At a bar I ran, we paid 300 a night for bands, as a standard rate. There was no cover charge and we had to pay for security. Over the course of the evening maybe 500 people would come in and out. Say 7-8k in sales. Best band we had was these guys. They were actually pretty talented and cool guys. My ex-wife works at the casino they play at fairly often. She says they are up to 2k a gig. For point of reference, this is in Mississippi. Not disagreeing with you, just throwing some information out there.