Second US Tour of 2011 – blog #6 (End of Tour)
Driving Stats:
Miles Driven - 3711
Average Speed - 51 mph
Miles Per Gallon - 33
Well, we've made it to the last week of the tour, and the final blog entry for this Second US Tour of the Year. This entry is going to be a doozy, so grab some coffee. I've been in Nashville for almost two weeks now, so I'm sure that I've forgotten some of the more interesting details, but hopefully it will all come back to me as I type.
I stayed near Harrisburg after my show on Saturday, the 21st. I did a lot of driving that day. The next day would be another 2-show day. But I would only be playing one set at each of these shows, so it wasn't stressful. And for a Sunday, things turned out quite well.
I arrived in Frederick, MD early, to unwind and get another blog entry composed. If you recall one of the entries needing to be finished because my netbook's battery was depleted, this was the scene for that composition. Frederick is a very cool "historic" town in Maryland. I have become rather fond of it and its people. There is a Sunday Songwriters' Showcase that takes place at the main independent coffee house in town, and I returned to play a set there. Another former Berklee student was on the lineup as well, which is always a neat thing to run into. We hadn't attended Berklee at the same time, though. I sold a few cds, and people tipped well. It was a good show for a late Sunday afternoon. Many faces at the Frederick shows are starting to become familiar to me now, and a few friends made a drive out to catch my set as well.
I was going to put up a picture or two here, but the photographer has them protected, so here is a link to his flickr page for the event.
I grabbed a quick bite for dinner at the coffee house, and then headed to DC (Arlington, VA), where I would be the "featured artist" at the weekly open mic at Northside Social Club. The event is hosted by a friend I met here in Nashville over a year ago, while he was visiting and playing some shows. Several friends from the Pittsburgh area who have since relocated came out for this show, and it was great to see them and catch up. I also made a few new friends (one of which would come out for another show later in the week), and sold another 7 cds. There was no real request for the audience to tip at this show, so I'm always a little nervous about those gigs, because I need to be selling merch in order to make any money. But all in all, it was a great and supportive environment for live music on a Sunday night.
The next few days would be the worst of the tour. I believe I mentioned that I didn't have much time to get this tour planned, due to having to get things squared away for a week of shows in London in February and a longer tour in March/April. This week would include a couple more open mic "feature" sets, which, as I mentioned, can be really good, but also have the chance of not working out so great.
On Monday, I did the only show of the entire tour that yielded no cd sales. I believe it was the last show we put on the schedule, and I probably just should have given myself a day off. But the venue was very cool (I went back to Philadelphia to play a two-story coffee shop), and the staff was very nice. The time for this show was a bit strange ("any time between 2 and 7"). I think I got there around 2 or 2:30. They fed me a light lunch, and I slowly set up the stage area upstairs. There were just 2 or 3 people up there when I arrived, so I decided to wait a bit, to see if things picked up. I finished eating, and finished setting up, and waited around a bit. I finally started playing, maybe around 4 or so, after a few people wandered upstairs. They seemed very interested, especially in the looping, and even sent texts and made calls to invite friends out for my second set. I took a break between sets, and people looked at CDs. I thought for sure that I'd sell at least two, but no dice. I played the second set, and friends of the people came out for the second set, but all I left with was 5 bucks in tips. I was pretty surprised, especially after the enthusiastic response that I received. Sometimes things don't turn out the way you expect them to. The coffee shop gave me a sandwich for the road, and I headed to Wilmington, DE, where I would be staying the next two nights.
On Tuesday, I would hit two venues again. A fan in Philly had informed me that there was a great new venue in Wilmington. There is a famous-ish venue in Philadelphia called World Cafe Live, and a second one opened up in Wilmington just a while back. They host an open mic on Tuesdays, so I figured it would be stupid for me not to check it out. But I needed to get an early enough slot so that I could still make it out to Philly for my scheduled performance. I have this strange relationship with World Cafe Live in Philadelphia. Every time I play out that way, people mention that I need to look into playing at World Cafe Live. But I had tried, for years (about 7 now), to set up a show there, and never got a reply (this after making sure that I contacted them in the exact way they spelled it out on their website). So I gave up... I wasn't quite sure what else to do. So I performed my 2 songs at this open mic, and the host, who happens to book shows at this incarnation of the venue, asked me for my contact information for future shows. I got her info as well, and hopefully we'll get something lined up for the Fall Tour. I've sent her just one email regarding coming back to play a show, and she replied the next day. That's much preferred to waiting 7 years.
Fast forward to that evening's show in Philadelphia, which would be another feature slot at an open mic. If you've never been to an open mic, you don't know what you're missing. Sometimes they are full of very talented people with good songs and stories to share. Sometimes they are full of people who maybe shouldn't be playing music at all. Usually, it's a good mix. And, usually, there are at least a couple of *strange* people on the list to perform that evening.
I got there before the open mic began (to my surprise, as I had been told when to arrive by, and that it would be underway by that point in time). This would have been fine, except that I had 7 people come out to hear my set close to the time that I had told them, and I had left the venue in Wilmington a bit earlier than I otherwise would have wanted to. I got dinner there, which I believe was my first actual Philly Cheesesteak IN Philadelphia.
It wasn't anything to write home (or blog) about. But I shouldn't complain when venues feed me, right?
One of the first performers of the night was an interesting woman. She was a decent musician, it seemed, thought she performed with pre-recorded tracks that she had stored on her keyboard, so it was kind of difficult to tell what she was actually playing herself. Her musical composition skills seemed decent, but all of her songs sounded like something from a strange musical. Her first song was about how actual, made-from-paper books are better than electronic devices like the Kindle. Then, her next two songs involved sushi very prevalently. The people I was sitting with all agreed that she should be writing a musical about a quirky girl who loves books and sushi, who is searching for her soul mate (that we decided has to like the same things in order for it to work out). Maybe she has already written the musical.
But here's the kicker: After she was done performing, she announced that she had a show coming up that weekend, at.... World Cafe Live in Philadelphia. She was selling tickets for it.
I started to play about 45 minutes after I was expecting to, and was thankful that the people who came to hear me stuck around. The set was alright, but I only wound up selling a single copy of my new disc to a fan who had all my other albums (thanks, Marli!). They passed the hat for tips (which usually goes over well for artists), but tips were on the low side again, but at least not as bad as Monday's show.
The whole evening had a very Twilight Zone feel to it, as performers played some bad renditions of covers, and one performer played songs (original songs, I think) about sex that were very explicit. I left while this latter performer was playing.
On Wednesday night, I would travel back to Arlington, VA to do yet another open mic feature set, but this one was at the area's best-known clubs, called IOTA. I had again been told to be there at a certain time, but didn't go on until an hour after that time. I guess it's difficult for hosts to coordinate times when there are so many people playing, but it can be a bit of a drag to deal with when I am trying to time drives from other cities, and let people know when I am playing (and let hosts know what time I will be at their homes), only to play a 30-minute set with no pay...
One new fan from the Sunday night show came out again, which is always nice. The set seemed to go over well, but after I got off the stage and was getting ready to put my stuff away, I was fearing that it might be the second zero cd sales night of the tour. I got my guitar and gear put away, and thanked the person for coming out again. She introduced me to some people she had met that night, and one of them asked about picking up a couple of cds. This would at least ensure that I got gas money back for the day! He bought copies of my last two albums, and as I was getting ready to head out, a couple local musicians came out to talk to me for a bit, and they each ended up picking up a disc. So while it wasn't a spectacular night, it turned out much better than it was looking like it would.
On Thursday night, I returned to our nation's capital to play at what I think is one of the best venues it has to offer: Ebenezer's Coffeehouse. I would be opening up for another Nashville-based band - Roustabout - a great bluegrass band that reinterprets classic bluegrass tunes so that they don't sound so much like straight-ahead bluegrass.
Unfortunately, very few people showed up for this show - maybe 12 people, in a great venue that holds up to 100. I had a handful of people who had rsvp'd to come out, and they all backed out the week of, for one reason or another. The bluegrass group only brought out about 4 people. I had originally thought that the entire crowd was there to see them (since I knew that I hadn't brought anyone out), but the majority of people just came out because they like catching live music at that venue. I sold a couple cds, and a small group of them came back (to the merch table) to talk with me for a while. One of them was from Pittsburgh, so we talked a bit about that, and I told him that I go back for shows on a regular basis. So while the turnout was disappointing, I actually left that show encouraged that a few people were turned on to the music.
After 7 years of actively touring, I still don't understand how touring acts are able to bring in enough people to make these types of shows successful. I love the venues, but it's pretty stressful to have to do all sorts of work to try to promote and get people to come out to these types of shows, and have absolutely no way of knowing how many people will actually show. And this very thing even happens to the more "established" artists; at one of the shows during this tour, a fan told me he had gone to see Taylor Hicks play in a mostly-empty theatre earlier in the month. And I've interacted with some fairly well-known artists who have told me about disappointing turnouts in some cities. Are these types of shows dying out? I would much rather do a house concert or a show at a church, largely because of the unpredicatability of shows at "real" music venues.
In retrospect, I chalk a good bit of the low turnout up to it being Memorial Day Weekend. I played two Memorial Day Weekends in a row in NY City, and those shows were really low in attendance. After this go-around, I have decided to either not be on tour during that holiday weekend (or, drive back home during that weekend), or only play festival-type shows, or parties, or house concerts.
We are now to the final weekend of the tour, which was Memorial Day Weekend. Friday the 27th would bring me back to Charlottesville, VA, where, during my last visit, I got a ticket for running a stop sign, ran out of gas, and got my car towed in less than 14 hours' time. I am happy to report that none of that happened on this visit.
I arrived in Charlottesville well before the time of my show, and had some time to hang out at my hosts' home. I wrote another blog entry there, and watched some NFL Network Top Ten List specials. It was good to just relax a little.
The attendance that night was, again, a little on the thin side, but not as bad as the previous night. My hosts brought some people out, and they got a cd. They informed me that they would be moving to Pittsburgh in the very near future, and wanted to come out to shows there, as well. It was a decent night, in a low-stress environment.
On Saturday, I would make my first visit to a restaurant in Greensburg, PA (just east of Pittsburgh). This would mean that I would have a long drive to make. The drive would take me through a new area (I think) that I hadn't driven through before - I drove through a good portion of the mountains of West Virginia.
My GPS didn't have all the roads mapped correctly (and perhaps didn't even have some of the roads included). And I was a tad concerned that it was going to take me onto some gravel roads that lead into a lake, but it didn't turn out that way. I did drive through a large portion of country roads where a few drivers were driving too fast and not on their side of the road at times. But most of the drive was pretty nice, and took me through new, nice areas that I usually don't get a chance to see while I'm on tour.
I got to the restaurant with enough time to set up and stuff my face with pizza. I hadn't had lunch, so I was, what do call it? Oh yes, hungry.
This show would, surprisingly, turn out to be one of the best ones of the tour. It had almost been canceled just weeks prior, because of the date it fell on. Not only was it Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend, but Greensburg has an annual Community Day event that happens on that Saturday every year, with events all day, culminating with a big-ish concert and fireworks right around when I was supposed to be performing. During the first set, the place was pretty full. A few people in the audience, one of whom was celebrating her birthday that day, brought out several other people, and they stayed the whole night, which was pretty great. After my first set, I took a break for the fireworks. The idea was to wait a bit after the fireworks to see if people might come out afterwards.
A group of us went out to the parking lot to catch the 'works:
I waited a bit, and just a couple more people came into the restaurant. But I continued playing for a while, and before the night was over, I had sold 10 cds and a t-shirt.
The final show of the tour was an annual block party in Pittsburgh. This block party has apparently been going on for decades, and I think I was the first musical act to be a part of it. What an honor. It was a hot late afternoon, but luckily I got to set up in the shade. I was still very hot, and had sweat through my clothes while setting up my PA. If only I had gotten a photo.
After packing things up at the block party, I was off to hang out with some high school friends that I hadn't seen in years. Many of the people I went to high school with still live in the Pittsburgh area. One of our friends has started a facebook group, and they are trying to plan some semi-regular events that will force us to hang out. I figure that I won't get many chances to come out to these events, so I didn't want to miss this one. I was glad I was able to make it.
On Monday the 30th, I made the long drive (8 and a half hours, 585 miles or so) from Pittsburgh to Nashville.
The End.
PS - Thanks again for following my travels, trials, and travails through this Tour Blog.
Miles Driven - 3711
Average Speed - 51 mph
Miles Per Gallon - 33
Well, we've made it to the last week of the tour, and the final blog entry for this Second US Tour of the Year. This entry is going to be a doozy, so grab some coffee. I've been in Nashville for almost two weeks now, so I'm sure that I've forgotten some of the more interesting details, but hopefully it will all come back to me as I type.
I stayed near Harrisburg after my show on Saturday, the 21st. I did a lot of driving that day. The next day would be another 2-show day. But I would only be playing one set at each of these shows, so it wasn't stressful. And for a Sunday, things turned out quite well.
I arrived in Frederick, MD early, to unwind and get another blog entry composed. If you recall one of the entries needing to be finished because my netbook's battery was depleted, this was the scene for that composition. Frederick is a very cool "historic" town in Maryland. I have become rather fond of it and its people. There is a Sunday Songwriters' Showcase that takes place at the main independent coffee house in town, and I returned to play a set there. Another former Berklee student was on the lineup as well, which is always a neat thing to run into. We hadn't attended Berklee at the same time, though. I sold a few cds, and people tipped well. It was a good show for a late Sunday afternoon. Many faces at the Frederick shows are starting to become familiar to me now, and a few friends made a drive out to catch my set as well.
I was going to put up a picture or two here, but the photographer has them protected, so here is a link to his flickr page for the event.
I grabbed a quick bite for dinner at the coffee house, and then headed to DC (Arlington, VA), where I would be the "featured artist" at the weekly open mic at Northside Social Club. The event is hosted by a friend I met here in Nashville over a year ago, while he was visiting and playing some shows. Several friends from the Pittsburgh area who have since relocated came out for this show, and it was great to see them and catch up. I also made a few new friends (one of which would come out for another show later in the week), and sold another 7 cds. There was no real request for the audience to tip at this show, so I'm always a little nervous about those gigs, because I need to be selling merch in order to make any money. But all in all, it was a great and supportive environment for live music on a Sunday night.
The next few days would be the worst of the tour. I believe I mentioned that I didn't have much time to get this tour planned, due to having to get things squared away for a week of shows in London in February and a longer tour in March/April. This week would include a couple more open mic "feature" sets, which, as I mentioned, can be really good, but also have the chance of not working out so great.
On Monday, I did the only show of the entire tour that yielded no cd sales. I believe it was the last show we put on the schedule, and I probably just should have given myself a day off. But the venue was very cool (I went back to Philadelphia to play a two-story coffee shop), and the staff was very nice. The time for this show was a bit strange ("any time between 2 and 7"). I think I got there around 2 or 2:30. They fed me a light lunch, and I slowly set up the stage area upstairs. There were just 2 or 3 people up there when I arrived, so I decided to wait a bit, to see if things picked up. I finished eating, and finished setting up, and waited around a bit. I finally started playing, maybe around 4 or so, after a few people wandered upstairs. They seemed very interested, especially in the looping, and even sent texts and made calls to invite friends out for my second set. I took a break between sets, and people looked at CDs. I thought for sure that I'd sell at least two, but no dice. I played the second set, and friends of the people came out for the second set, but all I left with was 5 bucks in tips. I was pretty surprised, especially after the enthusiastic response that I received. Sometimes things don't turn out the way you expect them to. The coffee shop gave me a sandwich for the road, and I headed to Wilmington, DE, where I would be staying the next two nights.
On Tuesday, I would hit two venues again. A fan in Philly had informed me that there was a great new venue in Wilmington. There is a famous-ish venue in Philadelphia called World Cafe Live, and a second one opened up in Wilmington just a while back. They host an open mic on Tuesdays, so I figured it would be stupid for me not to check it out. But I needed to get an early enough slot so that I could still make it out to Philly for my scheduled performance. I have this strange relationship with World Cafe Live in Philadelphia. Every time I play out that way, people mention that I need to look into playing at World Cafe Live. But I had tried, for years (about 7 now), to set up a show there, and never got a reply (this after making sure that I contacted them in the exact way they spelled it out on their website). So I gave up... I wasn't quite sure what else to do. So I performed my 2 songs at this open mic, and the host, who happens to book shows at this incarnation of the venue, asked me for my contact information for future shows. I got her info as well, and hopefully we'll get something lined up for the Fall Tour. I've sent her just one email regarding coming back to play a show, and she replied the next day. That's much preferred to waiting 7 years.
Fast forward to that evening's show in Philadelphia, which would be another feature slot at an open mic. If you've never been to an open mic, you don't know what you're missing. Sometimes they are full of very talented people with good songs and stories to share. Sometimes they are full of people who maybe shouldn't be playing music at all. Usually, it's a good mix. And, usually, there are at least a couple of *strange* people on the list to perform that evening.
I got there before the open mic began (to my surprise, as I had been told when to arrive by, and that it would be underway by that point in time). This would have been fine, except that I had 7 people come out to hear my set close to the time that I had told them, and I had left the venue in Wilmington a bit earlier than I otherwise would have wanted to. I got dinner there, which I believe was my first actual Philly Cheesesteak IN Philadelphia.
It wasn't anything to write home (or blog) about. But I shouldn't complain when venues feed me, right?
One of the first performers of the night was an interesting woman. She was a decent musician, it seemed, thought she performed with pre-recorded tracks that she had stored on her keyboard, so it was kind of difficult to tell what she was actually playing herself. Her musical composition skills seemed decent, but all of her songs sounded like something from a strange musical. Her first song was about how actual, made-from-paper books are better than electronic devices like the Kindle. Then, her next two songs involved sushi very prevalently. The people I was sitting with all agreed that she should be writing a musical about a quirky girl who loves books and sushi, who is searching for her soul mate (that we decided has to like the same things in order for it to work out). Maybe she has already written the musical.
But here's the kicker: After she was done performing, she announced that she had a show coming up that weekend, at.... World Cafe Live in Philadelphia. She was selling tickets for it.
I started to play about 45 minutes after I was expecting to, and was thankful that the people who came to hear me stuck around. The set was alright, but I only wound up selling a single copy of my new disc to a fan who had all my other albums (thanks, Marli!). They passed the hat for tips (which usually goes over well for artists), but tips were on the low side again, but at least not as bad as Monday's show.
The whole evening had a very Twilight Zone feel to it, as performers played some bad renditions of covers, and one performer played songs (original songs, I think) about sex that were very explicit. I left while this latter performer was playing.
On Wednesday night, I would travel back to Arlington, VA to do yet another open mic feature set, but this one was at the area's best-known clubs, called IOTA. I had again been told to be there at a certain time, but didn't go on until an hour after that time. I guess it's difficult for hosts to coordinate times when there are so many people playing, but it can be a bit of a drag to deal with when I am trying to time drives from other cities, and let people know when I am playing (and let hosts know what time I will be at their homes), only to play a 30-minute set with no pay...
One new fan from the Sunday night show came out again, which is always nice. The set seemed to go over well, but after I got off the stage and was getting ready to put my stuff away, I was fearing that it might be the second zero cd sales night of the tour. I got my guitar and gear put away, and thanked the person for coming out again. She introduced me to some people she had met that night, and one of them asked about picking up a couple of cds. This would at least ensure that I got gas money back for the day! He bought copies of my last two albums, and as I was getting ready to head out, a couple local musicians came out to talk to me for a bit, and they each ended up picking up a disc. So while it wasn't a spectacular night, it turned out much better than it was looking like it would.
On Thursday night, I returned to our nation's capital to play at what I think is one of the best venues it has to offer: Ebenezer's Coffeehouse. I would be opening up for another Nashville-based band - Roustabout - a great bluegrass band that reinterprets classic bluegrass tunes so that they don't sound so much like straight-ahead bluegrass.
Unfortunately, very few people showed up for this show - maybe 12 people, in a great venue that holds up to 100. I had a handful of people who had rsvp'd to come out, and they all backed out the week of, for one reason or another. The bluegrass group only brought out about 4 people. I had originally thought that the entire crowd was there to see them (since I knew that I hadn't brought anyone out), but the majority of people just came out because they like catching live music at that venue. I sold a couple cds, and a small group of them came back (to the merch table) to talk with me for a while. One of them was from Pittsburgh, so we talked a bit about that, and I told him that I go back for shows on a regular basis. So while the turnout was disappointing, I actually left that show encouraged that a few people were turned on to the music.
After 7 years of actively touring, I still don't understand how touring acts are able to bring in enough people to make these types of shows successful. I love the venues, but it's pretty stressful to have to do all sorts of work to try to promote and get people to come out to these types of shows, and have absolutely no way of knowing how many people will actually show. And this very thing even happens to the more "established" artists; at one of the shows during this tour, a fan told me he had gone to see Taylor Hicks play in a mostly-empty theatre earlier in the month. And I've interacted with some fairly well-known artists who have told me about disappointing turnouts in some cities. Are these types of shows dying out? I would much rather do a house concert or a show at a church, largely because of the unpredicatability of shows at "real" music venues.
In retrospect, I chalk a good bit of the low turnout up to it being Memorial Day Weekend. I played two Memorial Day Weekends in a row in NY City, and those shows were really low in attendance. After this go-around, I have decided to either not be on tour during that holiday weekend (or, drive back home during that weekend), or only play festival-type shows, or parties, or house concerts.
We are now to the final weekend of the tour, which was Memorial Day Weekend. Friday the 27th would bring me back to Charlottesville, VA, where, during my last visit, I got a ticket for running a stop sign, ran out of gas, and got my car towed in less than 14 hours' time. I am happy to report that none of that happened on this visit.
I arrived in Charlottesville well before the time of my show, and had some time to hang out at my hosts' home. I wrote another blog entry there, and watched some NFL Network Top Ten List specials. It was good to just relax a little.
The attendance that night was, again, a little on the thin side, but not as bad as the previous night. My hosts brought some people out, and they got a cd. They informed me that they would be moving to Pittsburgh in the very near future, and wanted to come out to shows there, as well. It was a decent night, in a low-stress environment.
On Saturday, I would make my first visit to a restaurant in Greensburg, PA (just east of Pittsburgh). This would mean that I would have a long drive to make. The drive would take me through a new area (I think) that I hadn't driven through before - I drove through a good portion of the mountains of West Virginia.
My GPS didn't have all the roads mapped correctly (and perhaps didn't even have some of the roads included). And I was a tad concerned that it was going to take me onto some gravel roads that lead into a lake, but it didn't turn out that way. I did drive through a large portion of country roads where a few drivers were driving too fast and not on their side of the road at times. But most of the drive was pretty nice, and took me through new, nice areas that I usually don't get a chance to see while I'm on tour.
I got to the restaurant with enough time to set up and stuff my face with pizza. I hadn't had lunch, so I was, what do call it? Oh yes, hungry.
This show would, surprisingly, turn out to be one of the best ones of the tour. It had almost been canceled just weeks prior, because of the date it fell on. Not only was it Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend, but Greensburg has an annual Community Day event that happens on that Saturday every year, with events all day, culminating with a big-ish concert and fireworks right around when I was supposed to be performing. During the first set, the place was pretty full. A few people in the audience, one of whom was celebrating her birthday that day, brought out several other people, and they stayed the whole night, which was pretty great. After my first set, I took a break for the fireworks. The idea was to wait a bit after the fireworks to see if people might come out afterwards.
A group of us went out to the parking lot to catch the 'works:
I waited a bit, and just a couple more people came into the restaurant. But I continued playing for a while, and before the night was over, I had sold 10 cds and a t-shirt.
The final show of the tour was an annual block party in Pittsburgh. This block party has apparently been going on for decades, and I think I was the first musical act to be a part of it. What an honor. It was a hot late afternoon, but luckily I got to set up in the shade. I was still very hot, and had sweat through my clothes while setting up my PA. If only I had gotten a photo.
After packing things up at the block party, I was off to hang out with some high school friends that I hadn't seen in years. Many of the people I went to high school with still live in the Pittsburgh area. One of our friends has started a facebook group, and they are trying to plan some semi-regular events that will force us to hang out. I figure that I won't get many chances to come out to these events, so I didn't want to miss this one. I was glad I was able to make it.
On Monday the 30th, I made the long drive (8 and a half hours, 585 miles or so) from Pittsburgh to Nashville.
The End.
PS - Thanks again for following my travels, trials, and travails through this Tour Blog.
posted by Jeff Miller at 6:41 PM
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