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What: The Ever-Shifting Live Music Landscape in DFW
Venue: Sweetwater Grill and Tavern
Time: 1 p.m.
The creaking doors and loud traffic around Sweetwater Grill saw a panel discussion on a clash of music promotion and booking business models in the DFW area.
To be more precise, housing development, the recent real estate bust and social networking offer a potentially viable booking alternative for up-and-coming bands; house shows.
The panel discussing the issue was moderated by Research Associate in Urban Studies at UTA Michael Seman. It included Brent Frishman and Michael Briggs of Gutterth Productions, Rubber Gloves owner Josh Baish, booking agent for Spune Productions Glen Farris, Handsome Kitten Owner Jason Reichl, DJ and promoter Yeahdef and Schoolhouse owner Charlie Hunter.
Hunter detailed a few challenges to booking a house; noise complaints
followed by police visits, alcohol and smoking restrictions and age
restrictions. Baish said that these problems allow venues like Rubber
Gloves to take innovations from the house booking model, such as
no-cover shows, and exploit the legal privileges that the traditional
venue is granted. Riechl suggesting carding attendees at house shows to
get around alcohol and age issues.
On the impact of social networking on promotion, Yeahdef said that
the model came easily to him due to his background in computers.
However, he judged that users RSVPing events over social networks has
become less accurate over time in predicating show attendance.
Farris included that the older generation of music listeners may
be a potential demographic for new house promotion model due to ease of
access and flexible scheduling.
A question came up from the Q&A session as to why the booking
model isn’t implemented for larger venues in Denton to book big-time
artists. The panelists chocked it up to the high cost of booking the
venues. Seman answered the cost problem by saying that cooperative
efforts, like NX35 itself, might be able to manage the cost.
The panel also offered a few tips for new bands hoping to get in on
the house booking model: Make friends, don’t be bitter, and think
small.
But most of all, don’t suck.
