So, here's the story on what happened last night (March 8, 2008)
After having a great performance in Dayo bar, we had a second gig in Tanza, Cavite.
We were already on the way, when we got a text from a brother band's manager that first off, there was not much people, and second, the producers were now saying that they could not pay the full amount promised to bands.
When we get there, we find out that the producers were trying to pay us...1/3 of our agreed TF - and they hadn't even secured our agreed-on slot! The lineup was in shambles. Security for the gig had walked out. bands were going onstage to play without a care for guest bands, who were now greeted with hostile stares.
Brother band #1's manager had to go into bad vibes with a lot of people just to get her band to play at 1am - even though they were supposed to play around 11pm. and well, they decided to play even though they only probably got a third of their TF - but at the cost of bad blood that is not their fault.
Brother band #2 had to literally go in after BB#1, otherwise they probably would have had to wait even more.
As for our band...the producers basically gave us only 1/3 of our TF, with another third to follow in a week...AND ASKED IF WE WOULDN'T PLAY. You heard that right. after going all the way from Manila, after being told that the TF was being lowered while in transit, after finding out our slot was not secure, and that the younger bands were already hostile, after being good-natured enough to even show up...they basically told us not to play if we were going to insist on our TF - which, by the way, would go mostly to gas, equipment maintenance, and for production of our new album (we do not pocket any money for ourselves, individually - it all goes to the band). half of the band still wanted to play, but after we saw how hostile and high tension the stage area was already...we decided not to play, since it seems that guest bands were not welcome anyway. We should have heeded the warning of Brother Band #3, who told us that this prod outfit was not reliable - they should know, they only got paid 300 bucks by this outfit, and they were promised much, much more (BB#3 stayed away from this gig - even if Cavite is one of their strong areas).
To the prod: You know...if you're going to invite bands from out of town, could you at least make sure that:
a) we have our slots secure
b) we have our TF prepared (that's goddamn gas money, first and foremost!)
Because, otherwise, you better just get local bands, because we did not feel like guest bands at all - we felt like effing badly-treated, underpaid employees.
As much as we have had great experiences in Cavite gigs, sadly, they are also now being balanced by the bad ones. I hope that we don't get any more bad gigs there.
