Regularly seeing great live shows and maintaining a responsible work ethic shouldn’t be mutually exclusive. I am young, have disposable income, and have a healthy appreciation for local entertainment. Ideally I could catch at least one show during the week, pay cover, tip well, and purchase band merchandise. Unfortunately, the majority of shows are listed as starting at 10 pm (which we all know is really 10:45 pm) with headliners starting sometime after midnight. Who is the target market for these shows? The unemployed? I am simply suggesting a more reasonable start time, say 8 pm, which would allow me to be in bed by midnight (minimizing hangovers). So please consider those with Mon-Fri 9-5 gigs, because we have money and we want to give it to you! —Gatt
This article appears in Dec 2-8, 2010.
Great bitch! I go to bed pretty early so I know what you’re talking about.
I agree completely!
When I was organizing shows in small town NB I would have a start time of 9pm… giving folks lots of time to get geared up, and I always had the openers starting as close to 9 as possible… I miss that. Because you’re right, I would go waaaay more often if I didn’t work 5 days a week.
I agree with this as well, although I’m not sure many local bands can be considered “great live shows.”
Definitely agree. I usually never go out to any sort of live show because they start so late. I get the late starts on the weekends, but I never understand the late times for weekday shows.
Agreed, I don’t know how many shows I’ve missed because I work. Up before 5am means bed before midnight, and a hour long drive to/from the city = no joy.
I wholeheartedly agree with this. Not only do headliners also start late, but they also wind up doing 2 small sets. The exception is Bearly’s. I always go see Garrett Mason when he plays there, and he starts right on time at 10Pm and plays three solid sets. On top of that, he plays his fucking heart out and blows most of these other so called “headliners” away
I too would love this 🙂
Ha ha BRoc – he’s one of the performers I used to get in regularly! Loooove him.
Agreed. I’m usually leaving bars and whatnot just about the time the band is halfway through their first set.
i turn into a drooling pumpkin after 11 pm
Silly question…Commandante is that your real picture?
Bring the towels pain-sis cuz I would be there drooling right along with you!
I’d like to attend the Darkside of Oz show but it’s 12pm screentime automatically means a cab ride home because the stupid buses stop running before a lot of entertainment ends. This strands a lot of people and leaves the cabbies with a monopoly. If we are to have late start’s for show times, perhaps it’s time HRM stepped up to big city status and acted accordingly. There’s no reason why some routes could not provide later service.
I completely agree. Obviously those marketing these live shows don’t have day jobs.
OC, more than half the people COULD walk…
they just don’t.
the majority are young, able bodies…
I am not young and able-bodied but I still manage to walk 8 – 12 kms a day. Wouldn’t want to do it at 2am though since the walk home from most downtown Halifax venues is about an hour at a brisk pace and my energy level is zip at that time of night. If I lived in Clayton Park, Bedford, Sackville, the Passage, Cole Harbour, etc., the sun would be coming up before I straggled up the driveway. That’s if I didn’t get mugged half a dozen times on the way home. I have walked home alone after a show. Not highly a recommended way to travel.
RC,
Have you ever seen the movie “Bananas”?
Esposito was the man who went “mad with power”.
It’s very funny.
It came out 10 years prior to my birth. But I shall try and check it out. 🙂
it’s very funny/silly tho i haven’t watched it in a few decades
http://www.mograbs.com/mograbs/blog/wp-con…
Oh man, I agree 120% with this bitch. The late hour at which live shows/concert usually start is a dealbreaker for me as my work day starts early in the morning. I often end up just seeing the shows I really, really, really don’t want to miss and taking a day off the next day. As a matter of fact, I’m on post-concert day off right now. Can only do that a handful of times during the year though. 🙁
I watch a lot of shows…my boyfriend is in a band and frankly no one is in a bar before 10pm. Frequently if they start before midnight they play to 5 people.
After midnight they can get a crowd but it’s death to play before midnight around here. They play heavier music too so there’s a select clientele for the non-dj actual rock music around here anyway so they have to play when the majority of people can go.
Also, bars that serve food often won’t have loud bands while they’re still serving or they aren’t allowed to of they are next to a restaurant. You’d be surpirised how many local businesses (restaurants, stores and hotels) complain about bands playing in bars.
I work full time 8am-5pm and usually stay until the band has their stuff packed up which means getting home at 4 or 5am…I feel your pain. I’m not a chipper little devil when I work the morning after a gig.
Ya, but I wonder at some of the other types of music d_g, if it’s possible then it would be won-der-ful, and market the hell out of it, there would totally be a different, new and willing clientele.
Oh well.
DG’s right. In fact a lot of people do not come out til 11pm. They stay home and get half cut before going out due to the prices at bars. Of course the main reason for high prices in bars are the exhorborant taxes they have to pay for alcohol and business, plus SOCAN fees and anything else the government can stick to them.
I guess it depends on the venue and the artist. As previously stated, Garrett Mason starts his Bearly’s gigs at 10Pm and you would hard pressed to find a seat by 9.
I was at a capacity (mind you its a small place) filled show at the Company House not too long ago and I think I was home by 11:30. Thats nice for a Tuesday night or whenever it was. The Pop Explosion nearly did me in, Tu/Wed/Thur/Fri/Sat nights until 2 or 3 and then working the next day, oy vey.
At least shows scheduled for the Cohn start and end at a reasonable hour, but man, I wanna get my drink on too.
well now, if you are young, then you can make a better effort to get there on time. age and live entertainment, wait for no one, not even you o.p.
Yeah nobody is downtown at 8. It’s kind of unfair to make the opening bands play when no one is there. I suppose if a band had a solid devoted fan-base people might come earlier. But it’s usually the headliners people are coming to see anyway, not necessarily the opening bands. So even if they did start at eight I think the place would be mostly empty until the headliners were scheduled to play, again unfair to the other bands.
Personally I don’t care because when I go out downtown to see a band I plan on being downtown until 2am at least.
What I hate !
Is when the band is due to finish at 1…& they play & play & just fucking don’t get it, that the gear has to fucking go & there’s another gig loading in tomorrow !
YOUR SHOW IS OVER…GET OFF THE DAMN STAGE !
I miss Gus’, and havn’t even tried Ace yet. Fucking sad.
i hope you’re doing this for glory and not just the cubes to the right. either/or i’m not much bothered and wish you good health^^
I’m doing it for both PG. My intention was not to bother anyone, but only to become number one. Its a hard road, but I’m almost at the end of it. My hidden agenda is to show off my cd’s because I can no longer take part in pirating pictures, I MUST use my own.
I wish you good health as well but am not too worried as our paths seem to cross quite regularly on here.
Hey PG, my job is done.
xox