When people have to go outside of a bar to smoke, that means they're not listening to me play. In a very direct way, a smoking ban in bars hurts my business. Besides CD's, live music is the only product that I produce, and my main source of revenue. By banning smoking in bars, it requires consumers to not be presented with my product. I faced this firsthand when playing in California -- one minute the club is packed, the next minute it's only a quarter full while everybody goes out to smoke, and in the end most folks only see about half my set. Imagine a businessman giving a presentation at a board meeting, and 8 out of 10 board members have to get up and leave several times during the presentation. How can he sell them his product or idea if no one is there to listen, or they only see bits and pieces? He can't. When we make our set list, our list of songs to play in a given time frame, each song relates to the one before or after, to help with flow and to highlight the songs you want people to hear and enjoy most. When people are constantly in & out, they don't get the right impression of the product I am presenting, and therefore don't consume my product (the music itself, as well as CDÕs, t-shirts, a ticket to my show the next time I'm in town, etc.).
