10/24/07

Dicks Farm & People Power

Hey there everybody, hope you’re all having a good start to your week.

The Rascal's show was one of those that we knew could go either way—dull, disastrous, depressing, or rockin’ rollin’ and rewarding. We hired top notch musician/sound man Scottish McMillan for the show and here’s what that meant for him: his work day started somewhere around noon with loading a thousand pounds of equipment with an estimated value of $18,000 into a gas guzzling van. Then after driving twenty miles, he got to unload the thousand pounds of equipment himself, set it up in advance even before the band shows up, run it for four hours, tear it down, load it back up, drive the gas guzzler home another twenty miles with his day ending somewhere around three in the morning.

I don’t know what it is about club owners, but I’m convinced that the majority of these guys are grown on Dick’s Farm in Dicksville, Ohio. It’s about a three hour set up for Scottish, so he was the first one to arrive at the venue, and that meant he was the first one to meet Dick the club owner. It would have been nice if Dick would have been happy to see Scottish and greet him professionally, but that’s not the way they grow them on Dick’s Farm.

The city of LaGrange Park decided Friday that they were going to tear up 17th Ave which is the main street in front of Rascal’s, and they didn’t warn anyone. That made it very difficult to park at Rascal’s, and Dick figured his business for the night was doomed. When Scottish arrived, gloomy doomy Dick had his fangs out and was ready to sink them into anyone. Scottish picked up on the fact that Dick was feeling rather uptight and politely said “I can put my stuff anywhere you want” to which Dick replied “ if you put it there it’s going to wind up in the concrete” meaning the concrete that they were pouring on the newly ripped up street. Gee Dick, do you really have to be so warm and friendly? After all, it’s only $18,000 worth of equipment.

I was the next one to meet Dick who was standing outside watching the street work being done, and as I approached with my guitar he said “you may as well go home”. Ok, so it’s not bad enough that every musician I know can get instantaneously discouraged, depressed, and suicidal from being a struggling artist and dealing with all the shit that goes with it.What I really need is gloomy doomy Dick showering me with his enthusiasm and optimism when I arrive for the show. Fortunately, I was feeling fairly upbeat and I replied “Well Dick, we’ve got people coming” which brings me to the real point of this message.

There are shows we’re people say they’re coming, and for one reason or another they aren’t able to. We never really know which way it’s going to go for us - packed house or the invisible audience. Friday it all went in our favor and nearly everyone showed up and then some. The place was packed, rockin’, everybody was having fun, and Dick got his gloom and doom shoved up his rear. The bartender we deal with at Rascal’s, who is very cool, said quote un quote—“I guess the street didn’t make any difference after all, now did it?” Dick actually wanted our guy to call us and cancel the show; luckily our guy managed to talk him out of it.

In the end it was one of our best shows. It was one of Rascal’s best Friday’s, we got a raise at the end of the night, and most importantly, it’s encouraging. It gives me hope that perhaps eventually we’ll be heard and paid the way we deserve to be; that we won’t just break even or go in the hole, that we’ll be able to pay Scottish and the people that work with us what they deserve, and that people will enjoy our shows and respect us for what we do and have fun at the same time.

What made the night a success were the people that came, so a heaping big thanks to all of you. Now let me finally wrap this up.

We have no power or leverage in this business without people, friends and fans giving it to us. For the most part, venue owners don’t care if we play the same song over and over for four hours. They have no clue what it means to make the music that we do. We understand that it’s not just art; it’s a business too, and that’s why we need you guys and your support. Without it, we get nowhere. We’ll be going back to Rascal’s in late November, and we need to try and repeat and increase the success of this past Friday night, and as I said before, we need you guys to do it.

On that note, we’re looking for volunteers for several things that would help us. We need outgoing people who aren’t shy to put up flyers, people who will come to the shows and solicit e-mail addresses for our mailing list, and people with video cameras to film the shows and film the audience. If you’re and outgoing person looking for some fun and feel inspired to help out in any way, please contact me.

And again, a heaping big thanks again to everyone who came!!! Have a great week,
John