i'm back. told you it was an early show. it was actually, very, very interesting...
now i actually believe ppl when they say it's easy to get anywhere as long as you look like you know what you're doing. i just told the security dudes that i was doing merch and they let me right in. no prob. i was wandering all over the guv 'cause the band was doing soundcheck and nobody stopped me at all. finally i went to the counter where the merch was gonna be set up and i started talking to the dude who was doing merch for liz phair. friendly guy. i was supposed to talk to the guitarist of wheat (apparently they don't have a road manager...?), so when they finished soundcheck i went up to him and he kinda explained stuff to me. funny to see someone from the band handling stuff like merch--reminded me of when i bought my dears t-shirt from a guy in the band (i can't remember if it was the guitarist or the drummer...too intoxicated at the time), and he admitted that he sucked at the business/economics stuff...that's why he was a musician. :) this wheat guitarist was kinda hesitant about stuff too...
which is weird, 'cause they played montréal last night, so you'd think they'd converted their prices to cdn $$ already, but they hadn't. did they not sell merch yesterday?! oh well.
at least they had a bit of a starting float (unlike mraz in detroit).
wheat went off to get ready for their set, and i started talking to the liz phair merch dude. it turns out he works for HOB, and he asked me if i wanted to sign up w/ 'em to do shows. it sounded like a good deal to me (you get $50 a show or 5% of whatever they sell that night--whatever's higher)--i gave him my contact info. told him i could probably do a bunch in the summer. they're doing the sondre lerche show on monday, dammit. whyyy do i go to school 3 hrs away?!?
it was pretty fun. i like talking to random concertgoers. there were some ppl who actually knew who the band was, and this guy and girl who work at the sunrise records in the bramalea centre hung out w/ me by the counter quite a bit. then this girl came up and said she knew the guitarist really well a long time ago, and she asked me to tell him she was there, so i asked what her name was, and she said, "stephanie earp." i know who she is. i blurted out something like, "did you go to queen's?" and she said yes. she's actually a musician. i've seen her play before. wesley loves her. he's gonna be so jealous. mwahahha. it's funny, 'cause joel mcconvey, my a&e editor from two years ago, is now a staff writer for eye mag, and he did one of those "cool apt in toronto" features on her. oh, the connections are endless.
anyway, sales were predictably slow, but i didn't do too badly. one dude came up and bought a cd w/out even knowing how they sounded. he was just like, "i trust it'll be okay." i love that.
after their opening set, stephanie earp and her friend and the two sunrise employees came back 'cause i told 'em that the band was gonna hang out there afterwards to meet ppl...except it took 'em forever to come out, so the liz phair merch dude told me to just go and tell 'em to come out, and he showed me how to get to the backstage area. i just walked in there. again, nobody stopped me. now that i think about it, i've been there before (ian the mraz bassist took us through in aug.), but this time i went from the inside instead of from the outside door. anyway, i find the guitarist and tell him he has hardcore fans waiting for him, so he comes out and talks to 'em. he's really nice to 'em. he signs the sunrise dude's t-shirt (bought from me earlier) and he goes and gets the rest of the band to sign it, he talks to stephanie for a while... lalala...
then liz phair comes on and they all go to watch. she's alright. she played some old songs at least. i want to get her first album, exile in guyville. i've heard most of the songs off that and they're pretty fantastic. the rest of her cd's...not so much. this was an all-ages show, and i actually saw parents bring their kids along, so it must've been pretty iiinteresting when she sang "fuck and run."
heehee, this one dude came over and asked the liz phair merch dude if he had any "h.w.c." shirts...merch dude had no idea what he was talking about, but i did...and i said "NO." poor merch dude didn't get it. too bad. he needs to learn more about the musicians whose merch he's selling.
anyway, bill welychka or however you spell his name comes to look at the merch stuff. yippee. he don't buy nothin' though.
a lot of merch dude's friends come to visit, and this one girl turns out to be pretty cool. turns out she works for sarah harmer and has already listened to her new album. she was at hillside this summer, too! she writes down all these acts that i have to check out, and she offers to send me a copy of sarah's first album (which i still don't have--although wesley has the rare, out of print first version of the cd). yaay. free music. she has this brilliant idea on how to make an album gold. she tells the drummer (i think he's the drummer, anyway) they only have to sell 5000 copies of a cd to go gold in iceland. that's vs something like 50, 000 in canada and 500, 000 in the states (all proportionate to population size). it'd be wicked to boast that you went gold in iceland. :)
by now, liz phair is finished and everyone's filing out. all of wheat is there to talk to ppl now, and the drummer tells me about how he's from rhode island, and he sure sounds like he has a new england accent (the band is supposed to be based in boston). we talk about how my fave place in the states is ny (the popular choice), but i like boston, and i've been to detroit...blah blah blah...i tell him about the guv turning into a club at night, and about the beautiful skybar...some random dude comes up and calls the drummer by his name, although he doesn't know him...it's wicked how random ppl know the names of band members from not-too-popular (yet?) bands. the drummer seemed flattered that the guy knew who he was. we talk about how mayer and mraz got huge so quickly, and how i saw mraz go from a van to three tour buses w/in a year.
lalala...
the liz phair merch dude is almost out of stuff. i'm clearly losing the contest, but the final count out is pretty decent for an opening band by the end. they sold a few hundred bucks worth of shirts, cd's and ep's at least. the guitarist is actually surprised that 7 ppl bought shirts. he says they usually get rid of only 2 or 3. maybe he's trying to make me feel better. :D
ooh--the funniest thing--this lady gets the whole band to sign--get this--her beige suede boot!!! no joke--she takes off her left boot whenever she spots one of them, and they all sign near the ankle part--it's pretty hilarious. i don't think they've ever signed something as random as that before.
the drummer wants to buy souvenir guvernment clothes...i think he wants to get panties for his wife/gf or something and an orange fisherman-y floppy hat for himself. the guv guy jokes that if someone tries on the panties there they can have 'em for free. har har.
so yeah, that's about it. we do the final count out, i calculate it afterwards on the subway, 'cause the guitarist looked a bit confused, but it works out. i'm right on the dot. it's not that hard to be though, since there wasn't exactly a humongous onslaught of ppl vying to buy merch from me. i shake hands w/ the guitar guy and tell 'em to come back to play again soon.
memorable experience, met some cool ppl, but i have to admit that mraz & co. have been the most generous in thanking merch ppl so far. tour manager jeff knew how to reward well and make ppl feel appreciated. i'd have to say it's mraz > wheat > mayer when it comes to merch person hospitality. ;P however, tonight i got to meet some cool toronto ppl, so i guess it all balances out in the end.
i bet none of you got this far, so i will now just type to myself...doot doot dee doot...lalala...heyhey...dadadaaaaaa
