Hi,

It might take me some time to get up to your speed on this whole this. Most of this came to my attention just before thanksgiving and I am still spending it with my family. As I type this my mother and sister are in the other room and my child is sleeping. I basically did enough reading before coming here only to figure out why people were harassing me over one of our youtube videos. And honestly, after seeing the similarities, I do understand why people wanted to know more. I am just also hoping that knowing more they were realize this isn't really part of the thing and can move on and we can go back to our lives.

1) I know a lot about Sex Stains and feel comfortable answering almost any questions you would have about them. I know very little about Comet Ping Pong in general. But I know a fair amount about the bands that play there. It is one of many rooms of that size booked in DC by music promoters. So sometimes bands I know or on the label play there, sometimes they play other rooms, and then most of the time they have bands there I've never even heard of. But as someone who works in music, I understand how this kind of stuff works. Sometimes our bands play coffee shops or burrito places even for example, and the coffee shop/Mexican restaurant has almost nothing to do with it. this just how being in a small band works. The owner doesn't even always take a cut and usually just lets someone use the room because they know people will come to the concert and hopefully order food or drinks. The shows at these place are small. They may bring in just hundreds of dollars a night to share with 3-4 bands + the promoter which is why sometimes the places don't even take a cut. That said, I don't know anything about the agreement or how it works with Comet Ping Pong specifically or if they take a cut or not, just that the room is booked by a promoter, not the owner.

2) Sex Stains got involved through a promoter booking them there, which now that this is all being investigated seems like awful luck since if they had been booked into a room like the black cat downstairs that night of the same size no one would be harassing them. I said this somewhere else, but bands don't get to ask what room they play in on tour and rarely even have opinions, promoters deal with that and it has to do with what rooms are available that night.

As for the art/imagery involved in the punk bands that play there, I wrote this earlier: "I'll just add to that too, because truly the only thing I can help shed any light on related to this whole thing just has to do with music and bands work, not pizza, sex trafficking or politics work, is that I really wouldn't read too much into bands names or imagery in the punk community. While I personally do not agree with this mentality, there is a general mentality in many parts of punk to try to be as offensive and vulgar as possible as a way to essentially celebrate freedom of speech and push its boundaries. While I am a huge free speech proponent, I personally tend find this stuff immature and somewhat offensive (though I believe they have the right to say it). So its true, that I would probably be very offended by a band with a name that alluded to child sex trafficking, it would be because i was offended that they were making light of a serious issue, not because i believed they were involved in it."

3) No, but this may also be something I can help clear up in general. It's not like a chuck e cheese where people sit around eating pizza and watching bands play. There is a full dining area, and then in the back there is ping pong tables. Late at night after children would be in bed they move the ping pong tables and bands play in that area. People probably wouldn't be allowed to enter the show part till closer to 9pm and then Sex Stains wouldn't go on until around midnight, so I would be a much worse parent for letting my kid stay up that late and exposing them to the loud noise than I would be because the band had a provocative name. There are many venues small bands play like this across the country, one that used to be by me was called Maxwells in Hoboken, NJ where there was a really good restaurant in the front and then there would be concerts in the back. People would come to the restaurant just to eat not knowing there was a concert and people would come to the concerts not realizing they could eat there (unless it wasn't their first time). So if people are getting images if like a 3 year old having a birthday party and then provocative punk bands playing profane music, I wouldn't really be supportive of that kind of thing either (though I also wouldn't assume it meant the bands were out to hurt kids).

Joe