Thanks for Rocking!

[manny at telerama.com]

Quoting Mordant Productions <mordantproductions at yahoo.com>:

> There's been a lot of people asking me if I broke even on the show. So, I'm
> going to use Manny's e-mail to make a point. Pittsburgh proved, this past
> Memorial Day Weekend, that you can do a medium sized goth show and be
> successful.

There was nothing to 'prove'. It was Bella Morte and Thou Shalt Not. They
weren't unknown quantities - one is a proven draw which has demonstrated over
time to be one of the most popular goth bands here, the other is a locally
based band that apparently can be compromised with - so there was little to no
level of risk with regards to the bands. The risk was more the cost of the
venue and the fact that it was Memorial Day which can be rough if people are
out of town.

If anything, by dealing with Oakland Cafe and then having to move the show, you
actually *introduced* risk into a situation where there could have been much
less risk.

 It's not really about the money. It's about the energy and enjoying
> great music with people that share the dark aesthetic.

I appreciate that fact. But you could have had that same appreciation with
almost as large an audience in another venue with much less stress and
uncertainty.  And I do assume you're talking about the *audience* having a dark
aesthetic. If you are talking about the venues - first, some muscular
jocks in yellow T-shirts wearing gold chains and then, some swarthy Middle
Easterners looking for a quick buck - I don't exactly think either of them
count as appreciators of a 'dark aesthetic'. I'm the one who risked thousands
on Death in June and has a basement full of Current 93 albums. Not them.

Face it - if Sphinx hadn't been an option what would you have done? Cancelled
the show, or called me? If you would have cancelled the show, that would have
shown a lack of resourcefulness, because you had a clear option NOT to cancel.
If you would have called me, almost the entire audience would have followed you
over here regardless, as you were most certainly the Pied Piper of the moment.

 If the show had gone as
> planned, we would have more than broken even but we wouldn't be rich by any
> stretch of the imagination. Personally I'd rather have a show with a larger
> audience and not make as much than to have a smaller audience and make more
> money.

I never said it was all about the money. But it's got to be *somewhat* about the
money. And I don't mean how much you make. If you like to break even, that's
fine. When I do risky stuff (not that Bella Morte was particularly risky) I am
relieved just to break even as well. Instead, I mean how much you stand to
lose. Because if you lose on show after show, and you are a person of  fairly
normal stamina (unlike myself), you will get tired of paying the price Kelly
used to pay to Laga, for a venue that's one-quarter the size Laga was. And
pretty soon you will not want to do shows anymore. And we don't want that to
happen. We want you to be around as long as possible!

And, if it's not about the money, fine, but what about the intangibles like the
stress and the aggravation? Bottom line, is yes you had a good show, but you
lost a bit of money that you didn't have to lose, and you had some unnecessary
aggravation in the bargain dealing with two groups of business individuals who
have no interest in, and don't understand, your scene. Why not ameliorate that
in the future?