Broken Fences

It's amazing how often there is a single show on any given night that you really should be at.  Sometimes it's easy to know what that is.  A cd release maybe, or three really good bands at the same show.  Sometimes it's hard to find.

Last night (friday night)  I didn't know where to go.  I went to www.pghcitypaper.com, and glanced through every single show listing.  I saw a couple of acts I recognized and none I wanted to see.  So I turned to facebook.  I looked at my events... and my friends' events... nothing. 


SO MUCH CRAP to sift through.  To find the gem you're looking for.  It was so much worse when I first started going to shows, because I didn't even know what I was looking for.  i would look up every act advertised in the city paper and see if they had any music online... it took a long time.  That's how I found Ben Shannon@the map room.  Ben Shannon=awesome.  Map room=noisy restaurant where good musicians play for tips to an audience who really came for a meal and don't care.

Finally I saw a thread where one fb friend said to another fb friend... are you going to see Broken Fences tonight at club cafe?  Turns out they were opening for someone else and weren't prominently named on the event.  So I went.  I guess it's possible I missed a better show, but don't think so.

I really like Broken Fences. (brokenfencesband.com) Morgan Erina has a voice that just floats in the air in front of her... beautiful, ethereal, and yet grounded in this irony of never quite opening her mouth...like her words are half asleep.  Two acoustic guitars and Simon and Garfunkel harmonies and it's this intentional simplicity... with a toy piano touch of quirk. 

They played last night to a crowd that didn't deserve them.  I have no idea if they believe the night to have been a success... the completely forgettable bands that followed certainly got the crowd involved more... but that's pgh for you.  Part of the problem is the venue.  Club cafe is one of the worst listening spaces in Pgh.  Any conversation on the bar side of the room is amplified as loudly as any band.  That combined with the $6 drafts makes me avoid it as much as possible... but it does have good shows pretty often and is home to acousticafe, so you can't avoid it completely.

But Broken Fences is worth braving a snowy south side to hang with noisy people in an expensive venue. 

Open mic Fame

Some kid I met at an open mic a few months ago asked me where he could go to gain an audience.  He was new in town.  I looked at him blankly.  No, no, no, sweetie.  That's not how it works.  The only people who attend open mics around here are the musicians who want to play.  You're never going to sell cds, or tickets, or get people to visit your website, or accomplish any other kind of promotional activity at an open mic.  Poor kid.  The enthusiasm drained out of his face.
I tried to soften it a bit.
If you go to open mics... you might make some friends in bands... you might be able to play some shows with them... or at the venue if they really like you...
and then i took his ep.  It was really bad.

Pgh open mics aren't going to make you famous.  But if you let them, they can make you better.  When I first started attending open mics I thought I was pretty good.  I had some songs that my friends would request.  My guitar playing was pretty.  When it was my turn... nobody was paying attention.  I sat down and adjusted my tuning and sang my songs and they were good songs and I played them well and I sang them pretty and no one was fucking listening.

I hear people complain about this all the time.  And it's always the venue's fault.  The snooty audience's fault.

I attended that open mic every week for a year.  And I learned some things.  How to stand to attract attention.  How to meet people's eyes to connect.  How to figure out what people in a venue want to hear.  How to write better songs.  How to work a microphone.  How sometimes the best way to make someone in the audience shut up is to play real quiet for a bit.  How to read lack of response as negative feedback.(No one's going to tell you that you suck.  They'll just avoid your eyes.)

So yeah.  It'd be great if there were a venue in Pgh where everyone listened and then gave you honest feedback-where there was an actual audience instead of a room full of performers- where Fairy God Producers lurked in the corner ready to get you a contract if you played 3 good songs-where you could sell cds and t shirts and people would actually remember the cryptic website address you mumbled to promote your free download... but there isn't.

So stop whining and use the time for what it's good for.  Get better.  Practice capturing a room.  Go to the worst, loudest, rudest, most snooty venue and play until they love you. Because if you can do it at a Pittsburgh open mic i think maybe you can do it anywhere.

And if you think you're ready... just go book your own show.

WYEP

I was listening to the radio today.  It's time for WYEP's money drive.  They are a great station.  They play good music a lot of the time.
You know what else plays good music a lot of the time?  My spotify account.
 I could listen to the radio anywhere i go.  My iPhone goes anywhere i go.
So, basically, I'd be paying WYEP djs to make me some good playlists... think old school mix tapes man.  But I don't pay people to do things I can do myself.  I don't have a chauffeur.  I learned to do my own house repairs.  And I can make my own damn playlists.

I want you to play Pete Bush.  I want to hear that Nik Westman finally has a show coming up at the Thunderbird after fucking ditching us for how many months.  I want to hear a track from the band that I should go see this weekend so I'm not playing spin the venue on Saturday night.  I want you to link the community to the music in the community so that maybe more people will come out to shows.  I really feel like that is your Job.  And if you were doing your Job... I would pay you for it.