I so miss gigging on the regular!
To answer the OP question:
There was some conference on and they dined out in a restaurant nearby. Someone influential must have been a jazz fan and we packed out a cocktail bar with the corporate credit cards buying 500 buck rounds left and right. They had to borrow staff from their other bar to come and help. We're playing improv jazzish originals, leaning on funk and blues traditions, now that's entertainment!
Trickle Down Theory in action. We probably paid for ourselves for the whole gig season with the one night. I had zero qualms about taking our top dollar fee after that one.