Now, for my story:
Last night Cory and I headed out to DiPiazza's for James Boo's band Away Team's final show. Since we were pretty hungry, we thought "Hey, let's go there early, get dinner, and that way we don't have to pay the cover." Now, I'm not saying I'm trying to completely avoid paying a cover, but it does seem crazy to pay $7 to see a friends band when you aren't staying for the other bands, and it just seems good business to waive the cover for people who buy food. I thought this was standard procedure.
So, we sit down and wait for our waitperson. And wait. We notice the two bartenders pay us no heed as we sit there for a while. Eventually they start bringing food out to the other two tables sitting there and still not a look in our direction. By this time we figure we gotta go to the bar to order our food and drinks. Weird for a place that has a sign outside that says "Pizza" super big, but, whatever. We order, sit back down, back on track. Then, before our food comes out, the bartender brings over our (separate) checks. Hmm?
Naturally I finished my beer before the food came, so thought it would be a good idea to just pay the bill while ordering another beer to avoid any further confusion. The second bartender was working the bar, so we went to him to get our next round. He says to us, "You want another round? You guys got tabs right? We usually need a credit card for tabs." Tab? For dinner? "Uh, yeah, I guess. I'm just gonna go ahead and pay for it all. I'm not sure exactly how things work here," I reply.
Back to our seats. Still waiting for food, the door guy who recently arrived starts going from table to table. He gets to ours and asks if we're here for the bands. "We're here for dinner, we're waiting for food."
"So you don't know the bands?"
"Well, we're here to eat, but we might stay and have a couple more drinks if that's ok?"
"Ok, cool."
Weird?
James' band plays while we're eating and they're pleasant enough. They play a bunch of covers of cartoon theme songs which was kinda funny.
Fast forward: We're out on the patio having another beer, after getting a shot of Fernet at the bar to soothe my stomach. A decision is made to go to Joe Jost's and since we're finished we start to head out. When we get to the door I remember I left my sweater in the booth so I head over to get it and leave. At this point, a guy, I think the owner, says "Hey, you guys gotta go to the door and get wristbands."
"Oh, we're leaving."
"Oh, ok."
What?
Ok, so I realize we were actually there for a band, but we were also eating dinner. I couldn't help but think what if we were just there to eat? Like we looked online for good pizza in Long Beach, went there and then had that experience. How much more confused would I be about the whole situation? So weird. But, what do I know?
Sorry I used a couple different tenses in that story. I am so, so sorry.
