From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V10 #313 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Sunday, November 14 2004 Volume 10 : Number 313 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: vienna at joe's pub. [heidi maier ] RE: vienna at joe's pub. ["Collected Sounds" <2345@collectedsounds.com>] Last minute artist invites [neal copperman ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 13 Nov 2004 23:04:32 +1000 From: heidi maier Subject: Re: vienna at joe's pub. woj wrote: > two very nifty vienna teng sets at joe's pub last night. i was up until > 3am the night before seeing sarah harmer' tour closer in brooklyn (huh, > should post about that too -- at least to ecto) so i was kind of > mulling just going to only one of these shows. oh, please do write about sarah harmer! i love her. unfortunately, the show she was due to play in my city on her australian tour earlier this year was cancelled due to insufficient ticket sales. needless to say, i was very, very disappointed, particularly considering she'd only played sydney and melbourne on her previous jaunt down under :( heidi. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 13 Nov 2004 09:53:31 -0600 From: "Collected Sounds" <2345@collectedsounds.com> Subject: RE: vienna at joe's pub. Heidi wrote: >she was due to play in my city on her australian tour earlier this year was >cancelled due to insufficient ticket sales. Every time I hear of this I want to contact the artist's people and ask if they want to do a house concert instead. I have never done it but will someday, if I can screw up the courage. I have a feeling most any artist would love to. They just want to play, even if it's for 12 people...otherwise they're just sitting in a hotel room watching TV, wishing they were playing. It would mean calling everyone you know and only having a day or so to plan but to have someone like Sarah Harmer play in your home would be worth it, I think. Has anyone actually done this? Results? ~Amy - -----Original Message----- From: owner-ecto@smoe.org [mailto:owner-ecto@smoe.org]On Behalf Of heidi maier Sent: Saturday, November 13, 2004 7:05 AM To: ecto@smoe.org Subject: Re: vienna at joe's pub. woj wrote: > two very nifty vienna teng sets at joe's pub last night. i was up until > 3am the night before seeing sarah harmer' tour closer in brooklyn (huh, > should post about that too -- at least to ecto) so i was kind of > mulling just going to only one of these shows. oh, please do write about sarah harmer! i love her. unfortunately, the show she was due to play in my city on her australian tour earlier this year was cancelled due to insufficient ticket sales. needless to say, i was very, very disappointed, particularly considering she'd only played sydney and melbourne on her previous jaunt down under :( heidi. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 13 Nov 2004 09:30:12 -0700 From: neal copperman Subject: Last minute artist invites At 9:53 AM -0600 11/13/04, Collected Sounds wrote: >Heidi wrote: > >>she was due to play in my city on her australian tour earlier this year was >>cancelled due to insufficient ticket sales. > >Every time I hear of this I want to contact the artist's people and ask if >they want to do a house concert instead. I have never done it but will >someday, if I can screw up the courage. I have a feeling most any artist >would love to. They just want to play, even if it's for 12 >people...otherwise they're just sitting in a hotel room watching TV, wishing >they were playing. >It would mean calling everyone you know and only having a day or so to plan >but to have someone like play in your >home would be worth it, I think. > >Has anyone actually done this? Results? I have done it. The results have been week. The biggest problem is that most of the artists you are talking about have agents. The artists are almost always willing, just talk to the agent (they say). The agent, on the other hand, is generally not willing. And it's hard to say who is really sincere. I have had agents tell me that the artists always say yes because they aren't thinking about business or they are just being nice. They hire me (the agent) to tell people no as much to tell people yes. Since this truly is a public forum, I will be circumspect with names. Let's just say I have corresponded with the agent in question here, before AND after a weakly attended show. Before, they said no house concerts on this tour. Curiously enough, they did write to me to encourage me to drive an hour to see her in Santa Fe. After the show was weekly attended and I encouraged thinking about the house concert next time, I got no response. But in this case they were very friendly, and oddly enough, did take the time to invite me to a nearby show when it was scheduled. Of course, I did that several times with the artist woj posted about, and it eventually did result in a house concert. My suggestion is to try every time you feel prepared to put on a good show. I probably send out at least 50 house concert invitations a year. I see artists and invite them to come back to do a house concert next time they are in town. I see them in other towns and tell them to do a house concert in Albuquerque. I write to artists when they release an album and say "if you are planning to tour and are thinking of coming to the southwest, keep us in mind." I write back to artists after a year to let them know I'm still thinking about them and that there is still an open invitation to come and do a house concert. At least half those e-mail's are never acknowledged. Some get gracious refusals. Others indicate they aren't going to be in the southwest any time soon. Some correspond a bit to learn more about what we are doing. And every once in a while, someone sets up a show :) Sometimes someone will write back a year or two later (without ever acknowledging the original note), and ask about a show. It's a little like spam :) If one amazing artist responds out of a hundred, you'd be happy, right? Good luck :) neal ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V10 #313 ***************************