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  • From: "Walt Davis" <walter_davis AT unc.edu>
  • To: ch-scene AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: Save Ooh La Latte (and other) Nightlife!
  • Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2004 18:37:51 -0400

If they ended up one hot chocolate in the red on Saturday, it's their own
damn fault for turning off the machine before I ordered it.

Someone should repost 3's missive about Durham clubs -- how they pop into
existence just long enough to sucker Chapel Hillians into sinking money into
the Durham economy while the great Durham underground scene (which no one
has yet given me directions to the secret hangout though I've been living
there for over a year now) continues on.

Unless it was something like an 8-hour event, $200 for a sound guy sounds
pretty rich to me. Of course if it was an 8-hour event, I assume we're
talking at least 8 bands and I'm not sure it matters how big the door is,
the per-musician take is gonna be teeny. (i.e. among, say, 32 musicians,
$200 is $6.25 each).

Options: make friends with folks who know how to run sound and see if the
club will let you bring your own sound person. Or learn how to do it
yourself and team up with bands where one of them knows how to do it, then
you can run sound for each other. If there wasn't a session on this at the
Chicks Rock DIY this year, somebody ought to slap it on the agenda for next
year. (Rocking dudes could use this info too)

Or figure your amps are more than loud enough to fill up the space at
probably any club in the Triangle except maybe the Cradle and perhaps play
at a volume that doesn't require earplugs, thereby negating the need for a
sound person. (But I've always been a "PAs are for wimps" kinda guy
anyway.)

Or organize with your fellow musicians and stop playing for less than what
you think you're worth and see if maybe you can start making as much as the
sound guy.

Or decide you're not in it for the money anyway and, to minimize your
frustration/exploitation, try to find places to play where they don't seem
to be in it for the money either.

Based on stories I hear about elsewhere, club owners here (the ones I've
dealt with anyway) are the most above-board, generous, committed,
open-minded ones just about anywhere. But what do I know?

Apparently clubs are like restaurants. It seems to me that restaurants
should make money hand over fist -- everything seems to have about a 400%
markup, how can they lose money?

Kinda the same with clubs, especially a place like Ooh La Latte. Rent is a
sunk cost -- no matter how many hours they're open, the rent's the same --
so that's not a problem unless the coffee business ain't paying the bills
(in which case music or no music probably won't save the day). Utilities
are close to a sunk cost unless powering a PA is uber-expensive. I assume
the staff aren't getting paid much so having them there in the evening can't
cost much more than $30 a head. If you can draw just 20 people and they
average 2 beers/coffees apiece, I'd think you've covered those costs without
dipping into the door and the cut of the door should cover the sound guy.
So everybody over 20 is gravy. I can easily see how you don't make a lot of
money at it, but I have a hard time seeing how you lose money at it. Rate
of return is way over-rated. I can also see how you might decide to only do
shows on Thursday-Saturday nights.

Yet restaurants and clubs and coffeehouses lose money and go out of business
all the time, which just means I don't know shit about the restaurant and
club and coffeehouse business.

I guess we don't drink as much as we should.

For those who didn't know, Bellafea is the hype (blame Cantwell). Des Ark,
Regina Hexaphone, and Rocketfire Red also are the hype but I assume that is
already widely known.






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