Band Management: Blog 33: Getting Back on that Horse…
I am managing “Band A” for the year. Often the escapades of “Band A” read like a shaggy dog story – but I promise you everything I write is true. It’s not been so bad: “Band A” are on a label (Kafadan Kontak Records), they’ve been played on the radio (KPSU), but they’re impossible to manage over the summer – so they haven’t been together for two months. This week they played twice in three days, including a three-hour 27-song set at the The Town Pump Tavern.
Their warm-up show was Wednesday night at The Odditorium, with 8 songs, which lasted about 20 minutes. It was fine – they have that spirit when they’re all on the same track. However, apart from the singer and the drummer – visually speaking – the show was a little bland. “Band A” has been known for costumes and stage props, but they brought nothing. The opening band, the Skewed Collective, had a guitarist with no shirt, a bondage mask, and played his guitar with a violin bow. Can’t tell you about their songs – but great visuals.
I lay awake that night thinking how everything has to be art, everything has to touch this primal creative energy, and that every show has to be massive entertainment. I guess I wasn’t the only one. On Friday night “Band A” had painted 5 extra-large Chinese lanterns to look like eyeballs and brought two screens which showed loops of 1950’s noir movies and Stanley Kubrick movies.
The show was a bit wiggy – a little madness in the air. I wore my lewd t-shirt that Hotdoggrrrl and the Sesame Buns sent me, which probably added to the chaos. The show went over really well with the packed house. $68 in the tip jar, plus another $150 from the establishment. And this part is absolutely true – some guy in the crowd proclaimed he was a music promoter and that the lead singer for “Band A” had sung with the B-52s in the late 90s when Cindy Wilson took time off – and this was her new band.
Something was off with the band. For a group of nice civil people, something touched wildness. If you ask people to invest 100% in an artistic enterprise – and as an artist you have to be that committed – this is dangerous territory. I don’t think art is always good for mental health, with the ups and downs. An artist is challenged to be totally true and unguarded and show this to the world – to be truly vulnerable.
Oh I am looking forward to sending “Band A” on the road this fall to Franklin, Morganton, Greenville and Johnson City. Especially Johnson City. Johnson City is pure madness….
