Club Stuph: Getting What You Want
Squeezing the juice - Learning to love your talent buyer
You’ve had the gig for a month now as house engineer and production manager. Everybody tells you how good the club sounds. The doorman, the bouncers, the bartenders and the waitresses all call you by your first name and treat you as if you own the place.
Your professional performance demands respect and you get it. Your mixes are like nobody’s ever heard in that club before. Not since the club opened ten years ago has there been an engineer as good as you.
The club’s owner walks up to you and informs you he’s doubling your salary for each show. You nod in acceptance, smile and a high five goes up between the both of you.
THAT GUY
Out of the corner of your eye you notice the front door open. It’s him,
that older guy who books the bands (i.e. the talent buyer). What a loser
(you think).
He gets up and comes in at nine every morning. He sometimes leaves the gig before the bands even start. He always has those ridiculous trade magazines tucked under his arm. He carries that briefcase with all those contracts, riders, and aspirin/antacid bottles.
You know he must be making good money since you came to the club. After all, it sounds so good since you’ve been there. You’re at the top of your game.
What’s wrong with this scenario? Well for starters, you are not the reason that people pay the ticket price to enter the venue. You, the sound engineer, do not generate the revenue.
People come to have a good time and listen to music. Like Robbie McGrath
said in the last LSMAG! issue, “It’s about the music!” This is
the real world and you don’t double your salary simply by having a great
sounding mix in a nightclub situation.
However, in most cases you can obtain a better quality system and possibly justify a larger pay scale for yourself with basic cooperation, determination and the willingness to work closely with the aforementioned loser-talent buyer.
AT THE TROUGH
The talent buyer is the direct path to revenue stream and subsequently the club’s success or failure. A successful talent buyer is not sitting around sipping coffee and listening to CD’s all day long.
You can probably differentiate talent buyers a few different ways, but in general, you’d be surprised to find out that many actually know sound, lighting and backline. After all, most support people in the music industry are an incarnation of a failed musician.
That’s right. Not only have they probably owned an amplifier, drum kit, harmonica, whatever, but the very best of this breed of human being have actually twisted knobs at one level or another, loaded and unloaded trucks, or strummed chords on stage.
So, when you land that club gig of your dreams, if the club is all ready successful, you can bet nine out of ten times when you start talking backline and system perimeters, a good talent buyer will be able to intelligently discuss technically issues.
A good talent buyer must understand system limitations and capabilities in order to expedite the bidding process on talent and secure the the deal before the act is bought and the contract is secured. If the deal is not properly implemented and executed in an expeditious manner, not only will the club lose, but the talent buyer will lose and you will lose.
TALENT BUYERS & PRODUCTION MANAGERS
Seasoned engineers, in positions of authority, inevitably understand the relationship between the talent buyer and the house engineer/production manager. Here in Chicago, where the ClubStuph crew is headquartered, examples of solid working partnerships between the talent buyers and engineer/production manager are common.
Certain skilled owner/operators such as Ray Quinn at Martyr’s (see ClubStuph Nov/Dec 2000), oversee every venue detail from liquor inventories to sound and light and systems. Quinn prepared for any nightclub situation after starting out as a musician, graduating to sound engineer and then eventually purchasing his own venue.
As Martyr’s grew in popularity, Quinn searched diligently for a talent buyer. Quinn was smart enough to know that he not only needed some one who knew what good music was, but also had an understanding of the production cost of a show, plus the ins/outs and limitations of his room.
Quinn found those skills in his current talent buyer, Bruce Krippner. Who could be better than a musician turned booking agent and events coordinator?
Among the best combinations in recent memory was the active relationship between our Clubstuph crew member Todd Petersen and Michael Yerke of the House of Blues (HOB), Chicago. The pair had previously worked together at the now defunct China Club.
In 1998, the HOB Chicago won Pollstar’s Magazine “Talent Buyer of the Year, Venue of the Year”. In Petersen’s office a plaque hangs from Pollstar for “Venue Production of the Year.” The teamwork and friendship between the duo that elevated the HOB to this status.
Yerke learned to buy talent years ago out of necessity. Like musicians everywhere, local Chicago players rarely make a lot of money. Yerke eventually decided it was time to quit the starving artist routine and started buying talent for small clubs until he eventually landed at HOB. Petersen left HOB Chicago in 1999 while the club continues to thrive under Yerke’s direction.
DEMOGRAPHICS & ECONOMICS
One rainy evening last April, we sat down with Michael Yerke over pints and shots and taped a Clubstuph conversation. Yerke started out with a bang, “I think that ultimately the customer experience is what keeps people coming back to a certain venue.
“Yes you need quality acts but if you get a great act and it sounds like hell, then they might not come back. A big part of why they’re coming is sound and sight lines, and then the general vibe of the room.”
So what about supplementing a system that may not be adequate for the artist?
Yerke explained, “At a 200 capacity level, like when I was buying talent at the Avalon (Chicago), we would rent Steve Cocour’s (engineer with Sonia DaDa) effects rack because we didn’t have the processing gear. That’s how we would come up with a certain standard for the artist.”
We asked Yerke for his timeline estimate to obtain a system upgrade commitment from a good talent buyer, owner, sound engineer/production manager scenario. “I would say honestly it probably takes three to five years in larger venues.
“It’s probably lower in a smaller market because the options aren’t there. Maybe it’s two to three years unless there’s a huge void in the market. “Perhaps, if it’s a real good college town and nobody else is doing live music, you can to build it up faster because you’re the only game in town.”
It is always a mater of demographics and economics. As long as the house system has the basics, being patient and yet diligent in obtaining new toys is the key.
More often than not, club owners just don’t understand why they need to spend more money on upgrading a house system. In most cases, these folks go through engineers quicker than Madonna goes costume changes
GETTING THE GEAR YOU NEED
By working with the talent buyer on higher profile acts, savvy engineers will anticipate whether the club can handle the rider requirements or will have to augment the system via equipment rental. If renting isn’t an option, then the club needs to buy another piece of gear.
Sometimes, bringing one major act into a smaller venue, could justify the purchase of a new FX processor, high end vocal mic or other everyday necessity. Vigilant record keeping is the key.
If you can present venue management with a history of equipment rentals and requests, it is always easier to make a convincing case for equipment acquisition.
It’s that simple. This has everything to do with you as a system engineer because you’re the person that is going to make the call on what will adequately fill any voids in the rider.
Most good tour managers will compromise and good touring engineers will adapt down from 48 to 32 channels. A good tour manager, on any level, is usually able to adapt within reason.
If management is not interested in helping you, then they’re not interested in helping themselves. Accordingly, if they’re not interested in helping themselves, then we suggest you explore your options.
Maximize your existing system’s potential of as part of your daily responsibilities. Minimize dreaming about what can’t be fixed today.
Remember, your professional reputation is at stake. Making excuses is a bad career move. Your career in on the line because what you do with what is available is all that matters at that moment. Partner with a skilled talent buyer and, soon enough, you will get the gear you need.
Note: Any input or pictures of disassembled gear, naked stages and damaged equipment can be sent to the ClubStuph Crew at: Todd Petersen’s e-mail at idealproductions@aol.com or Nort Johnson’s e-mail at nortkintc@aol.com
September/October 2001 Live Sound International