A Question of Values

The finger is fine.

I am just a baby.

I was walking around with Peja today, delivering invitations to a tea party she's hosting ('cause that's what dad's do), and I was thinking about venues and shows and why I seem to do everything the hardest fucking way.

I've probably bitched about this before, and if you're one of my friends who plays music, none of this will be news to you.

So, how it goes:

You play free gigs, charity gigs, at bars that host them knowing they'll sell a bunch of booze, and organizers charge at the door and keep that for whatever cause. You get exposure, and sometimes free drinks.

You get booked by bars for small $ They pay you, based on how many people you brought out and how much they drank. So, lets say you bring out 25 friends, and they all spend $10-$15, the bar pulls in $250-$375, and gives you $50-$100. If there's a cover charge involved (and if there is, you generally have to run the door, which means an extra person) you might get all of it, half of it, or none of it. If you get the door money, you generally don't get the booze money. Again, you're mostly looking for exposure, and again, you get a certain number of free drinks.

If you're a cover band, you might get booked at a bar for half-decent money (maybe $200-$300) for the night. You'll play 3hrs or so of the greatest classic rock shit that you hate, take abuse from the drunken crowd, and walk out with some decent per/hr (not counting the time it took you to learn 3 hrs of music - say 40 songs). Now, these gigs can be played willfully unprepared, especially if you're a drummer -- don't worry, no one will notice. Oh, you probably drink for free.

There's isn't really a model that doesn't involve bars. Because, it's a lot easier to convince people to come see you at a bar, spend $20 on booze/snacks to see their friend's band play, rather than spending $10 on a ticket to a theatre to see their band play. And there are lots of good reasons for this. Tons. It makes sense to me. But it makes the band into a liquor sales team. And that's not something I'm interested in doing with my band.

So, when you see us booked at bars this fall, just remember that I'm compromising my values, and extra applause is the only balm for my rattled ethics.