A kind of "same thing only different" thing happened to me once years ago.

The club owner had mistakenly thought he had a different band booked on a night when my band was booked.
The band he "thought" he had booked was not really very good in his opinion (why he booked them I don't know) and he was telling all his customers for the previous few days that they were not very good.

When my band and I walked in that night with our equipment his jaw dropped. He asked what the heck we were doing there and I replied that he had us booked and to check his calander. He did, and sure enough there we were scheduled to play that night.

He apologised over and over again as he told me about his mistake and the fact about what he had been telling all of his customers.

He apologised ahead of time for the bad night crowd-wise he was now expecting...I just figured oh well...nothing I could do about it, and asked for an ameretto on the rocks. He goes behind the bar and half fills a huge pitcher with ice then empties a full bottle of amerreto into it and hands it to me saying. "here ya go, on me, hope you can still enjoy the evening."

As it turned we had a few stragglers come in who stayed the night and partied with us.
It was one goofy night I'll never forget. And yes the amerretto helped as the crowd that did show up appeared "doubled" in size. just kidding.

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The old Newb