I survived The Blackout

By Paul Flower on Aug 26, 09 03:54 PM

My daughter's becoming a gig-monster. I suppose it should be no surprise, it's probably in her genes. I'm now approaching the 30th anniversary of the first gig I went to (AC/DC at Birmingham Odeon), an event I might celebrate if I could only remember the date. Since then I've been to more concerts than I can hope to remember and seen many bands that I've subsequently forgotten.

For almost 20 years I've occasionally found myself watching bands I have little or no interest in, generally for the purposes of work. Some of those have surprised me, others have disappointed, and a few have been excruciating experiences I never hope to repeat. After two decades of being involved (sometimes loosely) in promoting live music I have become accustomed to knowing which gigs I can get away with avoiding - experience is a valuable asset.

Now I find myself having to attend shows I'd rather avoid. Primarily these are for the purposes of 'escorting' a vulnerable young adult. Except that she rarely shows many signs of vulnerability, and would probably prefer me not to escort her at all. I guess I understand this, I wouldn't have wanted to go to many gigs with my parents - and never did, but this may have been due to the fact that I didn't go to any gigs till I was 15. She's 12.

My first experience of the hell that is being visited upon me was as I stood on the edge of the rampant mosh-pit during Bullet For My Valentine's set at Sonisphere. I can't say that I was impressed, because I wasn't. I can't tell my daughter that I've seen it all before, because she isn't interested. This said I have subsequently taken to referring to BFMV as Welshtallica, adopting the classic stance of the parent ridiculing their child's 'inferior' musical choices.

So, last night I ended up in the sweaty-confines of Coventry's Kasbah Club. The bar area where I've seen a couple of acts previously - notably The Enemy & Soulwax - it's a small space, made much smaller when there's a couple of hundred people in there. I feared the room itself was sweating.

Being one of the oldest people in the room (but not the only parent present) and having been abandoned by my daughter as she went to mosh with her mates, I was able to view the gig with some considerable perspective.

My first thought, as I abandoned peggle on the iphone, was that The Blackout hit the stage with considerable aplomb, launching into a song that was clearly adored by the audience who instantly joined in. I see a lot of gigs and lots of bands get this wrong - even U2 on their recent Wembley appearances made the very odd choice of opening with three new album tracks. It's the height of insanity - you need the audience on-side and bouncing from the off. This, they achieved and carried their energy throughout the set.

As an impartial observer I could reflect on their engaging ability to mesh the hardcore with the melodic in such a way that it did not destroy their credibility but successfully attracted a larger audience of women than is the norm for such bands. I could also connect with their 'business-savvy', putting in a blistering live performance is the way to ensure audiences return, whilst also producing great t-shirt designs at a good price ensures your name is seen around town.

I suspect that new bands realise that there's more money in live and merchandising than exists in recorded music, they should do - there's been enough press about it - and they're probably young enough to know that their peers simply don't buy music. This was reflected in an exchange between band and audience:

'How many of you have got our album the best in town'
Loud roar
'How many of you midlands bastards stole it on the internet'
Slightly muted roar

I can't print what followed that response, even though it was good-humoured. This is a band who clearly knows their market. The problem is in making that market bigger, breaking out to larger audiences - a feat that seems to be getting harder to achieve. It's been a constant in this blog over the past few months; I don't know how a band breaks out or breaks big any more.

Staggeringly, this was a great band of whom I previously knew nothing; a great live band on their second album but still playing to an audience in the low hundreds. They may be headling smaller stages at Reading/Leeds or trying to convert the masses at Download, but is it paying the bills?

I mentioned in a previous week's rant that perhaps young people don't understand what it costs to be out there dying for your 'art'. They don't translate the petrol costs, hotel bills, the costs of living and eating, the studio time, the producers and recording engineers. Somewhere, someone has to pay. There are six guys in The Blackout, how do they live?

Eventually the only bands making money will be those with an older audience, an audience that still has a disposable income and still buys recorded music on physical formats. Younger bands need to reach that audience in order to make money, but may risk their existing audience in attempting to do so. Kids are averse to their parents taking them to gigs; thinking that they like the same music is a definite no-no.

As for the audience, they don't really get it because their parents drove them to the gig and will pick them up afterwards. Or in my case they'll even go to the gig and lend their kids the money to buy a t-shirt. I'm still waiting to get that back, but when I do I'll probably spend it on downloading a few of The Blackout's songs. I've written a thousand words on this topic but my daughter could probably sum it up in two: 'they rocked'.