The Cabaret

San Jose, California

Jim Bruno:

The Cabaret was a very popular local venue and definitely one of the prestigious places to play back in it’s day; it had a nice stage, so lots of great acts played there.

The unassuming signage of the Cabaret

Fortunately, we have some great photos from a Cabaret performances. When we played the Cabaret, Bob was sitting down because he had been playing handball and he tore his achilles heel , so couldn’t stand up for that particular performance. It didn’t matter, because as always, Bob played amazingly well. He had all these wonderful and unique guitars, and of course, his incredible Stick playing made for a great night.

Emmett Chapman also joined us on that performance. It was a sold-out night and the manager told me that fire regulations prevented them from letting more people in, and that there was still a line outside of the club. Another great night – full of wonderful memories as we continued to be quite successful in the live performance arena.

All in all it was a great evening and a wonderful memory, although there was a lesson to be learned on the business side of things.

I was the guy who did all the booking and handled the money things for most of the evolution of the band. We did have a couple of managers at different junctures during the run of the group, but not during the time of that performance. For the Catalyst gig, we hired a booking agent, and we worked out a percentage deal with the club manager based upon the amount of people that came in and bought tickets. I was pretty surprised when the booking agent told me that we didn’t sell enough tickets to get the higher percentage. It was clear that wasn’t the case – we could see from the stage that we were [playing over capacity – but hey, that’s the other side of this business. When you’re dealing with money and agents there’s always an angle and everybody’s trying to make as much money as they can. Needless to say, I never worked with that agent again. Every once in a while, I still run into him and i’m sure that he doesn’t even remember the incident.

Keep singing!