re: jealous of bay area gigs

["loop.pool" <looppool@cruzio.com>]

Edwin Hurwitz wrote:

"PS I am getting pretty jealous of all the people living in the Bay
area, hearing about the shows going on and opportunities to perform.
Anyone here in the Denver/Boulder region that I can go see?"


Dear Edwin,

Having been one of the people who has put on a lot of live looping shows 
in 
the Bay Area
I wanted to share with you that everyone of these gigs was chiseled out of 
stone because
there was no such thing as a venue for live looping...............people 
didn't know what it was.

What we did and what I'd like to encourage everyone to do in their 
communities that have more
than 2 live loopers in them is to do one yourself, even if you are afraid 
that you don't know how to do it.
I was scared shitless to do the first five or six of them, myself but 
discovered that a lot of people are interested
in hearing something different in music.

Here's a simple template for what it takes to make a looping festival 
(even 
if it has only three artists in it like our
Guitar Mini Looping Festival this coming Sunday.

Look around your area and find a venue that is having a hard time
getting patrons to come..............a bar that's not so popular,  a brand 
new coffee shop, if possible,
a brand new and very insecure venue that has opened up.

Go to these people and say that you want to do a show on a really off 
night 
(we started with Tuesdays and
Sundays originally) that will cost the bar/coffeshop/art gallery/venue no 
money to produce and that you are sure
that you can bring 20-25 patrons in that would normally not come into the 
place.

Then find 3-10 loopers in your area or surrounding cities;  book them and 
get everybody to do anything possible to
publicize the gig.    Undoubtely, someone will have a P.A. to add to 
donate 
for the evening (we are a bunch of
Gear Aquisition Syndrome junkies are we not?)...............

Next, go to the newspapers that is around and let them know that you
are part of a burgeoning international live looping scene (it actually is 
quite burgeoning these days............lol..........just look
at Zurich,  Firenze, Cambridge and Kobe) and that you are turning the 
citizens of your fair city onto a free concert of
really creative music.

Next, call up the local college or independent radio station in the area, 
give them the same hype and ask if you could come on the
air and either 1)  play a lo tech live performance or 2) do an interview 
on 
the new movement (electronica shows are really responsive to this as well 
as 
any new music shows) and then bring in as many CD samples of the artist 
who 
are going to play as possible to
play representative music----if you want to get fancy and have the 
wherewithall..........make a compilation CD with 1 or 2 minute snippets of 
representative music and make up a hand full of copies to give to 
journalists and disc jockeys.

We mostly have fairly small rigs or even with big rigs there usually 
aren't 
more than a couple of racks (albeit high ones in the case of a Ted 
Killian.........lol) so all the performers can fit on one stage usually.

This makes for a fast moving show for newbies (people who don't know what 
the hell we are doing) and you don't have to have set changes.

Divide the evening (or afternoon into evening)  into the number of 
performers and give everyone at least a  30 minute set if not a
45 minute set.

This is the exact formula I've used time after time after time to do the 
25 
some odd festivals that I've been directly involved with.

So,  pardon my gratuitous advice, but don't be jealous of the Bay 
Area.............put the effort into creating a show like this like the
Matt Davignons and Bernhard Wagners and Hans Lindauers have.

We created all of this out of nothing.  We had no money.  We had no one 
interested in what we did.  We just got creative and worked really hard.

Besides I want to be invited as a guest artist to the next Boulder Live 
Looping Festival so I'm just being narcissistic.

yours, sincerely,  Rick Walker

ps   If you ever need any advice (anyone) about how to overcome obstacles 
in 
your community, I've encountered just about every obstacle that one could 
think of from lack of venues to disgruntled festival attendees so I would 
be 
more than happy to help out with whatever I've learned to help  you do it.