SYSTEM LEAVES THE DC AREA DISAPPOINTED

DJ Jn-Michel

On Saturday, September 23rd, dozens of fans, and members of the notorious Konpa group "System Band," were left locked outside a Langley Park, Maryland, restaurant for a performance, with no explanations from promoters who had mysteriously disappeared. As the midnight hour approached, the crowd, gathered outside the small restaurant, nestled inside a mall, started to question band leader Isnard Douby, who knew no more about the situation then the fans. Several members of the band were also waiting outside the venue, apparently not having been told that the event had been canceled. That decision seemed to have been made sometime earlier in the evening and some members of the community had heard the announcement on the Haitian program aired on WPFW every Saturday night from 10:00 to midnight.

As word of the cancellation spread like wild fire through out the community, several merchants and ticketing agents were also facing questions from customers. Chez YonYon, the famous feeding spot of the Haitian community, was suddenly inundated with phone calls from customers demanding their money back with a few words of choice for the promoters. We spoke to several merchants who were selling tickets on the following Monday, some of whom had already turned in the money collected and had a hard time finding the promoters to return the money. One merchant told us it was late in the evening when he found out "L&M Production (the Promoters) called me at 10:30PM on the night of the event and told me everything was canceled because the sound man did not show up with the sound system and to return the money for all tickets sold." For many fans this was all déjà vu, as the same promoters were involved in a similar incident last Christmas eve when Skah Shah did not perform and left several people wondering where to go on that holiday night.

In a telephone interview with System Band's leader and lead singer Isnard Douby, we learned as of Monday the 25th the band still had not heard from the promoters to explain what happened that night. Douby also added, "we will have to take a hard look at who we play for, next time we come to Washington, because when things like that happen, they not only hurt the confidence of the audience in our business but also the image of the band. We know we have a lot of good fans in Washington and we want them to know we respect them but we have no control over such situations. Many fans told us they would not come to see the band again if we were to be playing for the same promoters." As to what happened that night, Douby also said he had no Idea what had gone wrong except that there was no sound system, and the doors of the venue were closed. We also asked Douby if there were an issue involving money with the band and he told us "No we don't have a money issue. This is not a question that the band was not paid because if the band had not been paid we would not have made the trip to Washington. It was a question of no sound and no place to play."

Managers of the Restaurant in question would not answer our questions, simply saying "we have no comment" referring us to the promoters of the event. We also contacted M-Pac Sound who we were told was in negotiations to provide the sound that night, and Mr. Willy Blakeney, the president of the company, explained to us that it wasn't a question that he had broken his contract he just never had one at all. Mr. Blakeney told us he spoke to L&M Production earlier that Saturday and explained clearly before engaging any new business L&M Production would have to take care of his outstanding debt with the company. As it turned out, according to Mr. Blakeney, L&M Production never satisfied the conditions and as a result he never showed up. Mr. Blakeney made it a point to tell us all through out the day he was on stand by with helpers waiting just in case.

EchodHaiti.com received several e-mails from fans demanding an explanation from the promoters of the event. We tried to contact the promoters from the phone number provided on the flyer and it was disconnected. We also tried to contact a cell phone number provided by one of the ticket vendors, our phone calls still have not been returned.