Amos: I'm not sure whether your question from yesterday was in earnest (why not entice the audience to drink ginger ale at a gig I would do in a bar), but I'll answer anyway: Because the owners of the bar wouldn't appreciate my trying to "sell" the audience on an inexpensive beverage. Bars hire musicians as an "attraction" so that the attracted audience will bring in revenue for the bar, and the more booze sold, the more the revenue. So a musician who's hawking teetotaling in a bar can be considered to be doing his job poorly – just as poorly, in the bar owner's eyes, as the musician whose poor performance was driving away the drinking customers.

This thread is getting too long, so let's continue this discussion on the next thread in the series! Here's a link to part 2: Performers Excess Drinking at Gig PART 2

Please don't add any more posts to this thread; add to part 2 instead. Thanks!