I am TIRED. It’s been a very up and down kind if journey with Maryland-style traffic making it feel like home in all the worst ways. Rolling into the Dive Bar, our joy at finding the place packed was somewhat short Lived as we witness some sort of fight with the kitchen (“no more fucking tickets!”). We’re starving but we wait a half hour before before putting in food at the request of the staff.
Friends and fans are already there. Flowers arrive sent to us by Tavair Dominque. The food’s not ready an hour later when we start playing and we’re not in a great place, but we rock if I DO say so myself. An hour later, food is still not ready and Kristen wisely gets some pie out of the car, made for us by our Omaha hosts… I talk to the staff, tell them we’ve got one last break in another 50 minutes and we need the food at that point, its legit part of our pay. (I should stress that I think this is clearly a problem with the kitchen, not a problem with the foh who were sort of apologizing but clearly weren’t making the food) (I will ALSO never understand, nor return to, venues that seem to regard it as an inconvenience or a perk to feed their artists… if its part of the negotiated pay, you might as well shortchange us when it comes to handing us money at the end of the night… its part of our pay!)
Blah. In any case. 20 minutes in front of our break im grumpy enough to actually announce that into the mic that I’m hoping the food (ordered almost three hours earlier) will be ready as we’re taking a break soon. Our food was actually out during that next song and we wrapped right then so we could wolf some of it down since we were going to have to leave rapidly right after the set.
Yum. Raw vegetables, “cauliflower rice” that was just shredded raw cauliflower. Bizarrely sweet sauces and skimpy proteins. I’d spent months talking up the food their since our last experience with it had been so freaking good. The Dive Bar HAD become a joke name but today was Living down to the moniker.
The show was good. The audience was awesome. I run AMAZING sound if I do say so myself and we were really on our game plus or minus me and my complicated relationship with lyrics… but the food,.easily the worst I’ve had… in memory? Really lowered morale.
It’s such a good stage. The weather was so perfect. It was such a great show. And yet I don’t think that’ll be a place were looking to return to next time we’re in town because that was just disrespect from the kitchen.
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