I have a friend with a music store. With the economy and market saturation he got himself into quite a bind financially. He has been renting the same building for 15 years. But, he has fallen pretty far behind with rent. His landlords are a law firm. He mentioned on Facebook that he was getting sued for back rent. I went down and talked to him about all this. I called my attorney and got him to do me a favor and take him on. I had a general contractor walk through the building as it needs much work. I hooked up with a promoter/booking agent and got some dates in local clubs. I put the word out to bands and started booking some benefit gigs. Some at big clubs and some at smaller bars. The PA Musician Magazine donated a full page add for three of these benefits that I had booked. Weve had two already which came in under what I projected. They generated about 70% of what I thought they would. I had another one booked for September 4th with some really good bands. The club double booked it, and I had to cancel it. It was because of these benefits and my attorney that we were able to get the court date pushed back twice. But, with this one being cancelled I just dont know.

The first benefit was extremely stressful on me. I had some young bands and I was just ready to beat someone to death! I showed up at 6 p.m. to help the sound man carry gear up the stairs. The show was to start at 9 p.m. yet he could not get this little PA set up in time. I had a young man playing acoustic open the show and then three bands. The kid on acoustic did great. but he did show up to the gig without a cord to plug it in. The second band who I wanted to have set up before the acoustic guy didnt show up in time to do so. They took WAY too long to set up when they did set up. I could go on and on with it but it was just like that all night long. The show was supposed to end at 1:30 and it was all but 2 a.m. when it was all said and done.

We just did another one Friday which Steel headlined. I pulled in another heavy hitter with a band called Leadfoot. Steel can pull in 200 people alone. Leadfoot can as well. Yet the two of us together with two other bands, Grind & Spank could only manage to bring in 140 people! Maybe it was the $10 cover that kept some people away. But the door minus production (meaning sound & lights) went to my friend with the music store. I had the gig projected to make $2,200 and thought we would make that easy. But, we only managed to scrape together $1,555. Very disappointing and upsetting. Next night we played a club by ourselves and had between 300-400 people! It may have had something to do with the club too because they are very pricey and non-smoking. All the non-smoking bars/clubs have taken a major haircut. I dont know but the numbers dont lie.

Now I have to call my attorney this week with some disappointing numbers and one gig cancelled. Looking bleak to say the least. It looks like another small business is about to bite the dust. I really needed that September 4th show! Very upsetting!

We were at the gig the other night and my friend said Take a look around Dave you made all this happen. I took a look around at the crowd and said Its not enough. He replied its not the money that matters its the effort that matters. I looked at him and said we dont need effort, we need money!



Had a good time playing though and certainly left nothing in the bag:



If you look really close on top of my rack you will notice one of the best pieces of gear I have ever bought. It's a digital clock. All the bands went on and got off right on time that night!

Dave