{"id":13739,"date":"2012-06-04T22:54:02","date_gmt":"2012-06-05T02:54:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/?p=13739"},"modified":"2012-06-04T23:38:36","modified_gmt":"2012-06-05T03:38:36","slug":"200-a-day-plus-expenses-an-examination-of-the-local-music-rockonomy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/200-a-day-plus-expenses-an-examination-of-the-local-music-rockonomy\/","title":{"rendered":"$200 a Day Plus Expenses: An Examination of the Local Music Rockonomy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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"Then there's the cut for the bouncer..."<\/p><\/div>\n

My wife and I have been on a Rockford Files<\/em> kick of late. We’ve been watching the show on Netflix from the first episode forward. We’re still in Season 1, but man is that show even better than I remembered it.<\/p>\n

My wife’s always been a Rockford Girl. She thinks James Garner<\/strong> is the most handsome man ever on a TV series. I used to dig the show as a kid, digging Rockford’s hair, erect shirt collars, and general sense of Mandom<\/strong>, but I didn’t dig him that<\/em> way. Until this recent kick, however, I couldn’t remember much about the show other than the theme song and his cool car. I thought one of those Cagney and Lacy<\/em> women costarred with him, but I was confusing it with\u00a0Rock Hudson<\/strong>‘s ’70s PI show, McMillan and Wife<\/em>. He wasn’t as hot as<\/span> His hair hair wasn’t as good as Rockford’s. Speaking of the theme song, does any TV theme song better encapsulate its main character than Mike Post’s classic, which perfectly captures the sound of Rockford’s renegade cowboy of a 1970s PI?<\/p>\n

But this isn’t the reason I bring up Jim Rockford’s and his never-changing rate for his detective services. I’d like to engage in a discussion of the local music\u00a0rockonomy<\/em> as you have experienced it.<\/p>\n

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While the cost of seeing national acts in concerts continues to skyrocket, the cost for seeing a local band remains extremely affordable. I’m the furthest thing from an economist or even a high school-level proficient mathematician, but it seems to me the inflation rate for seeing a local band is well below the inflation rate for any other form of entertainment. What did it cost to see a local band in a local bar in 1986, maybe $3 to $5? I remember seeing local bands open for underground bands with a slight national profile from other towns and feel the pinch of paying $7 for enter a tiny club and drink the cheapest beer on tap.<\/p>\n

The rare times I get out to see local bands these days I pay about $7, $10 tops. When my friends’ bands are opening for a local act I pay $15. Stamp my hand, big guy!<\/em> Do the math\u2014anyone but me: that’s a low inflation rate over the last 25 years, isn’t it? To make matters more affordable,\u00a0I no longer drink, so the rising cost of alcohol is not a factor; my sobriety offsets the slight rise in local club door charges. If I work whatever charm I have left on the punk woman tending bar I often get my tonic waters with lime for free. “It’s the least I can do for this old guy,” she’s thinking.<\/p>\n

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"No charge, honey!"<\/p><\/div>\n

Local band rockonomics presents a great deal for local club-goers, but in my limited experience in the 21st century it sucks for bands.<\/p>\n

WARNING:<\/strong> Following may be the point where I learn a shameful truth and stand in the corner with a lone tear forming in my right eye while those of you in cooler and\/or better-managed bands point and laugh at me.<\/p>\n

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These days I make a point of not talking about my salary, but my time as a vital member of the rockonomy is so long gone that I don’t think I’m going to risk anything by discussing our band’s once-extremely modest take in the local rock scene.<\/p>\n

In 1986, when my band first started getting decent gigs with guaranteed pay we would be offered what seemed like a decent amount of $100. Triple figures! (Were you in a local band in your early 20s, in the mid-’80s or earlier? What did you consider your first decent-paying gig?)<\/p>\n

A few months later, as our audience built and our first EP started getting better press than we realistically could have hoped for, we could make as much as $150 for a show. Guaranteed! When you’re 23 years old, working a shitty job, and you and your bandmates have agreed to save every penny you ever make playing out to pay for your next 24-track studio recording session (probably the one that will launch your band into the next level) a 50% increase is significant.<\/p>\n

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Ornamental Wigwam at that beloved burnt-out hippie bar.<\/p><\/div>\n

A few months after that, as we built more momentum, a burnt-out hippie bar at a then-still hippiefied block of South Street let us book our own bills, splitting the door with our opening band as we saw fit. Even after the doorman and the local junkies took their cut and we paid our opening act a fair share, we might clear $225\/night.<\/p>\n

In 1987 through the middle of 1988, when we released our second record to more solid local press, we were reaping as much as $250 for headlining bills while maintaining our $150 fee for opening shows for national touring acts. We’d also play out of town club shows for as much as $150\/night. Pretty cool considering maybe 10 people knew who we were at any out-of-town club, and 6 of those people were our cronies who traveled with us. (What do you think, those of you who played local shows in the late-’80s? A decent night at the office? Come on, it’s safe to chat. The IRS isn’t going to come after us. We’ve moved on, haven’t we?)<\/p>\n

By the time we’d been getting our share of high-paying college shows. We played some college in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, for instance, where we made $800: $100 for each of the 8 people in attendance. At this rate we could save for our version of Sgt. Pepper’s<\/em>. In 1988, we pooled our increased performance fees and began the 2-stage recording process that led to our Sgt. Pepper’s<\/em>, or tremendous, band-breaking, unreleased flop as it turned out. We never recovered from that, and the next few years found our guaranteed fees for performing plummeting back to 1986 levels.<\/p>\n

The drop-off in guaranteed money was deserved. You don’t pack fannies into a club, you don’t get paid. We eventually took a 7-year hiatus from playing. When we decided to play again we actually had lives and good jobs. We would forever be playing “for the love of the game.”<\/p>\n

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At first our $100 “comeback” fee was fine. We were happy to play for the “veteran minimum.” Then clubs started booking us with financially severe deals that were unheard of in the ’80s unless you found yourself playing in some shithole North Jersey club on a Tuesday night. In this new rockonomy we’d get gigs where we’d split a percentage of the door after<\/em> the club took out money to pay the soundman, the lighting guy, the doorman, the barback, and the local junkies. What happened to businesses paying their employees from their<\/em> gross income? In the old days alcohol sales paid these people, or their take was factored in. No one showed me a computer printout detailing all the pennies that would go to certainly hard-working people in the club, but not the bands who left work early, hauled gear into the club at 6:oo pm only to wait for the hard-working soundman to show at 7:30 and give you just enough time to do a “line check.”<\/p>\n

Shoot, I guess it’s nice that clubs are transparent in showing us why we get paid $8 for an honest night’s rock ‘n roll, but there are some things I’d rather not know. Just screw me, already. And please note that I’m well aware we practically earned out $8 based the few asses we brought into the club that night, but still… While I’m thankful for the free tonic waters with lime, suck it up clubs and pay a band a guarantee. Put bands out of their misery with a little dignity.<\/p>\n

Has my band been along in suffering through today’s rockonomy? Has our rockonomic status sunk uncommonly low, or is this a reflection of the times? What’s been your band’s experience with paying gigs through the years?<\/p>\n

I look forward to your candid answers, numbers crunching, and short of any of that, thoughts on The Rockford Files<\/em>.<\/p>