(beep)
(band screaming unintelligible lyrics)
- [Jon] She's the only person there.
(band screaming unintelligible lyrics)
- They're leaving.
- Do you blame them?
(band playing)
- Guys, this is a fricking mess.
Rod focuses all of his energies on the music.
(rock music)
(woman singing unintelligible lyrics)
There's Lonie.
(playing piano)
- So she gets on stage playing music every night.
(Lonie singing unintelligible lyrics)
Lonie Walker is in debt $515,000.
(dramatic music)
(Lonie singing unintelligibly)
- I would not put myself up on that stage if the bar
was losing business.
- You know, like the wonderpose,
that's the international wonderpose.
So when I yelled from the stage underground,
wonderpose.
Everybody does that.
- [Man] Okay.
- [Woman] Now we know.
- This is my showtime walk.
(dramatic music)
Wonder Bar.
I'm here.
(dramatic music)
(singing unintelligible lyrics)
(laughing)
(piano playing)
♪ High above the clouds ♪
♪ It's such a dream ♪
(laughing)
We're gonna start that over again.
(laughing)
- She can't (beep) sing.
♪ And don't take away ♪
♪ My false security ♪
The sad thing is,
if she didn't move to River North, Chicago,
she could own some little bar somewhere,
pay $2,000 a month rent.
- Mm-hmm.
- And she could live her dream, playing music.
- And be doing it.
- But the fact of the matter is she put herself
in a premium space at $18,000 a month.
And now she's (beep)
(Lonie singing)
Customers are walking out.
So she's been on stage now for about four minutes
and they're already leaving.
(jazz music)
- I want to thank you all for being here tonight
at the Underground Wonder Bar.
- You guys are all supposed to go.
(cheering)
- All right, all right, all right.
- Why are you here?
(laughing)
- Right.
(laughing)
- There's another bar downstairs
and then Jordan's going to do some spoken word,
the bartender back here.
- [Jon] This is a two-story venue.
Rent is about $60 a foot.
So based upon the economics of the bar business,
she's got to do $2 million a year out of that bar.
- Jeez.
- [Jon] That's why the downstairs is just as important
as the upstairs.
- Mm-hmm.
- Let's hope Jordan is better at speaking
than his mother is at singing.
- [Jordan] Indigenous.
I said indigenous people of Chicago.
There is no need to swallow the pride
that has given us the strive, to strive down these streets
and fleets for so long.
Why too many of the fields I used to play in are gone.
This is just not another-
(words are drowned out by Lonie singing)
- Their stage is right above him.
So the spoken word is now the screaming word.
- Sounds like my mom has struck back up, up there.
(loud music)
- What the (beep) is this?
- You thought you were getting away.
(instruments playing loudly)
- [Man] Damn this one hurts.
- Lonie doing her thing with the music.
was odd.
- It was odd.
It was uncomfortable.
(laughing loudly)
- What she's doing may have worked 20 years ago,
but it is not going to work today in River North, Chicago.
- Mm-hmm.
(playing instrument)
- Her delusion ends right now.
I'm going in guys.
(Lonie singing)
There's Tony.
- I don't even know how to make a damn drink.
Cheers
- That's a character.
- He looks like he should be doing karaoke
in a budget hotel somewhere.
Doesn't he?
- He certainly has a very specific look.
- I can only handle one question at a time.
Hang on.
- If he put the time he puts into his hair,
into his business, maybe the guy wouldn't be failing.
- I think you're right.
- Tony was an entertainer.
A year ago, took his life savings,
a quarter of a million dollars and bought this bar.
His son, Nick was running it.
Tony and Nick had a fight.
He pushed Nick out.
He's pushed his wife out of the business.
- I don't know if we can recoup from it.
- He's almost pushed his daughter out of the business.
- I can't do this.
- And now this family is completely destroyed.
- I'm going.
(people shouting)
No, I'm serious, babe.
- That's sad.
(exasperated sigh)
- So there's our server.
- That's not even the right ticket, but whatever.
- Tatoo girl, you put my order through, right?
I think she's ignoring me.
- [Jon] And what's Tony doing?
Oh, look at that.
Is he entertaining?.
- [Tony] All right, ladies and gentlemen,
may I have your attention please?
I may have had just one too many tequilas.
And the drinks that I overpoured.
I had to drink them.
(laughing)
(Irish music playing)
Anybody in here Irish?
(laughing)
- Ugh.
♪ Oh Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling ♪
- This is his passion.
- Now, facilitating his own ego
is more important to him than taking care of his business.
- Yeah.
- I have nachos, wings.
Did you see the wings though?
They're ready.
- [Cook] Order up.
- Look at those chicken wings.
Is that a fricking pencil holder from elementary school?
- That's what it looks like.
- It is plastic for sure.
- [Jon] But that's not even a food service container, is it?
- [Both] No.
- Thank you.
- Sure.
- Okay.
Riley.
- What?
- A new one.
- What's wrong?
(gasps)
- There's a hair in the wings.
- [Bartender] (beep)
I want to (beep) shoot myself in the (beep) face.
- [Jon] Dude there's a silver hair in Rodney's food.
- Oh God.
- I wonder where that came from.
♪ Come ye back when summer's in the meadow ♪
- So here's a guy who likes to drink
because he's the life of the party.
It pumps his ego.
He likes to buy everybody drinks Mike because it pumps his?
- Ego.
- Look at how well-dressed he is because it pumps his?
- [Woman] Ego.
- Look at how he's just focused on being the man on stage
because of his?
- [Together] Ego.
- I'm not sure if he's salvageable.
Why don't you guys go in and let's see if his ego
is more important than his business.
Okay?
All right, let's see what happens, guys.
Thank you.
I got to end this.
I'm going to send my experts in to pull the plug, literally.
Right now.
♪ Or when the valley's hushed ♪
♪ And white with snow ♪
♪ It's I'll be here in sunshine or in shadow ♪
(microphone feedback)
- What happened?
- Come on down, Tony.
- Show's over, Tony.
Get down here.
- You're running such a (beep) show here
that Jon didn't even want to come in.
So he sent us in.
- Uh-huh.
- So come on back.
I want you to show me your kitchen.
- Oh.
(crowd cheering)
- We were in the SUV watching this disaster go on.
You are the owner of a bistro.
And you don't even know where to begin.
- I don't even know what a bistro is,
to tell you the truth.
- Then why did you buy one?
- I don't even know where to begin with you.
You are drinking on the job.
There was broken glass in that well
and you didn't even know about it.
Your patrons had to tell you that
there was glass broken in it.
Your job is to be responsible for all of your guests.
And I wouldn't blame any of them for walking out.
Do you want to be a singer or do you want to be a bar owner?
- Bar owner.
- But you are not taking responsibility
for anybody in this building.
You call this a high-end bistro.
I call this a circus.
Michael and I are going to go talk to Jon.
(cheering and clapping)
- That was (beep).
I don't even know why I listened to them.
You don't come in here and rip somebody apart
and then run out the door and just act like,
well, we're done.
Well, you didn't give me a (beep) chance.
Where in the hell they go.
Jon.
Jon Taffer.
Well, where the hell did you go?
Maybe Jon thought we were hopeless.
Maybe he thought there's no help for us.
Maybe they think all I want to be as a karaoke singer.
But that's not what it is.
We probably blew our (beep) chance.
I have no idea Jon's coming tomorrow.
I'm going to be here tomorrow.
If he wants to be here tomorrow, if he wants to help me.
I welcome him.
But if he doesn't think he can take the time
and mold my staff and mold me, what do I do?
- This carpet's disgusting.
This bar is a failure from the street.
I can only imagine what the inside looks like.
(laughing)
- Look at this guy.
(jazzy music)
What the (beep) is that.
- What the (beep) is that?
- Wow.
- What the hell we were looking at?
I felt like (beep) earlier.
I still kind of feel weird.
- There's Rod.
He's the owner.
He's 250,000 in debt.
He doesn't even know how much longer he has.
- It's crazy.
The money that these guys are getting.
- That's Tony.
Tony's the entertainment manager.
So Tony is responsible for the live music program
with this bar.
- [Man] Hey, who's the (beep) singer?
Okay, you get the (beep) mic there.
There's Joe, he's our production manager.
Joe runs the actual live show.
- Okay.
- There's Heather.
Heather is the bartender.
- Okay.
- Now what?
- Come join the party.
- How's it going?
- [Heather] How are you guys doing?
- [Both] Good.
- [Woman] Squeeze in, we're all friends.
- Can you get me some band to open up,
- Look at that.
- I know the bass player.
I can find them for you.
- So they're having a business meeting
in the middle of the bar.
When one guy is laying on a couch.
- Hey guys, how are you?
- [Bar Patrons] Good, how are you?
- I'm all right.
- They can't rely just on live music.
They got to have more.
- Yeah.
- I'm hoping some people will show up.
- Oh, here comes the band.
- This is the band that he booked.
- He's got a horn on his head
and his ass is showing in a room that is completely empty.
- We're God bless America and this song is called
Under the Black Flag.
(band playing)
(band screaming unintelligibly)
- She's the only person there.
(band screaming unintelligibly)
- They're leaving.
- Do you blame them?
Guys this is a fricking mess.
Rod focuses all of his energies on the music.
There's Sal, he's our owner.
- [Man] Mr. Dimples.
- [Jon] What's interesting about Sal,
is he's been doing this about 50 years.
Because you've done something for a long time,
doesn't necessarily make you good at it.
- Yeah.
- [Jon] There's Roberto.
- Roberto.
- He's our head cook, Brian.
He's a young lad himself.
Also not a spring chicken.
- Sure.
- [Jon] There's Terry the DJ.
I understand he's worked here 12 years.
There's Kim.
She's our head bartender.
she's been there 10 years guys.
And last, but not least,
There's Elle and Elle is our cocktail waitress.
And she is our junior new employee, two years.
- Oh jeez
(laughing).
- [Jon] I can't get over the amount of garbage
in this place.
Look at this, there's (beep) stuff everywhere.
- It's like there's 30 years worth of crap.
- So guys, you know me,
I've had this place under surveillance for three days now.
You've got to see what the customers are saying
about this bar.
- Sal is one of those old guys that are very, very
one way about things.
- I think we could use maybe a little bit of an update
with the sound system.
- All right, Jason.
- Yeah, 99, 11.
- What?
Is this a karaoke bar or a bingo hall.
Did you just here that?
(laughing)
(singing)
Here's the epitome of bad karaoke production.
This is a nice guy.
He came here to spend his money and his voice is terrible.
This is where you make the guy sound good.
♪ Take on me ♪
- [Woman] Oh good the band's arriving.
- What?
- What's up Blacklight District, how are you doing tonight?
(band playing)
(laughing)
- Oh man.
Okay, John's coming.
Punk rock should be loud, but it can be piercing.
So when you're bringing the volume up,
because the system stinks, it becomes intolerable for you.
It creates an unsafe environment for the customers and staff
and could lead to irreversible ear damage.
I mean, it's unprofessional.
- Right.
(band playing)
- If it's going to be like this every night.
I'm not going to come back as a musician.
As a musician I would not want to play here
because the bar not designed to have live music
that is amplified like that.
And it just doesn't look like anyone's going to survive
this way.
Because in the punk rock world,
the scene here is too limited to be successful.
- [Jon] Hey he's here.
Hey he's here.
What do you think Joe?
- It's a tough room.
and if you get booked in this place once
you will tell your agent, next time.
- Jon Taffer.
- David.
- I'd like to meet some friends of mine.
John is the punter for the Seattle Seahawks.
- David.
- Hi, I'm Sara.
- Sara Colonna's is a dear friend of mine.
Sarah's a comedian.
Jennifer Allen is local and Joe Escolante
here's the bassist for The Vandals.
- Oh really?
Wow.
- Did this bar work for you?
- It didn't smell great.
And the drinks were very strong.
- Did it work for you?
- No, it doesn't work.
It needs help.
- I'm told you're about 160,000 in debt.
- Yeah.
This is why we kind of challenged you.
We didn't think you were able to meet the challenge of a
punk rock scene.
- Oh really?
Joe, is there any punk bar that can fill up 365 days a year?
- Not playing punk rock.
- No, it's just not a business.
And I've been in the punk rock business
most of my life.
- You can't wander here in a sweater
and say I'm punk rock, it doesn't work like that.
- David listen.
Respect somebody who's legendary in the punk rock space
who grew up playing in venues like this.
- You guys flew in on the wrong plane.
We don't want you here anyway.
this is not an emo bar or a house music bar.
If you think you can run a punk bar and make money
350 days a year,
I suggest that you don't know punk music at all.
(rock music)
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