[NewMusic] Bay Area information for Musicking Peoples

[Damon Smith]

On Aug 18, 2007, at 2:15 PM, Sarah - 21 Grand wrote:

> What was so great about Beanbenders?

Pro: In short they had very cheap rent, near bart in Berkeley. So the  
attendance was generally very good for anything. Because of this they  
were able to squirrel away $$ to pay top tier musicians to come play.
I saw many awesome shows there.

Con: Like any musicians running a series (myself included) egos and  
personal agendas dictated the local booking policies.
It gets tough when part of the audience you are counting on to come  
is getting shut out when they ask to play, contrary to popular belief  
I was not among the shut out, but many of my friends and mentors  
were, so since I already had my own series I went ahead and said  
something about it back then.
In the end everyone can do what they want if they put the work in,  
and others are going to say what they are going to say. I have  
certainly been on both sides of it.

Personally 21 Grand is my favorite series, among other things, taking  
it out of the hands of the musicians (though Sarah is coming along on  
the drums!), does wonders for the scene.
Gino's Dark Circle Lounge at Hotel Utah was great too, I don't know  
if anyone mentioned it.


Damon Smith

http://www.balancepointacoustics.com
http://myspace.com/smithdamon
New solo project:
http://www.myspace.com/damonsmithsolo