Cover Me...
Say what you will -you get what you pay for.
Story by Lincoln’s night life suffers from customers photo.
Christopher Heine reluctant to pay cover charges Scott McClurg
Jf Lincoln’s population were
embodied by one man, he’d
probably shop at thrift stores
and order his dates Happy
Meals at McDonald’s.
We’re all a bunch of cheap
skates.
At least that’s what people are saying about
this town in regards to entertainment cover
charges.
Maybe even more arresting is that the
accusatory crowd is Lincoln’s own.
Frequent tavern-goer Emily Madison, 21,
has noticed people often walk up to club
entrances and turn around after discovering that
there was a fee to see bands. She said she regu
larly paid to listen to groups.
Madison said among the cheapest social
group in Lincoln is fraternity and sorority mem
bers.
“They look disgusted like, ‘I have a right to
be here. I have a right to get drunk,”’ she said. “I
think that’s disappointing.”
Linsi Peterson, a member or the Alpha Chi
Omega sorority, said she and her friends nor
mally choose to spend their money on alcohol
later in the evening rather than live entertain
ment.
“But I wouldn’t restrict that behavior to
greek,” she said.
Peterson said the possibility of meeting new
people also played into going to bars without
live performances.
“With music or whatever going on. it’s hard
to have conversations,” she said.
Lincoln club managers and employees
believe that people here just aren’t used to pay
ing covers.
They say it generally has to do with the
nature of Lincoln’s population.
It makes perfect cultural sense.
This miniature city, with its college-town
night life, is largely made up of small-town
transplants. Normally, such people aren’t condi
tioned to nonchalantly fork over an average $3
$5 at every club as people often do in bigger,
more culturally diverse cities.
According to the answering machine of First
Avenue, a Minneapolis night club, the venue
charged $6 for a DJ show Wednesday night.
Jill Smith is a bartender at the 1427 Club,
1427 O St., which has DJ shows on Thursday
nights and charges $2.
Smith said people in Lincoln are spoiled
when it comes to the expense of going out on the
town.
“People bitch about the $2 cover charge,”
she said. “If they went to Chicago and wanted to
get into a decent club, they’d have to spend $ 10.”
Kristen Bailey is a bartender at
Knickerbocker’s Tavern who has worked in bars
in Seattle and also lived in Houston.
Are Lincolnites cheap about cover charges?
“Oh yeah, definitely,” Bailey said. “When I
worked at the Backstage in Seattle the cover
charges were a minimum $5. The whole time I
worked there I never saw one person turn around
and leave.”
Andy Fairbaim is entertainment and promo
tions director at Duffy’s Tavern.
Lincolnites generally would rather drink
more alcohol than take a chance on a new band,
he said.
“If they are going to get drunk, they’re going
to be apprehensive to give up the $3 to $5 they
could spend at the end of the night,” Fairbain
said. “Plus, they usually just want to see bands
they’ve seen on TV”
Matt Ingle works the door at Duffy’s on the
bar’s liye music nights of Wednesday and
Sunday.
He agrees with Fairbaim.
“They’ll come in the door and say: ‘Dude!
Man! No way! I just want to drink,”’ he said.
Even when it’s about alcoholic overachieve
ment, the subject comes back to a core of
skimpiness.
“Sometimes they say they are just looking
for a friend and will be right back,” Ingle said.
Til have to go into the bar after 15 minutes
and find them and make them pay. Lots of time
they’ll just leave rather than pay the cash.”
Sean Tyrrell, part-owner of Knickerbockers,
said it’s hard to get people to pay to see musi
cians who are not famous.
This was evident Tuesday night when under
ground legend Helios Creed played
Knickerbockers.
While the noisy rock band had played more
than a dozen shows in Lincoln over the past
decade, the 250-capacity room was less than
half full.
Tyrrell was collecting the cover charge at
Tuesday’s show after one of the opening bands
had just finished. A slew of leather-clad rock
fans walked in, and one asked if he could pay a
lesser cover since one band had already fin
ished.
Something Tyrrell had said earlier that night
came to life a little at that moment.
“Lincoln is cheap.”