This weekend I completed a second shift of my shitty part-time job. I’ve avoided stating here what this job is or where I’m working, as that’s the kind of thing that get people fired, but I’m think I’m safe enough saying that it involves the VIP section of a popular Dublin music venue.
This particular establishment has different grades of VIP, based on who you know and how much you pay. Essentially, however, it all boils down to a few simple necesities; clean toilets, bars with carpets, and access to the best seats in the house. Now I don’t wish to begrudge VIPs their nicities. Access to any VIP area that I know of isn’t cheap and people deserve to get something for their money. But there’s one aspect to the whole culture that is really pissing me off.
I was told by one of my supervisors that the kind of people who avail of these services would not normally attend gigs. Mosh pits and pissing in a trough is below these people, so it’s nice for these to be able to attend some gigs in comfort and style and avoid slumming it too much. On top of this, because of the price-structure of my place (don’t ask me for details, that’ll get me in trouble) it’s most likely going to be used by corporates so that they can treat their best paying customers to fancy nights out.
So these people, who rarely go to gigs and in all likelihood will not have even heard of the bands they’ll find themselves seeing, are going to be getting the best seats in the house. Whereas the true music fans, who actively support bands by regularly attending gigs (and who provide the venues with most of their profits), will have to make do with whatever leftovers are below the VIPs.
Now I ask you, is that fair?
In other news, I went and blew €300 I don’t have on an X-Box 360, because using my rent allowance check to pay my rent seemed a little…obvious.
The Unemployed Blog 