How Do You Rescue A Gig From Disaster?

I’ve decided to make the DARIA show at Opium next Wednesday in Edinburgh free entry for fear of a band coming from France and playing to an empty room. Without the help of Action Park Promotions, others might have cancelled it. Are we doing the right thing..?  

There’s a story, myth, even legend that when AT THE DRIVE IN were touring In/Casino/Out around ’99-00 and they were booked to play Glasgow’s 13th Note, that many Glasgow bands turned down the support slot. In the end it was left to Dundee band LAETO to go through to Glasgow and open the show. By the time ATDI’s next record came out and they were touring again, they were famous. At least in the rock world anyway.

When BIFFY CLYRO were touring their debut album Blackened Sky, I remember Kerrang! giving them a live review around 2002 which said it was a great performance considering there was hardly anyone there at the Manchester Night & Day cafe. That’s a very long way from Wembley. Who could have predicted the future for either of those bands?

There’s plenty of articles online explaining why bands should not act like dicks to promoters and why promoters should not act like dicks to bands. Or sound engineers. I doubt those rants make much difference. People’s flaws are rarely cured from being exposed to the truth. Denial is a powerful shield from reality.

The first gig I ever put on around ’99 was a humiliating disaster. In the battle for the ultimate embarrassment, it’s a close race between a shitty band performance that you’re part of, and the utter failure of putting on a band who end up playing to an empty room.

If you have ever managed to combine both then you know that’s when you find out how much music really means to you. Because if you didn’t care about it so much you’d just stop.

Explaining why you love a song or a band so much can sometimes be hard to explain. The more we invest emotionally in a band or artist, the more we want them to do well. Once people feel invested, that’s when they’ll buy gig tickets, records, t-shirts and other stuff. But a band they’ve never heard of? No-one cares. Which is why the unheard bands of this world put their music online for free streaming while the tiny minority of artists who expect their music to pay the mortgage or super yacht rally against the perceived evil of audio streams.

When alternative rock fans heard ‘Relationship of Command’, they became invested. Gig goers kept turning up to see a Scottish three-piece tear up the UK toilet circuit because they were invested.

So when I write about a band from France that no-one has heard of – DARIA – it’s not surprising in the slightest that very few people care. Why should they? I’m not suggesting that Daria are the next ATDI or Biffy. However, it does make me wonder how many up-and-coming bands from Europe we should know more about. Or how a DIY band can beat the odds and somehow find an audience further afield.

Who Can We Trust?

I’d trust new music recommendations from Make-That-A-Take before I’d take notice from any printed publication whose coverage is influenced by those who advertise in it, and who need new acts to be potential front cover material. How many overweight, below-average looking musicians have you seen on the front of magazines lately? Sinead O’Connor’s open letter warning to Miley Cyrus that she is being ‘pimped’ by the pop industry was a rare example of the truth appearing in the mainstream media. The Great Hip Hop Hoax documentary went even further in exposing the madness of marketing over substance.

Substance? No-one in the UK music industry was interested in the Steve Albini recorded debut album from New Zealand’s die! die! die! Not even the indies were prepared to take a punt on a band with no obvious commercial potential at a time when physical record sales were collapsing. It ended up getting released on Pet Piranha Records because no-one else would do it. Several albums later and the band have finally found a proper UK home on Smalltown America and continue to build up a loyal following by tearing up the UK underground on regular tours.

I have no idea what’s in store for DARIA. All I know is I’ve not felt this strongly about the need to ‘step in’ and help out since those noisy kiwi punks blasted out of my speakers for the first time.

I’ve decided to make the DARIA show at Opium in Edinburgh free entry for fear of a band coming from France and playing to an empty room. I played to an empty room in Oxford once. It was horrible. More horrible than showering in service stations while on tour and sleeping in a van for weeks.

So I’m paying the band out of my own pocket for your enjoyment. The Glasgow show is a bill they’re squeezing onto and the Dundee show is the one where I’m hoping we can make them a few quid.

Who’s coming?

DARIA, Pivo Pivo Glasgow, 29 Oct
DARIA, Opium Edinburgh, 30 Oct
DARIA, Non-Zeros Dundee, 31 Oct

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