Showcase gigs

Bands at an industry showcase gig

Showcase gigs are wrong on many levels. Here are a few:

  1. The bands don’t get paid, even when there are six separate sponsors for the event and free nachos for the VIPs.
  2. Executives get free entertainment for their networking event by making young unknown bands fight for the opportunity to almost certainly (maybe) get noticed1 if they play.
  3. The noticers then talk incessantly throughout the gig.
  4. They announce a best Twitpic competition for which nobody can remember the hashtag, the wifi doesn’t even work in the basement2, and I don’t win even though I’m the only person who entered and my photo is awesome:

@chaosbabyuk screaming from the front row with a Maplin megaphone as Juju opens Lord's Mistake

Having said that, I had a really good time last night. I got to play harmonica for a change, and we put on a really good show. It’s amazing how music can transcend its surroundings and create a small bubble of joy in the vat of corporate slurry.

  1. As if getting noticed is a good thing. The poor grateful bands are like the squeeze toy aliens from Toy Story who all worship The Claw that will randomly pick one of them out to go and fulfill their higher purpose. Of course, when the alien gets picked some random kid plays with him for five minutes before he’s chucked in the pile with all the other old toys. ↩

  2. The bad wifi isn’t surprising because it’s the bloody Hard Rock Café and everything about it is gut-wrenchingly depressing. ↩

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  1. ihatemornings posted this

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