Representin' Reggae Style

Another month goes by and my involvement with Chela and Georgetown has increased quite a bit. But then again I’m a sucker for being useful. The original “has-been” drama ended up escalating when the manger John changed the band’s name on both the official website and MySpace music page without telling anyone in the actual band, apparently at Lynval’s suggestion. That fight ended in a band meeting that generally smoothed things out. A couple problems still remain, and it’s been frustrating to watch from my end of it as well.
The first problem is the band manager. The band’s actual manager lives on the other side of the state with no other income than his share of what’s being collected at the door from shows. Although he has been great about booking tons of shows, he’s had this terrible habit of making promises to venues that the band can barely keep. A great example was the show at the Rocksport when John told the venue that they could play for something like two hours. They don’t even have two hours worth of material yet. Another great moment was at the end of the Mannette Saloon gig, where he also made outrageous claims as to the length of their show, he started shouting for an encore from the back of the room until the rest of the crowd picked it up. Now granted, that show was the best to date and the crowd response was beyond belief. This band DOESN’T have songs just laying around to play for an encore. If John ever stayed involved, he would know that.
It’s his lack of involvement that’s caused the most trouble. John doesn’t communicate important stuff to the band like: load in times, the start times for the show itself, and what the pay percentage should be at the end of the show. From the venue side, apparently John is the worst person to get a hold of. This doesn’t make the person in charge of booking shows want to do business with the band. An email an hour before the show doesn’t quite count as keeping the people in question “up to date”.
When Cale came to me a while ago with the idea of making me the local representative for the band I merely smiled and nodded, figuring with all the bigger problems they were going through at the moment, the last thing anyone would come to a decision on would be making me a manager of sorts. I also figured Cale would never get around to mentioning it at a band meeting anyway.
I was in total surprise when Cale returned from a band practice/meeting to inform me that the idea of making me the representative for the band was unanimously agreed to and officially decided even. The band that I had been working so hard for, behind the scenes, wanted me to represent them. It was a hell of a compliment! I became excited to get all organized and correct all the problems that had been annoying me, yet I was nervous all the same. What the hell did I know about representing this band?
I knew everything there was to know about the band when I stopped to think about it. I had missed only one of their shows, and every single show but their first I had been apart of the crew that loaded in the equipment. I knew the set list almost by heart, I knew how to talk to the sound guy in order to make sure the band got all the technical requirements that were needed for each show, and I knew each member of the band well enough to accommodate for the differences in personality. I knew this project inside and out and I was terribly excited to start immediately proving to the band that I was just the girl for the job.
The guys wanted me to use my knowledge of the club scene to help get them more interesting gigs. Two months into the Friday night gig and boredom had set in. I had connections that I had never called in favors from, which had me jumping immediately on the internet to send some emails. My DJ friend from years gone by was the Entertainment Director for a very popular local night club. I knew him well enough to ask him first for advice. He was always involved in the scene and was friends with all sorts of people. My long term goal was to weasel my way into some introductions or at least get him to drop some names that I could chat up later. I’ve always been really conscious never to ask him for any favors. He got enough of that back when I first knew him. Vowing to be one of the few girls that could know a DJ and not expect special treatment or special favors, it’s been four years now and I’d gotten this far without breaking that. Now was the time to stretch it.
The next email I sent out was an outline of what I felt my duties would be and asked for input from the band as to what else they wanted. Aside from the technical knowledge of the band’s needs, my understanding of the band members themselves had paid off. I had already taken it upon myself to make sure that Cale and Chela had water waiting for them on stage and I had always been more than willing to make a bar run for anyone else prior to the show starting. This was one of the first things mentioned by the band that they wanted me to continue. I was to keep the liquids flowing as the show got longer and the beer disappeared by the third or fourth song. Not a problem, I was happy to do whatever they wanted of me.
The rest of the duties were stuff that John had fallen short on, and even though it was information that the band needed, with me around they could all concentrate on playing the show and I’d take care of the little details. I would be the new face and direct contact with venues. John was still the manager and the guy in charge of making the deals; I was just the one making sure that shit was figured out before the band showed up some place to play.
It wasn’t until Cale was introducing me to the owner/manager of Tommy’s Nightclub that I was a little shy about being suddenly the representative. I knew that I must have seemed like a hardcore groupie up to this point and to be passed around as the new person to talk to, I worried about not being taken seriously; especially by this guy. My impression of him this far hadn’t been a really friendly one. He handled his business with a firm demeanor. On the other hand, he seemed to really like the band and was willing to help them out. When I stood to shake his hand, Jeff cracked a large smile and relayed how pleased he was to have a physical person to deal with. He was more than frustrated with the phone tag that he had been playing with John and expressed nothing but pleasure at meeting me and doing future business through me.
In fact as we stood chatting he began to dive right into some issues that had been apparently on his mind, all of which had to do with promotion. The great thing was that these items he brought to the table were exactly things that I felt needed to be done. After an awesome chat with him I sat back down next to Cale and JC feeling very confident about the whole situation. I could handle myself just fine and I knew what I was talking about. I was totally meant for this job.
I even turned out to be helpful in new ways that took more pressure off the band. Since I’m the one that usually held down the table while the rest of band went about socializing (or drinking in their truck) I was an easy contact for the drink tickets and for the pay off at the end of the night. Usually the band was still playing when the money made from the door was counted off and split into the percentage for the band.
For all the relief that I was trying to bring to the growing pains the band had been experiencing, there was still the second problem that I mentioned at the beginning of this post. This was a problem that I had been watching from afar before, but being involved now I felt right in the middle of things now. The terrible cycle of JC and Leo’s drinking was totally linked to how appreciated they felt. I don’t think that Lynval knows how they feel. As the bitching continues about the way that Lynval has been acting and the way things are being run, their commitment to do as he had asked and stay sober for the shows goes right out the window when he makes snap decisions or ignores them. I wonder how much longer things will continue like this.
As for the shows they’ve been playing, things only get better. Like I had mentioned earlier the gig at the Manette Saloon was the best to date and the crowd reaction was just amazing. Everyone was on the dance floor, shouting for more. Even when John pulled his dirty trick of calling for an encore, it hadn’t taken much to get the people around him to pick up the chant as well. I was so pleased that everyone around me wanted more music, but I knew that the band would have to be real creative in order to fill that request. They decided on a song that they hadn’t played since their second gig back in August and it was all by the seat of their collective pants. Pulled off brilliantly, I’m sure no one in the crowd knew what a feat it had been to play that song from long term memory.
The Fun House gig was a Monday night but they turned that crowd around. Apparently this place is the oldest existing punk club in the city and like the Vera Project; I had some major concerns with the reception that they would receive. All though dingy and hardcore looking on the inside, this place took to the band immediately. Specifically requested to open for The Warsaw Poland Brothers as they continued to tour through Oregon and Washington, the dance floor filled right up with people that danced the night away and cheered after every song. That had been a strange night, with Cale ditching the uniform to bounce around the stage in just his undershirt. That was also the night I discovered that the strange pounding rhythm of the chorus to “Beagle” just made me want to pogo, which was picked up by Cale who could play his bass and bounce, then JC behind his double keyboard set up, and then by the crowd behind me. I was so proud that I had created a dance for one of the band’s songs that I mentally vowed to dance to that song the same way every time. I was going to get this move to this song to catch on where ever we went!
This was also the night that Cale went to collect the money from the promoter only to be told that there wasn’t any. They had opened for Warsaw as a favor, there was no pay. Yet again John had neglected to work all the details out. Good job Band Manager! He did manage to get forty dollars out the situation, but still that was all something that should have been worked out weeks ago. Looking back, I knew this was the turning point for the band which had made fertile ground for the suggestion of my being a representative for the band.
All I can say is that I hope I can do good work for the band. I don’t want them to be dealing with another fuck up like the one at the Fun House.