Thanks to our friends at
Philebrity, we discovered
THE CITY ELECTRIC a blog authored by former Kimmel Center Jeffery Parks, that is dedicating to hating R5 and myself. Here is the first major post about our role in the Roots show at The Kimmel Center.....
Philly's a strange town. but she's been good to me, for the most part. and you know, i have nothing but love and respect for the DIY scene here (i would posit that most of what passes for DIY here is not DIY at all, but business-as-usual with a punk veneer.. but that's another story for another day)... the whole 'underdog' mentality, though? it's got to go. quick. it particularly annoys me when the folks standing on top of the heap want to pretend that they're so downtrodden ..
case in point:
I book concerts for a living. I used to work for the largest performance hall in downtown Philly, a nonprofit that relies heavily on private and public support just to meet its operating expenses. The cost structure there is such that, between the unions and the maintenance and so forth, the margins are razor-thin or nonexistent. Artists perform there for the acoustics and the cache of it all, not to make a killing. And yet no matter how many times I would explain this to other parties, they were always convinced we were "getting away with something".. if only it were so.
The truth of the matter is, philly's #1 DIY promoter was making more cash "hand over fist" (and under table) running shows in a local church sanctuary, than I could ever have dreamt of in the ritzy symphonic hall.
which is why I found the following experience so puzzling..
1. Sept 16, 2005. The debut of Philly's premier hip-hop outfit in the lush confines of a symphonic hall.. as the presenter i played no small part in the night's proceedings, i had busted my ass on this show for months, the crown jewel of the season, a major, major accomplishment for this particular venue.
DIY Guy gets on the phone with the headline artist's management (not me) and demands to be let on board as the "promoter of record" for the opening acts. My first response is, wtf? But in the interest of keeping people happy, i agree to hire him to do some marketing for the event. We give him some tickets to sell on consignment, and run off a couple thousand flyers for him to hand out at his shows. He takes the tickets, never picks up the flyers, and in fact never picks up his check for services rendered. He does, however, broadcast the event all over his email list as his production, failing to mention my presenting company's name.
He didn't spend a dime on this event, signed no contracts, took no financial risk.. and I STILL run into people here who are under the impression that it was his show.
not career threatening. just annoying as hell... after all i've moved on to a better position now with more latitude and the remuneration to go with it... but wait, the story gets better - this was just a warm-up for what happened next...I guess this is what I have to say :
Is this for serious? I am making more money then someone who has a full time paid position (with benefits) at a concert hall that (as you see above) gets millions of dollars in funding !?!?!? Here are the R5 shows so far this month : Some Girls, High On Fire, None More Black, Circle Takes The Square, Low, August Burns Red and Hot Cross. Yes the bastion of hipster rock ! I don’t think Jeff gets that most of our shows are for smaller (as in not Bright Eyes sized) punk and hardcore bands. Here is how much was made in total profit on those shows : $800. I spent $150 on flyers and $150 in hiring our in house writers to write previews for the events. Here is what is left after 13 days : $500.00 . After taxes (which we do pay!) – You can imagine how far this goes - with all my fancy posessions and in life (no car, bare minimum health insurance, still live in a house with two roomates where I run R5 out of my bedroom etc)
Also I have 10 years experience, with over 750 shows, 2100+ bands, in a dozen or so venues. Jeff at this point had never put a show together before. I am guessing he has put together less than a six events together.
One – I never called anyone demanding to be the promoter of record (!?!) Two my roommate (Don Malkames) at the time worked for The Roots / Okayplayer and tells me about the show and how his bosses and The Roots were asked to do a sort of “Roots Presents” evening where they would invite Jill Scott, John Legend, Musiq and the whole Philly crew on stage with them. You know - something more for the Kimmel Crowd. The Roots are into the idea of playing there, but are thinking they don’t want to do the same ol show, with the guests. Instead they want to throw everyone a curveball and leave people scratching their head, get their fans exposed to some new bands that they like and get some new indie kids exposed to The Roots. Their initial idea is to get Deerhoof and The Boredoms and fly them both out to Philly. After some thinking they decide that The Boredoms will scare everyone away, so they decide on TV On the Radio.
At this point my roommate gives me his bosses e-mail and tells me that they want to get a different and more diverse crowd out there but aren’t sure how. I e-mail his boss (rich – the root’s manager) and offer to help (FOR FREE) because I think this is one of the most “punk” ideas ever (kimmel asks for grammy award winning jill scott but instead gets the four foot tall, singing Satomi from Deerhoof ) . He asks me to meet him at lunch and goes on to tell me that the people at Kimmel Center are “stiff” and he wants to get a crowd and event in the building that people will remember for a long time. Something different – something unusual. So we talk how we can get some more younger indie kids in the door (like offering cheap tickets no service charge tickets at Spaceboy), announcing the show on the R5 website, bringing down the ticket price a great deal (tickets were $15-$25 more expensive in the Kimmel’s proposal) . We then talk more about the show and he suggests that I talk to Deerhoof and Tv On The Radio and deal with them, since I know them , know what they’ll need , know what they’ll want etc. At that point there were no contracts in place. I actually called up the bands agents and management and got them to issue contracts – worked on their payment fees (which they bands gave back to Katrina Relief Efforts). They have no representatives about production, so I went and explained what the bands would need – what they would be bringing. With the help of a wonderful person named Christine Volpe, we booked the flights for Deerhoof (as again they told me where they were all coming from) . Blahh blahh blahh. I never took credit that I put on the event – in fact looking at the e-mails I sent out - all credit is given to THE ROOTS. Something to remember - Jeffery had never heard of Deerhoof at this point. The Kimmel Center wanted a fancy night of Philadelphia R&B and Soul – what they got was a crazy weird ass show. I didn’t pick up payment because I never wanted to be paid in the first place. PS. I made my own flyers !
Let me take time to mention what a wonderful job the Kimmel Center did with this event. Greg from Deerhoof’s parents came all the way out to the show. Kimmel Center decided to not give Deerhoof a guest list, so dudes parents were locked out from seeing their own son play, bummer. Well they went backstage to at least say “hi” . - Nope Not happening !. His parents were not allowed backstage. In fact they couldn’t get in touch with him – I saw this and ran and got Greg - Greg had to leave the backstage, go outside and talk to his parents there – because KCP would not allow Deerhoof to have any guests in their own dressing room. When it was time for The Roots to play I was informed that I could not see the show either because they did not have a seat held for me - the VP of Kimmel Center told me “ohh well – guess your not seeing the show” when I told him no one held a ticket for me. Thankfully The Roots production manager heard what the VP said to me and radio’ed a few people about unclaimed seats. The Roots hooked me up with sweet seats. I had to leave early though because Dungen was playing the church and I had to go settle with them.
This was essentially Jeff’s first real show. And there were lots of big holes and gaps that were left unfilled – (such as not allowing an artist to see his parents) or selling tickets behind the stage (which means you cant hear or see shit aside from the back of Quest’s fro - as everything is 40 feet in front of you) . During the show that powers at be were freaking out – that people were standing (rather than sitting) and dancing in the isles. The Roots deserve 100% of the credit for that evening !
Lots more to come on Bright Eyes....
