RTP-area local music and culture

[grady <grady AT ibiblio.org>]

Yeah, this could be a whole topic for Secondhand Freespace, although my 
message for musicians could be boiled down to one sentence:

"Yes, 95% of the time I *did* intend to miss your band."

People are busy. They need to do things like eat, or tend children/pets, 
or go to bed early in order to go to work the next day. Or, hell, stay 
home long enough to catch that episode of "So You Think You Can Dance" 
or some shit.

So a lot of the time (in my example above, I'm suggesting nearly ALL the 
time), people are well aware that they're liable to miss one or more 
bands by either showing up "late" or having to leave early. They're OK 
with that. As Hepler says, your band is likely to play again someday, 
and that day is probably about 3 weeks from now.

Some people also don't like breathing in smoke, so in the case of bars 
that allow smoking, said peeps quite often feel obliged to plan their 
arrival time to maximize rock while minimizing smoke inhalation.

Add all that together, and you're left with incontrovertible evidence 
that the opening band needs to SUCK IT UP ALREADY and get onstage and 
play at the appointed time.

And if your slackass friends miss you this time, they'll either make an 
extra effort to catch you next time, or . . . . . . but either way, they 
probably at least halfway meant to miss you, so ponder on that for a bit.

Ross

James Hepler wrote:
> It's pretty common in the live entertainment industry to hold the start of a
> performance 15-20 minutes.  I think what matters more is that shows end at a
> certain time.  At least when it comes to week/work night shows.
>
> But also, having sorta "stage managed" a few recent shows, I think that
> people love to be late, and for some reason, bands want to play in front of
> people.  And when it comes down to it, all those people who show up late
> seldom seem to mind missing parts or all of opening bands, either because
> those bands aren't the reason they came or those bands will play again soon
> enough that there's no real loss involved.
>
> I think that this will always be an issue.
>
> On Tue, Sep 9, 2008 at 11:42 AM, grady <grady AT ibiblio.org> wrote:
>
> > You tell us, you're the one who owns a rockclub.
> >
> > Although we all know the answer already, which is that printed start
> > times should be amended to read:
> >
> > "9:30, or once 50 people have come through the door, including the bass
> > player's girlfriend, whichever's later."
> >
> > local506 AT gmail.com wrote:
> > > > Oh yeah: when they say 5:30, they mean it.
> > > Why does this continuously have to be explained when it comes to rocks
> > > shows?  Movie theatres, television stations and just about every other
> > > business operates on specific times, why are music outlets supposedly
> > > exempt??
> > -- 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