2011 Fall East Coast Tour - blog #3 (day 15)
Driving Stats (The speed and fuel economy numbers are estimates, because of some issues with figuring out what was wrong with my car heater):
Miles Driven - 1440
Average Speed - 44 mph
Miles Per Gallon - 32
We left off in Cleveland, OH on Saturday the 24th, where I made my first visit in over 5 years. I performed two house concerts there - an afternoon one for families (read: little kids), and a night time one that was for adults only. We spent much of the late morning / early afternoon getting the house ready to host the concerts. The afternoon show went rather well, though I wasn't expecting that many people. But about 4 families were in attendance - about 20 people in all. It was pretty crazy, though. Kids were running around everywhere, though a few actually paid attention, and at least one of them danced in one spot for the majority of the concert. I was protected by a baby barricade, so that I wouldn't get any milk bottles thrown at me. It came close at one point, though.
The night show, on the other hand, went worse than I had expected. I had two people who had previously RSVPed decide not to come at the last minute. And a third person, who had made no mention of coming, sent me a message that day to let me know that she wouldn't be there. I guess the thought was nice, but it was kind of adding insult to injury. I realize that people commit to all sorts of things online that they don't actually intend to do. I realize it; I don't understand why people do it, but I realize that it is common. My readers probably don't fit into this category, but if you do, I have a request / plea:
Stop it.
Most people say that they RSVP "Yes" to concerts online because they think it helps; because it makes the show look like it's going to be well attended, and therefore more attractive... like their RSVP will magically make people who were previously uninterested want to come to the show. This is not the case. The only thing it does is make things harder on the artists and the venues/hosts of these events. Venues ask performers how many people to expect for shows, and if many people back out after saying they are coming to a show, it makes the artists look like fools. Venues then don't trust artists when they tell them how many to expect, or just don't ever want the artist back. In the case of house concerts, the hosts use the RSVP numbers to decide how much food to buy and prepare (almost always out of their own pockets), or to decide whether to run the show as a pot luck style thing.
If you are the type to reply "Yes" to everything that comes your way, my hope is that you would change that policy to replying "No" to everything, or just disabling event invites on facebook. Even no response would be more helpful than a "Yes", if you don't intend on attending. I guess my request would be to reply as though an important person were asking you face to face.
I realize that there are times when unpredictable events of a grave or urgent manner will arise, and that, of course, is understandable. I'm not trying to request that you hold your commitments at all costs.
I hope that all made sense.
Back to the tales of the Tour. On Sunday, I unfortunately had another day off - and this one remained completely as a day off, because the only open mics I could find didn't start until late, and I needed to be up around 7:00 am on Monday, to drive out to North East (near Erie), PA, to set up for my second college show of the tour. I went to church with my hosts. I usually don't get to go to church while I'm on tour, because I am driving somewhere, or circumstances make it too difficult to get up early enough and still have energy throughout the day. My hosts have two young children - 1 and 3-year-olds. They behaved in a much more subdued manner at church than they do at home. The family had a birthday party to attend on Sunday afternoon. They invited me, but I declined, in favor of some peace. I got to catch some football that afternoon, and generally took it easy during the day. I asked if I could pick up a pizza for the family for dinner, and they said that Sunday dinner was usually pizza, so that would be perfect. I did my best to time things for us to be able to eat between 5:30 and 6:00, but a round trip to a Papa John's that was only about 8 miles away took more than 50 minutes. We didn't sit down to eat until closer to 6:30. I did my best, but the numerous Cleveland traffic lights coupled with an inefficient ordering scheme at Papa John's messed up my well-laid plans. I think everything worked out okay, though. During my time in the car, though, I would be reminded that my heater still wasn't working. The nights had been a little chilly in OH that first week of the Tour, but nothing unbearable. I did resolve to look into the issue, though. I had checked my antifreeze level, and that was fine.
On Monday, I woke up early (early for me in general, but very early when it comes to my Tour sleeping schedule), got a shower and packed the car again, and headed off to Mercyhurst College's North East, PA campus. I got there at what I thought was a perfect time. But it turned out that I would have to navigate through a series of hallways and take an elevator before reaching the room where I would be performing. Keep in mind that I had to use my own sound system and gear for this show. So I had to make a couple trips with a cart to pull all of my stuff through the hallways. And I couldn't even roll the cart into the room, because it was down a half flight of stairs. Okay, so I finally got everything moved into the right room, but no one had told me where I could park (usually colleges block of a nearby space and have me park there). So I had to call and ask where I should park - the closest lot was completely full, so I had to leave the area I was in, go across a street, and park in another lot. The weather decided to heat up on this day - the warmest day of the tour so far - so I was sweating before I even got the PA set up. I did get ready by the designated start time, though. However, it didn't matter much, as there were very few students in attendance. I was told that this room was where students come to eat lunch, but it turned out that there was a dedicated cafeteria nearby, and as would be expected anywhere, that's where most of the students were eating. There were maybe 15 people in the room where I played for the entire two hours. I managed to sell a few cds. One of the people who was interested asked me why I didn't set up in the cafeteria... If I go back for a lunchtime show at some point, I think I will push very strongly for a change of venue.
After taking all the gear up the half flight of steps, reloading the cart twice, navigating back through the hallways and down the elevator again, I hit the road again. I try to bring coupons with me when I go on tour, for buying food when I am unable to get food from a grocery store to prepare. I had some buy one, get one coupons for Subway, and made my first Subway trip off the Tour on Monday. I didn't have time to eat breakfast before hitting the road in Cleveland (I think I ate a banana in the car), and I didn't get to Subway until around 3 pm. I was super hungry, and easily downed a footlong sub. I got a "free" 6-inch sub to take with me, to have for lunch on Tuesday. On my way to Buffalo, NY (where I would be staying that night), I stopped into a Wal-Mart to buy some bananas and apples.
I had no show again on Monday night, so I looked up open mics in the Buffalo area. I have never played so many open mics in such a short time. It turned out that a well-known venue called Nietzsche's has an open mic every Monday. I figured it would be a good idea to check it out, since I was in the area with nothing going on. We had tried to get me in as the featured performer - an artist, usually touring or a semi-pro local, who plays a longer set - but were told that the feature was already scheduled. It turned out that this feature backed out at the last minute, and they asked some girl to fill his spot. I was pretty surprised. She had a good voice, but she had been playing guitar for less than a year, and my guess is that she was just a recent regular at this particular open mic. She got there late, so the rest of the open mic was pushed back in time. And she didn't even stick around for long after she played. And to top it off, they passed a tip jar around during her set, so I ended up paying to do the open mic. Sometimes this job is very humbling. These first two weeks of this current tour have been a reminder of that.
Long story short, Nietzsche's open mic was very underwhelming. They had TVs on, playing a Yankees game, the people who came to play didn't even seem to pay much attention to the other performers, and it was one of the loudest open mics I've ever been to. Usually, long-running open mics are in a decent listening environment, but this was worse than most of the bar gigs that I've done.
On Tuesday, I had yet another empty day on the schedule. The place I would be performing at (in Rochester) on Wednesday happened to have an open mic that evening, so I decided to go there to advertise for the show. Before hitting the road for Rochester, I decided to check out the spark plugs in my car (this caused my speed and fuel economy numbers to reset, which is why my tour driving stats won't necessarily be correct), to make sure that none of them were causing the heater not to work. It turns out that my car has 3 different spark plug boxes, and that 2 different boxes contain spark plugs that relate to the heating / cooling system. I only had time to check one box before it was time to get headed to Rochester. The place was pretty nice, but it was unfortunately much like (but not quite as bad as) Nietzsche's. It's really hard to get people interested in the music you perform when it's difficult for them to hear it. I played my two songs, and talked to some of the staff to be sure that they knew that I would be performing the next night.
I was intending to retell the events of the entire second week of the Tour, but this entry is getting pretty long.
Thanks for following along with some of the harsh realities of life on the road. I promise it will get better very soon.
Miles Driven - 1440
Average Speed - 44 mph
Miles Per Gallon - 32
We left off in Cleveland, OH on Saturday the 24th, where I made my first visit in over 5 years. I performed two house concerts there - an afternoon one for families (read: little kids), and a night time one that was for adults only. We spent much of the late morning / early afternoon getting the house ready to host the concerts. The afternoon show went rather well, though I wasn't expecting that many people. But about 4 families were in attendance - about 20 people in all. It was pretty crazy, though. Kids were running around everywhere, though a few actually paid attention, and at least one of them danced in one spot for the majority of the concert. I was protected by a baby barricade, so that I wouldn't get any milk bottles thrown at me. It came close at one point, though.
The night show, on the other hand, went worse than I had expected. I had two people who had previously RSVPed decide not to come at the last minute. And a third person, who had made no mention of coming, sent me a message that day to let me know that she wouldn't be there. I guess the thought was nice, but it was kind of adding insult to injury. I realize that people commit to all sorts of things online that they don't actually intend to do. I realize it; I don't understand why people do it, but I realize that it is common. My readers probably don't fit into this category, but if you do, I have a request / plea:
Stop it.
Most people say that they RSVP "Yes" to concerts online because they think it helps; because it makes the show look like it's going to be well attended, and therefore more attractive... like their RSVP will magically make people who were previously uninterested want to come to the show. This is not the case. The only thing it does is make things harder on the artists and the venues/hosts of these events. Venues ask performers how many people to expect for shows, and if many people back out after saying they are coming to a show, it makes the artists look like fools. Venues then don't trust artists when they tell them how many to expect, or just don't ever want the artist back. In the case of house concerts, the hosts use the RSVP numbers to decide how much food to buy and prepare (almost always out of their own pockets), or to decide whether to run the show as a pot luck style thing.
If you are the type to reply "Yes" to everything that comes your way, my hope is that you would change that policy to replying "No" to everything, or just disabling event invites on facebook. Even no response would be more helpful than a "Yes", if you don't intend on attending. I guess my request would be to reply as though an important person were asking you face to face.
I realize that there are times when unpredictable events of a grave or urgent manner will arise, and that, of course, is understandable. I'm not trying to request that you hold your commitments at all costs.
I hope that all made sense.
Back to the tales of the Tour. On Sunday, I unfortunately had another day off - and this one remained completely as a day off, because the only open mics I could find didn't start until late, and I needed to be up around 7:00 am on Monday, to drive out to North East (near Erie), PA, to set up for my second college show of the tour. I went to church with my hosts. I usually don't get to go to church while I'm on tour, because I am driving somewhere, or circumstances make it too difficult to get up early enough and still have energy throughout the day. My hosts have two young children - 1 and 3-year-olds. They behaved in a much more subdued manner at church than they do at home. The family had a birthday party to attend on Sunday afternoon. They invited me, but I declined, in favor of some peace. I got to catch some football that afternoon, and generally took it easy during the day. I asked if I could pick up a pizza for the family for dinner, and they said that Sunday dinner was usually pizza, so that would be perfect. I did my best to time things for us to be able to eat between 5:30 and 6:00, but a round trip to a Papa John's that was only about 8 miles away took more than 50 minutes. We didn't sit down to eat until closer to 6:30. I did my best, but the numerous Cleveland traffic lights coupled with an inefficient ordering scheme at Papa John's messed up my well-laid plans. I think everything worked out okay, though. During my time in the car, though, I would be reminded that my heater still wasn't working. The nights had been a little chilly in OH that first week of the Tour, but nothing unbearable. I did resolve to look into the issue, though. I had checked my antifreeze level, and that was fine.
On Monday, I woke up early (early for me in general, but very early when it comes to my Tour sleeping schedule), got a shower and packed the car again, and headed off to Mercyhurst College's North East, PA campus. I got there at what I thought was a perfect time. But it turned out that I would have to navigate through a series of hallways and take an elevator before reaching the room where I would be performing. Keep in mind that I had to use my own sound system and gear for this show. So I had to make a couple trips with a cart to pull all of my stuff through the hallways. And I couldn't even roll the cart into the room, because it was down a half flight of stairs. Okay, so I finally got everything moved into the right room, but no one had told me where I could park (usually colleges block of a nearby space and have me park there). So I had to call and ask where I should park - the closest lot was completely full, so I had to leave the area I was in, go across a street, and park in another lot. The weather decided to heat up on this day - the warmest day of the tour so far - so I was sweating before I even got the PA set up. I did get ready by the designated start time, though. However, it didn't matter much, as there were very few students in attendance. I was told that this room was where students come to eat lunch, but it turned out that there was a dedicated cafeteria nearby, and as would be expected anywhere, that's where most of the students were eating. There were maybe 15 people in the room where I played for the entire two hours. I managed to sell a few cds. One of the people who was interested asked me why I didn't set up in the cafeteria... If I go back for a lunchtime show at some point, I think I will push very strongly for a change of venue.
After taking all the gear up the half flight of steps, reloading the cart twice, navigating back through the hallways and down the elevator again, I hit the road again. I try to bring coupons with me when I go on tour, for buying food when I am unable to get food from a grocery store to prepare. I had some buy one, get one coupons for Subway, and made my first Subway trip off the Tour on Monday. I didn't have time to eat breakfast before hitting the road in Cleveland (I think I ate a banana in the car), and I didn't get to Subway until around 3 pm. I was super hungry, and easily downed a footlong sub. I got a "free" 6-inch sub to take with me, to have for lunch on Tuesday. On my way to Buffalo, NY (where I would be staying that night), I stopped into a Wal-Mart to buy some bananas and apples.
I had no show again on Monday night, so I looked up open mics in the Buffalo area. I have never played so many open mics in such a short time. It turned out that a well-known venue called Nietzsche's has an open mic every Monday. I figured it would be a good idea to check it out, since I was in the area with nothing going on. We had tried to get me in as the featured performer - an artist, usually touring or a semi-pro local, who plays a longer set - but were told that the feature was already scheduled. It turned out that this feature backed out at the last minute, and they asked some girl to fill his spot. I was pretty surprised. She had a good voice, but she had been playing guitar for less than a year, and my guess is that she was just a recent regular at this particular open mic. She got there late, so the rest of the open mic was pushed back in time. And she didn't even stick around for long after she played. And to top it off, they passed a tip jar around during her set, so I ended up paying to do the open mic. Sometimes this job is very humbling. These first two weeks of this current tour have been a reminder of that.
Long story short, Nietzsche's open mic was very underwhelming. They had TVs on, playing a Yankees game, the people who came to play didn't even seem to pay much attention to the other performers, and it was one of the loudest open mics I've ever been to. Usually, long-running open mics are in a decent listening environment, but this was worse than most of the bar gigs that I've done.
On Tuesday, I had yet another empty day on the schedule. The place I would be performing at (in Rochester) on Wednesday happened to have an open mic that evening, so I decided to go there to advertise for the show. Before hitting the road for Rochester, I decided to check out the spark plugs in my car (this caused my speed and fuel economy numbers to reset, which is why my tour driving stats won't necessarily be correct), to make sure that none of them were causing the heater not to work. It turns out that my car has 3 different spark plug boxes, and that 2 different boxes contain spark plugs that relate to the heating / cooling system. I only had time to check one box before it was time to get headed to Rochester. The place was pretty nice, but it was unfortunately much like (but not quite as bad as) Nietzsche's. It's really hard to get people interested in the music you perform when it's difficult for them to hear it. I played my two songs, and talked to some of the staff to be sure that they knew that I would be performing the next night.
I was intending to retell the events of the entire second week of the Tour, but this entry is getting pretty long.
Thanks for following along with some of the harsh realities of life on the road. I promise it will get better very soon.
posted by Jeff Miller at 3:54 PM
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