Why Do Club Owners in the Berkshires Make Promoting All-Ages Concerts A Pain in the Ass? Part 1 of An Endless Series (Unfortunately)

It’s rather funny to me that I wrote the headline a day before writing the article, but my prediction could not have been more accurate.  Generally speaking, producing all-ages shows in the Berkshires has always been met with more roadblocks and red tape than the Beacon Cinema construction project on North Street.  On less than five occasions the runaround has been minimal.  That being said, only one of those shows occurred in this century.

The first show I produced happened after I finished school in New York City.  I’d started my zine, Rebel Sound a year earlier and wanted to have a show to celebrate the first year.  The options of clubs in the area was worse than it is now, if you can believe that.  The early 1990s was a dark time for music, punk was still a threat in these here parts and no one knew what a Hot Topic was.  The now-defunct Woody’s Roadhouse agreed to let me do the show.  Throughout our negotiations, the stage was almost pulled out from under us.  The ad in the Berkshire Eagle simply read “Benefit Concert”.  Benefit Concert?  Why do these things always have to be a benefit?  It should’ve read “Concert to Benefit Clubowner’s Wallet”.  Woody booked another event on the night of my show and we needed to be done and packed up by a certain time to make matters even worse.

Sound Bite House provided the PA (which the club was going to charge me $200.00 to rent) all the way from Long Island and because of their generosity, we were able to host some bands who went on to punk rock fame including Blanks ’77, Submachine, Aus-Rotten and The Casualties along with 9 other bands.  It was crazy, but a total blast.  Woody made it really difficult because he wouldn’t let me control the door and had his thug bouncer ID everyone and charge people over 21 less and under 21 more.  The money that could’ve been paid to the bands went to the club who made money off drinks anyway.  Woody’s was in the middle of nowhere so where else were people going to drink?

The fact that Woody’s was in Washington, made me really nervous, but in the end, a large group of local punks showed up in addition to people from throughout New England who made the trek for this unique show.  It seemed like everyone worked together for the good of the show.  Isaiah made a kick-ass flyer, a bunch of us made food for the bands so they wouldn’t be hungry, people didn’t try to sneak in and everyone had a great time.

I was still left with a rotten taste in my mouth when it came time to divide up the money.  Woody completely ripped me off, as their count of over and unders didn’t match mine, but what was I to do?  I had no back up and that guy was most likely packing some guns.

Welcome to the world of DIY productions kid.

I didn’t give up, even though any sane person wouldn’t have gotten involved with this nightmare to begin with.  My next show of a semi-large scale was at Brannigan’s, which is now Asters in Pittsfield.  The owner and his wife were somewhat cool.  They really only wanted a percentage of the door and sold soft drinks to cover their time.  Alcohol wasn’t to be served, but at the time, it wasn’t an issue.  People snuck in, but all in all, it was a successful event.  For whatever reason, they didn’t welcome us back.  After shows in Adams at the Armory, the Dalton American Legion and Club Carol in Pittsfield, I was exhausted and done.  I moved.  I needed to get out of town for some time.  Well, that was twelve years ago.

Moving back to the Berkshires was something I had in my mind for almost eight years.  I was in Los Angeles and had gained an insurmountable amount of experience booking a punk club called Bollocks.  Working with the owner of Bollocks was excellent!  He owned the building and opened the club in literally one of the worst neighborhoods in Los Angeles.  Years after we closed, actress Daryl Hannah tied herself to a tree in the public garden across the street, but that’s another story.  Bollocks was a true success in an unforgiving world.  Kids came from across Los Angeles and beyond to see bands like Citizen Fish, Total Chaos, The Generators, Jon Cougar Concentration Camp, Final Conflict, The Casualties and Stratford Mercenaries (CRASS) in a real punk club with a stage.  There was one bathroom, no soap, basically nothing to drink or eat and we did gangbusters business!  Kids walked to this dirty and gross bodega with 2” thick bulletproof glass and surly bums begging for change to buy drinks and snacks.

Needless to say, the environment to promoting DIY concerts in the Berkshires has changed and it’s not for the better.  Kids who took the cue from the shows produced, took the lead but something was missing from their equation and it was completely detrimental to the cause.  Concerts at the Girl’s Club were stopped after one person trashed a bathroom.  A couple of genius minds trashed personal property in the Howard Building (where the Cyberian Café once was) and therefore, all underground music activities were stopped indefinitely.  Other businesses did become open to the idea of holding shows, but the end result was always the same:  some jackass or jackasses ruined it for everyone else.  Source of the Nile was the last hope for shows here and because the appropriate permits were never pulled and the shop was a cluttered mess, the police shut it down and Source eventually closed for good.

I was lucky enough to go to perform at Source on one of their final nights.  The store was packed and it really seemed like Pittsfield had finally built a scene that could sustain all-ages shows.  After Source closed, the scene was gone in an instant.  It’s so disjointed and it’s almost like Los Angeles in a way, but on a much smaller scale.  People are lazy in LA because they’re spoiled, but in the Berkshires they’re just lazy.  In the past year since the end of Source, I’ve produced several concerts, as has Berkshire Sound in Adams and Project 413 in Lenox.  Attendance for most of these concerts has been good collectively, but we can all count our financial losses before we can count our financial gains.  This isn’t about making money, but hell, we’d all like to cover our expenses and pay the bands at the very least.

For years, the Berkshires have been ignored by most nationally touring bands appealing to those under the age of 40 who aren’t into James Taylor.  Cover bands that play the same songs as other cover bands continue to thrive for some illogical reason.  These glorified karaoke acts are jobbers:  they play for the pay and then go home.  Writing something original, presenting it and performing it live is something they can’t comprehend.  They laugh at us behind our backs and to our faces.

This is just the beginning of the battle of trying to take something back from those who ruined it for everyone else.  Part 2 will be posted shortly.