Dickson Street theater doesn't care about local music
Last night, me, the Holy Ghost Children, and David's Pegasus were supposed to play at the Dickson Street Theater at around 9. Barry, of DP, went by around 7 to drop some things off. DP was also scheduled to play on Jordan's Local Show, on KXUA, to promote the show. This is something we have done with several bands schedule to play at the Dickson Street Theater, and it has worked quite well. Many people tell me that the only reason they even knew about X show is because they were listening to KXUA, often they've even heard the band. So we were all up at the radio station, I usually do the sound for her so Jordan can concentrate on hosting, when we got a call. The manager at the Dickson Street Theater had CANCELED the show because "none of the bands showed up". This was completely false because the Holy Ghost Children got there around 8 and were supposed to play first! They told Cale of HGC that they had "Been here since 6 and hadn't talked to any of the bands." Which is also false because Barry talked to them when he dropped off his stuff not to mention they were talking to a member of one of the bands right then. They locked up the theater, leaving David's Pegasus's equipment out in the alley way. Luckily we managed to send someone to get that stuff before it was stolen or something.
Lucky for us, we have good friends with houses to offer. Through the wonders of instant mass communication, we were able to reroute around 50 people to the New Deli, and ended up having a pretty kick ass house show. We made up for time by having David's Pegasus play in the kitchen, which was really awesome, so I could be all set up in the living room when Holy Ghost Children were done and skip some set up down time. The show started almost 2 hours late at about 10:40 and ended up ending around 12:30 with only about 5 minutes downtime between bands.
But this post is about how bad the Dickson Street Theater and every other venue in Fayetteville that treats local bands like shit. Not only did they cancel the show for no good reason, and pitch David's Pegasus's stuff out in the alley way, but they also bumped the cover up from $5 which is what they printed on their fliers to $7. They only allow each band 2 guests and 2 drinks a piece. Considering we don't even get paid, that is just absurd. But Dickson Street Theater isn't alone. The Gypsy is also pretty horrible to local bands as well. Last year David's Pegasus had had a show scheduled there for a month and when they showed up to play they had been bumped because a friend of the owner had showed up in town and wanted to play a show. They didn't even bother trying to contact DP they just found out when they showed up that they no longer had a show. That show too was successfully routed to a house, and the owners friend played to relatively no one. JR's has been having some shows there recently, but they are always so awkward. That place is great as a bar with a jukebox for music, and really great when someone is scheduled to just DJ, but as a venue is just ridiculous. It's really small and there is no place for the bands to set up. They usually end up being in the doorway causing bewildered patrons to duck between the guitars as they try and come in.
There really is no place for shows in Fayetteville. They have forced us into the basements and living rooms of our friends. We could have probably made the Dickson Street Theater some money last night, but they decided to be jerks for some reason. I really do not understand a venue whose business model is turning crowds of paying thirsty customers away.
If you want to check out David's Pegasus on Jordan's Local Show, you can download the podcast right here.
