The Wild West Local Scene – The Search for Venues! – July 31st, 2006
Finally, the wild West is getting back to the local track, bringing in original rock’n’roll talent to the Westchester County, NY area. The Wild West started reaching out to venues this past week. This time around we are in discussions with venues in Yonkers, New Rochelle, White Plains, and even places in Stamford and southern CT. And this time around we will not limit ourselves to one venue. We are aiming for a range of venues in Westchester and the general area where we can have bands playing.
There are probably twenty venues that the Wild West has in its sights this time. No doubt these include a range of places. Not all of them I am sure will buy into original bands. Much of what we have up here as anywhere else is cover bands, and tribute bands. The general attitude is that most people want to hear something they know, something they can instantly sing along to. I am not sure that is true, i think if you are selective and bring in talent that knows how to put on a show, and have written material worth checking out, songs that do captivate; such bands and performances will effect an audience, whether they saw them or not.
And we do have a couple new tricks up our sleeves this time. In 2005, we were mainly working with bands coming in from NYC. Pigeon?, which was local to White Plains, was the only exception to that, and showed the Wild West not only that they rocked but that they had a good number of local fans, probably making that show one of the Wild West’s best drawing shows, making all involved happy! So this time we ae looking hard for local bands with original material.
We are also looking to not only search out local talent but further expose the bands coming in from NYC to Westchester and CT audiences. of course the web will continue to play a role, there, and now that we are on My Space, hopefully we can use that too to help the cause. Another thing we are wondering about is forgetting about pretty flyers announcing shows, and replacing them with a sampler CD. Radio too will continue be used. In 2005 we worked with both a local commercial station and a college station.
Another thing that the Wild West is looking at is acoustic sets. Every venue we talk to is doing a blues jam or something in that vein. With that, we are wondering if bringing in some of the talent we have reached out to and doing some acoustic or unplugged sets. It might just open some doors. Not only open doors, but also reveal other sides of these bands and artists.
So that is where we are today, wandering from venue to venue, handing out sampler CDs to club owners, and playing phone tag with owners, booking agents, and managers. That is only the beginning, the real challenge is not just to convince them to give the Wild West a shot but to bring in the crowds so that the venue is happy and the bands have a crowd to play for. And we have not even pondered the issue of a sound system and all – one thing at a time!
Rock on and hope to see you at these shows soon!
Bob Schaffer
bob@wildwestrocks.com
www.wildwestrocks.com
