squidpants

so i saw this on DCist, which really pissed me off. This band, Norfolk & Western, were playing at DC9. I was thinking of going, but thankfully couldn't, because they seem like a bunch of morons. Here's the quote from their tour diary

Washington DC proved to be a less pleasant experience for all of us. DC is not the safest city in the world to begin with, and according to my sources, the club we played at was located in a particularly bad area. The guy running sound at the club was hands down the worst soundman any of us have ever worked with. He obviously didn’t give a flying fuck about making it sound good and actually alternated between seeming annoyed and laughing at us when we demanded unreasonable things like, oh, turning the microphones on, or turning down the bass. During Corrina’s set, Joe looked like he was either going to kill somebody or cry. After the show, as we were loading out our equipment, our van was surrounded by what I can only assume were six or seven gang members complete with bandanas and masks over their faces. They just stood there, staring at us shoving thousands of dollars worth of equipment into the van piece by piece. A couple of them even leaned up against the van, casually smoking cigarettes. Corrina got pissed off and said, “You guys want some of this shit?” to which one of them replied, “Fuck yeah, I want some of this shit. I’ve got thirty years, bitch.” They didn’t leave, even after all of the gear had been loaded into the van. I’ve never been so happy to leave a city in my life.

The icing on the cake? We got paid twelve dollars for the gig.

Fuck you. First off, "DC is not the safest city to begin with" is bullshit. DC still has the Marion Barry murder capitol reputation with some people, which has been wrong for years. I've lived in DC for 8 years and never had a problem - as I always tell people who say "Oh! Isn't DC dangerous?", the only really dangerous parts are the places you'd never go to. There are muggings and that sort of thing (though I don't think I know anybody who's been mugged), but that happens in most cities. "and according to my sources, the club we played at was located in a particularly bad area" - are you fucking kidding me? I guess a particularly bad area means $800,000 houses, like the ones right around the corner from DC9 on T St (I looked it up on DC's website). Your sources obviously haven't come to DC in 10 years, or are from some college town or something. There are a few dumpy looking places around the club, but that hardly equates to a dangerous neighborhood. Did he expect the club was going to be in the middle of a bunch of hoity toity houses in Georgetown or something? Furthermore, I've been to a lot of shows at DC9 and have never seen any "gang members." I think people always want to say they've been to a dangerous place, like whoever this guy's sources were. This guy needs to get a grip and skip DC next time. I'm not going to see them.