Concert cancellation and how to deal with it

Part 84

Picture by www.music-shoots.com You can find him also on Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/MusicShoots

 
  In this weeks blog I'd like to talk about when things go wrong. Last night we were supposed to have the JPKALLIO.COM's first concert of the year and our first concert as a four piece. We had been practicing a lot to get Patryk up to speed with the songs and it was all sounding great. We decided to have one more rehearsal in the afternoon before the gig and every one turned up at the rehearsal rooms. While playing the songs, I started to feel pretty confident. Our hard work had payed off, the band was playing well, all the elements joined together in to one unit. These moments are rare, but when they come by it feels great. We had rehearsed 10 songs so far, that Patryk had put his own flare to and we were ready to go out and play live. We had done all our promotional work as well. We blogged, twittered and promoted the concert on facebook. We sent text messages to all our friends and followers on our mailing list. We had told every one about the show. I was also hoping to capture some video from the show, as to document our first show as four piece.


   Then the bad news came in... Two hours before the show time, tonight's concert was canceled. My heart sank... This was not supposed to be part of the plan. Not sure of the details exactly but I could hear from the promoters tone of voice that things were not going to his way and he promised to put on few weeks down the line. What followed was frantic texting and posting on social media, trying to let people know that the gig was canceled. I can tell you, it is not a nice situation to be in. You do feel like you are letting everyone down, even when it is out of your hands.

   In my 15 year career as a musician, I could probably count with my fingers how many times this has happened. So what do you do when this happens? Do you go on a rant on how you will never work with this venue/ Promoter? Do you curl in a ball and cry? No, you will get on with it. Be understanding to the promoter, they obviously are not having a great day and what ever frustration you are feeling, I'm pretty sure they are feeling it ten times more. If this happens regularly with the same venue or promoter, then it is different story. I personally think it is the responsibility of every one involved to try to get the message to as many people as possible, to avoid people making the trip for nothing. But at the same time, there is only so much you can do. So you get on with things, like we did. Instead we played a longer rehearsal and after went for a pint first time as a band all four of us. Most of all, we concentrated on the next concert, which by the way is in the Adelaide bar in Sligo on the 13th of April. Any one fancy a road trip? Also we were supposed to be playing last night with the wonderful Kerouac, but now we will be playing together in the Thomas House on the 4th of May, this is going to be a great night:-)

   The point is, music is very turbulent business and things will go wrong. When they do, you pick your self up and go again. What does not kill you, only makes you stronger!

   Once again, our apologies for any one who did not get the news in time and made the trip for nothing. We hope to see you all soon at one of our shows soon.

    J.P.

To get better at playing live you need to play live.

Part 81



    I am sitting home and waiting for UPC service guy, while writing this. I have had a forced break from all the promotion work for the past few days, due to loss of internet connection. As a result I managed to fix my bicycle, that has been on my to do list for a long while and instead of working all hours of the night I actually caught up on some well needed sleep:-). In a way good timing, as I have one of the busiest weeks of Sliotar's calendar ahead of me. St Patrick's day gives us all an excuse to have a party and no one does it quite like Dublin. Sliotar will be holding court in the Porterhouse in Temple bar, we call it a Sliotarpalooza. We'll be there Thursday 15^th 6-10pm, Friday 16th 6-10pm, Saturday 17^th 6.30-1am and on Sunday from 4-11pm. Of course on top of this JPKALLIO.COM is rehearsing intensively, getting ready for our first stint of concerts in 2012, photo shoots and all the other promotion. So busy to say the least:-)

    Many musician friends of mine after hearing about Sliotars schedule have said with a sigh “oh I wish I could do that”. So I thought to shed a bit of light on few so called secrets (only people who don't know this, or refuse to believe it call it a secret) and home truths, while I already feel sorry for my fingers;-). I am fully aware of how lucky I am to be playing in Sliotar and get to play live as much as I do, to travel all around Europe playing some amazing gigs and also some not so amazing... But here are the details of the so called “secret” recipe of how Sliotar got there. I would say the number one key to the bands success and longevity is our residency in the Porterhouse, this has given us an opportunity to play live every week for the past 16 years, out of which 12 I have been there. This has made three musicians in to seasoned pros when it comes to performing live. People often ask me if I get nervous before a concert With Sliotar? No I don't. Sometimes if there is lot of hanging around I get anxious, but not nervous. I have gotten on to stage in front of nearly 3000 people or played on live TV and as long as that unit is around me, I am right at home as we have done it literally thousands of times. And I am not saying this here as to boast, I am trying to explain that to get to the point where you can step on front of any audience without having to deal with nerves, you just need to do it a lot. And with Sliotar we did, we took any gig we could to get the name out and to play to new audience. We still do this on tours if we are in a new territory. And still today my best bit of advice to any band is to play live as much and as often as possible. When no one knows you, it is not a time to pretend you're a rock star and to think you are better than this or that gig. And unless you have done those 100 or so pub gigs where you got comfortable playing with each others live, you are not ready for that big festival stage. Everybody wants to skip this and just get to do those big gigs, but it is a learning curve and there is a big reason why you need to do it. Big festival stages are where the cracks show, so make sure you fix them first before you get up there. Personally I think the sign of a great musician is when you can get on a stage, have a crap sound, everything that can, will go wrong, but you still deliver a killer concert. You need to learn that your personal needs and comforts are not important to the audience. Once the show starts, you just get on with it no matter what happens. We have had everything gone wrong with Sliotar over the years and when it does it makes for a tough gig! But you get on with it. We have had problems with power in some areas of Eastern Europe where the power supply just wasn't steady enough and kept knocking out our front of the house speakers, we have had paraffin sprayed all over our instruments by the guys doing a fire shows before us (there was no one coming near us with a cigarette that day), we have had every imaginable situation go wrong with the drums, kick pedals falling to pieces, cheap rental kits hardware collapsing, Des having to wedge drums against each others and taping everything together, but still doing a kicking show, we have had broken tooth, foot, ribs, ligaments, torn muscles, squashed knuckles, blood... lots of blood, food poisoning, serious chest infections, high fever, nervous breakdowns, electrocution... And still, the show always went on. Sixteen years a go if you would have thrown one of these things at us, we probably would have freaked out and the gig would gone down the drain, but now we just get on with it. And that level of confidence in your self and in your fellow band members only comes from playing lots of live shows. So play at any given opportunity anywhere!

    As to JPKALLIO.COM, we are still quite new band. But surely my and the other guys past experience should make it a breeze to get to the same level of confidence? No! We still need to get used to playing live together as a unit, we need to get used to covering each others backs when everything goes down south, we need to get past our individual needs and start thinking as a unit, that's what bands are made of. This is why we set our selves the 100 concert challenge in the first place:-)

   So there you go, sorry for once again running away with my rant, but hey... Now for a few bits of quick updates. Well as I mentioned in the beginning of this post, Sliotar will be celebrating 2012 Paddy's day in the Porterhouse here in Dublin from 15^th to the 18^th of March. Also this week good friends of ours and a brilliant band Mike Got Spiked are playing an album launch show in the Industry (downstairs in the Mezz) on the 15^th of March. These guys are brilliant! Check out their new video





    JPKALLIO.COM has a busy April planned as well:-) here is the gig list so far: 4^th April Sweeney's, 13^th April Adelaid bar, Sligo, 19^th April Submarine Bar, Crumlin, 20^th April Slaughtered Lamb in Swords. More on the way;-)

    So that's a lot to digest for this week, hope to see you over the weekend and back here next week. Happy St Patrick's day every one!

   J.P.