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

I received a few interesting responses to Part I of this series and while reading them, I came away with the same feeling each time:  hopelessness.  Yes, hopelessness not hope.  I would’ve been far more positive had I felt hope but I didn’t, which is sad.  In reality, it’s sadder for the kids who actually go to shows and look forward to them rather than the army of losers you can find at the mall hanging around like slugs under a rock on any given day.

Putting up with all the headaches of promoting shows would be far more tolerable if the kids today actually cared.  Far too few care enough to actually leave the safety of the mall where they just picked up designer bondage pants with their parents instead of going to live shows and actually supporting something.  The “mallternatives” can be quite amusing to watch, but it can get old quickly, more on that species later.  Then there are those who quickly do a search on My Space for bands who are playing locally.  After checking out some recordings and conferring with their friends to see if the band passes muster, they either go to the show en masse or support the “parent approved punk scene” otherwise known as staying home.  So-called punks who follow that scene should be referred “paps” instead of punks as its an insult to those of us who actually spent years of getting crap from just about everyone on the face of the earth so these paps could stay at home judging the scene from the outside, because they’re certainly not in it as far as I’m concerned.  It’s better to do what your friends do so you remain cool instead of going to the show.

When I first got into seeing live bands, I would go regardless of the bands playing.  If I had the same lazy attitude as many of the paps and mallternatives, I would’ve missed Gang of Four, Dead Milkmen, Husker Du, Oi Polloi, Sonic Youth, Die Kreuzen, Laughing Hyenas, Nausea, Warzone, Jawbreaker, Gorilla Biscuits, GWAR, Citizens Arrest, Youth Gone Mad, Blanks ’77, fIREHOSE, Billy Bragg, Butthole Surfers, The Replacements, Alien Sex Fiend, Naked Raygun, False Prophets, The Meices, The Skulls, The Radicts and many many more.  Looking back on the bands I’ve seen throughout my life, I’d be really angry if I missed any of them because I felt it was more important to be cool than check out some bands.  We’re not even remotely close to being a minor metropolitan area where kids are spoiled by the weekly show, we don’t have them frequently enough, I just don’t get the attitude of laziness, its weird.

I wouldn’t think twice about driving to NYC, Albany, Northampton or Boston and then driving back after a show.  When I lived in NYC, I’d often have to take a cab to a ferry to a subway and then walk endless blocks only to do it all backwards a few hours later.  These late nights were a pain in the ass, but I’m so happy I was able to experience what I’ve been able to in the punk rock world.  If the paps stopped listening to their stolen Casualties MP3s and the mallternatives stopped looking ridiculous pretending to have a clue as to what emo really is, then the Berkshire County scene would probably be better off.  You never know when a band you don’t know could turn out to be your next favorite band.

Dealing with club and venue owners will never be easy if shows aren’t drawing the numbers.  We will always be a thorn in their sides unless we have the numbers to back our arguments up.  Recently, both Project 413 and I tried to hold events at the Econo Lodge in Lenox and the results have always been disastrous.  We’re not allowed to hold events in the restaurant as they can only be 21 and over.  The days of punk appealing to the hip arts crowd are long gone.  Punk now appeals to teenagers in the heat of rebellion, so promoters are relegated to throwing all-ages shows while hoping for the best turnout possible.  When the venues or adjoining venues (such as the case at the Econo Lodge) have an event abutting your event, it’s not going to run smoothly whatsoever.  You’ll get complaints about everything from what door to use to collect admission to people congregating in the appropriate smoking area outside to the door to the room being closed to the level of volume of your event while their thug-rap-hip hop night is as loud as hell, but that’s okay to them.  Your crowd isn’t buying drinks.  The bar crowd is as the male patrons attempt to buy willing girls drinks in order to get them drunk enough to look good to them before last call.  Have you seen some of these losers at that bar?  Any woman in her right mind would have to either be on pills, serious drugs or drunk beyond her wildest nightmares to go home with some of those “Berksha gangstas”.  It’s quite perplexing.

The most recent show had so many problems; they’re too boring to list.  I was excited thinking the Berkshire underground would come out to support Millions Dead, The Poncherellos and touring bands GDP and Dirty Money.  Was I ever wrong.  I was able to pay the bands their guarantee, but the show turnout was dismal.  Fewer than 25 paid and most of the kids I didn’t know had actually come to see GDP, an underground punk hip-hop act from New Jersey.  You’d think the thugs would come in to check out this exciting performer, but instead they stayed in the bar trying to be “playas”.  Before Dirty Money took the stage, I knew we’d have problems.  The Poncherellos were told to turn down several times because the bar hag said we were too loud.  Well, yeah, we’re loud, we’re a punk rock band and we’ve played there a few times before without problems.  Millions Dead opened without incident.

Dirty Money thought they might have issues because they’re extremely loud to begin with.  Needless to say they were, but they were incredible!  Everyone stayed to see this great band from Florida play…two goddamn songs!  The idiot noise police from the front desk had his handy decibel meter and kept telling us to turn down while he was standing directly next to the speakers instead of being outside the room.  The bar hag kept running in and telling us to turn down all the while we could her their thug crap coming through the walls.  Dirty Money got pissed at the noise police and the bar hag so they wrapped it up after just two songs.  The songs were great and the band is amazing, but I was really upset.  My money is just as good as the thug crowd.  The punk money is just as good as the thug money but between the two Econo idiots, it’s time to find an alternate venue, a sane person cannot deal with the insane.  The fight in the parking lot where the 6 foot tall guy kneed and proceeded to repeatedly pummel this woman in the face was rather fun to see at 1:30 AM.  It’s to know the punk shows bring in all the problems and the thug crowd is so well behaved.  “Look out your windows Econo Lodge guests and see the stupid thug bar fight go awry.”

The situation was even more disappointing because kids don’t go to live shows anymore to check out bands, they just use My Space.  If they don’t like the sound (on the very inferior My Space player and with crappy computer speakers), they’ll stay home missing out on the fun social activity of going to a punk show and seeing live music.  It’s a different time and these kids are from a different generation.  I need to keep reminding myself about this.

After getting the energy kicked out of me at the Econo, I have moved on setting my sites on other alternative venues with varying degrees of success.  The Eagle certainly has avoided what I’ve been up to like the plague, so stay tuned to Project 413.  It’s still a pain in the ass to promote all-ages shows, but it’s getting a little less painful so to speak.