Today's Blind Items - Your Wife Is Here - Anniversary Month

Promoting concerts is always a gamble. It is especially true when you are not someone with the pocketbook of Live Nation and you have to take chances on much smaller bands or find a niche. Sometimes that niche doesn't pay off. For whatever reason, I thought at one point in time that you could make some money promoting concerts featuring contemporary Christian groups. I was wrong. I was 0 for 4 before finally pulling the plug on that idea. One of those shows though, did provide a great story. 

One thing I learned when I saw my first rider for a gospel group is that they have two different riders. One is for when they perform in a church. They ask for wholesome things a church would be willing to provide. When they performed outside a church, they had a different rider which really was no different than any other band's rider. They wanted as much booze and the best quality they thought they could get out of you. The particular group that I am referring to in this blind, was A list in their corner of the music world. I thought it was going to be a money maker because they were so popular. What took me a few times to figure out though is people get used to seeing these groups for free in big churches because the churches pay the fee and hope to recoup it during offering time. 

Usually groups will roll in around 2pm or so and then depending on how big they are, will often stay at the venue until the end of the show because they want the showers and the food and some rest. Bigger bands tend to go back to whatever hotel they are staying at. I assumed this group, being higher on the list would head to whatever hotel they were staying at. Nope. Apparently they all convinced their wives to take a one night trip to a casino. I know, right. So, these guys were looking to party hard. Beginning about noon, they started drinking and they kept right at it up until they hit the stage about 8pm. They held their booze pretty well and were obviously experienced at drinking and playing. 

After the show, I assumed there would be some kind of meet and greet, but realized that reeking of booze and being half in the bag was probably not the message they were looking to send. Who they did meet and greet with were some female college age students they had "worshipped" with the previous summer. A couple of the guys used the backstage area to "worship" while a couple others went to the tour bus. It was probably no more than 30-45 minutes later that a black Suburban pulled up to the back of the venue and four women piled out if it. I wasn't there to see that happen. I was there to see two of the women start beating on their husbands while two of the college age students fled the backstage area with their clothes in their hands. The two guys on the bus managed to emerge from the bus fully dressed, and without any women in sight. They tried to get the women to go back inside the venue so the students could escape, but no such luck. The students were found hiding on the bus. Thankfully they at least had managed to get dressed. The wives had known what was going to happen. Someone tipped them off. I believe all of them are still married to the same women.