Great Big Shenanigans
Sep. 5th, 2009 11:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogThe show, such as it was, was wonderful. More on that later. Yet there's a certain sadness in watching my city once again shoot it self in the foot in so many ways and finding that its natural municipal reaction is to reload the gun.
The GBS show was one of an increasing series of "experiments" on the part of our downtown management company to increase revenue from some of its more popular "Thursday at the Square" summertime acts. These have always been, oddly enough, scheduled on Thursdays, and in a freely accessible downtown square, with no admission charged. In prior years, one or two of the bigger acts got moved to "the harbor"- an unspecified section of our woefully underdeveloped waterfront where access can be controlled and admission charged. This summer, virtually all of the bigger names got venued there, including the Wallflowers last night and our boys from Carbonear tonight. In fairness, they've kept it modest- 10 bucks in advance, 20 day of show (but with the usual Ticketmonster crap added for the former which made our two tickets for tonight come closer to 30 bucks in all)- still, a bargain for two good acts.
Three, as it turned out, but more about that later, also.
----
I must confess I get as lost in my own city below "the grid" as I do in lower Manhattan. It's a 19th century rabbit warren of twisty turnies, with literal walls of expressway overpasses and ramps thrown in for added confusion. Yet the confusion really began before we left the house. Not sure what their definition of "the harbor" was for this show's purposes, and the home-printed tickets having no address on them, I relied on the Buffalo Place website's "directions" link. That produced the push-pin cleverly numbered "1" in the map below, a surprisingly non-waterfront location. I drove to what I thought was the closest place to park conveniently near it, and Emily and I walked several blocks until we found ourselves surrounded and covered by the 190, the Skyway, and numerous ramps to and from each. In frustration, we walked back to the car, tried it on the road,.... and wound up ON the 190 and back in a circle to where we'd begun. Finally, I committed the Unpardonable Sin of Guyness and asked directions. "Follow the Naval Park signs," I was told.
Duh. I know where THAT is. And if you ever do a "Rock the Harbor" concert in the summertime in B-lo, now, so do you, courtesy of my somewhat improved mapping of the vicinity:
Just a LITTLE off, ya think? I laughed at the signs for the management as we finally walked through the gates, close to an hour after the opening act had been scheduled to begin:
Buffalo Place,... "we're downtown."
Well, downtown SOMEWHERE, anyway.
----
Bitch #2 of the night, and by far the bigger one, wound up dovetailing nicely with Bitch #1 about the fucked-up directions (and total lack of signage): Kathleen Edwards was nowhere NEAR going on even as we got there close to 6:30, an hour after the scheduled start. No, an unannounced opening-opening act, a nice enough kid named Jeremy Fisher ("High School" is his apparent hit, Em informs me) was still on until close to 7. Kathleen (quite a good performer, more in a Dar Williams mode than anything particularly Celtic or Canadian) didn't get on till closer to 8, and the boys didn't hit the stage until the stroke of 9.
All of which is fine, except when you're not expecting it, and when you're surrounded by a much larger-than-Thursday crowd in a restricted space and with far more liquoring-up than is even seen at the Square shows- and they've been gaining a reputation for underage and overdoing in the beer departments in recent summers. Emily wound up being the one asking to leave, just an hour after GBS went on, saying she was near-sick from the amount of smoking, drinking and swearing going on all around her. The kicker for her was when we walked closer to the stage to try to get some better pics of the band. A two-fisted drinker of a woman, clearly way over her limit, thrust one of her two light-beer cups in my hand and begged me to take if off of hers. I'd only had one, right on arrival going on three hours before, so I didn't have a problem with it, but she was just so emblematic of the bacchanalia that seemed to be everywhere around us. I know the boys sing of whiskey bein' passed around and the party in the kitchen that never ends, but I don't think any of them would have been comfortable with a 17-year-old girl feeling pressured to drink, or alternatively to leave, on account of everything going on around her.
Sadly, the management not only gives it a blind eye, it encourages it through its choices and placements of concessions. All the vendors are on a ticket system, and they're use-it-or-lose-it with no refunds, so if you buy 20 dollars of tickets, you're going to use them. And the tent arrangement basically consisted of the following: beer, beer, beer, wine, baked beans, beer, pizza, spam, bacon and spam. Emily didn't even know where to go for non-alcoholic refreshment until one of the many beer beer et cetera vendors (themselves all very nice and just doing what they were told) announced that, yeah, they sold THOSE, too, hidden in coolers under the pre-filled trays of brewskis. Coke and Sprite were not obvious sponsors of the debauchery, though; that was reserved for Labatts and the Something-Something Wine Company which took up almost all the signage around those first half dozen tents.
And yes, despite all this being available inside, people were tailgating in the parking lot outside, and I'm sure they were consuming more than Zweigles hots.
We just wanted to hear the band, sing along, dance a little and be with people who felt likewise. Instead, we made it through probably just over half a set, and will have memories, not of the encores we missed, but of the totally polluted cowgirl on our left who smoked more in three hours than a coal-fired electric plant does; of the spilled beer all over Emily's new sneakers (which we better wash before the school district expels her on some dumbass definition of "zero tolerance"); and, of course, of my mysterious "benefactor" of a Labatts Light who, I pray, did not try to drive herself home just now.
I'm sorry, especially to the GBS fans who I know expected a good review (I'll give it one, later- none of this was the band's fault) and who heard way too little of it on the end of my phone (although I did try to get some tin whistle in). But I'll ask those of you who do the scene for venues like this: are we being too prudish or intolerant? Is the music worth all this horseshit and should we have just tried to dance and bear it? And do you think the band would have a reaction if I were to email, say, Alan with this experience? I'm not looking for groveling and certainly not a refund, but they do seem like they care about us, and maybe we seemed a little less "up" on the lyrics than I remember us being at the prior shows I've been at (one a Square show with one short opening act and much less liquoring-up of the masses- Sara will recall that one- the other an alcohol-free show indoors at UB).
Setlists and happier reactions to follow. I still sang myself hoarse, and now my fingers are feeling about the same exhaustion.
The GBS show was one of an increasing series of "experiments" on the part of our downtown management company to increase revenue from some of its more popular "Thursday at the Square" summertime acts. These have always been, oddly enough, scheduled on Thursdays, and in a freely accessible downtown square, with no admission charged. In prior years, one or two of the bigger acts got moved to "the harbor"- an unspecified section of our woefully underdeveloped waterfront where access can be controlled and admission charged. This summer, virtually all of the bigger names got venued there, including the Wallflowers last night and our boys from Carbonear tonight. In fairness, they've kept it modest- 10 bucks in advance, 20 day of show (but with the usual Ticketmonster crap added for the former which made our two tickets for tonight come closer to 30 bucks in all)- still, a bargain for two good acts.
Three, as it turned out, but more about that later, also.
----
I must confess I get as lost in my own city below "the grid" as I do in lower Manhattan. It's a 19th century rabbit warren of twisty turnies, with literal walls of expressway overpasses and ramps thrown in for added confusion. Yet the confusion really began before we left the house. Not sure what their definition of "the harbor" was for this show's purposes, and the home-printed tickets having no address on them, I relied on the Buffalo Place website's "directions" link. That produced the push-pin cleverly numbered "1" in the map below, a surprisingly non-waterfront location. I drove to what I thought was the closest place to park conveniently near it, and Emily and I walked several blocks until we found ourselves surrounded and covered by the 190, the Skyway, and numerous ramps to and from each. In frustration, we walked back to the car, tried it on the road,.... and wound up ON the 190 and back in a circle to where we'd begun. Finally, I committed the Unpardonable Sin of Guyness and asked directions. "Follow the Naval Park signs," I was told.
Duh. I know where THAT is. And if you ever do a "Rock the Harbor" concert in the summertime in B-lo, now, so do you, courtesy of my somewhat improved mapping of the vicinity:
Just a LITTLE off, ya think? I laughed at the signs for the management as we finally walked through the gates, close to an hour after the opening act had been scheduled to begin:
Buffalo Place,... "we're downtown."
Well, downtown SOMEWHERE, anyway.
----
Bitch #2 of the night, and by far the bigger one, wound up dovetailing nicely with Bitch #1 about the fucked-up directions (and total lack of signage): Kathleen Edwards was nowhere NEAR going on even as we got there close to 6:30, an hour after the scheduled start. No, an unannounced opening-opening act, a nice enough kid named Jeremy Fisher ("High School" is his apparent hit, Em informs me) was still on until close to 7. Kathleen (quite a good performer, more in a Dar Williams mode than anything particularly Celtic or Canadian) didn't get on till closer to 8, and the boys didn't hit the stage until the stroke of 9.
All of which is fine, except when you're not expecting it, and when you're surrounded by a much larger-than-Thursday crowd in a restricted space and with far more liquoring-up than is even seen at the Square shows- and they've been gaining a reputation for underage and overdoing in the beer departments in recent summers. Emily wound up being the one asking to leave, just an hour after GBS went on, saying she was near-sick from the amount of smoking, drinking and swearing going on all around her. The kicker for her was when we walked closer to the stage to try to get some better pics of the band. A two-fisted drinker of a woman, clearly way over her limit, thrust one of her two light-beer cups in my hand and begged me to take if off of hers. I'd only had one, right on arrival going on three hours before, so I didn't have a problem with it, but she was just so emblematic of the bacchanalia that seemed to be everywhere around us. I know the boys sing of whiskey bein' passed around and the party in the kitchen that never ends, but I don't think any of them would have been comfortable with a 17-year-old girl feeling pressured to drink, or alternatively to leave, on account of everything going on around her.
Sadly, the management not only gives it a blind eye, it encourages it through its choices and placements of concessions. All the vendors are on a ticket system, and they're use-it-or-lose-it with no refunds, so if you buy 20 dollars of tickets, you're going to use them. And the tent arrangement basically consisted of the following: beer, beer, beer, wine, baked beans, beer, pizza, spam, bacon and spam. Emily didn't even know where to go for non-alcoholic refreshment until one of the many beer beer et cetera vendors (themselves all very nice and just doing what they were told) announced that, yeah, they sold THOSE, too, hidden in coolers under the pre-filled trays of brewskis. Coke and Sprite were not obvious sponsors of the debauchery, though; that was reserved for Labatts and the Something-Something Wine Company which took up almost all the signage around those first half dozen tents.
And yes, despite all this being available inside, people were tailgating in the parking lot outside, and I'm sure they were consuming more than Zweigles hots.
We just wanted to hear the band, sing along, dance a little and be with people who felt likewise. Instead, we made it through probably just over half a set, and will have memories, not of the encores we missed, but of the totally polluted cowgirl on our left who smoked more in three hours than a coal-fired electric plant does; of the spilled beer all over Emily's new sneakers (which we better wash before the school district expels her on some dumbass definition of "zero tolerance"); and, of course, of my mysterious "benefactor" of a Labatts Light who, I pray, did not try to drive herself home just now.
I'm sorry, especially to the GBS fans who I know expected a good review (I'll give it one, later- none of this was the band's fault) and who heard way too little of it on the end of my phone (although I did try to get some tin whistle in). But I'll ask those of you who do the scene for venues like this: are we being too prudish or intolerant? Is the music worth all this horseshit and should we have just tried to dance and bear it? And do you think the band would have a reaction if I were to email, say, Alan with this experience? I'm not looking for groveling and certainly not a refund, but they do seem like they care about us, and maybe we seemed a little less "up" on the lyrics than I remember us being at the prior shows I've been at (one a Square show with one short opening act and much less liquoring-up of the masses- Sara will recall that one- the other an alcohol-free show indoors at UB).
Setlists and happier reactions to follow. I still sang myself hoarse, and now my fingers are feeling about the same exhaustion.
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no subject
Date: 2009-09-06 10:41 am (UTC)Buffalo Show
Date: 2009-09-06 08:42 pm (UTC)I thought the crowd at least around me near the front right of the stage (about 50 feet back) was very well behaved. I had no one smoking nor spilling beer or any bodily fluids anywhere near me.
Here is an interesting idea...MOVE to another location. The venue was more than large enough. My friend brought two of his young children (under 10) with no issues at all. In fact I saw lots of young kids and would have no problem taking mine next year.
As for the venue and not being free at the square. I think this is better. You actually have people there to see the band. The square has become a drink fest for 20 somethings. Not a good place to see any band of note.
Stop being a prude and get a grip. This was a great show if not the best that I've seen them do in over 5 years.
Lastly, buy a map or a GPS.
Re: Buffalo Show
Date: 2009-09-06 09:24 pm (UTC)I agree that a contained environment is better than what Thursdays have become- although some of that is chicken and egg as they've made Thursdays more sk8r-kid friendly while moving shows like this one to the confines. I'd pay more for a family-friendlier section if that would take some of the pressure off the promoters to make concession sales such a big part of the budget.
As for the map and the GPS, we had one of the former- from the promoter- and two of the latter on our mobiles. Both require a known address for them to be functional. Why the promoter chose to pinpoint a clearly wrong location on their own site is bizarre. Something this big a deal needs signage, especially when there were downtown crowds for another big event at the same time.
(I did like the show, for what it's worth. It just could've been improved, so we'd have felt more like seeing the whole thing.
GBS Buffalo show
Date: 2009-09-06 09:08 pm (UTC)Re: GBS Buffalo show
Date: 2009-09-06 09:34 pm (UTC)My tickets also said "GBS with Kathleen Edwards." This one was more no-harm-no-foul because we wound up not missing any of her show, but again, for those even more clueless than me, some simple disclosure of the timing on the ticket pages or the promoter's site would keep the rants down when we only learn these things after the fact.
As for the moving part, see the previous commenter response. I scoped out all the closer spots trying to take pictures, and the whole front of the lawn in front of and around the sound board was chock-full of lawn chairs. (Maybe someday they'll restrict that, and we can sing happily about throwing my fears into a Sea of No Chairs;)
I also hope the old drunk chick who almost passed out with her two last beers is ok. That was the image I left with. It improved with a night's sleep and recollections of the music itself (which still made all the agitas worth it), and none of it kept me from enjoying, and keeping track of, the songs and stories for both my posts and the board you read about them on.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-06 09:31 pm (UTC)I actually was able to get up front as GBS was about to start. We were as I stated 50 feet from the stage. No problem with the people. They all for the most part stood as the show was about to start and there was actually more room to move up there than towards the back. I think maybe the patrons that brought the chairs might have been a little more well behaved.
I only heard one comment about people standing in front of those who (mistakenly) thought they could sit through and enjoy the show that way.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-06 09:42 pm (UTC)Thanks also for the writeup on the board for the final songs. Since Fortune's Favour isn't really that new, it was nice how much of the repetoire they covered, even some old ones I don't even remember (Rant and Roar is where I came in, years back).
no subject
Date: 2009-09-06 09:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-07 03:18 pm (UTC)But then, I've also been in very well-behaved crowds for GBS shows too. WHatever.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-07 03:21 pm (UTC)Coincidence?
Great Big Shenanigans
Date: 2009-09-08 07:01 pm (UTC)