Krampusnacht Scheisse

Hopefully you got the phone call, Facebook update, or Twitter blast that there was trouble Saturday night, but many of you now know that the MAGNA Krampusnacht show did not quite go as planned.

Checking randomly about 90 minute before the show, Rybot saw that there was no info for the bill up on the C.IA. website, and not having the venue promoting your event can be the first sign of a problem. Both Scaretoe and I were on our way to the venue, packed and ready. A few phone calls and it became clear that C.I.A. double booked the night.

Any guesses as to who wasn't getting to play?

Yeah, the guys not on the schedule at the venue. There was a combination of profuse apology and blamethrowing by their owner who claimed the show wasn't "confirmed" and that he did not have it "written" on his schedule. I believe that would be his fault for not properly handling his own system of booking and information keeping.

Worse, the three other bands we booked onto the bill were getting hosed as well, and being told when they called the place that the night was not confirmed makes it apprear to be MAGNA's fault. See-Thru was kind enough to resend the communication to C.I.A. to refresh the owner's already failed memory. Judge for yourself and tell me if there's a gig booked or not?

--- On Tue, 11/17/09, XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX> wrote:
From: XXXXXXXXX@gmail.com>
Subject: Dec 12th timeslots
To: XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Date: Tuesday, November 17, 2009, 12:33 PM

Hey XXXX,
The other bands must be youngsters or something, they keep bugging us about the times. They want to have the first band start at 8pm. Do you ever do that? Or 8:30? Any earlier you are willing to start would be great, no worries if not.

~XXXX from Magna


On Tue, Nov 17, 2009 at 1:10 PM, XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX wrote:

HEY MAN-THE FIRST BAND WILL LOAD IN AT 8PM AND START AT 8:30PM-MAKE SURE THESE BANDS KNOW THEY MUST PROMOTE THE SHOW. WE HAVE HAD TO TAKE FAIRLY DRASTIC MEASURES AND SHOT DOWN BANDS WHO BRING ANY THING LESS THAN 15 PEOPLE. I CAN'T PAY MY STAFF WITH BANDS WHO BRING ANY LESS BECAUSE IT BECOMES A FREE REHEARSAL. THIS IS A PRIME NIGHT AND WE EXPECT BANDS TO TREAT IT AS SUCH AND PROMOTE THE CRAP OUT OF THEIR SHOWS.
THANKS-ANY QUESTIONS 818 xxx-xxxx

BEST-xxxx

Sounds to me like there was a show scheduled.

So if MAGNA plays there again, well, that remains to be seen, but I don't know what benefit there would be anyway. We've been able to get prime nights and slots, and were setting up entire bills - what's the point of taking that responsibility on, and for what? Other than the apology and wry comment from the owner, "That's showbiz," what is there to gain? At least SHP was cool when they cut the set at The Viper Room in half and made good by working on an El Rey show, but what is C.I.A. going to do for MAGNA? And how to you get people show up there after they've been had once? Or the band?

In an attempt to salvage the night, we did a low volume set at Rybot's place a few hours later, which was a cool, intimate performance. Sorry if you got burned and we didn't catch you before you got there for the show (Scartoe and I stood in the rain for a half hour trying to catch you music hungry souls) - we'll try to make it up with another show soon. And we made a new fan and friend, who heard the band on Last.fm and came to check us out, not knowing he'd be kidnapped and brought to our tiny show. Looks like he had a good time.