i showed up, and saw the revised line up.
son de valle had to cancel for personal reasons, and that actually worked out alright for me because i was running late. the show kicked off later than planned so i got to see about half of it's an icicle's set, which i thought i'd miss. i enjoy this young band, although they're still a bit rough around the edges. i'm sure with time and shows they'll gain the experience needed to be a solid band. or, they'll break up. unfortunately, i didn't get any video of the band.
i did, however, get this snazzy bracelet . it cracks me up because the undercurrent is definitely a left leaning paper. i'm sure commenters on the fresno bee or many of those that write letters to the editor would call the undercurrent a communist rag or unamerican. nope, we've got flag bracelets for our party.
the first band i did record was the fay wrays:
i'm definitely a fan of the fay wrays, and have seen them on several times. they're almost done with their album, and i'm eagerly awaiting that. they've recently added a bass player that is playing on most dates. he lives in l.a., so he's not at every show. i met him, but forget his name. he is a great addition to the fay wray sound. the bottom end really allows benji to play a little cleaner which sounds great. and, dude is quite a presence on stage, swinging his bass, kicking about, and thrashing around. benji does a bit of that as well, so it might be a little dangerous on that stage.
the next act was shon j and dj bumsun. i'd never seen shon j, but enjoyed his flow and may check him out june 30th @ the starline.
3 bags full got a late start and a shorter set because their drummer was running a little late. but they still kicked out the jams.
patrick contreras, fresno's own american rock violinist was in full form with his band. his music is really starting to grow on me. i mean, they're not going to replace my fresno favorites, but i'm enjoying it more and more each time. i've always thought that patrick was talented and a great performer, but i'm finally coming around on his instrumental rock.
after patrick's set, this sweet ride was raffled off by the fresno bicycle coalition. the bike is a limited edition fat tire amber ale bike, donated (i think) by new belgium brewing.
tickets were $3, or 2 for $5. i went in for $15 and thought i had a good chance because not a lot of people were buying tickets. sadly, i did not win. the winner was in for $20, which is still a great investment for that ride.
the sleepover disaster was there early to watch the fay wrays, but had some other engagements in between that and their set. they all returned in time to drop great music on the crowd.
last on the bill was destructo bunny. i have seen destructo in quite some time, and he has really honed his craft. solid, solid hip hop and beats. and, he's pretty impressive as a one man, complete hip hop act.
overall, i really enjoyed the show. but, it had some issues. the main issue was the attendance which was terrible. seriously, it was damn near vacant for large stretches of the night. by the time the headliner came on, there was around 15 people left in the house. that totally sucks. so, why was the show so poorly attended? was it the $15 price tag? maybe. i mean, i know it's a slow economy and what not, but people still go to shows. and, $15 for 7 bands is nothing, especially considering that these are 7 of fresno's finest.
but, last's year's show had more bands alongside of several of this year's acts, and was only $10. maybe it was more of a value. or maybe last year's show was a little better. either way, last year had much better attendance.
it shouldn't have been so poorly attended. i mean, they went from being 21 & over @ the first two parties to an 18& older event. that should have brought in some more folks. and, it was at a better spot than last year. the starline is one of the better music venues in fresno.
i think when it's all said and done, a lot of it comes down to promotion. it seemed to me that a lot of the promotion was a bit late coming. i'm not blaming anyone, it just seems like the previous two shows were a promoted a little more, and were a tad more organized at the event. and the bands themselves lagged on this as well. i'm not myspace or facebook friends with all the bands, but i am with many. in fact, i think shon j may be the only one i'm not linked up with online. and i pretty much only saw bulletins for the show from destructo bunny and the undercurrent over the last ten days. it's an icicle put out a flyer post the day of. the rest: silent. that sucks. i know the bands all did the show for free, to support the undercurrent, but promote yourselves and the show dammit. the undercurrent promotes your shows for free, take a few minutes and repost the undercurrent flyer.
when it's all said and done, it was a good show and i'm glad i went. i just wish more of fresno had joined me.
11 comments:
ed, thanks for the nice comments.
I like hearing what you have to say, because your words are sincere. not trying to impress or play politics. so I'm happy to hear your starting to like our music.
on a side note: i feel HORRIBLE i couldn't help promote this show. I love the undercurrent and the independent views it offers as well as a place for local music to get there name out. It was just too close to the CD release.
Nice review, Ed. It'll make one kinda pointless for me to do but I'll still throw something up.
Good bands but small attendance. I guess it was a combo of things, like you said. It didn't seem like many folks were out Saturday, plus the pricetag, plus the small promoting= lightly attended.
Promotions is EVERYTHING.
This was way under promoted. I don't think people realize that just about ANYTHING is newsworthy. And what I've learned in the past 4 years is that it doesn't hurt to send out a press release and hope for the best. Calling news outlets is so imperative to an event like this.
I wasn't planning on attending because I had my own event at Landmark. I threw a 30th birthday party for one of my best friends that turned out over 75 people all night.
While I'm happy that my event was so well attended, I wonder why we were able to bring in a crowd but The Undercurrent wasn't. That makes me a little sad because The Undercurrent is such a valuable outlet here in Fresno.
well, you can't quite compare a free birthday party @ a bar to a... ticketed anniversary party @ a bar. i mean, one is a free deal, for a girl who knows a lot of people. i know people that went to landmark after the undercurrent show because they knew the girl having the party. and i know that landmark had a drink special in honor of her, but it's still not the same as a show with a $15 cover.
i know the undercurrent did promotions, but maybe not enough or to the right places.
one other thing that i didn't talk about in my post was that the starline grill was undercutting the undercurrent show a bit as well. some of the performers were doing little free shows next door for somebody's going away party. this could go two ways: someone sees your set and pays to go next door and see the full act; someone saw you play and now there's no incentive to pay for it.
Yes it was a shame the crowd was not what it should've been, and y'all have pretty much covered most of that angle.
At the same time, those of us that were there, saw some happy people.
People who'd made something from nothing. Three years ago there was no Undercurrent. For three years there has been. That's a long time to keep a severely independant paper going. I know we all wish to tip our hats to Carlos, Jessi and the host of others (even those two oddballs who write that column together). It's something to be proud of.
Let's hope for 3 x3 more years (at least) and let's hope there's some living and learning and party #4 gets all the love it deserves.
I did see Patrick Contreras there for most of the event....and the It's an Icicle guys...and probably more---but even if the band members themselves were there for more of the party, wouldn't the numbers have been higher?
blake,
good point about the bands not being there the whole time. i know that vince from sleepover was playing @ landmark during the show, so he couldn't be there except for pretty much their show, and i know eli had to jump in the car and run up to merced for a rademacher show after the fay wrays set.
kudos to the it's an icicle guys because they were there at least until sleepover disaster, i'm not sure if they stuck through destructo. shon j and his dj also were pretty much there the whole night. shoot, destructo was there the whole night. the more i think, most of the bands were there for the majority, it's just some couldn't. and i get that. and, if there were as many bands as last year, that would've been another dozen or so people.
I walked next door to The Starline Grill to grab a beer and a appetizer before I played. I walked violin in hand, which is not out of the norm for me. ( I love to sit at a bar, drink a beer, and practice my violin...i know...its weird)
I had heard about the going away party through text message earlier in the day. but kind of forgot about it.
When I was at Starline Grill...The person leaving, Cindy came up to me and, asked me if I could please play one song for her and that it would mean alot.
I played one song for the crowd and told them about the CD release block party.
I also made sure to tell people on an individual basis there that I was going to play next door in about twenty minutes. I noticed during my set at the undercurrent show a few people came in from the going away party. I don't know if they snuck in or paid.
--i responded because I didn't know if you meant me. But I did play one song for them about twenty minutes before I was to go on.
patrick,
i didn't mean you specifically. i just heard from a starline employee that "a bunch of the acts are playing over here for free." so, i don't know specifically who played, or what all the details were, i just know what i heard.
however, i'm glad to hear that you actually used that little time well, and plugged the hell out of the undercurrent show and your cd release party. to me, that's good use of time, and reminds me of the rogue vignettes that they do @ the grill.
Well, I do see your point about non-charging parties. However, all of the people who came to our party were the same people who paid to see SCRG bouts and benefits so realistically speaking, friends or not, if you promote, people will come.
You cant really fault the "free" events for lack of attendance at the party that was poorly promoted.
I just know that when I first started promoting events, I wasn't always successful. And in no way am I making a judgement against the undercurrent at all because I wasnt there but for situations like this, the most effective way to deal with it is to try to figure out what they did wrong and improve on it in the future.
There is no sense in pointing fingers at other parties or performers. The bottom line is, The Undercurrent needs to take stock of what they need to do better in the future.
joey,
you're right, the undercurrent can't blame other events for their attendance, and i hope it didn't sound like i was. really, i wasn't.
shoot, that's the reality in fresno now, there is a ton going on. there were free events, djs, and other shows all in the tower that night, and then there is whatever else was going on in the rest of the city. it's a good problem. and maybe in previous years they didn't have to contend with it as much, or they promoted better, or whatever. or maybe people just cared more about the undercurrent previously.
they do need to sit down, look @ the event, look @ all the details, and figure out why this year wasn't as good as previous years. and honestly, i hope at least one of them read my review and this thread.
this was a great post though..i had a feeling you were going to do a review so i checked the next day and voila! musta took a lotta work to splice..edit...upload..paste...etc etc
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