mASF post by "MeSoHorny"
posted on: mASF forum: General Discussion newsgroup, February 2, 2004
This post doesn't have any info on picking up chicks. Instead it's a basic
information package on bars and clubs. See, a lot of people here are already
comfortable with the club scene. The stuff in here will be obvious to them.
But I bet there are also a lot of people here who are sort of bewildered and
intimidated by night clubs and bars. They weren't really into them before but
started venturing into them to do club sarging. And they're a bit put off by
the electronic music and the big deal people make over dj's, and the snobby
looking trendy regulars and whatnot. I know I was. So I learned a bit about
the scene and now it doesn't seem so alien to me anymore.
A lot of this is pretty obvious but I'm still putting it in here. I may have
some little details wrong.
1. The point of clubs and bars
The point of clubs and bars is to attract people to them and give them a fun
experience so the owner can make money. They're just businesses. There are a
few main ways to make the $$$. The big one is drinks. Sell a lot of drinks
and you're making some good cash. People can come to your place to dance and
socialise, but if they're not buying drinks you're not making the phat $$$$.
The second way is to charge cover. Sometimes it's $3 to get in to the local
college meatmarket. If the place is really cool and upscale you may have to
pay $10, $20, even $30 + to get in. If there's a band or a really popular dj
playing, or ot's a holiday, the club may charge a higher than normal cover.
Another way to make a bit of extra money is to charge for the coatcheck. Bars
and pubs that serve food like chickenwings and nachos make a good chunk of
their money that way. A final way to make money is to have games on the
premises. eg) Pool, Air Hockey, Arcade Machines, Video Gambling Machines.
2. Types of bars and clubs
Three main stereotypes with combinations:
Bars - Focus is on sitting around and drinking (beer usually). Maybe having
some chicken wings and watching Hockey on TV before it gets more packed.
Playing pool. Maybe there's a small to medium sized dancefloor playing mainly
Top 40 radio tunes. Usually decorated with a wood motif. Maybe there's live
entertainment.
Clubs - Focus is on dancing. Darker lighting. Lasers and strobe lights.
Drinking shooters and mixed drinks. Usually a more metallic motif. Music
leans more towards electronic dance stuff but it really depends on the 'scene'
the club is catering to that night or in general. There are clubs that cater
to certain crowds like the Trance loving raver crowd, the goth crowd, or the
Hip Hop crowd etc.
Lounges - Focus is on relaxing with your friends and drinking martinis and
cocktails. Usually attract an older, more sophisicated crowd. The music is
probably either background 'lounge music' or maybe a dj playing less
mainstream, better selected dance music. Sophisicated or theme (eg. Tropical
Island) motifs. Usually pretty dark.
There are lots of other types of clubs like Salsa Clubs or bars like College
Bars, but you get the idea. Also I'm mainly thinking of the under 30 age
range.
3. Types of bar staff
Owner: Guy or gal who owns the place. Often is the manager as well. Decides
on the look of the club and what type of crowd it's going to attract. Sets
prices. Comes up with gimmicks like theme nights to draw in customers. Hires
promoters and/or promotes the place himself. Mingles with the regulars.
Ultimately responsbile for making sure the club obeys the law and keeps its
liquor license. Pays fines.
Manager: The person who runs the day to day operations. Keeps track of
expenses. Makes sure the staff are doing their jobs. Maybe hires the
entertainment/djs. Reorders liquor etc etc.
Promoter: Promotes a club or throws their own parties. Gets posters made up
and hires someone to put them up. Makes tons of those little flyers and hires
people to hand them out. Organizes special nights at bars (eg. Famous DJ or
Band is playing). If they throw their own parties they may have to rent an
entire warehouse and all the lighting and sound equipment and pay for all the
booze themselves and hire a good DJ all in the hope of making a killing by
getting thousands of people to show up for $50 bucks (or whatever, I'm not
sure) a pop.
Bartender: Serve drinks. Make most of their money in tips. Chat to customers
when it's not too busy. Be cool and good looking and represent the image the
owner is trying to create for the club. Provide good service, especially to
the regulars.
Waitresses/shooter girls: Take orders and get drinks for customers/ sell
shooters. Also make most of their money in tips. Usually pretty hawt.
Bartenders and waitresses may prefer an emptier club full of good tipping, well
behaved regulars than a packed club full of cheap, obnoxious idiots. Ideally
they should be friendly.
Busboys: Run around collecting empty bottles and glasses. Do stuff like get
more ice for the bars. Help clean up after.
Bouncers (Doorman): Regulates flow of people into the club. Enforces dresscode
to make sure nondesired customers don't get in. Refuses entry to drunk idiots.
Makes sure VIPs and people on the guestlist get in. Makes sure to let lots of
chicks in and prevent too many cockfarms from getting in. Makes sure dumbasses
who have been kicked out don't get back in. Makes sure maximum occupency isn't
exceeded. May help make the line artifically long to create hype. May take
cover or coatcheck money. May greet guests and hold the door for them
(customer service). Checks IDs and make sure minors don't get in. Let
friends, regulars, people who bribe them in faster sometimes.
Bouncers (Floor security): Watches all the customers to make sure they behave.
Gives warnings to people who are acting out of line. If said people don't
behave then the bouncers will ask them to leave and make them leave if
nessesary. Breaks up fights.
At the end of the night the bouncers make sure everyone behaves as they file
out of the club and make sure no fights break out in the street/parking lot
etc.
Dancers: Sometimes clubs will hire professional dancers to jump on the
dancefloor when it's dead.
Spotters: Some clubs will hire plain clothed staff to pretend to be customers
and test the staff to see if they are doing their jobs properly.
4. The DJ
He's the guy who plays the music (duh). He selects the songs to play and mixes
them together (at a basic level, matching the beats and tempos of incoming and
outgoing songs together) into one long, entertaining stream. His basic goal is
to keep the dancefloor happy and full. He does this by picking good songs,
putting them in a good order, mixing them well, and sometimes by 'scratching'
the records to make cool sounds and effects. A bad Dj will pick songs the
dancefloor doesn't want to hear (eg. too poppy, wrong genre, too obscure, too
undanceable, already played it that night), put them in a fucked up order (eg.
fast techno song, followed by slow 80's song, followed by Top 40 boyband hit,
followed by Hip Hop hit, followed by Trance hit), mix them together badly, and
maybe overdoes it with the scratching to the point where it's jarring and
annoying.
The Dj has other responsibilies too. The owner probably wants him to play
music that fits that club's image. The music should appeal to the bread and
butter regulars and not nobodies there from out of town who want the dj to play
Justin Timberlake (request denied). The Dj also has to manipulate the energy
level of the club throughout the night. So he'll play quieter stuff when it's
early and empty and people should be hanging around drinking ($$$), and then
amp things up when it gets really busy. The Dj also has to 'rotate' the
dancefloor. ie. He should change up the music every five songs or so so a lot
of the people on the dancefloor leave to get a drink ($$$$) and a new group who
likes that music better will fill the floor. The dj also has to give the crowd
breaks in the form of slower more mellow songs every now and then so they don't
all get heatstroke.
5. Random info on club design 'theory'
-Many clubs are designed so you can't see inside from the front door. This way
you can't tell if the place is dead and will hopefully take a chance and come
in.
-Many clubs are designed in a flowing O shape. That means people are moving
around and ideally meeting each other. Dead ends mean people stand around and
get bored.
-More bars = higher drink turnover = $$$$.
-Most dance clubs have a 'chill out' area where you can rest and relax and let
the drugs affect them differently. Not to be confused with a 'K hole' where
people on Ketamine go to trip out.
-Dark lighting makes it easier for people to meet because they can't really see
each other properly. It also adds to the effect that the club is an escape
from the ordinary work a day world.
-Loud music helps people meet because they have to get close to each other to
talk.
-Tighter areas create crowded spots and hopefully facilitate people meeting
from bumping into each other.
-'Blind spots' or tucked away areas are good places to deal or buy drugs. Bad
for the owner if he's worried about losing his license. Or good if he wants to
turn a blind eye to that sort of thing.
6. Why people go out to bars, clubs, and lounges
Ever been out sarging at a club and don't really know what the appeal is? I
have.
-To have fun
-To hang around their friends
-To get loaded
-To trip out on some drugs
-To escape their boring reality and forget about their stupid life
-To dance
-To meet new people
-To pick up and get laid
-To be part of a scene
-To hang around other people who are like them (eg. Fellow goths, punks,
ravers, rivetheads, phonies etc)
-To avoid people who aren't in your scene
-To listen to some good music from their scene
-To see a good band of Dj.
-To try something new
-To relax and chill
-To drink some good drinks (eg. martinis)
-To have some good conversation
-To start trouble and pick a fight
-To 'see and be seen' out at the cool spots with the cool people
-To feel cool
-To feel like less of a dork
-To dress up nice and go out
-To go on a spiritual journey (at raves)
-To connect with other people
-To be tapped into the nightlife in the city
-To get sexual validation
7. Music
I never really got this until recently cuz I have pretty shallow taste in
music. For a lot of people going out to clubs is largely about the music.
They go out to hear the latest hits played by the Dj. They go to a bar to see
a good band play. I've noticed a lot of cool people have pretty developed
taste in music.
Confused by all that electronic stuff? Check out this awesome site. It has
these cool Genre family trees and you can click on a subgenre to hear some
samples. The commentary is pretty funny too in a snobby, bitter way.
http://www.di.fm/edmguide/edmguide.html
It's in Flash (or something like that) and it helps to have a fast connection.
Check this link to learn more about some other scenes
http://directory.google.com/Top/Society/Subcultures/?tc=1
8. Drugs
A significant number of people get high when they go out and many more just
getting fucked up on alcohol. Some clubs turn a blind eye to the use of
certain drugs. So you'll see big black dudes puffing joints in Hip Hop clubs
or well dressed phonies doing lines of coke at some fancy lounges. And then
there are raves.
Here are some club drugs. Do a search to learn more:
Mary-Juana
Cocaine
Esctasy
GHB
Ketamine
Speed
Acid (mixed with E sometimes)
Shrooms (can be mixed with E too)
Rohypnol
C2C (or something like that, I'm not sure what it's called)
Heroine (sometimes)
DXM (mixed in with other stuff sometimes)
Ephedrine (Herbal Esctasy)
9. Scenes and Regulars
Ever go to a bar and get the feeling eveyone knows each other and you're not
welcome. I have! Usually cuz of regulars or the scene.
Regulars are people who go to the same bar a lot. They know a bunch of the
other regulars and probably are pretty chummy with the staff. It's bond to
happen when people start hanging out at the same place all the time. They're
like a little clique sometimes. Sometimes they can be pretty exclusive and
snobby. That or they already have a bunch of cool friends and can't be
bothered meeting someone new who might be a dork.
A scene is everything that forms around a certain type of music or lifestyle.
People in a scene usually dress a certain way, prefer a certain type of music,
have some personality traits in common, like the same activities (eg dancing,
drugs), and have the same philosophies on life. A scenester is someone who
puts a lot of effort into being part of a scene. They'll always be at certain
clubs on certain nights and you'll always see them at all the big events. Some
scene members can be pretty snobby and elitist. If you're not clued in about
the scene and it's interests and social conventions then they don't want to
deal with you.
Every scene has its true members... and its posers eg) Skin Goths or Bubblegum
Ravers. These are people who like to dress up in the scenes clothes and have
fun at the scene's parties doing the scene's drugs, but who don't really 'get'
the scene or it's values. True scene members look down on them
That's all I can think of for the moment. I hope this information makes clubs
seem less strange and foreign to you now.
|
