RTP-area local music and culture

[grady <grady AT ibiblio.org>]

You'd also probably have to incorporate in order to have an entity to 
transfer the beer license to, and you'd have to jump through about a 
zillion other hoops which are tricky enough if you're a single person, 
let alone a volunteer org.

Unless you wouldn't want to sell beer, in which case some things would 
be slightly easier. Other things, such as paying rent, would become a 
good bit harder, however ;-)

There are nonprofit type orgs which manage to do things like sell beer 
(the Carrboro ArtsCenter being one of them) so I know it's at least 
theoretically possible.

But honestly, I'm not sure that a massive volunteer effort is going to 
pay off in a town with other viable music venues already in-place and 
operational. Sometimes market forces are telling you something when they 
go to work, and sometimes what they're saying is "it's not the 90s 
anymore; people don't go to random rockshows as a default weeknight 
activity like they used to, and there's not enough room in this town for 
as many clubs as we have at the moment."

They might could be saying "nowadays, a club with a capacity of 99 can't 
afford to offer a guarantee to any band that's going to potentially draw 
anything fewer than 99 paying customers, no matter how many potentially 
good shows they have to pass up."

Those market forces might also be mumbling things about booking agents 
who threaten to pull bigger more lucrative shows if you don't book the 
smaller, potentially money-losing shows, but I wouldn't really know, as 
I've only heard them mumble things like that in connection with nearly 
every other previous failed club, and not specifically in reference to 
Go, at least not in the past couple of years.

My advice is to keep your ears open & listen for what else the market is 
saying to you before you make any sudden moves. This would also include 
figuring out how the Cave manages to stay in business while featuring 
600+ live acts per year. Perhaps there are lessons to be learned.

Go is a great room in which to see a show--you get a big-room-sized 
stage (well, height-wise, at least) & PA, good sightlines, a nifty 
balcony, and an undivided focus on what's happening onstage--all things 
that are normally reserved for larger spaces, but with the intimacy of a 
smaller space.

Perhaps that's because realistically speaking, some of those things can 
only be afforded by larger spaces, unless people are willing to pay 
*more* at the door for that intimacy than they would be paying at the 
larger spaces. Instead, the average show at Go costs less than the 
average show at the Cradle, which is admirable, but is also apparently a 
business plan that's impossible to maintain.

I'm bummed about Go but I'm more bummed about the tapering-off in 
activity at Nightlight, in part because in the relatively recent past 
they were booking more of the shows I wanted to see, but also because 
they seemed to have a lot of the small-club-on-a-shoestring-budget 
problems licked, and were doing so creatively.

Hopefully they'll shake off the summer blahs & things will pick back up 
again, especially now that they're needed to pick up (along with Local 
506) their half of the load that Go is leaving unsupported.

Ross

p.s. In keeping with the current subject line of this thread, I'd just 
like to add my voice to those in praise of Glenn Boothe, who has been 
around for long enough to know better, and who still went ahead & bought 
Local 506 anyway. Running a club is never nearly as much fun as even the 
most jaded person thinks it's going to be, and to go into it with both 
eyes open, as Glenn did, must be especially daunting. Shake his hand or 
give him a hug next time you see him, and more importantly, go to Local 506.

In fact, this brings up a point I've been a bit concerned about lately: 
it has come to my attention that some folks have never been to Local 
506, and perhaps might even have the mistaken impression that it's 
nothing but a creepy dirty shag-haired rocker bar or something.

This could not be further from the truth. Certainly, one crucial part of 
Local 506's existence for the better part of the past decade has been 
Sleazefest, but that's only one weekend a year. 506's real legacy over 
the past 10 years has been as the true jack-of-all-trades of the local 
music scene. Need I remind you that the classic $2 Pistols live album 
"Step Right Up" was recorded there, or that the first time many of us 
saw Tift Merritt it was on the Local 506 stage?

If you're an indie-rocker, surely you remember the utterly bizarre 
Caroliner Rainbow/Melt-banana doubleheader back in 1998, or that final 
Blue-Green Gods MkII show (the Goss/Ivey/Eames version) where Todd cut 
the strings off his guitar with wirecutters at the end of the set to 
preclude any encores? Or that insane Buick MacKane show where Alejandro 
et al had their amps cranked so loud that the soundman didn't even run 
'em through the PA and my ears were still ringing for days?

Or the Mr. Quintron show that didn't start til god-knows-when and 
nevertheless was well worth staying up til 2:30 for? Or Neko Case? Or 
Guitarwolf? Or Dead Moon? Or Zen Frisbee with their heads on fire? Or 
Pipe, for chrissake?

Not to mention early shows by the Comas, Kingsbury Manx, Torch Marauder, 
and just about every other local band you've cared about over the past 
10 years. And that's just stuff I can think of off the top of my head.

If you're one of those people who hasn't ever been to Local 506, or who 
hasn't been in years because you don't think it's your kind of place, I 
challenge you to go to at least one show there between now & the end of 
the summer. Shouldn't be too hard, even if it's just the free Lou Barlow 
show on the night before Mergefest.



paok wrote:

> theoretically, i guess you'd sell memberships, and the members would
> then have some limited decisionmaking ability--probably to elect a
> governing board or other smaller group to run the place.  the
> memberships would help support the venue.  and then you'd have to
> make decisions about paid employees vs. volunteers.
>
> what it would really require, of course, is a core group of extremely
> dedicated (and talented) people who were willing to spend copious
> amounts of time and effort in keeping the place afloat.
>
> and money.
>
> phaedra
>
> -----Original Message----- From: James Hepler <jameshepler AT yahoo.com>
>  Sent: Jul 20, 2004 3:16 PM To: RTP-area local music and culture
> <ch-scene AT lists.ibiblio.org> Subject: Re: Thank God for the 506 (was
> "nightlight website?")
>
> Maybe Go should become a co-op of some sort.  How would that work?
>
> Hep
>
> --- paok <bluefreaky AT earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> > You know, if glenn hadn't bought 506, things would be looking
> > extremely bleak for the chapel hill music scene right now (instead
> > of just kinda bleak).  Go! is going away, and Nightlight seems
> > destined to do the same.   I really haven't been as excited at 
> > Nightlight's shows lately (when I can actually figure out what
> > those shows are) as I used to be.
> >
> > Does anyone know if someone's going to buy Go! and keep it alive?
> >
> > Nothing against the Cave, of course--just that it's so small, and I
> > get claustrophobic a little too easily there.
> >
> > phaedra
> >
> > ps--dyssembler, i believe, is dead.  it's last show was july 9th at
> > ringside.  one of its founders is in costa rica and going to grad
> > school @ yale in the fall; one other is going to europe as soon as
> > he can save the cash to go; one other is going to have twins in a
> > few months.  perhaps out of the ashes some new dance party goodness
> > will spring; perhaps not.
> >
> > -----Original Message----- From: "Bis später"
> > <thebackyardbbq AT yahoo.com> Sent: Jul 19, 2004 7:42 PM To: RTP-area
> > local music and culture <ch-scene AT lists.ibiblio.org> Subject:
> > nightlight website?
> >
> > Is there a new website for nightlight?  Apparently dyssembler is
> > movin on over to geeklog, but doesn't seem to have brought
> > nightlight along for the ride?
> >
> > E
> >
> >
> > --- People Under the Bridge <mjohnso3 AT email.unc.edu> wrote:
> >
> > > check it:
> > >
> > > people under the bridge can joann social junk minor setback
> > >
> > > friday night (july 9th) at nightlight
> > >
> > > see you there -- ch-scene: the list that mirrors 
> > > alt.music.chapel-hill -- 
> > > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ch-scene
> >
> > -- ch-scene: the list that mirrors alt.music.chapel-hill -- 
> > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ch-scene
> >
> > -- ch-scene: the list that mirrors alt.music.chapel-hill -- 
> > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ch-scene
>
>
>
>
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