nine thirty question for the bosses

[walkonby]

i've noticed that certain bars and clubs have battle of the bands every so often, but the problem is that they are usually in places that i'd never really go to, or even would want to go to just to see what local bands can do.  has nine thirty ever had a battle, or would they even consider one?  i can only imagine what acts would show, but i bet it would be incredible.

[HoyaSaxa03]

change "incredible" with "mind-numbling shitty", and you pretty much got it.

[sonickteam2]

Evenout would win hands down , every time  

[HoyaSaxa03]

i know someone who got dragged to velvet lounge for that emergenza crap ... i heard bad, bad, bad, bad things...

[walkonby]

Originally posted by HoyaSaxa03:
  change "incredible" with "mind-numbling shitty", and you pretty much got it.

why is that?  no talent in dc?  not enough of it?  the crowd would suck?  or no crowd at all?

[Bartelby]

No, because all the mind-numbingly BAD independent music critics/journalists/experts would show up, insist on getting in free, and then whine, fight, and push the crowd around so they could be front and center, and generally wreck a fun thing for the rest of us.  

[walkonby]

i love critics.  by saying that, i am a critic.  aren't all people really critics, though?  everyone on here surely is!  but that's a good thing, so no boo's or spilt beer from the gallery's rafters.  and i think everyone at nine thirty, and most every other show i've been to, shove their way up front.  good 'ole concert experiences.

[HoyaSaxa03]

recent "battle of the bands" type of deals around here have been at nation or jaxx or velvet lounge, and i've heard very bad things about all of them
 
 sure there's tons of good local talent, but many of them range from stoner metal to indie pop to shoegaze to hardcore ... doesn't seem like a great mix to me
 
 and i'm not sure the "good" local bands with fanbases and the ability to play at most venues around here would want to be shoehorned into a "battle of the bands", which seems to often attract high school pop/punk groups.
 
 but hey, i could be completely wrong about this ... if they could get woolly mammoth, wsc, q and not u, cartel, et al together for a show, would be interesting ...

[Bags]

I agree with Hoya.  The bands you'd get to a battle would be of the Grog n' Tankard ilk.  You should just go by GnT every weekend and judge for yourself....    

[snailhook]

battle of the bands events are totally lame. usually, the worst bands participate, because the better bands know they are above it. music isn't about competition.
 
 i would never subject myself to that sort of degradation. i'd rather play in front of seven people in an art gallery, basement, or even in a fucking cave. nothing is more uninspired than slogging it out with horrible pop-punk bands at the velvet lounge. the warehouse will never do a battle of the bands, unless it's tongue in cheek, or a true face-off. even then, the circumstances have to be right.

[walkonby]

how about setting some standards?  you can't have played gnt, unless you absolutely needed the money, for beer or something.  and all genres of music versus each other.  finally, the "skills" of musicians versus the "skills" of others, based on management, following, style, ability, hype, promotion, ect....  Not just whether you can do a "stairway" cover, or sample the backbeats of a gravy train commercial, or your band's lead singer has a drumstick signed by all members of quiet riot.  make it like a festival competition.

[twangirl]

Since it would fall to me to coordinate a battle of the bands type of event, let me just say I have no interest whatsoever in doing one. I've judged plenty of these things over the years, and am still asked to be a judge every now and again. I won't do it. Nobody ever takes the time to come up with any quantifiable criteria to use for judging, and the bands usually are not given feedback as to why they won or lost. And most of the bands are amateurish at best, if not completely terrible.
 The bands you would want to show up don't, and the bands that do show up mostly suck. Our schedule is busy enough as it is, and our production staff works hard enough as it is, that I can't see subjecting them to a battle of the bands event where there are a lot of inexperienced bands, most of whom do not have the ability to pull a crowd. And let me assure you, there is not a huge number of people willing to come out just to check out whoever happens to show up to play.
 That said, I did do a competition of local groups to pick a winner that would play on the sidestage at Lilith Fair one year. The only way I felt comfortable with it was to accept demo submissions which were judged by a panel based on specific, predetermined criteria. From that we took the 20 highest scorers and each got to perform one song here. The judges were provided with a specific ballot which I devised that assigned number scores to 12 or 15 different aspects of the performance. This was a big pain in the ass! And very time-consuming. But at least it seemed fair and the acts were given the feedback afterwards so they could see both the positive and negative opinions of the judges. I have never participated in another battle of the bands that provided that kind of information to the participating artists, and frankly I am not willing to get involved in putting another one of these things together.

[snailhook]

twangirl, well said. i agree whole-heartedly.
 
 i'm all for festivals, though...given that they are run well and have a focus. i've done two on a small scale that worked wonderfully. i'm just not into the competition aspect.

[vansmack]

Originally posted by twangirl:
  That said, I did do a competition of local groups to pick a winner that would play on the sidestage at Lilith Fair one year. The only way I felt comfortable with it was to accept demo submissions which were judged by a panel based on specific, predetermined criteria.

They had to be lesbians?
 
 And for the follow up, how exactly did you judge that?

[walkonby]

how many licks does it take to get to the center . . . .