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Not-the-Memepunks gig Friday night
Jun. 2nd, 2013 11:51 am"You suck at retirement" -- ![[livejournal.com profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ravenstoker.
So Friday night I broke my vow of not putting on any gigs that didn't involve my own band.
danny_e11 had approached me at the Voltaire gig, saying his new band, The Stripper Project, were meant to have been playing at Dead and Buried on 31st May but that the event had been cancelled due to the ubiquitous "problems with the venue management". So could I help put them on somewhere? Coincidentally, that same night, the manager of the Fiddlers Elbow introduced himself and offered his venue as a convenient place for me to book other sold-out gigs. On a high from such a successful event, I said yes, rounded up a couple other bands -- In Isolation, whom godgirl recommended, and Last July -- and another DJ, Scott McMahon, whose taste in modern goth/indie made him the perfect complement to the bands. And we had a gig.
With just three weeks' notice I didn't bother to do flyers. The venue and all the bands were fairly cheap, so we didn't need a huge crowd to break even.
The gig went astonishingly well. All the bands turned up on time. Soundchecks went smoothly, and we were finished by 7:30 so decided to go ahead and open the doors and start the music. We had 5 punters in before the official 8pm start time. Danny, Donia and I took turns working the door. In Isolation were really excellent; they deserve to be far more popular than they are, so hopefully this gig gave them that extra bit of buzz to build on their London reputation. Unfortunately I didn't get to see much of The Stripper Project; I was working the door that shift so Danny could play (obviously) and Donia could watch him. They seemed to go over well though. Last July were excellent as always. This was my first time seeing them with the full band including bassist. All of the bands were super nice and seemed to enjoy themselves greatly; no egos or grumps! We reached the absolute-break-even point (ability to pay for the bands, sound man and rider) just before The Stripper Project took the stage, so Danny and I could relax for the rest of the evening. (I knew we'd break even; Danny was, as ever, more cynical.) Things ran a bit late, which means I didn't start my DJ spot until 12:15. And then the manager asked to stop the music at 12:30! :( However, as my "last" track played, people were still dancing and the lights hadn't been turned up yet, so I thought, sod it, I'll DJ until they put the lights on, which ended up being 1am anyway.
That was lots of fun! And of course, everything having gone so smoothly makes it a huge temptation to come out of retirement as a promoter. But I can't; doing so would spread myself too thin, so I'll have to stick to just putting on the Memepunks.
(But it's nice to know that the occasional exception is still a possibility.)
My setlists:
PSYCHE 10:30-10:45
Judith - Of a Heaven (What Remains)
Faith and the Muse - Scars Flown Proud
Dream Disciples - OPS
Manuskript - Avaritia
PSYCHE 12:15-01:00
Christian Death - Romeo's Distress
Joy/Disaster - Paranoia
The Deep Eynde - Suicide Drive
Rasputina - Transylvanian Concubine (Yes Sir Mr Sir Remix)
The Damned - Shadow of Love
Dutch Order - Contact
The Church - Under the Milky Way
Ikon - Fall Apart
Red Sun Revival - Running From The Dawn
Pretentious, Moi? - Now And Again
ravenstoker.So Friday night I broke my vow of not putting on any gigs that didn't involve my own band.
danny_e11 had approached me at the Voltaire gig, saying his new band, The Stripper Project, were meant to have been playing at Dead and Buried on 31st May but that the event had been cancelled due to the ubiquitous "problems with the venue management". So could I help put them on somewhere? Coincidentally, that same night, the manager of the Fiddlers Elbow introduced himself and offered his venue as a convenient place for me to book other sold-out gigs. On a high from such a successful event, I said yes, rounded up a couple other bands -- In Isolation, whom godgirl recommended, and Last July -- and another DJ, Scott McMahon, whose taste in modern goth/indie made him the perfect complement to the bands. And we had a gig. With just three weeks' notice I didn't bother to do flyers. The venue and all the bands were fairly cheap, so we didn't need a huge crowd to break even.
The gig went astonishingly well. All the bands turned up on time. Soundchecks went smoothly, and we were finished by 7:30 so decided to go ahead and open the doors and start the music. We had 5 punters in before the official 8pm start time. Danny, Donia and I took turns working the door. In Isolation were really excellent; they deserve to be far more popular than they are, so hopefully this gig gave them that extra bit of buzz to build on their London reputation. Unfortunately I didn't get to see much of The Stripper Project; I was working the door that shift so Danny could play (obviously) and Donia could watch him. They seemed to go over well though. Last July were excellent as always. This was my first time seeing them with the full band including bassist. All of the bands were super nice and seemed to enjoy themselves greatly; no egos or grumps! We reached the absolute-break-even point (ability to pay for the bands, sound man and rider) just before The Stripper Project took the stage, so Danny and I could relax for the rest of the evening. (I knew we'd break even; Danny was, as ever, more cynical.) Things ran a bit late, which means I didn't start my DJ spot until 12:15. And then the manager asked to stop the music at 12:30! :( However, as my "last" track played, people were still dancing and the lights hadn't been turned up yet, so I thought, sod it, I'll DJ until they put the lights on, which ended up being 1am anyway.
That was lots of fun! And of course, everything having gone so smoothly makes it a huge temptation to come out of retirement as a promoter. But I can't; doing so would spread myself too thin, so I'll have to stick to just putting on the Memepunks.
(But it's nice to know that the occasional exception is still a possibility.)
My setlists:
PSYCHE 10:30-10:45
Judith - Of a Heaven (What Remains)
Faith and the Muse - Scars Flown Proud
Dream Disciples - OPS
Manuskript - Avaritia
PSYCHE 12:15-01:00
Christian Death - Romeo's Distress
Joy/Disaster - Paranoia
The Deep Eynde - Suicide Drive
Rasputina - Transylvanian Concubine (Yes Sir Mr Sir Remix)
The Damned - Shadow of Love
Dutch Order - Contact
The Church - Under the Milky Way
Ikon - Fall Apart
Red Sun Revival - Running From The Dawn
Pretentious, Moi? - Now And Again
