[NewMusic] Booking / 'Usual Suspects'

[weasel walter]

i'm going to take this chance to offer a different perspective to these
proceedings. this is not to defend or congratulate myself - it's simply a
perspective coming from a steadily working musician who is probably seen
as being part of some particular "scene". 

> When you offer a venue to new musicians who don't have as much
> experience, you run the risk of having a not very good performance 
> or audience turn out. 

that's why as a programmer, you book a new musicians opening for more
established musicians as part of a bill. you don't just give a bunch of
greenhorns a gig and watch them hang themselves! it's strategic. if
they're any good, they just might snag a few people for their own thing.
the funny thing is, that even though i'm arguably "established" on a
bunch of levels, i still often seek this sort of opening act situation
purely out of the interest of diversifying my audience and having the
possibility to be heard by fresh ears. i find that my music tends to get
a better response when i'm opening a show with somebody with more
popularity playing last than when i (cough) "headline". go figure. i'm
one of those kind of guys. 

> Usual suspectery has its virtues to a venue - it's easy, it's safe,
> and it's more time spent hanging out with friends. The downside is
> that the value of a gig decreases when the musician has so many 
> within a frame of time. 

part of the reason i might seem to play at 21 grand so often (yeah, we're
talking, like, twice a month sometimes! wow!) is because there are a lot
of bands that actually request one of my projects as an opening act. (i
have been turned down for multiple gigs - with totally different groups -
at the hemlock in the same month even though i was speficially requested
to play by headliners because i was "playing there too much".) i have a
lot of connections in the experimental rock scene and when those shlubs
go on tour and oakland comes up, a lot of them think of me. as a result
of having these kinds of opportunities, it's paramount to utilize them in
as many ways as possible with as many different people as possible. if
we're talking statistics, i've performed at 21 grand approx. 23 times
since december 2005 with almost 60 different performers!!!! women, men,
white, black, latino/latina, asian, mexican, native american, gay,
straight, weird, normal - you fuckin' name it. there's a lot of good
musicians out there and i feel that it's my role to play music with them
ALL. 

>The musician doesn't have time to get excited  about it or make it a
unique experience. The venue starts feeling a bit 
> like someone's garage. And the audience will feel less like it's 
something
> 'not to be missed'. (After  all, they can catch you again 2 days from
now.)

the musician (me) needs gigs, period. i have to make my craft and also
make a living. i cannot do this by waiting around for this totally
awesome once a year gig that everybody is so psyched about. the upside is
that everytime i play at a venue like 21 grand it's generally with some
totally different group of people. i don't see every gig i play there as
the "weasel walter show" (and i hope nobody else does): the point is to
create challenging new music with a wide breadth of great musicians. if
people feel like, "oh, HIM again", that's their tough luck, because it
ain't me doing the same thing with the same people time and time again. i
cannot be penalized for the ignorance of others. 

ww