washingtonpost.com
A Growing Refrain: No Smoking
By Fritz Hahn
Special to The Washington Post
Friday, April 29, 2005; WE05
"I HATE smoking," says Wedding Present singer-guitarist David Gedge. "I've never liked it." As Gedge led both the guitar-driven English indie-rock band and his side project Cinerama around the world over the past two decades -- including stops at Washington's 9:30 club, Metro Cafe and Black Cat -- he endured night after night in smoky rooms in relative silence. "I assumed it was one of the downsides of my job," he says. "[Smoke] is part of rock venues, so I grew up believing it to be the norm."
Then he caught a cold.
Two months ago, as the Wedding Present set out on a U.K. tour to promote "Take Fountain," the band's first album since 1996, Gedge came down with a bad sore throat.
"We played in Newcastle, and it was really smoky, and it exacerbated the sore throat," he explains. "So I figured that at the next gig, in Glasgow, they could put up signs asking people not to smoke. [The promoters] said, 'Oh, it will never work,' but it did. It really reduced the amount of smoking, and we thought, 'This is quite nice.' It was a refreshing change."
So refreshing, in fact, that the band's North American tour -- which stops at the Black Cat (1811 14th St. NW; 202-667-7960) on Sunday -- is entirely smoke-free.
"It's a new thing in our contract," Gedge says. "I just asked the venues, 'Can people please refrain from smoking in front of the stage,' so people started going outside or to the bar, and for some reason, the merchandise stand became a magnet, so the people who sell our T-shirts said, 'Can you please ask people not to smoke at the merchandise stand as well?' No one's really complained, and people seem to respect it. We were quite surprised. Our crowd is older now, because the band's been away so long. I think you get more considerate as you get older.
"I wish I had thought of it years ago," Gedge says, wistfully.
He's not the only one. An increasing number of rock bands are asking for smoke-free shows, says Black Cat owner Dante Ferrando, where "before, it was more of a singer who wanted to protect their voice," or the monthly Mothertongue poetry night.
Ferrando knows that this fresh-smelling trend runs counter to rock's "whiskey bar" reputation for cigarettes and booze but says, "I know some bands don't like smoke. Some singers are really sensitive. And we had one show [by the West Coast duo Mates of State] where the singer was pregnant," so smoking wasn't allowed.
Over at the 9:30 club, Washington's largest rock venue, manager Ed Stack can tick off three nonsmoking concerts in recent weeks. "There was Moby [on April 14]; the next night was Victor Wooten. And the 'One Tree Hill' tour with Michelle Branch. That was the last week of March. Of late, it's been happening at least once a month. It's becoming more and more prevalent."
Stack remembers a rare smoke-free show by ex-King Crimson guitarist Adrian Belew at the old 9:30 club a decade ago, but believes things have changed markedly since then. "I think people are becoming more aware of how bad for you smoking is," he says. "[The bands] are going through all these markets like New York and L.A. and saying that, 'Hey, playing a smoke-free show was pretty cool.' They'll ask [for a smoke-free show] when before they didn't even think it was an option."
Of course, Ferrando and Stack say they try to balance the needs of the artists with those of their patrons, many of whom show up with packs of cigarettes in their pockets and purses.
The Black Cat tries to advertise the smoke-free shows in advance to give fans a warning, while Stack says the 9:30 club doesn't always have the chance to do so. "Sometimes [bands will] show up on the night and ask for [the show] to be nonsmoking," he explains. In many cases, "we usually only find out a week and a half ahead of time, when we set up load-in times" and go over the final details.
Even if it's not advertised as a nonsmoking show, patrons who want to light up have little recourse. "Customers grumble, but if you say the band requested it, there's nothing they can do about it," Ferrando says. "I don't think it impacts attendance. But it's not like underage drinking -- if someone's smoking [at a nonsmoking show], we don't throw them out. We just ask them to put it out."
Stack agrees, adding, "The people who want their cigarettes will [complain] about it, but I've never had anyone show up and say 'Oh, it's nonsmoking, I'm not going to come in if I can't have cigarettes.' "
Patrons at the 9:30 club or Black Cat can still smoke -- they're just limited to smoking in areas away from the bands they've come to see.
At the 9:30, customers who want to light up are directed to the basement-level Backbar, or the club's foyer. Black Cat concertgoers must head to the Red Room bar, which already has a hazy cloud hanging just below the ceiling. "Thankfully, we have several rooms, so we have the option of asking people to go down to the Red Room," Ferrando says. (The Black Cat's Food for Thought Cafe is always smoke-free.) Because they can cater to both smoking and nonsmoking bands and audiences, Stack and Ferrando say their clubs will not ban smoking unless the city does; Ferrando brought the idea up at an employee meeting, but "the staff do not want the club to be nonsmoking by a ratio of about 30 to 1."
Other venues such as Rams Head Tavern and the Birchmere already forbid smoking during shows. Although cigarettes are not allowed inside either concert hall, customers can slip outside to the bar when they need a cigarette -- but, of course, they miss the music. That's not even an option at a number of area venues that have banned smoking altogether.
Iota is one of the area's most popular places to see alt-country and roots rock acts, and owner Stephen Negrey says that it, too, has been doing smoke-free shows "every two months or so," in addition to an ongoing series of child-friendly matinees that never allow cigarettes. Recently, he adds, the club "has been experimenting with nonsmoking shows as a proactive kind of thing," both at the request of the artist and of the club's own volition. "Some shows just seem to be naturally nonsmoking," he says, adding that these have been primarily for singer-songwriters where "the atmosphere seems appropriate." Basically, "the goal is to have everyone see a great show in comfort."
But for the most part, touring bands that can command big bucks -- and bring big crowds -- seem to be the ones calling the shots. "If it was a local band asking for it, and they were opening [for a bigger act], I think we'd say no smoking until after their set or something," Ferrando says.
DC9 owner Bill Spieler can't recall a single local or regional rock band asking his medium-size club to ban smoking for the night. "We did it for one event -- it was a poetry reading or something like that, but with a much older crowd," he says. "Honestly, it would depend on the band. I personally don't think it helps or hurts the band either way."
At Arlington's tiny, one-room Galaxy Hut, Alice Despard plays host to indie-rock bands from all over the United States and Canada as well as a loyal crowd of neighborhood regulars. "I have to straddle the fence between being a venue and being a pub," she says. "The bands have to meld into whatever we already are."
Despard says that no band has ever requested a cigarette-free show, but she worries that a smoking ban -- even a temporary one -- would alienate the locals who drop in for a pint.
In the face of a request from a touring act, "I'd have to explain to them that we're primarily a pub, and in Virginia you can smoke," she says. "But a musician could certainly get up and ask the crowd to refrain from smoking while they're playing. I'm sure that people would. Just be civil about it."
Hey, if it works for David Gedge . . .
