The One Chance Left a Bad Impression

You only have one chance to make a good impression, and this past weekend a bad impression was made on me.

Who am I, though, right?  Well, as someone who always will tell any performer that will listen that, “You never know who might be in the audience,” it bears reminding that if I’m in the audience – being the president of Now Hear This, Inc., which does management, promotion, and booking – I could very well be that someone who notices you.  However, you want me or anyone in the music business like me, to notice you for all the right reasons.

A few nights ago, however, I was noticing an act for all the wrong reasons.

A trio was performing at a place I’d never been to before.  I ended up having an unsatisfactory visit to this establishment, so it probably could’ve been improved by having good entertainment there.

But, some of the very tips that I give out in my eBook series were absent to the performers I was watching and listening to.

One thing they did well was their guitar playing.  Unfortunately, it ends there, though.

In no particular order:
1.    They were drinking alcoholic beverages on-stage
2.    There was no annunciation, so it was very difficult to make out the talking being done between songs
3.    They dragged a high, chair-type stool not only in front of themselves to put a pseudo tip jar on – but did so probably halfway into their set!
4.    When going on break, two of them went immediately outside the front door – still in full view of everyone inside, thanks to the windows and doors – and proceeded to smoke.
5.    Although sports were on TVs and patrons eating was the emphasis of this establishment, the entertainment seemed to make little to no effort to try to engage anyone sitting and listening.  True, they were there more for background music as opposed to putting on a show, but, it still lent itself to being fair game to try to get patrons interacting with them.
6.    The percussionist seemed to spend far more time looking up at the TVs than at bandmates and/or patrons.

When places like that hire entertainment, it’s with the hope that it will get them more business.  When the place itself doesn’t leave the best impression on you, sometimes you’ll go back anyway because of the music.  These folks, however, would not have convinced me to give the place a second chance, and I certainly wouldn’t have been moved to get up and introduce myself with a business card.