S.A. Sebastian: A View From The Bottom

This weekend was the 2008 Baltimore Music Conference. Like other music conferences the days were filled with learning opportunities for musicians, and the nights were filled with music. On Friday, I was a panelist discussing podcasting and webcasting in the afternoon, and performing with Atomic Brother at showcase at night. I’ve been to, and performed at, many conferences and this one was pretty much like the rest except it had to be the smallest, most chaotic event I’ve ever attended. Not to say that this was a bad experience, just chaotic. The BMC is still young and growing, and working out the kinks. Lisa Suit, the organizer couldn’t have been more helpful and accommodating, which was refreshing. We got lots of exposure, being featured in the b’s “Baltimore Music Conference: 10 Artists To Watch” article, and the Examiner’s what to do Friday night column and our performance being filmed for several webcasts. Plus, I got some good tips on touring and performing from Martin Atkins, became a fan of a new band, and made some new connections. Read the rest of this entry »

For a long time thse of us in bands in NYC laughed at our Los Angeles counterparts for having to pay to play in bars and clubs. Well, it’s time to stop laughing. Pay-to-play is alive and well, and thriving, in NYC and in the surrounding suburbs. Despite what people are saying about NYC there are plenty of places to play, and it seems like there is a new bar or club opening every week that has live entertainment. Even 3 new high-capacity venues, the Blender Theatre, Terminal 5 and Highline Ballroom opened in the last year. There are so many places now that the clubs and bars are stacking bands 6 or more per night, and charging them $100 or more to play, which guarentees them $600 before they even open the doors. And yes, like, L.A., these are places where you have to buy tickets from the club in order to play, which is something you used to only have to do to get on a bill with a famous band at a big venue.

But now pay-to-play in NYC has a new face in the form of “minimum draw.” Sure, almost all venues have had a minimum draw requirement, but that minumum used to be about 10 people. Now because NYC is so saturated with bands that have relocated here to “make it”, and the audiences are smaller and smaller, the minimum draw requirements in many places have gone as high as 40 people, with the bands typically getting only 1-2 bucks a head. Sure, some places are more generous, going as high as $5, but the catch is that some places pay starting from person 41 that’s a $400 pay-to-play fee! Per band! That’s a lot of money, but only if the bands can draw that many people. And right now in NYC, there are very few bands that are able to draw enough to cross the payment threshold.

How are the clubs and bars getting away with it? And why are we paying to play instead of being paid to entertain?

There are 2 reasons. First, like I said earlier, NYC has reached its saturation point with bands. NYC, like Los Angeles has been a place where people go to ive out their dreams to be a star. But, since so many bands have “made it” out of Brooklyn the past few years (Yeah,Yeah,Yeahs!, Vampire Weekend, Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah, We Are Scientists, etc…) bands from all over the world — each one either sounding more derivative and boring than the next, or trying to be as “clever” and “artistic” as possible — are moving as close to Brooklyn as they can so they can be the next Brooklyn band to be discovered. Look at the entertainment ads in the Village Voice. On a Monday or Tuesday night in Manhattan you can find close to 100 bands playing. Add Brooklyn and Queens, you get close to 200. On a Friday or Saturday more than 200 bands between the 3 boroughs. With all this competition bands are undercutting each other, to get the gig. Which, of course is the real reason there is no music scene in NYC anymore. But that’s a subject for another time.

The second reason is astounding. The clubs and “promoters” say that it its to make sure the bands promote the show, making sure that bands can bring a crowd, protecting themselves if there is poor turnout or slow sales. So, not only are we the entertainers (sorry… artists. I don’t want to offend the folks from Brooklyn or the singer-songwriters) paying them to play on their stage, we pay them to be their promoters (saving them money on posters and fliers and advertising that we pay for), and to find people to drink their cocktails. All this and we only to get $1-2 a head?

As result of this oh-so-clever thinking, the quality of bands performing in NYC has gone down the tubes. It used to be that you had to audition to play places like CBGBs (closed), Arlene’s Grocery, the Continental (now a cocktail lounge); you didn’t have to have to have a following to play, you had to be talented and creative and they would groom you and put you in front of an audience, and let you build a following. Now, anyone can play anywhere (including Arlene’s Grocery) as long as they have a few bucks and can bring a bunch of friends to drink beers. In my opinion this lack of talent is one of the biggest contributors to the lack of people going to shows, and death of the NYC music scene.

What can we do about this? Probably not a lot as long as there are bands that are willing to play for free, the bars and clubs are going to keep on getting away with this. We could go on strike. We could band together (I hate that cliche, but it fits), stage a walkout for even just one night, and boycott playing in clubs and bars that do this. Maybe all of them, just to prove a point. Imagine, a Friday or Saturday night in New York City (including Brooklyn and Queens) with not a single band playing. The day the music died in NYC. Maybe even a national band walkout day. Hmmm… interesting idea. Something to think about.

The last time I stressed the importance of getting your ass on stage quickly. It keeps everything on schedule, let’s you play your whole set, or more, and shows everyone that you are considerate and makes you look pro. This is all good, but what about when you are done? Well, if I’m in the next band you had better be packing up and leaving. Because you are eating into my time. That’s right, when you are done playing, get the hell off my stage!

It still surprises me that I know people that have been playing clubs as long as me or longer and don’t have the decency to get their stuff off the stage so the next band can play. Just like getting your gear on stage quickly keeps things moving, getting your gear off is equally, if not more important. It’s just plain disrespectful and inconsiderate and totally not pro. There isn’t room for all the equipment, and room for the members of 2 bands, so why are you standing around?

First of all, the stage isn’t your living room. So, what on Earth are family, friends and fans doing on the stage? There is no place for anyone to be on your stage except when you invite them up during the show to participate in the performance. When you are done playing anyone that wants to see you should be waiting by the merch table, backstage or at the bar, not on stage! I’m not going to blame the fans, but fans really do know their place and usually respect that the stage is where we do our work. It’s friends and family that cross this line, wanting to shake your hand and congratulate you on a wonderful set, and tell you how great you are–or worse, to say goodbye. Believe me, your friends and family probably don’t respect you or what you are doing. If they did they wouldn’t be climbing on stage when you should be working. It’s a novelty to them–they know the person on stage and that makes them feel cool. Think of playing as if it was a 9-5 job in an office. When you finish typing up that all important report for your boss you don’t have your mommy or best friend going into your cube saying to you, “good job!” No. You move along to the next bit of work. And it’s the same when you are playing a concert.

Secondly, there’s no time to pat each other on the back, mill around or disappear. Save the, “Hey, dude, great show!” or, “Man, we sucked!” for AFTER you are done cleaning up. And why do so many drummers feel the need to get off the stage for a few minutes before breaking down? Get to it, take a breath, and start moving–especially if you have you whole kit. Singers, you can pitch in, too. There’s no reason for you to be disappearing. If you aren’t working the merch table, help break down the drums, get the drum and guitar cases, move stuff off stage. Anything!

Thirdly, get out of the way. Don’t spread your stuff all over the stage. Put everything right in the cases, bags or whatever and move the out of the way. You have to leave room for the next band to get on and you don’t want anyone tripping over your stuff. Remember, there is only 10-15 minutes for you to get your stuff off and the other band to get their stuff on. If your stuff is in the way the next band can’t get set up. If you’re in the next band and the other band’s stuff is in the way offer to help, and if they say “no thanks,” just start moving stuff anyway. That’s your time that’s being eaten up by these inconsiderate jerks.

There is no reason for any band to behave this way, especially if you “want to make it.” If you want to be a pro, start acting like a pro. You can socialize, rest, debrief or whatever backstage or at the bar. Absolutely none of this should be done on stage. You don’t see Aerosmith, Metallica, Bon Jovi, or any other professional rock band doing this, so why should you? So, the next time you are playing tell your family and friends that the stage is off limits. Tell them to wait until you are done–and done means packed up and ready to load the van– that you’ll see them in a few minutes, and then hustle your ass off the stage. Someone needs to say goodbye to you? Too bad. Are you’re feelings going to be hurt because you didn’t see someone leave or say goodbye? You’re out of breath because you played for 45 minutes and need a break? Then get a real job, you don’t deserve to be playing on the same stage as the rest of us.

In my career I have played hundreds of shows in cities and towns in 5 countries, and it always surprises me how long it takes people to setup to play–both in concert and in rehearsal. I see bands with members that have over 10 years experience putting their stuff together like it was the very first time. It just doesn’t make sense. What’s taking so long? And it is worse when it is someone in my band that is moving so slow! Setup your gear as fast as humanly possible. There is no reason setting up the drums, amps and tuning the guitars should take more than 5 minutes. If the club has a back line things should move along a lot quicker. But for some reason they just don’t.

I experienced this, yet again, last week when I played Arlene’s Grocery with Atomic Brother in NYC. Our substitute drummer, who is not used to playing rock gigs, was very casual about setting up, and the band before us and the band after us took forever even though they were only 3-piece bands. Don’t get me wrong, our drummer played great, and the 2 slow-poke bands were good, but they just threw off the whole schedule. In this series I am going to impart to you some of the tips and tricks that I have learned that are key to performing in clubs no matter what city and country you live in. This is all basic stuff that any band should know-and you may be surprised that many don’t even after years of clubbing.

Setting up should be the easiest part of the night–you put your stuff on stage, assemble the drums, plug in the guitars, maybe keyboards, and do a line check and you’re off–but it’s not. If you can’t get this right you will throw off the typical 1 band/hour scheduling, and you’ll be angry that you went on late or got cut short. Some places WILL throw you off stage before your 45 minute set is done. And you shouldn’t cry about it. Why? Because your setup time ate into your performing time AND the next band’s setup and performing time!

Here are just a few reasons why you should setup as quickly as possible.

1) You earn the respect of the club’s management, sound person, promoter and booker. Seriously, because you got your stuff together quickly you weren’t the reason their night was messed keeping them there until 4am, somebody else was.
2) You show the other bands that you respect them. The longer it takes you to setup the more you cut into THEIR set.
3) It shows that you are professional. Maybe you aren’t, but everyone will think you are and that’s all that counts.
4) You can take a few minutes to step offstage, make any last minute changes to your set and make an entrance without worrying about the sound person rushing you to start.
5) You might actually get to play longer–or at least you won’t have your set cut short.

I think that these are 5 pretty good reasons. So, are you or your band mates slow? How can you fix this?

Easy. Practice and preparation. A band practices and rehearses to make sure they can play their songs, and if their are any problems fix those problems before they go onstage. If setting up your gear is a problem, then it should be fixed at band practice. Why not consider starting band practice early and practice loading in and setting up?

It’s usually the hardest for the drummer because the drummer has the most stuff (especially if you are playing with a drummer that still worships Neal Peart), but I have seen guitar players and bass players take just as long or longer to setup. I played in a band whose drummer was extremely slow to get his drums setup. We would occasionally get our set cut short because of this, and we were really tired of it. So, we made him practice setting up his drums every day at rehearsal and band practice until he could get everything out of the cases and put together in 5 minutes. We made him do this until he could unpack and put the kit together in 5 minutes. I think it may have taken 2 weeks, but it was worth it.

Guitar players, bass players and keyboard players you are not off the hook. Everyone in the band should be doing this. I have more gear than most bass players with my 2 speaker cabinets, 8-space rack with effects, tuner, power amp, wireless, my midi pedal and 2 basses and cables. When I first started using this kind of setup I was doing like other guys I had seen; they wired everything up every time they got on stage, and I thought that was just how you did things. But this got annoying and took forever, so I had to figure out a way for me to optimize my rig and setup quickly. So a few hours with some tape and cable ties and now my rack is completely wired and integrated so that I just have to stack everything up, open the case and plug in 2 speaker cables, 2 midi cables, 2 power cables and 1 guitar cable. It’s even easier if I am using the house equipment; no cabinets to stack! I just bring the basses and the rack. All guitar, bass and keyboard players should be this modular or integrated.

Guitar players, you have 4-5 stomp boxes? Get a pedal board already! Make sure you are all wired up and have a power adapter (there is no reason to be changing batteries on stage!). Besides your head and cabinet all you need is 2 cables and your ax and you are ready to go. If you have a Les Paul, a Cry Baby and your amp then it’s even easier. Keyboard players make me laugh at how long it takes them to setup. They unfold their stand and pull the keyboard out of the case and hand the person doing sound one or 2 instrument cables. Then the fun begins, lots and lots of button pushing as if all the sounds switched banks on the ride to the show. I swear they do this because they want to make it seem that they have the same amount of hassle as the rest of us.

It should only get easier if you have the back line provided, especially if you practiced with all the gear. Less stuff to deal with. If you are playing a place with a back line the drummer will probably only have to bring stands, cymbals and a snare drum; the guitar and bass players sometimes a head, sometimes not. Keyboard players, you still probably have to bring your keyboard and stand. But this should be cake to setup.

Anyway, you get the point… there isn’t really that much stuff and if you practice setting up and plan to get your configuration just right, the less time you will have to setup and the more time you will have to play and the better you will look to everyone.

On Wednesday, June 6, I played with my band Atomic Brother at the Bitter End in New York City. It was an interesting show for 2 reasons. The first was that we were playing the Bitter End. The Bitter End, while maybe not world famous, is one of New York City’s few remaining landmark venues. After its opening in the 60’s it was home to such artists as Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Harry Chapin, Peter, Paul and Mary and other folk acts and singer songwriters. Later in the 70’s it became home to performers like Bruce Springsteen, Frank Zappa and Neil Diamond. All we could think after being offered this gig is, “What the Hell are we doing here? Atomic Brother is a pretty loud band, sometimes bordering on the punk rock side, sometimes bordering on the heavy metal side. So, we really didn’t see how we were going to fit in at this venue. Read the rest of this entry »