Our ears are still ringing from our show at Snug Harbor last Saturday night as part of the fantastic Treasure Fest. Thanks to all the good people that helped organize it and ensure that everything ran smoothly. We had a blast and we also got to see some incredible bands, like Restorations and Worn in Red.

But now we’re 3/4 back in Durham, 1/4 in the mountains, and we’re all getting ready for a Saturday night show at Casbah in downtown Durham with one of our favorites, American Aquarium. Pullman Strike (from Charlotte, and also founding fathers of Treasure Fest) will be joining us to help kick off this Memorial Day weekend in proper fashion–with loud rocknroll. You can buy advance tickets here or get them at the door.

Let’s talk about this album we’re working on. Here’s what we know:

1. it’s awesome
2. it ain’t finished

We’re all really excited about how it’s sounding though and we can’t wait to get it in your ears as soon as possible, THEREFORE…

We will be previewing a track or two on WKNC this Friday afternoon between 5-7 pm on the Local Beat with Adam Kincaid. Make sure you pull your car to the side of the road, tune in to 88.1, and turn that shit up.

Also, make your Halloween plans now, because Red Collar is going back to Gainesville, FL for Fest X. Going to The Fest is a punk rock pilgrimage and this year’s lineup is Fest alum only and the list of bands is unreal. We will pass along other details as we get them, including when/where we will be performing, as well as a possible tour to/from Gainesville that may include some other Fest bands.

That’s it for now. See ya soon,

R
E
D*Collar

***Thanks to Mimi for the photos.

And here it is action:

Plus, welcome home Jay!

Red Collar frontman Jason Kutchma returns from the road, Americana curios in tow

Jonathan here,

It was a tough few days in the Big Apple. Or, as Mike might say, “It’s no joke”.

I seriously dislocated and fractured my elbow before we even played. However, we still managed to pull off both of our scheduled shows and I had an appointment with a surgeon and a titanium bolt the day after we got back.

We gritted our teeth and got through it and we’re still getting through it, and we will continue getting through it. I do want to re-confirm that RED COLLAR WILL BE PLAYING the Troika Music Festival this Saturday night at the Trotter Building in downtown Durham with The Travesties, Maple Stave, and The Bronzed Chorus. It’ll be a one-armed show for me, but the one arm that I’ve got is ready to go double-time.

Unfortunately, we did have to postpone our tour dates in December. I apologize, but I still have quite a lot of physical therapy to undergo and we didn’t feel we would be able to give 100% for that length of time.

Finally, and most importantly, I wanted to thank everyone for their support and encouragement over the last week. It means a lot to me and to all of us and I hope to thank everyone in person this weekend at Troika!

Until then!

Most of the time after a show, we head out to the next city. Generally this gives us a nice jump-start on the next day. We’ll drive an hour till we get to a Flying J, a Rest Area or Wal-Mart parking lot then draw the blinds and get a nice restful sleep. That sleep varies from four hours to eight hours. I’ve found that the duration and restfulness of said sleep depends on the temperature and how stealthily we parked the van.
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The Boiler Room: Owensboro, KY
Mike: “This is going to be awesome”
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We were in the outdoor cabana section of The Boiler Room.  It was 9 o’clock and most of the time we play at 11 or midnight.  From the inside of The Boiler Room, the opening band, Rockin’ the Bells, started playing ‘Iron Man’.  The place was starting to fill up and honestly, I have never been more uncomfortable in my life.  I called Nate…again.

“Nate?  Jason here.  I got to be honest with you, I’m not really feeling this place”

“Wait a second man, where are you?”

“I’m in the cabana area.  Outside.  There’s some tiki torches and a fire pit and the crowd is kinda, I don’t know…”

“You’re surrounded by douche bags?”

“Well, uh, yes that’s right…now that you mention it”

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The Boiler Room: Owensboro, KY

As soon as we arrived, there was an immediate sense of we-don’t-belong.  As we went inside the wooden fence, onto the deck and past the fire pit, Beth said that she liked walking behind me, Mike and Jon because all she hears from people sitting under pink Panama Umbrellas is this:

“What…the fuck…ya’ll?”

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As we arrived I called Nate, The Promoter:
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Usually, there’s no Contact.  There’s no name of a guy that you’re supposed to talk to.  Believe it or not, most of the time we show up and say “We’re Red Collar and we’re playing tonight”.  It’s the opposite of what normally happens at places like hospitals.  To wit:

“I’m Jason and I’m here to see someone”

“Whom?”

“I don’t know”

“At what time?”

“I don’t know”

“For what?”

“I’m not sure”

It’s one of the luxuries of being in a band at our level.  You don’t have to worry about the details.  It’s nice to get the details.  It saves a lot of headaches to get the details.  Most of the time though, it’s not a huge deal.

Most of the time.
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So I’d just like to get this out of the way: I’m in a rock band. I’m not picking cotton. I get it.

I mention this fact more than occasionally in these blogs because I want you to understand that I understand that the trials and tribulations of a rock band pale to the everyday hardships of Jack Paycheck. I also mention this with fair regularity because every so often someone new stumbles on this blog and it’s important to restate this fact, even for those of you who have been here for a while.

When I wasn’t in a band, I was curious about Schooner and Jett Rink and The Rosebuds and The Sames. How do you book shows? How does that work? What were your first shows like? What was it like in other towns? Rock bands don’t have any duty to tell anyone anything, naturally. But I think that if the information is presented, I don’t know, maybe people would quit having to reinvent the wheel every time they say to a couple of their friends “Hey dude, wanna start a rock band?” This is why those Secondhand Freespace Forums can be so important. It’s why I consider this area to be a supportive scene: if you ask around, people that have been there help (if they can). It’s at least part of the reason that I write these things: before I was in a band I was curious about them and someone else might be curious about mine. I mean, if people want to be an electrician, there’s information out there. If people want to be a turd farmer, there’s information out there. Ya know?

Then again, maybe I’m doing a disservice because figuring out how to do all this on your own is part of the ‘thrilling experience’.
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Ross Grady runs an excellent music calendar at trianglerock.com. It’s a one-stop shop for seeing what rock shows are coming up in the particular week. Ross has a database of most (all?) of the bands that have ever called Raleigh, Durham, or Chapel Hill home. It is a great, great site. I, and most of the people I know, check this helpful site out regularly. In the calendar section, he sometimes has sporadic descriptions of some of the bands that are playing that week. Ross’s descriptions are brutally honest and (at least concerning Red Collar) have offered me up some terrific brain food with just a few words. Here’s what he said about Hammer No More the Fingers the other week:

“Hammer No More the Fingers probably played your prom, your cousin’s wedding, your office party, and the punk rock house show down the street last week, so I’m assuming you’ve seen them by now”

-Ross Grady at Trianglerock.com

This is a perfect quote for some things that I’ve been thinking about with Red Collar and some of the challenges we will no doubt be facing in the next few months. I want everyone to know that the reason that I bring it up here is not to gang up on Ross or defend HNMTF but to merely explain why bands do things the way they do: why they play the prom, the wedding and the office party and then the punk rock house show all in one week.
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The Blind Book

Booking is a rewarding but excruciatingly difficult part of being in a band. It’s rewarding because when you send out ten emails to ten venues in Philadelphia over the course of a month and finally (FINALLY!!) someone responds with “Yes, we’d love to have you” well… the cup runneth over with joy. I think it’s what my Dad feels when he has a successful putt but hopefully with a more successful proportion than I enjoy (remember: low and slow, Dad…low and slow). Over the course of two months leading up to the show, I’ll correspond with Philadelphia about line-ups and directions and start times and end times and flyers.

In the beginning of my booking experience, what wasn’t immediately obvious is this venue in Philadelphia has this same conversation with me AND the other three bands on the bill. AND THEN they have this same conversation with all the other bands that are coming to their venue that month AND every month after that. Some of them do this for years. From RDU…Jen, Justin, Kym, Mouse, Glenn, Frank, Derek, Mark, Chris M., Chris T….bless all of you. Part of my job in Red Collar is to find the Little Rock and Denton versions of all of you. After months of dialog with these bookers and venue owners from hundreds of miles away, I genuinely get a kick out of meeting these people face to face. Hopefully we have a good show at their venue and they are interested in having us back and thus it ceases to be a ‘Blind Book’.

Finding the venue is one thing but finding a local band to play with you is a whole other issue. Some venues will ask around for you. However, most of the time the touring band has to find the local band. See, you try and find the best matched band for you but if the band is the size of say Hammer No More the Fingers, well it’s not easy to get them to play on a Tuesday. But at least Hammer responds to query emails. Most bands don’t. If you are in a band, do the rock community a favor: quit being an asshole and respond…even if it’s with a simple “I’m sorry, we can’t play”. Admittedly, a lot of the bands that write to you and to us are (more often than not) terrible. This is the nature of myspace. Yet one day it will be you that is doing the asking and through careful analysis and years of scientific formulations and studies, I can say with all certainty:

Karma’s a bitch.

I know, I know. Your band is deluged with myspace message after myspace message. There’s simply not enough time in the day for you to get back to all the adoring fans AND all the bands desperate to bask in the shine of your Rockdom. Well, if you have the time to read these blogs, you have time to respond with five words to a soon-to-be-cynical bassoon player who has the unenviable role of being ‘The Booking Guy’ for his shitty band from Tuscaloosa. RC tries very hard to respond to everyone. If we haven’t, I’m sorry. You slipped through the cracks…

…or you suck really, really badly. (Beth note: no one sucks that bad, dear. everyone deserves a response.)

Booking is an instance where I’m sure being on a label is an absolute advantage. Being on a Name Label means someone has already sorted through a bunch of crap and found you as opposed to bands that aren’t on a Name Label. Without the Name Label, you may be a diamond in the rough but you’re still in the rough and lots and lots of bands out there are in the rough too (and by ‘in the rough’ I mean ‘in a huge stinky pile of dog shit’). Bands of any size (Red Collar included) are more than willing to play on a Monday if the band on the Name Label needs local support because “Hey maybe they’ll pass along our album to so and so”. In my opinion, perfectly reasonable thing to do…if that is one’s goal.

With successful booking, there is an immense sense of accomplishment. Successful booking is no doubt rewarding. Key word in those two sentences: ‘successful’. You put a lot of work into getting that one show and then if you should happen to have a great show, it’s wonderful when people ask you back. Unsuccessful booking however? Urgghh. Essentially the whole process is difficult because of two things.

Reason Number One: Hearing “No.”

Well, not really hearing “No”. Not exactly. Ideally, I’d love to hear “No”. In a perfect world, I’d cuddle up next to a “No” fireplace wearing a Snuggie with “No” written all over it, sipping hot cocoa from a mug with “No” on it and think to myself: “Life is good”. I’d bathe in a bathtub full of sweet sudsy “No” every day compared to what actually happens for us.

See, we don’t hear “No”.

We hear:

Nothing

The reason we hear nothing at all is because in the case of venues, we are the tenth band that has emailed the venue that day about that particular date and just isn’t time enough for those people to write everyone back. Understandable. Red Collar is booking totally blind. They don’t know us from any other no-draw numbskull band that wants to play at their venue. We don’t have any connections or any friends in the towns we are booking. From the conversations that I’ve had with other touring bands, we are not uncommon.

Here’s what I do: I go on myspace and find the zip code of a city that we are going to play. I plug that zip code into the myspace search engine and peruse the bands and venues that are listed. I try and find bands that we sound like and then I see what venues they are playing. I will then write to those venues. I tell these venues what we sound like and who we have played with. I mention that we are touring to support our new album* Pilgrim. Booking an eighteen-day tour is a pain in the ass because you have to play Baton Rouge on Wednesday because you have to be in Houston on Thursday. If Baton Rouge doesn’t work out, maybe…just maybe…New Orleans will. But playing New Orleans is going to make the ride on Thursday just a little bit longer and a little more tiring.

14 out of 15 times, no one responds with anything, let alone a “No”. It is irritating but again, understandable. Glenn at the Local 506 used to send out a stock email that said something like “The 506 is a 250 person venue. Try and build up a following in the town before playing here. You should play The Nightlight or the Cave or Jack Sprat” and it listed out their contacts as well as the contacts of publications in the area to promote the show. This is above and beyond what we ever get from other venues. Not sure if he still does this.

Blind booking challenges one’s patience and endurance. It is, in my mind, a test in a way. Do I believe in this enough to keep on doing this humiliating and aggravating process? It’s scary how many times the answer to that isn’t always what you want it to be. But after a good night’s sleep, a decent band practice, and hopefully one or two helpful promoters/bookers/venue owners, you find a way.

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The Friendly Book

One approach to avoiding The Blind Book and the inevitable rejections is by making connections with other bands by inviting them to Raleigh, Durham or Chapel Hill to play first. That way, when you have to book, you don’t have to go through the frustrating experience of being ignored. People are already friendly with one another. All of us in Red Collar are fairly new to playing in bands on a serious level so we don’t quite have the connections that maybe people assume.

Swapping shows with other bands is an absolute fantastic way of doing business. If I had to do it all over again, this is exactly what I would’ve done from the very beginning. This method has only one drawback:

You play locally… a lot.
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I had mentioned before that there are two reasons the process of booking is difficult. The first reason is Hearing No.

Reason Number Two: Saying No

Referring back to the trianglerock.com quote in the beginning of this blog:

Here’s why Hammer No More the Fingers probably played the prom, the cousin’s wedding, the office party, and the punk rock house show down the street last week. My guess is the prom was with a band from Asheville that might be able to get Hammer a show on a very lucrative Saturday nonetheless. The cousin’s wedding was probably for the drummer of a band from Pittsburgh that let Hammer crash on their floor. The office party was more than likely a benefit show that a long-time fan wanted them to play.

And the punk rock house show?

Well hell, they didn’t get any door money at the prom, the cousin’s wedding and of course the office party. Because the guys in Hammer are stand up fellas, they gave up that money to traveling bands and a charity. They played the punk rock house show because every so often it’s nice to put a twenty or two towards the loan for the production costs of the album you recorded a year ago.
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My guess is that this is why you see Hammer No More the Fingers and others playing locally so much. People helped them out in the past. Hammer could set up a show for the out of town band with some friends of theirs but then Hammer ends up ‘owing’ the local band anyways.

People ask them and it’s hard to say no. It’s really, really hard to say no when people have told you no or implied no over and over and over again for months or years.

You know what’s easy?

Telling bands “You should say no more often”.

It’s very, very hard to say no to someone who helped you out by playing a Monday in Kentucky and now they need a favor and you have to help them out on a Tuesday. I’ve heard (but don’t know if this is true) that the band Stephanie’s Id from Asheville started a festival to pay back all the bands that gave them favors and this grew into a larger festival. It’s a great idea.

I’m not sure what the solution could be for us. Should we post it on our myspace? Post it on trianglerock.com somewhere? Post it on alt.music.chapel-hill? I don’t know. We’ve done a shit ton of touring the past couple of months and met a lot of great bands. Some of these bands we’ll owe and others are simply great and they are bands that I will want to help.

I’m not sure what to do. I think I might do some solo shows or something or acoustic or whatever but I’m not sure if that’s fair.

Suggestions?

*If you’re reading this, Pilgrim’s more than likely not new to you but my guess is that if the promotion of a ‘Known Album’ by a ‘Known Band’ is about one year then the promotion of an ‘Unknown Album’ for an ‘Unknown Band’ is probably two years. Two years. Yes. Two Years. That sound you just heard is a groan from my band mates and our local fans.

Jason

After coming home from the March Tour dates with The Bones Royal and The Whiskey Folk Ramblers, we had about a month before heading out again. We made the decision to do our touring in two different circuits. Both would be east of the Mississippi to avoid the heart of the country where you have to drive seven or eight hours to get to your show. These different circuits would be divided into two: one with states north of North Carolina (in GREEN) and the other with states south of North Carolina (in PURPLE).

Notice that we are not touring the Northeast or Florida. This is purposeful but unfortunate. See, in a very short period of time, we’re trying to hit the same cities as much as possible. You could make a whole tour of just hitting places in Florida or the Northeast but we thought it wiser to go back to places that we’ve already played.

Our plan was to have eighteen days on, then come home for ten. So we’d play the North Circuit for eighteen then have ten off then play the South Circuit eighteen then have ten off and then repeat the whole process over again. Eighteen is manageable for booking.

It’s also manageable for failing.

At this stage in our career, you can have some good dates mixed in with some bad dates and it doesn’t work on your psyche too badly. Everyone in this band understands this: it starts off slow, you play to two or three people, then hopefully it builds just like it does in your hometown. We have accepted that. But if you play for two people for sixteen out of eighteen days straight, I imagine one really starts to question the value of what they are doing. Eighteen days allows you to sprinkle in some cities that you have friends and family, playing to ten people instead of two, bookending the bad nights.

Ten days off gives Mike and Beth some time to come home and work and it gives me some time to finish off the last couple of projects on the house before it goes on the market. On paper it seems okay but in reality ten days off is not a lot of time. I was able to paint the ceilings and a hallway but I didn’t have time to do the landscaping that I had planned. It’ll have to wait till July. We also have to assemble our CD’s in the next day or two and I have to figure out how to install an RV Roof Fan on the top of our van, Vandrew Blass.

Sticking to east of the Mississippi gives us two great luxuries: money and time. Most of the cities east of the Mississippi are within four hours of one another. There was one show where we woke up around eleven, got in the van and drove eight and a half hours, arrived in the city and immediately unpacked, set up within an hour and played within the next hour. That wasn’t fun. I can’t imagine doing that for three weeks. Keeping the dates within 250 miles gives you some room to breathe. Also, gas generally will cost $50 a day. The greater distance between cities, the more gas it takes to get there.

Here’s how you make that $50: two CD’s ($20), one T-Shirt ($10), door money (12 people at $5 cover is $60; divided by Red Collar and two other bands is $20). On a couple of occasions, the locals generously gave us their share.

Some days you make $50. Other days you make $10. You pray that it’ll balance out with a $90 show. $50 is way less than the actual operating costs of course. There’s van maintenance, there’s the next order of CD’s, the next order of T-Shirts, and the Publicity. Hometown shows are really, really important in trying to get ahead of the game.

And then there’s the food. Everyone in Red Collar is responsible for the cost of their own food. Hopefully on the next couple of tours, Red Collar is able to pay for everyone’s food at say a $5 per diem. In that case, we’d have to make $70 a day. This $70 obviously doesn’t include a person’s rent and bills at home, that’s what the ‘down time’ is for-which isn’t down time at all. It’s actually the exact opposite. I’ve definitely worked much more efficiently with deadlines than I did when I just did Red Collar part time. Beth said she’s the same way at her work. I imagine Mike picks up more double shifts too.

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Pittsburgh

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, please read the whole blog. I’ll also say this: we all have bad days, days that you wish you should’ve stayed in bed. I wish I could make the claim that when I have a bad day, I don’t take it out on everyone I come across. Yet I have done that. Once or twice. Maybe three times. I wish that I didn’t, but I did. We all have days like that. Hopefully they are rare. For you and for everyone around you.

But we all have days like that. Don’t we? Some people take sick days. In this profession, there are no sick days.

Beth is from Pittsburgh and I am from Johnstown, about an hour and a half east of Pittsburgh. I always like playing there though admittedly it’s not the city that we have had our best shows for some reason. Maybe because it is a hometown, I don’t know. For this tour, we were going to play at the Garfield Art Works run by Manny Theiner. The Garfield Art Works is kinda like our BCHQ: an all ages community art space. I like playing shows at these kinds of places. We were playing with Blackbird Pie as well as The Atomic Drops consisting of two good friends of mine: Mike and Phil. We were supposed to be at the venue at 7:30 to unload. We arrived and The Atomic Drops were already there. The doors were unfortunately locked. Not a big deal. People run late. After hugs and pleasantries, this is what happened.

Mike: “So touring’s been going okay?”

Me: “It has. No complaints”
Mike: “No one would listen if you had them”

Me: “Yeah, right. What time did you guys get here?”
Mike: “Just a few minutes ago”

Me: “Cool, cool”

Mike: “So did Manny book this show?”
Me: “Yeah, he did”
Mike: “That guy’s an asshole”

I have heard this from several people over the past decade. I never met Manny, I only heard about him. I went to school at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh in the early 90’s and I think I saw him at every show I ever attended in Pittsburgh. I didn’t know this until later but the reason that I saw him at those show is because he wasn’t just an audience member like me but he was the one who brought the show to Pittsburgh. He was the promoter. From what I guess and gather from conversations that I’ve had with friends and bands from the area, he’s responsible for bringing a lot of great music to Pittsburgh. At the time, no one else was doing it. Would it have happened without him? I don’t know. The job he’s done for Pittsburgh Music is pretty remarkable and I hope not forgotten by the end of this blog.

What this means, reader, is that the man has been dealing with bands and fans in a professional manner for just shy of twenty years but probably longer.

Read this statement another way:

What this means, reader, is that the man has been dealing with flakes and drunks in a professional manner for just shy of twenty years but probably longer.

I cut him some slack because I’ve been dealing with flakes and drunks for not nearly as long and, well, BIG SURPRISE, it’s not always pleasant. I also obviously wouldn’t have seen any of those shows that I went to in the early 90’s if he were not doing it.

Since the doors were locked to the venue, we walked a few storefronts down to have a beer and watch the beginning of the Pittsburgh Penguin vs. Carolina Hurricanes Playoff Game. Sports are KING in Pittsburgh, there’s no denying or trying to beat it. In North Carolina, I think my friends would still pick their rock and roll over their sports teams yet basketball games do cause mandatory intermission at rock shows.

At least the rock shows start in the first place.

I soon found out that if you are competing with the Penguins and most definitely Steelers (though probably the Pirates) it’s not the case in Pittsburgh.

8:00PM. At the doorway of the bar:

Mike: “Didn’t I tell you he was an asshole?”
Me: “What?”

Mike: “I told you…I mean…I was feeling bad that I called him an asshole, I really was. I thought maybe the guy has changed but no, this guy is an asshole”
Me: “What…?”

Mike: “He doesn’t want to have the show because he has a headache”
Me: “I don’t understand”

Mike: “Just…just come here”

The one and only Manny Theiner stood at the doorway of The Garfield Art Works. Manny looks like a punk rock Woody Allen. With a Steelers Cap.

Manny: “Who are you?”
Me: “Hi Manny. I’m Jason from Red Collar”

Manny: “Look, I have a headache okay. A HEAD ACHE. Understand?”
Me: “Do you want something for it? We have Excedrin, Tylenol…”

Manny: “No I don’t want anything. I don’t want anything. I need to just lie down. I don’t take anything. Understand?”
Me: “Okay. No problem. So you don’t want the show to happen because of your headache”

Manny: “I have a head ache. It is pounding in my head. I can’t lift that speaker…”
Me: “We’ll help with the speaker…”

Manny: “Forget about the speaker! I am being sabotaged today!! I am being ATTACKED!!” Personally attacked!!!!”
Me: “What do you mean?”

Manny: “My website has been hacked. HACKED! Last week someone was posting reviews of show here THAT NEVER HAPPENED. People are posting fake shows in the City Paper and they are pretending to be me. ATTACKED!!! You can call me an asshole, I don’t care. Your band mates can call me an asshole. I don’t care”

He started hyperventilating and grasped the doorway.

Me: “Okay. Let me understand. Just…calm. You want to cancel the show? Am I understanding you correctly?”
Manny: “I am being attacked today. Look at my website. LOOK”

He showed me his laptop and indeed The Garfield Art Works website had a simple statement:

Hacked by ICEE STUNTX (or some such name)

Manny: “YOU SEE? Sabotage. SABOTAGED! I have a head ache, I am running this place by myself. I have been sleeping on that couch for three days. IT’S A MONDAY!!! I am being attacked. There is a hockey game going on that YOU ALL WERE WATCHING”
Me: “Yes but there was no one here and…”

Manny: “I have had shows all week and every time the Penguins were playing, there was no one here. We are not going to have a show where you just play for the bands”
Me: “Manny…”

Manny: “No one will be here”
Me: “Manny…”

Manny: “No one. I don’t understand these fucking hipsters drinking Pabst and watching some stupid fucking game. All week I have lost money. The bands play for no one and they get mad AT ME. I don’t have anything to do with it. I put the show on my website, I hang up flyers”

At this point, Phil from The Atomic Drops got in his car and drove away.

Mike: “These guys drove from North Carolina and you don’t want to have this show?”
Manny: “No. There’s no point. They’re going to be playing to no one”

Mike: “But people are coming”
Manny: “How many?”

Silence.

Manny: “See?”
Me: “Let me check with all the bands and see how many people they are expecting”

“Fine”

I went back to the bar with the hockey game to talk with Blackbird Pie, the other Pittsburgh band.

“Okay, how many guys are you expecting to come out?”

“Well.. like maybe.. I don’t know…four?”

“Does four mean two?”

“Yeah”

“Okay. Okay. Mike, how many is The Atomic Drops expecting?”

“Like. Five?”

“Meaning two?”

“Yes”

“Red Collar is also expecting five…”

“Meaning two?”

“No. Meaning one because one of my ‘five meaning two’ is one of your ‘five meaning two’ so my five means actually one”

“Blackbird is bringing two, Atomic Drops two and Red Collar one. Five people total”

I went back to Manny.

“Look Manny, we’ve expecting like ten people”

“I’d do this show for ten”

“But…it’s a soft ten”

“What the fuck does that mean?”

“Ten means five”

“I’d do this show for five people. But you’re sure five? While the game is going on?”

Silence.

“Gimmee a minute”

I went back to the bar and was talking with all of the bands.

“Look. I don’t know if this show should happen. If it’s just a show for the bands? I don’t know. He obviously doesn’t want it to happen, I’m not going to say he’s wrong. But all night there’s going to be this vibe from him, right? The I-told-you-so-vibe”

No one had any answers. Manny walked in to the bar.

Manny: “Okay. I’ll have the show. But you’ve got to understand that I’ve been hacked. I just found out an hour ago that I’ve been hacked. Someone has a target on me. This is my business and someone wants to shut it down. Now I’ll do this, okay but…”

At that exact moment (and dear Lord I am not exaggerating…seriously THAT EXACT MOMENT), Pittsburgh scored and the place exploded in cheers, hugs and chaos.

Manny Theiner also exploded:

“AAAAGH! Fucking. Fuck Fucks. I hate this GAME. I HATE IT!! Fuck them!! Fuck you too!”

And he stormed away.

Phil came back and very calmly said:

“Fuck him. I got us a show at Belvedere’s. No cover. The show has to start after the game, but it’s a show”

“Awesome. Thanks Phil”

People finished their beers. I went back to Garfield Art Works. It was locked. I knocked, Manny answered.

“So it looks like we’re playing at Belvedere’s”

Nothing.

“I can help you with the speaker”

“No. Thank you. I’ll get the speaker later”

“Okay”

Manny sighed “Look. No one was going to be here. No one will be at Belvedere’s either”

“They don’t want us to start till after the game”

“See?”

“Three months ago, neither of us knew that a hockey game would be going on tonight”

“No. It’s a Monday too. I mean, what did you guys expect?”

“What are you going to do? Sure I wish every night was a Friday and Saturday but that’s not the case”

“I understand that. You’ve got to understand that I am being attacked and my world is falling apart”

Silence.

Manny said “I’ll email your guy Pat. If you don’t want to work with me in the future, I understand. I hope so but I get it if you don’t”

____________________________

We were getting ready to get into the van to go to Belvedere’s. Jon asked to give him a minute. He took out a piece of paper and wrote on it, got some tape and stuck it on the Garfield Art Works door.

Me: “What was that about?”
Jon: “I wrote a note saying the show has been moved to Belvedere’s”

Me: “Good idea”
Jon: “I also wrote Fuck Manny Theiner”

Me: “That’s not such a good idea”
Jon: “Fuck him”

Me: “No you didn’t”
Jon: “Yes I did”

Me: “No you didn’t”
Jon: “Yes I did”

Me: “Why?”

“Fuck him! They guy didn’t want to have a show because he had a headache?!?! Fuck him!”

“And do you think your sentiments are the same as everyone else’s? Do you think I feel that way? Does Mike feel that way? Does Red Collar collectively feel that way? Do the other bands feel that way?”

Atomic Drops (collectively): ”Yes”

Blackbird Pie (collectively): “Yes”

“Jon, I want you to think about this”

“Fine”

Jon walked to the door with the marker.
“I signed my name”

____________________________________

We went to Belvedere’s and started setting up. The phone rang.

“Is there a Jon Truesdale here?” asked the Bartender at Belvedere’s. “Jon? Anyone here Jon?”

“Yeah I am”

“Manny Theiner is coming down here to kick your ass”

Sidenote: If you met Manny, this image is a funny sight.

“Tell him to come on down”

“He’s not coming down. I heard what happened and I told him that if he came down here I’D kick his ass. I got your back, son.”
Sidenote: This image was an even funnier sight. Jon needing ‘back’ against Manny.

We had a good show. We sold a T-Shirt and some CD’s. The other bands played well. The Atomic Drops were great. They play at The Heavy Rebel Weekender in Winston so if you get out there, please check them out and name drop Manny. Phil really saved us. We had two days off before then and having a third off wouldn’t have felt the greatest.

The thing about Manny is he was right. He was absolutely right. We would’ve played the show for the bands and to a guy with a headache that had more pressing things to do. I’m assuming what Manny does at Garfield Art Works is what he does for at least part of his living. The people that work these community art spaces are heaven sent in my mind. They don’t do this for a lot of money, if any at all. Jeff at the Spazz in Greenville constantly deals with other issues besides bands and fans. The BCHQ folks, 709 Railroad Street in Johnstown, the Lemp is St. Louis. And I’m grateful. And again, we’ve all had shitty days. It seems like Manny has a lot of shitty days but it can’t be fun to be in his shoes either. I think it’s in a vicious circle now cause people assume he’s an asshole and so they treat him like one and thus he assumes everyone thinks he’s an asshole so why be otherwise?

The complaint that I heard about Manny was that he’s essentially not a ‘people person’ and I wish that he would’ve told us his reservations earlier in the day. That’s what happened in Cleveland a month before. Three hours before the show, Cleveland simply called and said:

“No one is going to come to the show. I’m not going to have it” CLICK.

We were already in Cleveland, parked in front of the damn venue as well.

______________________

Manny wrote an email to Pat, our manager, explaining the situation and it was a calmly written email. I called Manny the next day to say that everything worked out.

“How’s your headache?”

“It’s fine. I just needed to rest”

“And the website?”

“It turns out that it wasn’t a personal attack and that everyone from the particular provider was attacked not just me”

“Well that’s good…I guess?”

“Yes. That’s good. That’s better”

“Good”

“So I got a little note from Jonny Truesdale. And the only reason I saw the note was that three girls did come to see you guys, they knocked on the door and I saw the note”

“Yeah well. No one was happy that the show was cancelled”

“Yeah”

“Yeah. But in the end you were right, no one was there till after the game”

“Well these girls showed up while the hockey game was going on so you guys were right too”

“Yeah”

“Yeah”

“Maybe next time”

“Maybe next time”

“Take care”

“Good luck on the road”

And again, we all have bad days. We all have woken up with a pounding headache and we call in sick. The people in this business can’t do that. Should I have screamed and shouted at him? I don’t know. What good would that do?

I just watched ANVIL: The Story of Anvil last night. Some things are worth fighting for/about. Other shit, you have to let go and pick your battles and make sure you have enough energy left over to problem solve.

Jason

I had told you before about what we considered a decent crowd: ten people.  The last week of Red Collar’s First Ever Half-National Tour, with one exception, would be considered anything but decent.

As a reminder, or actually maybe I haven’t mentioned it until this point, from March to April 2009 we were touring half of the country with two other bands: New York’s The Bones Royal and Fort Worth’s The Whiskey Folk Ramblers.  Both were really good bands with great people in them.  We got hooked up with them because our manager knows the manager for The Bones Royal and The Bones Royal’s manager knows The Whiskey Folk Ramblers’ manager.

Rewind to dawn of April 2009.  Just one more week to go and then home sweet home.  After Oklahoma City, we continued to Tulsa.  It was the beginning of April and the weather was getting weird.  Really weird.  The wind was exceptionally strong and the forecast called for a snowstorm delivering three to six inches in the next twenty-four hours.  Just a tad more north of us and they’d get ten inches.  In Tulsa that night, we asked the other bands if we could play first so we could beat the weird weather and drive to St. Louis where my Sister and her family live.

We set up early and did a sound check and asked the Soundman if it would be okay if we could just play for a little while and noodle around with some ideas.  It is challenging on the road to actually ‘practice’ and write new songs because Red Collar is a band that likes its distortion and electricity.  It really does make a difference from a song-writing perspective.  I’ve written some stuff on acoustic and assumed it would work great but some didn’t translate.  If you heard ‘The Commuter’ and ‘Rust Belt Heart’ on KNC a few eeks ago you also know that it doesn’t necessarily easily translate on accordion (thank you Caid for your patience!)

In the writing stage, before songs become songs, we’ve tried over and over to describe songs like “Hey let’s try that one that goes ba-na ba-na now, ba-na ba-na now, ba-na ba-na now, nah na-na na nah”.  And everyone looks at one another and asks, “Which one is that?”  (Shame on all of you for not recognizing ‘Hands Up’)  We call the songs something that reminds everyone of the hook.  Sometimes it’s the name of the band member that came up with the main riff like a “Mike Song”.  Sometimes it’s bands that we think the song sounds like.  Like most bands, we don’t consciously make an effort to sound like anyone but after playing a part over and over for a couple of hours until everyone figures out what they are playing, someone says “That kind of sounds like The Blanks”.   For a while, “Radio On” was “Hold Steady”.  “Tools” was “des_ark”.  “The Commuter” was “Arcade Fire”.  We currently have a “Maple Stave”.  Now we have a song that we refer to as “Tulsa”.

Tulsa was a good show.  We played well.

“I’m giving it all she’s got, Captain”

After Tulsa, Jon hauled ass to St. Louis.  The St. Louis show was a lot of fun.  As I said my Sister lives there and she did a great job bringing folks out (THANK YOU!).  I was also completely floored to see…Sandra and Jaime! (psst…THANK YOU!)  The crowd was great; it felt like a hometown show.  As we were packing up, the snow started falling.  In the span of half an hour, the snow started dumping.  My sister lives twenty or so minutes from the venue but the more we traveled, the harder the snow started to fall.  It was like the start of every warp speed in movies when the stars come toward the crew with trailing tails of light.  Eventually I couldn’t see anything through the windshield so I had to concentrate on the yellow median line.  The twenty-minute trip turned into an easy hour.

The next morning…the snow was gone.  There was no evidence of a storm save for misty macadam.

We continued to Chicago.  I saw some dear friends of mine that I don’t see nearly enough.  Another handful of folks came out to see us because of a recommendation from Kyle Miller, owner of Churchkey Records (thanks Kyle).  That recommendation doubled our attendance at the venue.  Instead of three, we had six. Honestly, that’s a big difference.  I start to put everything in perspective with touring.   You have to.  Here’s an example:

We played DC the other week (May 13, 2009).  We played with a band from Toronto, one from New York and one from DC.  We played first on the bill.  We’ve played DC several times and hey, we’re all friends here reading this blog, right?  You guys know me and know that I’m not the kind of guy that likes to brag.  I LOVE IT.  It was no surprise that two thirds of the audience were there to see us.  US!!!   Two-thirds!!

Well, two-thirds in this case equals four people.

“If you build it, they will come.  If you book it, well…hope for the best”

Here’s the last leg of the tour:

Chicago, Illinois.  Six people.

Bloomington, Indiana.  The show was canceled for lack of turnout.

Cleveland, Ohio.  The show was canceled last minute by the promoter.  I quote, “There’s no locals on this show.  It’s a Tuesday.  Why are we going to do this again?”

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  Five people.

Brooklyn, New York.  Five people.

The last week killed us.  We had been doing okay money-wise before it.  Not great.  But okay.  We bled money after Chicago.  That’s the way it goes.  You have to not only prepare for it but also expect it.  The Cleveland Incident was annoying.  Why?  BECAUSE THEY KNEW THREE MONTHS AGO THAT IT WAS GOING TO BE ON A TUESDAY AND NO LOCALS WERE ON THE BILL.

Our biggest mistake with this first tour was obvious: we played with two other out-of-town bands.  But my assumption was that if each band brought out three to seven people each show, well then we’d play each night for about ten to twenty people.  This wasn’t the case.  The advantage of doing this tour was that we got a lot of help booking it from the other band’s managers.  This is crucial. We wouldn’t have done a lot of these dates if someone else hadn’t helped us out and thusly wouldn’t have done this at all.

For the next tours, we’re only booking shows with locals and unless you are playing with bands that have a draw, I’d suggest doing the same.  There aren’t many places where there is a natural crowd that just go to see shows.  As I mentioned in the past, part of touring these first couple of times is to find decent places to play that may have good natural crowds on particular nights.  I would love to help out other bands that we know with some touring but honestly, it’s extraordinarily tough to do this.  Hopefully we get a toehold in some of these cities and in a few months we won’t have to rely so much on locals.  American Aquarium is at that point, actually they are beyond that point, and they were generous enough to have us tag along for a couple of regional dates earlier this year.  In the past, we had an unbelievable blast doing regional stuff with Rat Jackson and Hammer No More the Fingers.

Doing that in Skokie, Illinois…not so much.

Not yet.

The last night of the tour was New York, The Bones Royal’s hometown.  I like New York in theory but in practice sometimes you can only say “Well, that’s New York for ya”.  They poll there (at least in the places that we’ve played).  They ask everyone who comes in to the venue what band they are there to see.  So at the end of the night, you are paid according to who you bring out.  It seems fair on paper but in practice that causes a very competitive attitude, I would guess.  One of our friends in New York said, “That’s nothing.  I’ve played shows where I was on a bill with three other bands.  People paid to see Band Number One.  THEY CLEARED EVERYONE OUT OF THE VENUE after they played.  If people wanted to see band two, they had to pay again”.  I guess I’m writing this not necessarily to complain but as disclosure for those of you who are touring and will have one less surprise while out there.  I’d be interested in any stories (plus and minus) on this.  If you have one, let us all know. (Beth says “fuck polling”.  Just say you’re they’re to see all the bands.  That should do it.)

Maybe from a venue owner standpoint this polling stuff is good, I don’t know.  A lot of things work for New York but not for a lot of other places.  Fair enough.  My gut says that it’s annoying though not necessarily unfair.  It’s actually very fair from a strict interpretation of the definition.  It’s very by the book: pay for what you want, earn what you bring.  But I don’t think it’s good to treat bands kind like  sushi on a conveyor belt.  It emphasizes the promotion side of being in a band.  We’ve played with a lot of bands and some of them have been absolutely amazing at promotion.  They flyer the hell out of a town.  They call the radio stations to play their music.  They have postcards made up that they leave around the bar and on stage.  The postcards have a great professional picture of the band on it meaning it’s well lit and they have hair stylists and usually in the background there’s lightning and a brewing storm…a brewing storm of rock and roll coming to your town!  We just stopped at a Wendy’s in Bloomington, Illinois.  One of these kinds of bands had a postcard on a bulletin board.  They throw their CD’s from the stage.  They are incredible at this aspect of being in a rock band.  Let me tell you the side that they are not so good at:

Actually playing the fucking music.  Most of these bands are terrible.  But I’m sure they draw and do well at polling places.

Back to New York…  At the end of the set Jon proposed driving back to Durham that night/morning.  It was a Friday and normally I would suggest just staying the night because it’s an eight or nine hour drive.  However…

…VIKING STORM WAS THE NEXT NIGHT.

We had to get back to Durham.

We weren’t supposed to be able to make this show.  Our tour was supposed to go another week.  It didn’t happen cause venues flaked out.  Promoters flaked out.  Bands flaked out.  In the end, Red Collar flaked out (sorry Johnstown!) That’s the way it goes. I’m glad the tour didn’t go longer.  The tour was just long enough for a very first tour: just shy of a month.

I was in a daze at the Hammer show.  I didn’t quite recognize people right away.  I was asked several times how the tour went and I think I answered “okay”.  People asked me how I was doing and I think I said I was “okay”.  I remember talking with Shayne and feeling really spacey.  I don’t know why.  I wasn’t sure how to answer or something.    I felt like I was gone forever but only gone for a day.  I was soooo excited to get back home, sooo excited to see my friends, to see Hammer.  But I couldn’t wait to get back on the road.

How was the tour?

How was the tour?

The only honest to heaven goal I had for that March-April Tour was: DO IT.  That’s it.  I didn’t care if we came out in the black or red or how many T-Shirts or CD’s we sold or how many new fans we made.  That is all stuff that you can’t really count on (unless Red Collar gets postcards made with lighting and tornado’s and hell fire).  We just had to do it and come home on the day we planned.

Goal accomplished. I was still sorting out all this in my head at the Hammer show (you guys killed by the way).  So if I wasn’t coherent when you asked me where Beth was, I sincerely apologize if I said “Huh?  Wha..?  Sleeping in the van I think…what time do we go on?  Schenectady?”

But a couple of other very, very important things happened on that first tour:

1. The van held up.
2. Besides Pittsburgh, we played at least well for all the shows, sometimes good and a few times great.
3. We all still get along.  No small task.
4. We all still want to do this and find value in what we are doing.  No small task.

The greatest thing I heard when we came home (except for the sweet, sweet sounds of Hammer No More the Fingers) was this statement from Steve Jones of The Dry Heathens:

“Welcome Home”

It wasn’t “Welcome Back” but “Welcome Home”.

That felt good.

Thanks, Steve.

Thanks, Durham.

Jason