"Round robin" musical bills - C/D?

Went out last night to see Rosie Thomas at Schuba's in Chicago, who was ostensibly playing 2nd on a bill of Sufjan Stevens (headlining) and Denison Witmer (opener). Since I hadn't heard of the opening guy, I arrived late enough that I thought I'd get there around the beginning of Rosie's set. But, this Denison guy was playing -- pleasant enough, sort of quiet Elliott Smith solo acoustic stuff -- but he was pretty dull, and kept playing, which struck me as weird, since there was another show later in the evening featuring the same bands and it was already an hour+ after starting time, so we headed back out into the bar room and had a drink, watched the White Sox game, and enjoyed their jukebox music. After 20 minutes, we went back into the club room, and Sufjan Stevens was playing. After a few songs of his, I finally asked someone else if Rosie Thomas had played already, and he said, "Yeah. They're rotating songs among all three bands." After Sufjan played a few more songs, Rosie came on, played one song, and then it was more Sufjan, who I'm indifferent to, so we left.

I've been to hundreds and hundreds of shows and have never seen this sort of round robin-style of mixing up the sets. It struck me as sort of egalitarian as far as the performers are concerned, on the one hand, and also as incredibly arrogant toward the audience. Many people go to shows to see just one or a few bands on bigger bills, and that definitely describes me. I've sat through too many terrible opening bands and just don't have the patience to see 3 or 4 hours of music just to get to the one act I really want to see. I mentioned this to Matt Fields, who was working the door, and he said a bunch of other people voiced their displeasure, too, and that the club didn't know about the set arrangement at all, either.

Anyway, as a result of this, I spent about $40 for 2 people, and got to see one song by the only artist I cared about. I thought the bands made an error in judgment by going against the traditional opener-middle-highlight schedule. Why purposely subject your audience to bands they might not want to see, and to force them to sit through the other acts? I don't get it.

Dud.