At the beginning of our evening, Trevor was told to talk to the owner about whether or not I could get in free as the band's photog. We were never able to find this owner, Cheech. So we go on about our business. The show's haven't started, so no big deal.
It's show time. Nat is in town visiting so he heads downstairs to where the stage is and the doorman says, "Who're you with?" to which Nat replies, "I'm with the photographer of one of the bands." The doorman proceeds to draw a line on Nat's hand and lets him in without paying.
I come down about 10 minutes later and say, "So do we know if I'm allowed to just go in?" to which doorman replies, "Go find the owner and talk to him about it, but I'm not gonna harass you about it." So I go in. Can't find the owner, whatever. Doorman did not draw a line on my hand.
The night goes on without a hitch. First band plays their crazy loud awful music. Ugh, finally over. DeVille sets up. Yes. Time for some awesomeness. They rock it out, get the crowd excited. Excellent. I shoot my photos. Perfect, we're done.
I'm packing up and Nat comes up to me to tell me he's been kicked out. And I think, WTF! He proceeds to walk out the door downstairs and I'm totally confused. So I go after him and in the process the doorman starts talking serious smack to Nat as he walks out the door. I ask Nat what happened, he explains to me that out of nowhere the owner comes up to him and said that he was bullshitting the doorman and that he needs to pay the $10 or get out. Nat of course says, well the dude let me in and now he's kicking me out? I'll leave.
So after Nat tells me this, what do I do? I go find the doorman. The doorman starts telling me that Nat lied and I'm defending Nat for good reason. Then, the owner comes over. I tell the owner, there's been quite a miscommunication here. The owner says, he doesn't care. Then proceeds to yell at me saying he was never told there'd be a photographer and that I had to pay. I say, I don't have cash and don't need to stay. I go on to tell him that it's no way to treat patrons the way they yelled at us for no reason. Instead of dealing with the situation quietly and calmly, the doorman only escalated the situation by being hotheaded. I proceed to get thrown out.
So Nat and I are standing outside in the parking lot explaining to some red necks and country bumpkins what happened and they laughed about the situation. (Apparently they had just gotten done beating someone up for spilling a drink on them.) Suddenly, the owner, Cheech, comes out to talk to us. He starts telling Nat that he doesn't like that Nat lied to the doorman so Nat stops him in his tracks and says, "Let me tell you exactly what I told him and see what you think." So Nat does and then the guy goes on to profusely apologize to us. He gives Nat back the $10 that he paid for this chick to get in and tells us to come back inside and party with him and that he'd buy us all drinks. We pass. He then goes on to tell us that his venue is a unique one that hosts unique musicians and that it's all about the "f-ing stage." That there aren't tvs and billiard tables all over the place. We say, cool buddy. Kudos to you.
BUT. The story does not end here. Trevor comes up to talk to me to find out what happened. As I'm explaining this all to him, a rather large woman comes outside and starts puking. You can hear it across the parking lot. It's gross. Trevor counts that she's puked 12 times. Sick. Well, that's not it. She then lights up a cigarette. Then we hear her saying, "I'm not intooooxicated... I can driiiive... You can't have my keeeeeeeys."
So that was my Saturday night. Definitely a blogworthy night. I'm sure this post doesn't do it justice, but it was an interesting end to the evening nonetheless. This puts me at 2, for the number of times I've been thrown out of a club/bar.
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