They should have called it quits after \u201cDream On.\u201d<\/p>\n
Problem was, they dreamed too big.<\/p>\n
I speak of the promoters of that mess otherwise known as \u201cLaconiafest 2016.\u201d They landed the biggest fish around, Steven Tyler, a god in New Hampshire promoting his first solo CD, to play a big parking lot at Weirs Beach. That\u2019s a pretty massive haul. Tyler is rock royalty. Great get.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when they should have tapped out.<\/p>\n
But no, and I get it, they wanted to take the energy that Tyler and his band rained down on the pent up crowd of 7,000 on Wednesday night and stretch it out another four days. Their dreams got greedy, though, and figured the masses would be more than happy to feast on the scraps the rest of the weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cScraps,\u201d that is, I\u2019m assuming, how the promoters viewed the musicians that got screwed out of money and time during the rest of the weekend: as scraps. Shameful. But it happens in all walks of life. Professionally and personally. And it\u2019s a terrible trait, but the accused are not terrible people. Just terrible business people.<\/p>\n
And maybe just a touch terrible on the inside.<\/p>\n
Again, I get it. That\u2019s the thing about being a dreamer, as the promoters were. They hoped to recreate a killer rock show they once attended but felt, in the end, they could make it even better. So they dreamed up this metal filled fiesta in Laconia during Bike Week and it\u2019s a solid dream. Leather and heat is a good combination. But the dream had holes.<\/p>\n
Too many bands. Too many wires. And far too many fist in the fire.<\/p>\n
Doesn\u2019t matter if you\u2019ve booked bands in an amphitheater or in the backroom of a pub. There\u2019s a constant knot that sits in a promoters gut until they see all corners of the joint packed. Money is going out that door no matter what. Lots of it. And musicians, like pavers or trial lawyers, all expect to be paid at the end of the day.<\/p>\n
Why is it that people need to be reminded of that?<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s the thing about the arts. The assumption is that the freaks will do it for free. But even the bearded lady gets paid. Or the barker in Key West. And it\u2019s more than money that\u2019s on the line. The good name of a band is on the line. And if you deem that act as an expendable, they become expendable.<\/p>\n
Slowly killing the dream.<\/p>\n
To be fair, I know very few \u2014 if any \u2014 lousy music promoters. I don\u2019t hear much complaining from the bands I talk too. Yes, playing music for them is like breathing air. A must. But it\u2019s the descent promoter that allows the artist to focus on making beautiful music during their time slot that\u2019s the true music lover.<\/p>\n
Unlike the promoters of LaconiaMess 2016.<\/p>\n
I wasn\u2019t there, I don\u2019t know these men, but, sadly, they all must be banished to the Music Lovers Hall of Shame. They sold out the music, cheated it, took it for granted. Now, I insist, they must turn over their cassettes of metal mixes from the early 90\u2019s and make plans to hot wire off those tattoos. The mullet goes too. That\u2019s right. Call James Hetfield of Metallica and let him know you failed him.<\/p>\n
And get a hold on those dreams. Then go and make things right.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Rob Azevedo<\/strong><\/p>\n Rob Azevedo, from Manchester, has been hosting a weekly radio show called\u00a0\u201cGranite State of Mind\u201d<\/a>\u00a0for the past three and a half years which showcases musicians from around New Hampshire and beyond. \u00a0\u201cGranite State of Mind\u201d is an hour long program that features artists performing live in-studio\u00a0each week,\u00a0now exclusively on WKXL<\/strong>.\u00a0 Azevedo also writes a weekly music column called\u00a0\u201cSound Check\u201d for the Concord Monitor<\/a>\u00a0and hosts a monthly \u201cArtist in the Round\u201d style series at New England College in Concord.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" They should have called it quits after \u201cDream On.\u201d Problem was, they dreamed too big. I speak of the promoters of that mess otherwise known as \u201cLaconiafest 2016.\u201d They landed the biggest fish around, Steven Tyler, a god in New Hampshire promoting his first solo CD, to play a big parking lot at Weirs Beach. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9290,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29,50],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9423","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-blog","8":"category-granite-state-of-mind"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Rob-Azevedo-2.jpg?fit=1280%2C720&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9423"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9424,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9423\/revisions\/9424"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}