The Dealers Talk About Paying to Play

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The Dealers, our local band featured this week, had a lot to say--and we couldn't include it all in the story by Jeremiah Magan, which you can read here.

In the interview, the Dealers talked about various venues they liked to perform in: House of Blues, Whiskey A Go Go, the Coach House and the Galaxy. Frontman Kevin Thews said of the Galaxy: "They're always the most respectful of the bands. Of all the places we've played, we actually feel like people want us to be there and they're really nice to us. They give us free beer."

But they've got an interesting take on pay-to-play venues, a heated topic this week in our sister publication, LA Weekly (read about it here.) 

OC Weekly (Jeremiah Magan): What do you think of the pay-to-play nature of venues in Southern California?
Thews: Well, it's ridiculous, but I understand why it's done. There are so many terrible bands that people don't really want to see.

Kyle Eckermann: I think the thing that's good is that if we're going to sell tickets is that we get money back, which we do at The Coach House. It does suck that we have to sell tickets, but we are getting something back.

The Dealers perform after a free comedy show on Thursday, November 11 at Gallagher's Pub & Grill in Huntington Beach.