Boozeday’s Moved

Boozeday Tuesday has moved out of Mike’s. That means if you’re an old fart who likes early shows (often featuring the best local bands and occasional out-of-towners like the Drams), the best time to catch them regularly is now from 8 to 10 p.m. at the Brick. Tonight’s show brings cabaret quartet Alacartoona and surf-rock outfit the Von Hodads, both of which are local. Watch out — the dude from Alacartoona will feel you up during the show, whereas the chick will not.

No Way to Treat Strangers

The LA band Hello Stranger‘s Myspace blog tells of some unfortunate treatment the fun-loving indie pop outfit endured from local punks. Evidently, these assholes are the perps. If you know them, give them a good dressing down. Here’s an excerpt:

The next afternoon we woke up and went into the city, and then craziness ensued. The Ice House is an all ages venue in Kansas City, and it is in this huge warehouse, and there’s not even a beverage for sale, just a drinking fountain way off in the corner, and a lot of throw up in the toilets. We played with this band from Connecticut called Meet the Antagonist, and this band from KC called Beautiful Bodies. The singer Alicia who is hot as hell and who I absolutely love, helped us get the show. But all you bands out there, listen up: do not play at the Ice House. We got paid $20 and they weren’t even nice. But the kids were into it and some even came out from Lawrence so we were happy.

Afterwards, we caravaned with the other two bands and a couple other cars to a party that sort of took place around a fence in an alley. I thnk these people were a little younger than us, and they thought it was fun to take a shopping cart and fill it with people and then hurl it down the hill as hard as possible into a tree. I thought this was a very dangerous game but it still made me smile. Finally we tried to leave, and the boys drove the van over to get me (which was filling up with other people), and they were blasting Salt and Peppa and shining flashlights all around and yelling at me and just basically being a bunch of idiots. But these KC pseudo punks did not think we were so funny. They started putting beer bottles and this tire they had been clutching for some reasonin front of our tires. Then they started spitting in the direction of our van, to which I responded “If you spit a little harder you may actually hit the van”, to which they responded by pouring beer on our windshield and the side of the car, to which Ben and Jared responded by saying “You’re wasting good beer!!!! We’ll drink it!!!”and Ben stuck his head out the window and they started pouring it all over him, and Jared was trying to drive us out of there crushing beer bottles, and then they started screaming things at us—really smart things like, “California sucks!”, and they started jumping on the van so we couldn’t drive, and trying to slash our tires, and so Jared gunned it and swerved around and they fell off, and then we were about twenty feet away from them and they were still screaming. Jared just sat there dumbfounded and I was still screaming back like a banshee, and I kept sticking my middle finger out the window, until I came up with my own brilliant line, “fuck you you small town fucks!!!” and then they threw a mickeys bottle at the window so hard that it actually scared me, and finally Jared drove away.

But instead of go home, we hit up some bars. We were too tired to drive to Chris’s so we stayed at the Econo Lodge but do not stay there either because they chareged us $10 for every extra hour we stayed. Ass holes.

Love ,

Juliette

Sorry, Juliette. If you come back, we promise to do you right.

This entry mentions the Ice House (aka American Ice), an all-ages venue, that, like many of its kind, appears to be struggling. It’s not surprising that a band like Hello Stranger wouldn’t make much money — that’s the kind of band that should be at the Brick, the Record Bar, or, better yet (for them), someplace in Lawrence. The Ice House policy, quoted from an email I received last week:

1st $100 in the door is the house’s (this is our daily cost for the building alone!) Everything above the first $100 is split 50/50, house and bands.

All bands are split equally, unless prior arrangements are made (with us).

Further:

Bands are expected to sell a minimum of 10 tickets each on 4 band shows, 15 tickets each on 3 band shows. This is the least amount we can do and stay open. Please remember we are not a bar, we have no other way to pay the rent and provide a venue for you to play besides ticket sales!

NO GUEST LIST.

It’s good to hear the venue’s owners are talking about moving. $100 a day is some crazy overhead. I’d like to see an all-ages venue like The Opolis open here. Located in Norman, Oklahoma (the college-town home of Oklahoma U, just outside OKC), the Opolis is small and artsy; it sells Cokes, water and beer (to those of age); it’s comfortable and not at all dirty, dingy, huge or weird, which is exactly what the El Torreon and Ice House are/were. I’m not saying by any means that I want the Ice House to fail. I just want its owners to find a way of making it work that’s both good for them and for the bands they bring house. And, of course, one that’s good for the fans who fund the enterprise.