Forum.RttP{November 30th show at milly's cancelled.}

First off, I'm not a big believer in burning any bridges, especially a lot of the shitty old covered ones we have here in NH; there's not many left! My take on this whole deal after being out of playing/going to shows for basically the past decade is that a lot of things have changed: Back in the day (man, I feel fuckin old saying that), most of the bands put on shows, promoted, booked, set up, and figured everything out and on any given Wednesday night you'd have 300 people at any show regardless of who was playing (seemed to work well!). Now, we have 'Promoters' which are really 'Booking Agencies' that find some middle of the week dates/venues and force bands to pre-sell tickets (usually 30 each band x4 bands, yeah right!) for an off-beat venue that are only working for their own financial gain and force the bands to 'Promote' (pre-selling ticket thing(do all the work)) while they (the 'promoters') sit back do nothing, and venues could care less who's playing at their place of business on any given night. I was always under the impression that it worked like this...Venues (clubs, restaurants, bars, you name it) contacted a BOOKING AGENCY to go out and find GOOD bands that would either bring clients to their venue or enhance the venue in general. The BANDS would then hire PROMOTERS to help ensure that people went to the shows they were playing. Now a days bands ARE the promoters, and most times the BOOKING AGENCIES too! It is like this: bands are essentially subcontracted by any venue to enhance the venue and/or to ensure their clientele have entertainment and have a good time. It is the venue's responsibility to ensure that the bands (their guests) are as comfortable as possible, i.e. good sound guy, place to set up get ready, adequate staging, etc. to ensure a good performance. The bands are there to HELP the venue, NOT HURT the venue. I strongly feel that a lot of club owners, etc., have lost site of this fact and feel that they are somehow granting a playing privilege to bands instead of realizing that it is a privilege that bands want to play there in the first place. A club I recently visited that had their shit together was the Retcher Theater in Towson, MD, their green room was out of this world! Complete with mini arcade, plasma tv's, 5' FREE beer cooler overflowing, set up area, and more! All for band use. Is this always needed? Hell no, but big bands play there and you can see why; the club acts grateful to have them there!

I offer some solutions to alternative potential venues that may or may not work; being from the greater Concord, NH area here are some spots to think about:

Cheng Yang Li (Concord, NH)(maybe)
VFW (Concord/Suncook NH)
American Legion (Concord, NH)
Community Centers (Yes we would have to hire a rent-a-cop)
Pinnucci's (Concord NH)(maybe)
Barley House DOWNSTAIRS? (Concord NH)(this would be something new for them, and I've been meaning to talk to the owner about this).

That's all I can think of for now (I'm sure there are others) and booking shows at any of these places, or even contacting them about having shows will take some work on the part of the bands/fans. Let's turn this thing around, take back the NH scene, and move forward! If you are in a band please SAY NO TO PAY-TO-PLAY, the 'Promoters' will eventually give in and realize it is a privilege to have bands eager to play their shows, I guarantee it! It would be real embarrassing if say Prong showed up to play a venue locally and there were no other bands to open for them because they all said no to pay-to-play. These promoters would have some awkward explaining to do.

Sorry for this long bloggy post, I just have had a lot of things to say about this issue lately....

Get Some Ass to Mouth! ;)