Catherine Feeny: House Shows or Club Shows—Which Are Better? (Tempe, AZ to Denver, CO)-- Local Cut

Catherine Feeny: House Shows or Club Shows—Which Are Better? (Tempe, AZ to Denver, CO)

October 17th, 2009 [1:01PM] Posted by: Catherine Feeny | 0 COMMENTS

We are rushing to the Denver airport from just outside of Trinidad, NM. Had planned to stop and see friends from the band the Human Value who have started a crepe shop in Colorado Springs, CO, but two things have made that impossible—one, the time zone change, which I was not aware of until the manager of our motel asked us to kindly check out b/c it was after 11 am (my fancy new blackberry told me it was 10:15) and the maid was waiting to finish up, and two, our flight back to Portland is an hour earlier than I thought.

A week or two before the start of my tour, I got a letter from USCIS that said my husband’s greencard interview had been scheduled for Oct 13. So, I canceled a show in Albuquerque and decided to drive from Tempe, AZ straight to Denver, where we would catch a flight to Portland to make the interview, then back to Denver to play a show. I was a little nervous spending the money to do this, and thought about canceling the show in Denver all together, but last time we were in town we had connected with some good people who owned a club that was at the center of a tight-knit community in the city, and they seemed willing to really promote a show for an as-yet-little-known artist like myself.

Show night before in Tempe, AZ was not quite what I expected. I asked my friend Jeremy, who plays in an old-timey/bluegrass band called Hashknife Outfit if he could put on a night that coincided with me being in town, so I could play to his crowd of locals and the few fans I’ve picked up in the Phoenix area via house shows or having songs in TV and film. He said he could. There was a venue change a few weeks before the show, but it all seemed to be going ahead.

However, when we got to town, Jeremy was worried that there wasn’t going to be much of a turn-out for the show, b/c several other massively popular events had recently been announced for the same night—there was actually an all-day music festival at a venue down the road where Fishbone played for free. No joke. Oh well, we thought, we’d have a good time, I’ve played to empty bars before.

A few people turned up in response to my e-mail, which was awesome. It was one of those black box rock clubs, and the sound guy/owner insisted on using DIs on our guitars rather than mics, and I think he had long ago lost the high-mid range in his hearing. Still, I felt good at first—sometimes there is a certain romance to taking your licks. But then I lost my heart towards the middle of the set for silly reasons, which I regret. I didn’t throw my guitar or cuss anyone out (that might have been more memorable), but I wish I had managed to keep my spirits up.

This show in particular brought to light a contentious issue between my husband and myself—is club touring really where it’s at for little independent folkies such as ourselves? In our other guise as part of the band COME GATHER ROUND US, we play mostly house shows, unamplified and up close and personal. Not so long ago, when Myspace was in it’s heyday, we built a little network of people all over the country who liked our music enough to invite us into their homes. Their friends and family would come over and listen to us play and joke with us and get to know us, and tell us about themselves, and buy our CDs and give us tips for gas money and food.

We’ve been calling on that network on this tour, inviting those folks to the club shows, and often staying with friends we made living room touring, rather than paying for hotels. There is no way we could afford to tour and stay in hotels every night. Even so, we played for more people and had more cash at the end of most nights playing in living rooms than we have playing in clubs. In fact, I would go further and say that at our best nights in clubs on this tour (barring one) we have walked away with less money than at averagely successful house shows.

Of course, it is not all about the take. There is a balance to strike. Some artists have trouble with the social aspect of house concerts. Luckily, I like the coziness and personal exchange that comes with house touring—I’ve met more spectacular people this way than I thought existed. At its best, it is spiritually enriching. But I also like the romance of a dark room, a stage, a glass of whiskey, and a group of people who don’t know each other coming together to partake of something extraordinary together. I have felt a sort of communion happen in bars and crappy music venues that seems inconceivable when the lights are up and you can smell the the chemical solution they just used to clean the floor.

My husband, however, does not get this charm, nor does he think one should rely on traditional means (press, radio, venues) to get your music out there. So it can be tough going when the going’s tough.

Smartest and most enjoyable way to do it (for me) would probably be an even split of house shows and club shows. I think I’ll try that next time around, though it’s no easy task booking house shows that fit neatly into a tour plan, especially now that MySpace is less and less popular. I do Facebook, but I haven’t yet seen if it is as effective a tool for booking house shows as MySpace once was.

That said, we have played in a few gems on this West Coast tour—Mosgo’s in Arcata, Hotel Cafe in Los Angeles, LeStat’s in San Diego—that I look forward to returning to.

LeStat’s was the stop just before Tempe. It is a quirky little room attached to a sprawling bohemian coffeeshop with a mixture of tables and theater seats that is informal and sweet. Louie, the booker/soundguy, has a passion for music and sound (strange, no?) that shows in his attitude and attention to detail. That, and he is a nice person.

I shared the evening with Angela Correa (Correatown) who has made a great album called “Spark.Burn.Fade.” that is available on clear vinyl! She and I have admired each other’s stuff from a distance over the past few years, and it was awesome to finally see her live. She has a great voice and can create a powerful atmosphere with just that and an electric guitar.

The crowd was a good mix of Angela’s peeps and mine—there was one fella who’d seen me play in Belgium and just happened to be in town, some who caught a song or two on Pandora, one had heard a song of mine on “Knight Rider” (yeehaw!) and there were several folks we’d met living room touring. A talented lady named Brenda Goodell, who’s hosted several shows in her home, has introduced us to most of the folks we know in the city, and she was not only in attendance, but also managed to squeeze me in the next morning for what I believe she calls energy work. Now, I am as skeptical as the next East-coast born fool about ‘energy work’—but Brenda really does seem able to push impulses and energy around your body in a way that is extraordinary. This and some delicious SoCal Mexican food recharged me for the next leg of the journey.

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