
Then people wouldnt think we were douchebags.
Way to go Dallas!
[...] God Forbid guitarist Dallas Coyle recently made a new post in his column, “The Hard R” about dealing with shady promoters (something that every touring band has to deal with) over at Metalsucks. [...]
I used to promote shows in Chicago and never once had someone complain about screwing them out of money, guess playing in bands myself made me a bit more aware of issues they face.
HOWEVER,without knowing what’s in GF’s contract and if the guarantee was sent beforehand (which is normally is) how can we say they for sure got screwed? I’ve had people pay on pay or play deals (ie. they get paid even if they don’t bother showing up) who ended up ‘drawing’ 100 people to the show who had the temerity to ask if they brought enough people to kick in the ‘percentage of the door’ clause.
Sad fact, but most contracts call for the band to bring in a certain number of people to cover costs beyond the guarantee, which I’ll assume GF have and should assume they got wired to them before showing up or else they need a new competent tour manager.
If the show had no people at it, no matter who you are skedded against, it’s the BANDS fault. You are being booked on YOUR name and failing miserably at bringing people in is ultimately the BAND’S fault.
I feel bad for you in that is sounds like you got absolutely no money at all which sucks, but it’s not like the guy didn’t lose his ass because you didn’t bring in enough people. Believe me, building owner/operators are far worse people than promoters. (there is a reason I don’t do that shit anymore–other than making a ton more money now I guess. :) )
[...] is a rough animal. Last week I went into a tirade about a promoter who stiffed us on cash. It may have been a little harsh but fuck it. Eventually we will be paid because there is a [...]
Hey Dallas, let me tell you something brutha. I was at The Sets on that faithful day and I rocked out hard. I was right there in front of you with my buddy John and we were singing along with you and even got worried when you’re string broke on your guitar. You told me it was going to be okay though. I had a lot of fun and I really thank you for playing to 20+ people. I had a great time and you guys rocked. So thanks man.
Marcus
Awesome post Dallas, great job calling out said promoter. I’m in the Phoenix area, was at Gigantour freezing my a– off when I was getting it kicked by the Bodom and Flames pit, and unfortunately had no idea you were playing. Or else I would have totally gone to see you guys, and made sure you got to the next town.
- Robbie