!!! FUCK YOU, BITCH !!!
(Just had to get that out of my system.)

Other than assorted stupidity on the part of the venue, it was a great night. If you don't know when'n'where I'm talking about, then you don't know me.

Golden West?

yeah, that was easy.
let's do another...

Oh, let's not name names. The important thing is that I hear things might be gettin' back to normal down there, so maybe Ms "I-didn't-know-metal-was-loud" can stay home and count our beer money, while we customers have a good time rockin'.

Pez - maybe ATG shouldn't play the Golden Worst for RockSquawk, if Ms. K- is back to her "turn it down" campain. You know ATG got thrown out of there a year ago for playing too loud. I just don't want it to happen again.

S-

Intersting...its your call.

I talked to Eric last night. I'll shoot your guys some mail and let you know whats up.

yeah..the sound guy always gets asked to turn down the drums...and i dont even have one mic to mah kit...the lovely ms k has always been this way....i miss sandy ann...she always hooked our band up if the show was good...but regardless...she has changed the lineup at the last minute against the promoters wishes because of drawing power...whatever....shes a businessperson with no idea how she makes her money...but from my undestanding the show next door was a cashcow for the venues...all of our performences were incidental to what was goin on at elrey...we had a great time performing with the likes of ultimatum, requium mass and wisdom of the leech...all of you guys fookin rocked the fook out...i can say for the band that we enjoyed playing with you all respectively...whatever venue...and the politics...KICK FUCKIN ASS!!!

neat guy says...fuck it...play music and have a great time!!!!

sean
band plug

Yes, she really said that. But the volume issue isn't important as the people-not-being-allowed-in issue, IMHO. Even at the lower volume, you guys sounded fine to me. If people in the back couldn't hear, then they should have got off their asses and come up front and headbanged with me. :-)

I'm starting to think I may have blown this all out of proportion, though. My initial comment was just meant to blow off a little steam, and written in post-show excitement. If people are seriously reconsidering future gigs there because of my comments, well, that makes me think I better think more carefully before I shoot my mouth off. I think this one night was an anomaly (despite Sue's experience a year ago) and I have had a lot of good times at the venue in question. I don't think there's a "turn it down" campaign, it's just something she needs when there's an event next door.

It may be that the wisest course of action isn't to avoid booking at GW, but just to make sure there won't be any unusual low-volume restrictions (both in terms of sound, and in terms of number of people that can be admitted) on a particular night.

Ultrametal, you said, "I know the scene is way better than it was 10 years ago..." I'm not so sure. The scene was pretty cool 10 yrs ago with some great bands, and the Golden West was the favorite place to play for many of these bands. THe scene was tighter back then, with a lot of the bands supporting eachother. The scene had it's good points 10 yrs ago, and it has its good points now. Not better, just different.

I for one think the Golden West BLOWS.
it's EASILY the WORST venue in all of ABQ. Hands down.

and it's all due to that dumb bitch that runs the place.
I'm sorry, but when you don't pay bands, don't give them drinks, tell them to turn down, and cancel a band's set 10 minutes before they play...
shit, nuff said.

I say we should all boycott that shithole until someone new owns it.

I mean, there's plenty of other places to play until that day comes...

you all know that Banditos is having all ages shows again???

I agree with you in some ways, Terryb. The first time we played there was with you guys and it absolutely sucked; by far the worst atmosphere you could possibly play in. We decided to give it another chance, expecting the worst, and it turned out to be a pretty fun show, and they gave free drinks. But, I agree that the problem is the owner. I don't know ANYONE in town that likes her.

I did one show there this year. One. NO more. We had about 60 or 70 peeps in there for about 2 and a half hours. We were suppossed to get 10% of the bar. Imagine my surprise when we got paid eight dollars, three days later. I informed Ms. K not to contact us again.

I'm all for a boycott of the place, but you have to learn the ropes before you can be hanged.

If you don't like the place, by all means, don't play there. But we've played many many shows at the GW and yeah, some of them sucked, some were pretty cool. I think the best way to initiate change is through positive enforcement. Have any of you tried suggesting ideas to her? I know Eric's open for suggestions.

Pez and gio, I know you guys play there a lot...what's been your experience as far as how she pays you? (not that we're gonna get rich or anything)

When we played our tuesday shows there, we had about 10 or 15 people in the crowd. She said our take of the bar was $8. And Dave says he was getting the same amount with 5 times as many people?

I assume its different on Fri/Sat when there's a cover?

We got paid $50 there once. It was an all-ages show. We get anywhere from 0 to $20. Meh...it buys us dinner afterwards. Or drumsticks.

I like the Golden West(atmosphere, crew, room)
I just hate the owner.
All it took was for me to unload all of my equipment one night just to find out that she was closing shop because she wasn't making enough money that night.
Sorry, but that's the most unprofessional bullshit I've ever had to deal with.
The place COULD be awesome. It just needs new management. I know I'm not alone in thinking this way.

The first time they told us to turn it down, I looked at my bandmates like, "what?" So I did nothing. The second time we were told to turn it down, I turned it up. I don't get it. As for getting paid or not, I don't give a daqmn about the money, just let me play how I want to. I think the GW is getting a lot better than it was a few years back, but it is absolutely nothing like the badass GW of yesteryear. Where did the urine/beer/vomit smell go?