Restaurant owner says songs may cost him his business

There's an article today in Techdirt about a restaurant that may close down because it can't afford to pay the fines after a local band played a few cover songs without the restaurant having paid the necessary license fees. I realize that the original artist and songwriter deserve to get paid for their work, but isn't this a little ridiculous? I wonder why they are suing the restaurant and not the band. And, why didn't the band pay the necessary fees so they can perform other artist's music?