{"id":2041,"date":"2009-06-24T08:08:55","date_gmt":"2009-06-24T16:08:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/?p=2041"},"modified":"2009-06-24T11:40:49","modified_gmt":"2009-06-24T19:40:49","slug":"lewis-clusterf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2009\/06\/24\/lewis-clusterf\/","title":{"rendered":"Lewi’s Clusterf@&%"},"content":{"rendered":"

Liveworks newsletter<\/a><\/p>\n

I don’t know why Lewi is self-flagellating, I thought it was GREAT!<\/p>\n

The problems he delineated were real.<\/p>\n

But people came.\u00c2\u00a0 In droves.\u00c2\u00a0 Something we used to count on in rock and roll.\u00c2\u00a0 We didn’t need publicity, we just announced the show on the radio and it sold out.\u00c2\u00a0 But now, we beg people to come.\u00c2\u00a0 To hear bands that will be history nearly as soon as they leave the stage or bands that are so old that they ARE history.<\/p>\n

The Drive Up<\/span><\/p>\n

I don’t need no stinking NAV!<\/p>\n

But I did bother to go to AAA and get a map.\u00c2\u00a0 And even routed our trip via MapQuest and AAA’s online TripTik service.<\/p>\n

NEVER USE THESE!\u00c2\u00a0 NEVER EVER!\u00c2\u00a0 They’re the greatest advertisement for built-in navigation systems ever invented.<\/p>\n

I’m not telling you the Lexus or BMW or even GM nav systems will route you any differently, but at least they’ll ALERT YOU to their fakokta routes.<\/p>\n

I mean if you’re driving from L.A. to San Jose you’d expect a sign.\u00c2\u00a0 How could I miss the turn-off?\u00c2\u00a0 Well, it turns out MapQuest and AAA are computerized services, no human beings involved.\u00c2\u00a0 So, they’ll pick the shortest route, just not the most PRACTICAL ROUTE!\u00c2\u00a0 Leaving Palo Alto for Yosemite two days later, I was stunned to find they routed me on a secondary road with STOP SIGNS from Interstate 5 to California 99.\u00c2\u00a0 I thought I was in a remake of "The Hills Have Eyes", about to be eaten by locals uttering "baby…baby".<\/p>\n

But eventually we made it to Palo Alto, our ultimate destination.\u00c2\u00a0 And I phoned Lewi.\u00c2\u00a0 Who said we should come to the venue.<\/p>\n

Shoreline Amphitheatre is one of the better sheds.\u00c2\u00a0 But despite all the rock and roll photos on the walls, rock does not live here.\u00c2\u00a0 We lost something when the Fillmores closed, when the seventies ended.\u00c2\u00a0 Music is a mature field now, concerts are not seat of the pants events, but military exercises.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s no soul.\u00c2\u00a0 Especially when the venue, with no gravitas at all, lives on, but the acts don’t.\u00c2\u00a0 Better to gig in a high school gym.\u00c2\u00a0 Really, if you don’t think there’s a problem with the institutional venues concerts are promoted in, you don’t go.\u00c2\u00a0 They just don’t FEEL like rock and roll, but an elaborate recreation built by Madison Avenue, ON A BUDGET!<\/p>\n

But I was impressed with Lewi’s layout.\u00c2\u00a0 I was excited to take a bite of the food from his purveyors.\u00c2\u00a0 High class peanut butter and jelly?\u00c2\u00a0 This I had to taste.\u00c2\u00a0 And I was salivating over Katz’s pastrami.\u00c2\u00a0 You can go to Langer’s, but truly, other than that downtown establishment, it’s impossible to get great pastrami in L.A.<\/p>\n

We ended up having dinner in the hotel with Brian Greenbaum, Andy Somers and Dave Shapiro.\u00c2\u00a0 They all flew up in Dave’s plane.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t know about you, but I’m AFRAID to go up in these tinker-toys.\u00c2\u00a0 I need to be in the back, with no view of the pilot, praying that he’s got so many hours under his belt that no matter what we encounter, we’re safe.<\/p>\n

The conversation was illuminating.\u00c2\u00a0 Used to be you wanted to dine with label people.\u00c2\u00a0 Now, all the information comes from agents.\u00c2\u00a0 Want to know what’s truly going on in the music business?\u00c2\u00a0 Break bread with an agent or promoter.\u00c2\u00a0 Jimmy Iovine may get all the press, but labels are history.<\/p>\n

The Next Day<\/span><\/p>\n

I’ve got to tell you, when you exit from the freeway to Shoreline, you see one of the great American landmarks.\u00c2\u00a0 GOOGLE!<\/p>\n

I was stunned.\u00c2\u00a0 I knew what the building looked like.\u00c2\u00a0 But I imagined it was on a hill, surrounded by vast fields, and that the edifice was as large as an Alp.\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas it’s just off the highway and relatively tiny.\u00c2\u00a0 But, like Brigham Young so famously said…THIS IS THE PLACE!<\/p>\n

Right here is the heartbeat of the WORLD!\u00c2\u00a0 It was like coming to L.A. for the first time and seeing all the rock and roll landmarks.\u00c2\u00a0 My heart beat faster.\u00c2\u00a0 To go inside…\u00c2\u00a0 Could I go inside?\u00c2\u00a0 I remember coming to Hollywood and crossing the street to enter the lobby of Liberty Records.\u00c2\u00a0 To get the same hit today, I’d have to go to Google.\u00c2\u00a0 Or Apple.\u00c2\u00a0 The best minds of a generation, the innovators, the limit-testers, did not pick up guitars, but got computer science degrees, stayed up all night coding as opposed to listening to records, and then truly changed the world.\u00c2\u00a0 Tech triumphs over music.\u00c2\u00a0 If you want to see someone break rules, you fire up your computer, you don’t put on a record.<\/p>\n

Anyway, the gig was CROWDED!\u00c2\u00a0 Overwhelmingly so!\u00c2\u00a0 People were lined up!<\/p>\n

Like a rock concert in the seventies.<\/p>\n

There was a vibe, a pulse.\u00c2\u00a0 You felt like you were where it was at.<\/p>\n

Lewi goes on about being unprepared, but the true story here is publicist Elaine Garza and her protege.\u00c2\u00a0 They got the kind of ink, the kind of mentions you can’t get for music anymore!\u00c2\u00a0 Shit, they got the cover of the "San Francisco Chronicle" weekend section.\u00c2\u00a0 It gave people the impression THIS IS WHERE IT’S HAPPENING!<\/p>\n

And it was.<\/p>\n

To too great a degree.<\/p>\n

Bacon<\/span><\/p>\n

Yup, we tested it at Zingerman’s.\u00c2\u00a0 You got four types and rated them.\u00c2\u00a0 We ate Junior’s cheesecake and great burgers and s’mores…<\/p>\n

And then there was gridlock.\u00c2\u00a0 The lines were too long, we went into the venue.<\/p>\n

Where Marshall Crenshaw played to almost nobody.<\/p>\n

And then Bobby Flay hit the stage.<\/p>\n

The thunderous roar brought me to the bowl.\u00c2\u00a0 These people had been primed by television.\u00c2\u00a0 Bobby Flay was a STAR!<\/p>\n

That was the great insight I got.\u00c2\u00a0 That these Food Network personalities, they’re what rock stars USED to be.\u00c2\u00a0 Bobby Flay was cracking jokes, revealing his truth in a way no new musical act instructed by handlers how to be ever is.\u00c2\u00a0 Guy Fieri even more so.\u00c2\u00a0 He whipped the audience into a frenzy!\u00c2\u00a0 He made it a SHOW!<\/p>\n

And that’s what it’s got to be.\u00c2\u00a0 ENTERTAINMENT!\u00c2\u00a0 People will pay if they have a good time.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/span><\/p>\n

Lewi’s been going on about a food festival forever.\u00c2\u00a0 To the point where even I doubted its success.\u00c2\u00a0 But this was such a winner idea, I was STUNNED!\u00c2\u00a0 Jim tapped into a zeitgeist I didn’t even know existed.\u00c2\u00a0 Furthermore, EVERYBODY EATS!<\/p>\n

I’m sorry Jim took the problems so personally.<\/p>\n

But the key to the future is IDEAS!\u00c2\u00a0 Doing the same old thing again and again leads to bankruptcy.\u00c2\u00a0 We’ve got cultural bankruptcy in the music business.\u00c2\u00a0 You just don’t want to admit it.\u00c2\u00a0 The Food Network is better than MTV and VH1 combined.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s got a quality of truth, a humanity that no canned "reality" show can ever provide.\u00c2\u00a0 Today at lunch Joel Selvin proffered that music tanked when the acts stated wearing tights, after "Born In The U.S.A.", when Bon Jovi ascended and power ballads ruled.\u00c2\u00a0 I think he’s right.\u00c2\u00a0 It became about calculation.\u00c2\u00a0 And music was always about FREEDOM!<\/p>\n

Conclusion 2<\/span><\/p>\n

You can work out the details, but it’s almost impossible to create demand.\u00c2\u00a0 Lewi tapped into demand.\u00c2\u00a0 And he’s right, the Live Nation team was not passive, but on it and supportive.<\/p>\n

If you’re a promoter, you should book this show.<\/p>\n

If you’re a fan of food, and who isn’t, YOU SHOULD GO!<\/p>\n

The Great American Food and Music Fest<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Liveworks newsletter I don’t know why Lewi is self-flagellating, I thought it was GREAT! The problems he delineated were real. But people came.\u00c2\u00a0 In droves.\u00c2\u00a0 Something we used to count on in rock and roll.\u00c2\u00a0 We didn’t need publicity, we just announced the show on the radio and it sold out.\u00c2\u00a0 But now, we beg […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","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":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-wV","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2041"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2046,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2041\/revisions\/2046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}