If you've ever been NEAR the Short North on Gallery Hop night, you can imagine how shitty this was. No parking, period...let alone for a car and trailer. So we pull into a side street, and basically block it up while we carry all the equiptment a half a block away. It sucked. All I kept thinking was: "If it freakin' rains, my life is over..." My shit would be ruined. Set-up was cool, and was soon underway.
SETS? - uh...no idea. It was so ad-libbed and catered to a walking MOVING audience, that I simply never did a set-show. I did quite a bit, and always kept it lively and different. Awesome feeling.
Ahh, the greatest reaction ever. Truly a phenomenal weekend for me. All the money and heartache and HEADaches and stress and problems and JESUS everything. A night like this will make you forget all of it and revert back to the "I'm the luckiest man in the world feeling..." But the evening definitely didn't start like that...
So CD101 is doing their live broadcast. I work at CD101. I have engineered the broadcast at the Gallery Hop since I've been at CD101, and have just recently handed the "live broadcast" engineering responsibilities to Steve - the MACK of all trades. So it was definitely strange to be there, but not as a CD101 guy. Kind of fun. I had talked to the owner of the bar and the owner of the apartment complex and they OK'd me playing there, and since CD101's truck is parked up near the light, the sound wouldn't interfere with my show. Well, unfortunately there was no space for CD101 to park their truck, so they ended up parking it DIRECTLY where I was set to play. They obviously didn't know this (nor would it have mattered - they HAD to park somewhere). So there's a conflict. One of us has to turn our music down. I asked if they could turn it down when I was playing and they said no problem. WHEW. So I start my stuff, a crowd starts to form and then CD101 turns their music back on. OK. I stop the show and walk over and ask what's up. "This is stupid we should be able to promote the station..." Now I'm in a real bind. I am still the Engineer at CD101. Just because Steve - the MACK of all trades does the set-up doesn't take my responsibility away. On the other hand, I am Adam Kontras 4tvs dude tonight. NOT ENGINEER DUDE. It was an obvious conflict of interest and I had to take myself out of the situation and think what I would do if it was some other act. If was with CD101 and this band was already OK'd to play...what would I do...
I would've turned the music down. It's as simple as that. We're (CD101) out there 12 months out of the year are truck is there, banners everywhere, the "band" will keep a crowd around to SEE us and all would be cool. In fact I'd probably talk to the band and ask if they could mention us in between songs, and talk and make it fun. But I wasn't in charge. I honestly felt they (not Steve - the MACK of all trades) were making this a big deal BECAUSE it was me and they felt I should be pro CD101 and not pro 4tvs. In reality I wanted to be pro-AUDIENCE. The more people, the more exposure - and ESPECIALLY if the band and the station are talking and getting along. So I knew CD101 was tearing down at 10 PM, I just withdrew from it and said I wouldn't play until 10 PM. This really sucked 'cause 9PM is a mucho big time for the HOP...it really HOPS in the 9 O'Clock hour, heh heh - But I didn't want this to escalate into a fight with MY OWN STATION.
But...whats this? CD101 is cool and they said: "Hey, how bout we switch off and on. You do 10 minutes or so, we do 10 minutes or so...like that." GIDDY UP! That's perfect, because my sets are like 12-13 minutes. "Thanks! I'll do a set, it's about 12 or 13 minutes, then you guys can go on for 10-15 minutes and so on..." Disaster avoided. I only had to look lke a buffoon ONCE when I had to turn the show off in the middle and go talk to him. Now we'd be cool.
So I start my Abbey Road set. Which is one medley that lasts 13 minutes and 12 seconds. All is good...BIG ASS CROWD people having fun. 8 minutes into it CD101 turns the music back on. Wow, now I'm pissed. Really pissed. Try to keep cool. Turn everything off again and walk back over to CD101. "What am I missing? I thought we just worked this out? Why did you turn the music on in the middle of my set?" AND HERE'S WHERE I LOST IT....their reply:
It's a fucking medley. It's pretty goddamn obvious I wasn't done. I was still singing. It wasn't like a song died out and they turned the music back up. They knew they were cutting me off. So I said: "Hey, we were both asked to be here. The owner of both the bar (Brian Boru's) and the apartment complex (Victorian Gate) OK'd it. I will do what I was asked and you do what you were asked. We have to treat this as if we were complete strangers." So I kept myself from WIGGING out and just said I would play my stuff and they could play theirs. May the best man win.
Well, unbeknownst to me after I sang for about 20 minutes (at this point already past 9 PM) they turned the music down completely. The crowd grew pretty substantial. I would venture to say there was about 100 people standing there at one point. At 9:15 PM I stopped talking/singing and realized they had indeed turned their music down. Steve - the MACK of all trades was actually standing in the audience watching and having a good time. So I figured they felt the increased traffic was great exposure...and it was. It was so cool. I saw people crossing the street just to see what the commotion was about. Not for me, but just 'cause a crowd is contagious. 5 people gather - 20 people...soon the whole block is there.
I continued until Midnight. Had a great time...and get this: People were throwing quarters and dollars. I collected $61.76. Can you believe that? Just from people throwin' money. It was so awesome. Obviously $62 isn't a lot of money. But just to think that I made that many people smile enough that they were willing to hand me money just blows me away. You know? I mean I've sold CDs and such, but there's nothing tangible that they bought here. 3 people gave me $5 and even $6! For nothing but a couple smiles. WOW. It was awesome. I know I'm so LITTLE time. I need to look at the big picture and move on soon, but for right now..this was the greatest night ever. $61.76. That's all I needed to have a wonderfully perfect evening.
Now CD101 was a different story. Of course Monday rolls around and there's a closed-door meeting about the happenings of one October 2nd, 1999. The end result was basically that I should not have played because I am an employee of the station FIRST. What I did was completely "Egomaniacal" And there you go. How do I feel about it? Whew. What can I say? Believe it or not I do THINK quite a bit before I do things, and if at ANY point during my meetings with both of the owners had we thought it would've interferred with the CD101's remote we wouldn't have done it. Now when I got there and saw that because of where they parked it would interefere should I have not set-up? That's a tough call. Communication is always the key, and I thought we were doing fine until the shitty little: "Oh you weren't done?" comment. At that point the lines broke down and it wasn't on my part.
The reason I'm struggling with all of this is because anyone who knows me, knows that if you want to really hurt me...call me arrogant. I try so damn hard to keep myself in check, and to make sure I never come across as full-of-myself or "better" than anyone. My philosophy has always been we all have talents that if pushed the right way will lead to success. Some in music, some in business, some in arts, some in teaching. You don't jusdge yourself on money, or fame...you judge yourself on your individual shaping of your talent. So no one is BETTER than anyone else. Some people just latch on to the right dream and don't give up. So the "Egomaniacal" remark HURT. Angered me...Looking back on the whole situation, I was not egomaniacal. At least I don't feel I was. (sigh) Oh well, you just have to move on. Unfortunately these are the type of stories that are remembered LOOOOONG after you leave a place. I'm finding myself really starting to reevaluate my perception of people. Ever have that friend who worked with that one famous guy? And how your friend (whose opinion you really trust) said the famous guy was an arrogant prick. Think twice about ever believing that. Because I think we just described a situation where this scenerio can come true and then all the sudden I'm this huge jerk. When in fact, I wasn't and there isn't a GODDAMN thing I can do about it. I absolutely HATE THAT. AHHH!!! That's why websites are cool. I can just tell my side of every story I EVER HAVE. HA! Goodnight.
Gotta admit though, you must have a pretty "healthy" ego to want to perform with 4 other YOU's rather than put a band together....heh heh.