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• what is your favorite venue? why?
-Bougainvillea's - the vibe is very homey - wooden house, dark lights, neighborhood bar. theres never a cover. the music thats booked there is consistently good - bluesy rock, reggae. its one band that plays all night. i live in north miami - and i travel to south miami just to chill there!
-Anonymous
PS-14. why? Tell you the truth as a band I dont like performing there and I probably wont book shows there for a while but they try really hard to help the scene. You can fit alot of people in the back which is an awesome area. You can smoke weed in the back without getting kicked out. They book alot of the popular bands in Miami so theres always great shows there, and there not assholes about a band or promoter having the whole door. The set up is alot easier to charge people by the way its set up.
- A-HA! EVENTS
So far Studio A because of the sound and the stage but that's from an artist's prespective.
-Eddy
• what is your least favorite venue? why?
-out of the venues i actually GO to - ps14 and tobacco rd. but i still go there so they cant be that bad. ps14 has a weird layout, i love the back area, but the inside makes me uncomfortable. the stage has no space in front of it, theres people crossing in front of it constantly to go to the bathroom, or to go in and out of the back door.. its so annoying. then there's tobacco rd. i go there because friends of mine play there relatively often, and theyre good bands. and i love that tobacco road has a mixed age range. and i love their burgers. what i hate is when they book shitty bands, and i feel like that most of the time. i feel like they make most of their money off of bands friends and family who are almost obligated to go out and see them. i'm talking about when they have those big events with a thousand bands. i wanna kill myself.
-Anonymous
Studio A. why? well the venue is nice but its the people that run the venue that totally makes this place suck. They dont pay the bands, so they usually have terible shows of bands no one has ever heard before. As a promoter it sucks because they always want money up front before the show even starts.. what is that? The venue is nice but its not that nice. Come on now.. I do shows at Mansion and Mansion doesnt even ask for money up front. And even if you do pay the money up front they still want to much of everything.. there way to greedy and it will most likely be there downfall..
- A-HA! EVENTS
I really don't like PS14 it's too small. Maybe if they moved the stage to the back area there would be more room.
-Eddy
• what makes you WANT to go to a show? is it the social aspect? do you really like the band? do you have to go because it's your brother/cousin/boyfriend/boss? or do you go to check out your competition?
i love live music, so i go because i like or love the band, or its a band i;m interested in hearing for the first time. i also go to be social, i love being around people that like similar music.
-Anonymous
the biggest reason I would go to a show is not just one of my favorite locals but a combo of popular bands.. I got to check out the comp too. And every weekend I at least go to one show so I pick which place has the best music. Usually PS 14 has the best shows on the weekend, but Transit does some cool stuff as well as Tobacco Rd. other things that make go to a show is a cool flyer thats printed.. presentation is important.. oh and if there is to many bands I cant do it.. I can only focus on about 3 bands in one night..
- A-HA! EVENTS
I go to shows to see good bands, and to be social with other people. I don't really care about competition I think that's one of the major problems in our scene now is the "cliques"
There seems to be certain bands that stick together therefore spreading the fans more and more. The really good bands in south florida need to start playing together to keep the scene together
-Eddy
• what can venues do to make you happy (as a band and/or as a patron)?
keep it real. many venues start booking bands because they think theyll bring people. you know how it goes. and thats when it goes down the drain. a good beer selection will keep me comin too.. not your typical bud, bud light, miller, miller light BS. oh and modest prices - and NO cover!
-Anonymous
I wish there was something that could be done about the crackheads around churchills. I don't have a solution for that, but it's really aggravating and makes me not want to go there sometimes.
-Anonymous
As a band I will tell the venues to stop being so greedy.. let the bands walk out with at least 100$ which hardly ever happens unless there really, really popular.. and the venues are making a killing at the bar so they should so a little more love to the bands.. as a patron I want to see popular locals not just anybody.. I'm really into the miami scene so if I havent heard of you then thats pretty bad.. most likely its because alot of bands dont work hard enough on promotion..
- A-HA! EVENTS
Well to be honest the only venue that has good sound is Studio A. PS14, Churchills, Drake's are really the only other venues I can think of and they all have horrible sound and stages. They need to also have smaller cover charges. $5bux is good for a local show, unless there's a national act playing I don't see why. Our best shows are usually $5 or Free. Also they need to work on All Ages.
-Eddy
• what makes you NOT want to go to a particular venue? is it the cover? the parking? dangerous location? rude employee's? expensive drinks? no bar?
-if the music is not my thing, i won't go. other than that the cover turns me away sometimes, if it doesn't turn me away, it pisses me off. dangerous locations don't bother me, i ignore the bums. rude employees won't keep me away either, (this asian girl at tobacco rd is the worst waitress i've ever had, and she doesn't get fired!) mainly what makes me not wanna go to a venue is the type of people that go there. i avoid places that have a steady flow of hipsters. like circa 28 and ps14. but thats just not my style, so its nothing that the venue is doing "wrong." expensive drinks will keep me sober.. so thats not what a venue wants.
-Anonymous
If i havent heard of any of the bands I wont go.. I dont care how much someone promotes the show.. If I never heard the band play but I see them promote themselves alot I will possibly go because I support people who have a true love for music and the easiests way to see that is by how hard they work..
- A-HA! EVENTS
I prefer the venue has a bar, decent sound system, decent stage, preferably not smack in the middle of cracktown (churchills), parking is a major plus, and yes expensive drinks are a major turn off.
-Eddy
• What locations would you like to see more shows? south miami, coconut grove, south beach, hollywood, etc...?
-downtown. and wynwood. i love that you can bar hop from transit to tobacco rd. i think if there were more venues in the same areas, people could bar hop and it would create more of a community and bring more people. i plan on being a part of the creation of this change..
-Anonymous
all three.. I would love to see more stuff in the grove, broward, south beach.. etc.. the issues with that is the broward scene sucks.. Delray has a better scene than broward.. South beach is scared of the bands and the grove well I dont know the deal with the grove..
- A-HA! EVENTS
to be honest there's only studio a, ps14, churchills and drake's putting on decent shows. and 3 of those are in downtown, we need more venues in kendall, the grove is nice we used to have good shows at Flavor but they stopped doing that, homestead, Doral.
-Eddy
• What do you think is the biggest factor that is holding back musicians?
well, from my point of view the music scene is like waves. one minute THIS is the new "in" thing, the next minute, something else is the new "in" thing. and the problem in any local scene is when there are too many cookie-cutter bands trying to be like what is in NOW, instead of trying to create the NEXT IN THING. i guess what i'm saying, bands should stop copying things and be original. they might just be the NEXT IN THING.
-"The Next In Thing"
Well honestly alot of people just don't care about local music anymore. I haven't figured out why. Gone are the days of a sold out Nonpoint, Darwin's show. Gone are the days of sold out Kaffe Krystal shows. We need more venues to play at. REAL venues not restaurants that have a little floor space and no PA (cereal bowl). Maybe if there were cooler venues to go to people would start hanging out more. The only decent places to hang out at are clubs with dance music and it's taking over. I like to dance but every once in a while i would like to go to a cool bar and have a drink and watch some good bands for cheap and not in the ghetto.
-Eddy
• What do you suggest we as a whole can do to put S. Fla on the map as a music capitol? do you think it's soley based on the talents of the bands? do you think the media/promoters should play a bigger part or be more involved?
-sfla has great musicians, and great music. the problem is that its known for being a club city. south beach in the 90's apparently had a great music scene, there were lots of clubs that played live music. then the rent started going up severely and these little bars couldnt hold on. so all these electronic clubs took over. so now there are live music joints in south miami, downtown, the districts, and little haiti. the people on sobe don't have music access to good live music because Tony (killer shows) books shitty bands all over the beach, pays them practically nothing. well if venues booked GOOD music consistently, people would eventually get accustomed to hearing quality, and will start coming out to these places. But most venues only care about money, and don't wanna put in the investment of having to wait for a venue to develop a reputation. they just wanna throw in a dj and call it a day. so there IS hope, and i see bougainvilleas doing it (they have a booker there named eric garcia who's great. he's booking great live music every night, and slowly people are starting do dig it)
-Anonymous
There's a serious lack of talent in S. Fla. I know it's probably not the right thing to say but the rock scene consist of two types of bands shitty metal and shitty hardcore. Almost all the bands look and sound the same it's ridiculous. Very few bands are trying to do something different. I love metal and hardcore when applied in interesting ways but when every band has the same breakdown and everyone on stage is doing the helicopter with their hair it gets redundant. The bands that are actually doing something different never get enough exposure.
Also you do a great job as a promoter but there's a serious lack of dedication from other promoters. I mean sure the bands are responsible to do some promotions for the shows but a promoter's job is that to promote. Simply making flyers and handing them to the bands just won't cut it we need the promoters out there passing out flyers or hiring people to pass out flyers, putting up posters everywhere not just the venue where the show is happening, getting in with radio stations to do on-air promotions or promoting on the new times.
we need events that seem worth going to. If a promoter spent a little cash on bringing in national acts to work with the locals and do some heavy promotion the money would come back to them. In the case of Joe Gonzalez and his "realbandtv" he used to do great shows from time to time when he did things right. Thanks to Joe Dissever's had the chance to play in front of 500 people at the Roxy Theater. He also messed up alot of the times by charging too much for certain shows, and bringing in Nationals that noone knew. But I think if promoters took their jobs more seriously we would have better shows.
-Eddy
I can go on and on and on with questions like these. if you have more imput, feel free to let loose. Just be sure to let me know if you'd like to be named or posted anonymously.
i look foreward to hearing from all of you!
Q_O_T_S@YAHOO.COM
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Random Comments...
Ok, well, between Churchills, Tobacco Road, PS-14 and maybe some other's I might of missed, they all seem to be at the same level... The fact that Tobacco Road has different stages provides opportunity for events like the Femme Fest, and yet Churchills has the Claim to Fame that Manson performed there... So, my only real though about all this involves something that can only be bought by anyone 21 or over; booze... I have wanted friends of mine to come check out shows, broaden the scene and even give a chance to all those who are apparently "too young to be at any of the shows"... I do acknowledge that there's rules and regulations that have to be met... Reasons why only 21 and over are allowed at these shows... But I was asked my opinion so there it is... I'd like to see a couple of "all ages" shows... and not just some laid back cafe-type show... I'd like to see Metal and Gothic, ect shows for anyone who can pay the cover... Make them more like concerts and shows and less like bars with music...
Like I said before, I know there's reasons why this has not been done yet, but I wanted to put in my 2 cents/state my opinion... Hope it helps.
- Jerry Oviedo
I'm just tired of seeing the same bands at the same places all the time. I think the clubs and bars and even so-called promoters play favorites instead of seeking out new talent. give fresh new bands an opportunity. If the scene is stale, it's because what the bands, clubs & promoters are doing isn't working. so it's time to move on to something else.
-Anonymous
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