It's all about the cash register. When I was playing for a living, we became pretty good friends with a smart club owner in Battle Creek. One week, we broke all his records. He ran down the list of how he rated every band that played his club:
Attendance (by the day, by the week-end, by the week)
Beer sales (same)
Liquor sales (same)
Total alcohol sales (same)
Total revenue (same)
In Chicago, we were't the biggest draw in town, but we drew what could be described as hardcore alcoholics (after that band, people used to tell me that they NEVER drank as much as when they saw us). A band like The Boyzz would pack the room like sardines with bikers that drank beer. We filled the room, but had room for the waitresses to serve drinks easily, and our crowd drank BOOZE...