Live Music And Booze
Hey, My name is Zhenya. Nice to meet ya! I am absolutely new to the whole blog seen, and I just wanted to put some of my experiences in writing, I guess.
So here it goes.
I once worked for a Rock Club, but it is no ordinary rock club, it is way more than just that. Its not your typical live music joint, all tho "music joint" is in its name. Its called Reggies. But as I said...Its more than just a rock club, its also a well established record store and a bar and grill.The name of the record store is actually record Breakers. So I worked there almost from the beginning of the rock club.I worked there through demolition and reconstruction. through out that time I have seen people smoke crack, shoot up, rob and steal, sell their bodies, and damn near die.
The owner and my self actually almost died in the process of rebuilding. Actually it was power washing. Poor ventilation and a gas power washer do not make for a good couple!... the owner actually was the first one to come close to the point of passing out, and I thought that I would be "ok", with the ventilation I had after his experience. Boy, was i wrong!!! The actual lift I was using broke down. The joystick on it got rusted out from too much moisture and full on water spray. So by that point i actually had climb up and down the side of the lift. The part where I almost died was at the highest point of the roof i was washing at the time.
I thought I had the washer far enough away from me, and close enough to the door that I wouldn't keep too much fumes in the building i was working at. Unfortunately I didn't think about the drafts that were sucking everything back into the building, instead of pushing the fumes out. at the same time i had to think about the junkies that were roaming the neighborhood. i had to keep the door damn near closed. The bright "stand lights" weren't helping the cause either, I needed to see the opening, but i also needed the lights pointing up at where i was working, so the blinding lights were blocking all my visibility of the door way. Thats the reason i had to keep the door barely open. Thats how the fumes from the washer almost killed me.
After the washing of the building we had to clean everything up, there was quiet a few of us working there, and it still took us a while. Getting the dirt out from the basement was not fun, and rather back breaking...
So over all it was a pain in the ass!!!
Once the place opened up, it was a little harsh in the neighborhood, people were getting mugged and no one wanted to show up there, since it is in the south loop of chicago. But, some showed up from out of state just to go to the record store... and slowly, as the neighborhood started to clean up, people were relaxing to the point of comfort with the area. Condos went up, projects went down, riff raff started to slowly disappear . Slightly bigger bands started to play the joint, and bringing some of their crowd. All tho some of those bands that were pretty good, had the room filled with 2-3 people. That was a bummer for both parties. As the Sports games started to bring more crowds, the booze started to flow. Now the music joint (the bar side) has a packed bar, and half the time you can't get people out of there.
to be continued
