Starlite — Restaurant in Southbridge

I hate to leave a bad review but I wanted to address issues I had with booking here-

I booked this venue last month for a show, and since playing here before covid it has unfortunately gone downhill with management and organization.

Communication with the venue was very poor and it was difficult to get responses to my emails after the first couple emails. After my emails apparently were not going through I had to text the number on the website (I tried calling but got sent to voicemail and it was full) the booking coordinator finally responded.

The venue owner/ event organizer charged $100 for a door person (21+ free event with optional donation), and $100 for a sound person. Ok no problem there.

We get to the venue, at 5:15PM, the sound person they contracted was supposed to get there for 6PM. 6PM rolls around and I start getting nervous and ask the coordinator (who has been on the phone the whole time) where the sound guy is and he said he contacted two potential sound people earlier that day. He said give it to 6:20. 6:20PM rolls around and still no sound person, venue owner claims he can’t get in contact with them and basically just walks away.

Someone randomly walked by the venue and he just so happened to have done sound years ago at the venue, so the venue owner pulled him in and had him do sound for us-

At this time it’s is around 7-7:30 (was supposed to start at 8PM) and half of the sound system isn’t working. Luckily one of our DJs was an AV technician and took over but that wasn’t supposed to be his job that night. It took a solid hour to get the sound working, and they still weren’t able to get the sound system working properly (the left stack had no sound coming through).

The impromptu sound person also unfortunately did not how to do live mixing properly and was muting channels throughout the performance. On top of that, the jukebox in the arcade started randomly blaring so loudly over the performance that we had to completely stop it in the middle of the set.

One of our performers had to volunteer to fix the sound, and we did not get what we expected or the bare minimum of communication from the venue. We feel that it was dishonest of the venue and would have appreciated some sort of refund, we felt that it was unfair to be charged $100 for sound when the service was not delivered, and the door person also wasn’t really needed as it was a by donation show, yes it was 21+ but it’s a bar anyways.

Again, I hate leaving a bad review but I just wanted to warn others who were thinking about booking this venue to be cautious and I do hope that the venue is able to improve its staffing and organization. I loved this venue a lot, and I’m pretty disappointed. I hope to return once the quality issues have been resolved. Im a pretty understanding person and get that stuff happens but, I feel the problems we faced could have been easily prevented with better communication and organization...

Can't beleive I've never left a review here? What a beautiful little gem this place is. The owner is an absolute blessing on this town as he tries to cram as much varied and experimental art as possible into his little slice of what feels like a bit city bar. There's always something going on from every style or musician you could imagine. Blues, folk, rap, stand up comedy, open mics, original music open mics, heavy metal, death core, independent films, smash tournaments, art displays, yoga. The stage is great and it's LOUD. For singular artists playing at the front of house it doesn't get much more intimate as a venue. Thank you Demitri for this island of wierdness and uniqueness in this...

I went here for a concert consisting of Mom Jeans, Prince Daddy and the Hyena, Kississippi, Macseal, and Shiver. The venue itself may seem small, but it was large enough for the crowd in this show. The venue is unique feeling, with a projector for nice visuals during the show, a disco ball, and good background music. I can't comment on the bar (not 21), but everyone there working as staff were respectful and lively. I would highly recommend this...