Last night I had a great time at The Astoria rocking out to Hot Drama, Chores (on tour from Portland), and The Ovulators.
Well, I didn’t actually get to “rock out” to Hot Drama, the first band, because The Astoria had no door person. Just before I left home for the club, I got a semi-desperate Stardustian text message asking if I would mind working a shift at the door. I just got in the car and drove over. When I got to The Astoria, I realized I had forgotten my cash. There was a guy sitting outside who said there was a five dollar cover, and I said I didn’t have any cash. He said “Are you with one of the bands?” I answered, “Not exactly, but one of the bands just texted me that you need a door guy.” He brightened up and said “Cool! Cuz I’m really the cook and I need to get back inside.” So he and the bartender gave me a quick lesson on what to do at the door, handed me the money envelope, and a sharpie and a ballpoint pen, along with a glass of water (have to be sober while you’re at the door), and I took people’s money for an hour or so. Finally, after some interesting discussions among staff, bands, and fans, the cook came back to do the door, and I got to go up by the stage for the last two bands.
The Astoria has no sound person. Not even sure if that was their PA. The bands with help from Ed Cole did their own sound. Not too shabby, actually. It’s a really small club, and you don’t have to have it up very loud to fill the place with sound.
Tonight I plan to go back to The Astoria and rock out to The Underlings and May Harpoon. It will be interesting to see how it goes. Hopefully they will have a door person. Although the side benefit of last night’s missing door person was that the bar didn’t keep any percentage: the bands got all the door money. (I donated my time in the interest of ROCK, and because I’m the Fifth Ovulator, damn it.)
Last week (I found out last night), The Astoria fired Arlo, the guy that’s been booking shows there for the past few months. Don’t know any details or reasons, but it was disconcerting to be at a show booked by somebody who’d just been fired. Was hoping to chat with Arlo at the gig.
I don’t know what the future of music at The Astoria is, but I can’t really be recommending it as a venue at this point. Not having a reliable door person means bands aren’t going to get their cover money, basically (hopefully that was a fluke occurence last night). Not having a sound person means a big pain in the ass for bands. And now, the booking person I’ve been recommending is gone.
So, basically, Mr. Random feels he has to withdraw his approval from The Astoria as a rock venue, and stop telling people what a cool place it is. Maybe they will get their act together and I can change my tune. It’s kind of strange to be saying this because it was such a great show last night despite the problems. Bottom line: I hope The Astoria can get it together better and improve as a venue, because it has great potential for live local music.
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