Show was great! Sound guy was not!
Wrote this letter to Steve, the owner of Goodbye Blue Monday, after a very negative experience with the sound dude. I think it speaks for itself:
Hey Steve,
I had a great time playing last night, as I always do at Goodbye Blue Monday. Since moving to Brooklyn about 4 years ago I’ve played at Goodbye Blue Monday countless times with a handful of different groups. I’ve always been very pleased with how friendly the staff and the crowd can be.
Unfortunately, last night changed my opinion on that. The bar tender was a real sweet heart and made us feel at home as usual as we were dropping off our stuff. Then the sound guy whose name was Andrew came in about 10 minutes before we were supposed to start playing, drunk. He was very unhelpful when I explained that I wanted to set up the drums for the second band before us so setup time could be minimal and he refused to do so.
After the second band he went up to a good friend of mine and demanded that he smell and taste the water he was drinking. My friend politely refused because that is absurd because it was obviously water and Andrew was obviously drunk. He then got in my friends face and went on a mini-filibuster stating that people “like you” (referring to my friend who bares a ridiculous amount of similarities to Andrew) always sneak beer in. He then extended the like you to my whole table of friends who all had beer out in front of them that they had bought from the very nice bartender. He then was about an inch from my friends face saying he’s not an asshole, he is just doing his job. My friend just kept saying he shouldn’t be treating his CUSTOMERS like that. Oh, and he made comments about how much of a ghetto Bedstuy is. Not sure if that was just stream of consciousness or if he wasn’t even aware of what neighborhood he was in. Either way, it was offensive.
Then before my other band, Baby Fever, played he went out of his way to play ear piercing feedback noise. At first I thought maybe he just dug noise music and was just playing it. Then we kept gesturing for him to turn it off because we were ready to play and he just stared at us and turned his shitty noise up more. Then we talked into the microphone which was on and said we are ready to play and he still just stared at us, obviously just trying to piss us off.
Then while the last band played he walked away from the sound board and put his hands over his ears and started banging his head against the bar, looking way to miserable for a guy whose job it is to run sound at a music venue and who can apparently come to work drunk off his ass.
I wouldn’t even both sending this message to you if I didn’t love Goodbye Blue Monday. I’ve had many positive experiences there, and I think it’s such a great place for musicians and music lovers equally. And don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with the fact that he was drinking or anything. I’m usually drunk while I’m there. But I’m not an asshole, and I don’t work there.
I don’t know if writing this will do any good but I would like you to at least share this with Andrew so perhaps he can get over his lack of self awareness and realize how much of a jackass he was that night. Perhaps he’s a really nice guy otherwise?
I really love the venue and I would hate for it to have a negative energy because of the poisonous attitude of people like Andrew.
I hope you’re well!
~ Blake
