Book 'em, Cam. Oh.

I book my own gigs, and it's a pain in the ass. There's just a lot of back and forth (somebody play a whole tone scale right here)...

Me to Club/Booker: "Hi, I'm Cameron Mizell, blah blah blah, can we play a show."
Club/Booker to me: "I have these 736 slots open over the next 5 weeks."

Me to band, after checking their websites to rule out any nights I know they've got other gigs: "Can you guys play any of these dates."
Band to me, sometime over the course of a few days to a week: "I can do this day or this day, etc."
Me to band: "Ok, pencil in this date, I'll confirm within 24 hours."

Me to Club/Booker: "Hi, me again. We'll take this night."
Club/Booker to me: "Sorry, that night is booked."

Me to band: "How about this one other night...."

...and so it goes until we can find an agreeable date or the venue shuts down. For my next gig though, I got the whole night and was told I could have any other bands play, but the goal is to get 80 people through the door. That's tough, but doable. Doeable. Possible.

My plan was to organize a night of funky jazz, psychedelic fusion, progressive, trippy, crazy groove oriented music. To play that music you've got to be pretty laid back, right? Well, not necessarily. The back and forth is still a pain in the ass. The club has no backline (no "house" drums or amps) so I'm trying to get everyone to contribute a little so we can have quicker turnaround time between bands. That's not happening so much, but luckily there's a DJ for between sets.

I'm really happy with the groups that are going to be playing. It should be noted that the music is going to be great. I wouldn't settle for less. But this hasn't been easy. To top it off, I need to motivate everyone involved to do some promotion because, well, I'm not a promoter.

I'm hoping to learn from this experience so I never have to do it again... UNLESS it turns out to be a huge success. So if you're in NYC on November 13, come out to Club Europa!