The Vibe Must Retract Statements Regarding Element 94

At a local music concert in Foster City, California, on the 24th of June, 2006, my band Element 94 was booked to perform. We had been chosen as the closing band, so there were four or five bands playing before us. During the performance of the band right before us, the crowd got into the music and started jumping up and down in time with the music. One of the staff members of the night came to the front and told them to calm their crowd down, and when the crowd activity didnt cease immediately, she became overly agitated and went ballistic, canceling the entire show (since there was only one band left to play, that meant that my band was going to be the only one who didnt get to play). Needless to say, we were angry about this decision. It takes a lot of effort to load cars full of band equipment, drive down there (gas costs money, lets not forget) and set it all up. In addition, we did the show a favor by driving all the way back to San Bruno (about a 13-mile drive) to pick up a microphone stand, because they did not have one at the venue. We were understandably upset with the result of the show, and we didnt just sit quietly. We voiced our anger to the staff of the Vibe. We let them know we thought it was quite unfair that because of the crowd reaction to another band, we werent going to be allowed to perform. Because we were angry, the staff member who made the decision grew even more agitated and told us she was going to write emails to every other city in the Bay Area and make sure that we were never going to play anywhere around here again.
Later on, through our own sources (who wished to remain anonymous), we obtained a partial list of the cities that received an email from the Vibe informing them that we should not be allowed to play in their city. This list includes Millbrae, San Mateo, Hollister, Redwood City, Daly City, the Mid-Peninsula YMCA, Emeryville, Gilroy, San Carlos, Brisbane, Cupertino, Menlo Park, Morgan Hill, and Sunnyvale, all cities in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. Keep in mind, this is only a partial list! It is hard to truly judge how much undeserved damage they have done to our reputation, before these cities have even met us.
In my mind, this is slander. The Vibe was unfair to send this email to these cities. Simply because a show went bad at their venue, and not even because of my band, does not mean that they have the right to badmouth us to cities around the Bay who have never even met us.
My goal is to get enough signatures on here to force the Vibe to send another email to every place they contacted before, and retract their slanderous statements regarding Element 94. They do not have to praise us or our music, but they must apologize to us for attempting to damage our reputation and my possible career, and inform every recipient that they are to disregard their previous statements. Thank you.

For more information on Element 94, visit http://www.myspace.com/element94.