Publication:
MaximumRockNRoll

Author:
Felix Von Havoc

MRR #222-tour and festival booking
This month I will be brief as I'm on tour with DS 13.

This summer I set up the DS 13 tour and Thrash Fest 2. Thrash Fest two was a total moshstrosity. Onward To Mayhem, USV, Holding On, Code 13, Assembly of God, Spazm 151, Tear It Up, DS 13 and Nine Shocks Terror all played ripping sets of hardcore punk rock. From Ashes Rise had to cancel and were sorely missed. There were no fights and no trouble with police. In fact the owner of the skate park hired three off duty cops to do security. This was a little unnerving at first but they mostly just sat in the back and looked bored. I know some people will have a problem with off duty cops at a hardcore show, but the owner of the skate park is in trouble with the city and might lose his license. To him hiring cops to do security was the best way to make sure that the show wasn't shut down by noise complaints. There were about 550 kids in attendence. Of those just about 500 paid to get in. At the 15$ cover there was still only about 1500$ to split up among the bands, not nearly as much as I'd hoped. I kicked in another 600$ from the money I made selling records and shirts at the gig to pay the people who helped, and to help pay for Spazm 151's airfare from Texas. I had honestly hoped for one or two hundred more people and that I would be able to pay the bands much more handsomly. So next year I'll work harder to bring in more bands and hopefully find a cheaper place to set up the fest so everyone will want to come. The Skate Park cost over 5,000$ to rent with PA, portable toilets etc. Hopefully I can find a better deal next year, although the ability to skate and thrash is pretty appealing. Despite fears of a riot during Nine Shocks Terror the tomfoolery was constrained to throwing dangerous missiles and I got my damage deposit back. Thanks to everyone who showed up, the bands and everyone who helped out at the door with security etc. Next year we are working on bringing more bands from Europe and I'm even considering doing a Thrash Fest in Europe.

So far the DS 13 tour is going really well, although we are only one week into the tour. So far we have been playing where hardcore punk rock is the strongest (In my opinion) the Midwest and East Coast. The shows have all been great, good turnouts, good crowd response and great opening bands. A lot of the shows have been house shows. I think house shows are cool, totally DIY and the punks are in control. However, I think the DIY hardcore scene should strive to grow and expand. I think there is a real crisis in DIY show booking that will eventually come to a head. There are too many bands who want to play and not enough people booking shows. Furthermore, there needs to be a greater network of DIY gig spaces on the Gilman St./ABC NO RIO model. Mr. Roboto project in Pittsburgh is a good example. I think every scene needs to strive to form a gig collective and open a DIY show space. Especially Minneapolis and Portland, but also Boston, Philly and every other town with a big hardcore/punk scene. The fact is that show booking is hard and thankless work. It's no fun, there is little glory and no money in it. Therefore, the rate of burnout is very high. Most people who set up shows regularly (such as myself) eventually quit and now only book shows occasionally if at all. The only solution I can see to this burnout is to form large gig collectives to take on booking as a team effort. Unfortunately, in my experience most collectives boil down to one or two people doing all the work. The other factor I want to stress is co operation. A street punk only venue probably won't last too long but a venue that books street punk, crust, SE and even indie rock or hip hop has a better chance of staying on financially and in terms of staff size and burn out. I'm laying down this challenge to the DIY scene to get things moving and create the final missing link in the DIY network, a national chain of DIY punk gig spaces. Once and for all lets separate our scene from the music business and grow our scene beyond the confines of small house shows.

I really mean it when I say the future of hardcore is in your hands. It's time to get involved. Hardcore is the number one thing in my life. I dedicated my life to hardcore so I could put out records and help bands tour etc. Inevitably money became invovled and I do make some cash from my efforts but nothing compared to what I could make at my day job, which I happily forsake to take bands I love like DS 13 and Vitamin X to the people. It's high time that more people got in the ring and started clubs, booked tours and helped bring foreign bands over to the states to tour. Europe has a DIY network far ahead of the US and it's time we caught up. Putting out records and booking tours isn't rocket science. If I can do this shit anyone can. Once again I'm laying down the gauntlet to the DIY scene it's time to see how far our movement can go.

Publication Date:
January 1, 1988

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