This town in particular sucks ass for radio. Ive never lived in a place with worse options and i've lived across the country. Even Seattle has a station that will play Led Zep right along side QOTSA and Muse and Aerosmith and etc. My favorite station will mix the 90's with classic rock(this includes the Beatles, some people don't think so) with today's top hits. Very few radio stations have the balls to do this though. I think it takes a much larger market than this one anyhow. This might go hand in hand with ticket sales for events in general. Listened to a discussion on 1080 about ticket sales for events in general, UFC, music concerts, etc, don't do well here unless its tied to the city (locals sports, local bands, etc). Other than local sports, this towns entertainment is pretty lacking overall. We are a metro of what.. 1.2 mil or something? Maybe more...Should be worthy of more choices and larger audiences for events...
A lot of my friends are musicians and the booking situation for rock acts is dire. You have to go to Seattle because there are no radio stations that will promote your gigs here. From what Ive been told.... Smaller clubs like the Ash Street and the Hawthorne Theater are closing. Mike Thrasher tried to buy it but it was sold to some California investors. Don't know what they are going to do with it. There are some dickhead local politians trying to force out some other live venues by coming down with fire code regulations. In a few years, Stumptown's night life scene will totally change. And not for the better! A lot of it will move to the 'Couve.
The booking situation is not dire. At all. I've played at pretty much every venue in town from shitty places like Ash Street to places like Doug Fir and Mississippi Studios. Honestly, there is so much happening every night and so many venues that it is hard to get your name out there.
Agree. Malibus in the couv is case in point. Clubs come and go though. booking is easy. selling tickets and getting a turnout is another story. Same here. I can book a show pretty much anytime I want from the Hawthorne down ( a few clubs are an exception). Turnout and ticket sales to rock concerts here is not a singular problem. It is a plethora of them. 1. Lack of quality promo. Outside of Thrasher and KingBanana, there really isn't anything else of quality in town. Not with any consistency anyhow. Radio does nothing for local bands really. 2. Sound in the venues. Most venues have sub par sound systems and shit acoustics. 3. Professional atmosphere. Man back in the day in Seattle, Denver and NY, clubs the size of Dante's and above ALWAYs had curtains so bands could tear down and set up behind the scenes and provide a more professional vibe and atmosphere. Most clubs in this town have the bands load and offload off the front of the fricken stage.... 4. Too many tribute bands playing the music on the radio. This town has tribute bands for Journey, STP, Kiss, Metallica, Cake, AC/DC, Radiohead, Ozzy, and many more... These bands are mostly quality acts and have decent draws. So the patrons of this town go see them. They know the music and can sing along and its a good show. They know what to expect. They look past the next three weeks of original music because they just went to a show. Time to go out again. Oh.. STP is playing Dante's? (forgets about all other shows again that night and for another 3 weeks.) 5. And probably the largest issue... Too many sub par bands. Patrons cant trust venues to have a quality show night in and night out, regardless of who is on the bill. Most people tend to wait until they come to know a band and then go to see them and don't catch the other acts. Very few shows are put on to be a great show from start to finish. Too many mish mosh of bands tossed together in blender of a bill. Bands could do themselves a service by investing more time in researching other bands that they would fit with and work with them to put on quality shows, rather than relying on the club or some wannabe promoter to put something together for you. Many musicians are either lazy or ignorant to the business side of music and don't know how or don't promo themselves well at all.
Anyone remember Hawthorne before Hawthorne? I shared the stage with Metal Church at Conan's back in the day.
You rang a bell about tribute bands. Seems like everyone I know plays in one. As for Mississippi Street Studios, I love the accountics there but the acts I've seen just haven't been very good. Ash Street I've seen countless shows and always loved it's location. The Fir gets a lot of national acts that come through. I saw Mike Watt and then Fireshose when they got back together.
That's why I have always booked shows myself and promoted myself. If you are relying on anyone else you aren't doing it right. I have played my fair share of shows in the past with mishmashed lineups and it sucks for everyone involved. I can't pretend to know all of the answers though as my last band got rave reviews but was never able to really attract a crowd aside from a few select shows, like opening for Lebowski fest at the Bagdad, opening for Fugiya and Miyagi at Mississippi, or headlining Doug Fir. We had a lot of blah turnouts at places like Dante's, and defunct places like The Woods or the East End or the Alhambra Theater. And if you want to get Radio promotion, look at making friends with the people of x-ray fm. They promote Portland bands solely.
If I was younger and more financially stable I would have become a booker and gone into promotions. But after I moved back Cali I was just suffering from music industry burnout.
The sad thing is nobody knows who Clutch is. The world I live in is horrific on this. Kim Kardashian is famous and nobody knows about Clutch.
Radio is such a joke. Who owns Volbeat and Sick Puppies? I'm guessing the owners of the famous rock station in Vegas. They tried to play that shit so much the last five years or so I don't even turn on the FM part of my car stereo. Bluetooth or AM sports, that is all.
This is my last band, by the way. I look forward to making something better happen when I move back to Portland in a month or so.
Clutch is probably the last band I heard and said "who the fuck is this??????" Well, Volbeat and Sick Puppies were close. I said "what the fuck is this garbage?"
Sorry that creeped you out. I thought I was trying to make some rock and roll. The edits in the video are a bit strange, I suppose.
I thought of the Purge movies and a bunch of guys getting high in a photo booth before going out killing people. I think that says more about me than anything in the video. Was the name Here Come Dots? Mmmmmmm, I love Dots.
I just realized that Deep Dark Robot was the last band they played on KOMP radio here in Vegas that I had to find out more about. I thought it was a guy with a weird voice singing, then I found out it was Linda fucking Perry and I loved it even more. The most recent song I heard and instantly loved was Lazaretto by Jack White. Didn't hear it on the radio, was in the show Bloodline. I quoted your post because I generally don't like high pitched male voices. That isn't an absolute (zeppelin) but in general a good rule to live by.
