From solenoid Sent Fri, May 21st 1999, 06:04
A friend and I once had a series of 23 FREE shows, weekly (skipping Xmas) in which we had to bring a sound system (neither of us owned one or a car) and occasionally perform. I hand screenprinted 200-400 flyers so, having a part time job, this is basically all I worked on those few months. Between designing the flyers, printing them, getting some sound, booking people who would play free (local programmers), there is a lot of work there and it is a labor of love, tfs. I was picking up the ball from some other local folks who'd had a weekly of the same basic expermental-mindedness and then, to some degree they picked up that ball again after we ran out of steam. It was good networking at the time because those guys (Outward Music / OMCO) and 3 other groups of people were essentially releasing their new labels first releases and it was an excellent time for networking. To pull off having free shows, I think you have to just go out and do it and when you are running out of gas, tell people at your shows and cross your fingers that someone else will be inspired to find a space and pick up the ball and run with it themselves. When they run a series you can kick back and go to their free shows and socialize and recover from from your weekly slugging-around of gear at the dead of night. Having run a set of free shows, I appreciate the work that goes into it (esp when a nice sound system miraculously appears and there is a good audience) and I try to give a really good performance to show my appreciation. Some people might think that because it is free they don't need to be as serious in their performance, but then they show their true motivation$ for making music. Solenoid On Mon, 10 May 1999, Irene McC wrote: > On 9 May 99, Andrew Hime wrote re: (idm) hypotheticals: > > > But really, I'm just wondering - would anyone out there just drop things > > and go do a freeish show for the joy or exposure of it? > > Yip : I know quite a few "name" DJ's here who do this on a regular > basis coz they know the owner / it's a small place / they get free > drinks or whatever. Come to think of it, I've done it :-) > > Main grumble though is heaving equipment up and down stairs > because often these small poverty-stricken establishments don't > even have their own systems ... that's sweating blood! > > I > * >