The 'In' Keepers

It's really a customer service job. We're the face of the club, and we have to do our best to be as friendly, polite and accessible as we can. It's not an us-versus-them mentality here -- we want to avoid that antagonism. If you need our help, ask us. Some of us look big and scary, but we're just people, too. We're just working our jobs. Then on the rare occasion when we have to do something more on the security end of things, we've already established that we're there to help.

But you probably still have some impressive horror stories.

I could tell you about the biggest brawl I've ever been in, but that's the exception, not the rule. I like to focus on the positive. If we have a fight, it's once every six months. And one of the worst fights we've ever had was at a Super Diamond show -- and that's a Neil Diamond tribute band! It was a doctor and a dentist. You just never know.

How do you spot trouble in the club?

When you've been doing it for a long time, it almost becomes instinct. I have a degree in psychology, so I watch people -- it's what I do. You learn the behaviors of people doing something wrong. They're looking around a lot, making sure they're not being watched. I spend a lot of time at the front door watching the crowd come in, so I know who's in here. If a group of two guys and two girls comes in, and the guys are 21 and the girls aren't, we're gonna keep an eye on that. Later on, if one of those guys walks by with four beers in his hand, I'm going to follow him.

Do you have problems with fake IDs?

I have a radar for fake IDs. I can see 'em walking up. Personally, I've confiscated over 500 of them. I can't give you all the tricks of my trade, but there are questions you can ask to tell whether it's them or not. I look for information that's not necessarily on the ID. And it's not even their answer, but how they answer. If I ask you your sign -- boom -- you know it. There's no hesitation. But that quarter-second hesitation? Got it.

But we're not out to get anybody -- we're just protecting our liquor license. . . . If someone's 50 years old and I ask them for their ID, it's because the law says you have to have a valid ID in your possession to drink alcohol in the District of Columbia. "I've got gray hair. I've got kids your age." I've heard it all. It takes a lot less time to show it to me than it does to talk about it.

Do people ever drop names at the door?

If the show is sold out, it's sold out. Nothing is going to change that. You can drop every name that you want. If you know my boss well enough, give him a call.

What happens when people try to slip you money?

I'm not going to lose my job for 20 bucks. . . . The weekend of the Tibetan Freedom Concert [in 1998] we had the Red Hot Chili Peppers one night, then Radiohead the next. That weekend I turned down more in cash -- actually shown to me -- than what I made that year. And everything gets offered. I had one show where I had a limo of 11 strippers show up. I was told that I could do whatever I wanted with them if I let them into the show.