I was invited to do a BSA showcase along with some of my favourite local artists : Naked Blue! Above is Naked Blue performing at the Baltimore Songwriters Association showcase at Bertha’s Mussels in Fells Point, Baltimore, MD on March 19th, 2014
Someone said something to me last night that kind of blew my mind. I was having one of my seemingly endless altercations about “what a venue said” vs “what a venue did”, and strangely enough… I won the argument. It was actually very similar to something that had happened at another venue recently, and it was basically the same argument. People have come to the venue having been told a particular set of things – i.e. when things are going to start, what’s going to happen, etc. If they show up and ilyAIMY isn’t on stage for another hour, or there’s some other band on the stage, or there’s a $10 cover that no-one knew about, well – the venue doesn’t care, they’ve got those people through the door and once those people have COME through the door they’re probably not going to turn around and go home… they’ll probably sit and have a beer… they’ll have dinner. They’d PLANNED to have dinner.
And so – when a venue does this, we generally don’t go back. Otherwise – why return?
We’ve got options, and we don’t want to bring business to venues that don’t deserve it. But every once in a while, we’ve got to explain it to them.
if I ever DID bring a guitar stand, I’d not give my OX the opportunity to nestle. And it LOVES to nestle!
The other night was one of those “explain it to them” things. I was told in no uncertain terms “look around, people are happy – right”? And I replied “except for the ones that came for THIS”. The manager came up to me at the end of the night and said he’d thought about what I’d said. He talked about how generally his concern begins and ends with getting people to sit down and order something – and he hadn’t really thought about beyond that. Beyond having to be concerned about people coming for particular events he also said this… and this is the part that blew my mind :
“It never occurred to me before, but I guess you being a musician and all, your word’s pretty important and you’ve got to do what you say.”
I said “I’d SORT of like to think that’s true for EVERYONE!”
Zach Parkman Frank Cassell Quinton Randall stopped off at Republic’s Open Mic on his way home from gigs in North Carolina. Very glad to have him as the scene betwixt my Baltimore and DC crowds rarely mixes and they are very, very different entities. I gave Q a ride home afterwards and we got to talk business and aesthetics and dreams. It was a good night. Not sure about the placement of this – but in any case – here’s a photo of Catherine Rytkonen (current promo person and talent “buyer” at Republic) and I from an article on DC Music Download in which the author declared ours to be one of the best open mics in DC.
Did I miss something? Is that NOT the way the world SHOULD be?! Maybe it’s just the danger of dealing with people inside the Beltway. Too close to DC. Now, don’t get me wrong – on a night where I was basically “quitting” I had the venue “talk me down” and convince me to come back and beyond that I was really impressed with the way the manager thought about what I’d said and how he spoke with me… later, because I liked the way he expressed himself I tracked down his blog and enjoyed reading that too – but I don’t know that I’d EVER encountered someone who thought my viewpoint was quite so alien.
Like… I’ve worked corporate. Shady corporate. I’ve worked government. Military / redacted – type government. And I’ve worked in the public school system, with police and with artists and in the dread retail. But I’ve NEVER worked the food / restaurant industry except in-as-much as we’ve PLAYED it. If that’s indicative of the mindset there, holy crap – count me out.
Yeah – you do what you say to the best of your ability. I even believe most POLITICIANS at least ATTEMPT to do what they say (though it’s why they try so hard never to be pinned down into saying anything concrete…). Otherwise, doesn’t the world just fall apart?
Bleah.
Speaking of open mic communities – above – I was a bad rob and saw a bunch of string players and said…. HEY you guys oughta play together! At first it didn’t really work – but then to everyone’s relief – it DID. (Kristen Jones, Dr. Jay and Joe Schaeffer performing together at the Teavolve Open Mic in Baltimore, MD. MIke Geezy Acacia Sears Jon Patton One of my favourite artists turned down a paying gig to come be my featured artist at my open mic instead. Ladies and gentlement? The fabulous Joy Ike at Teavolve in Baltimore, MD.
