Taking a Crack at Starting on Time

Recently, on Mysapce there has been some discussion regarding the start and stop times of shows at 123 Pleasant Street, our principle venue of note in regards to live music. In the time I've lived in Morgantown shows nearly always start late and nearly always end late as well, and at times it can be frustrating, particularly for those organizing the shows, and particularly when there are a lot of bands or things on the bill. I've tried to set up some events where things started on time but usually people don't get to 123 until late, and that's the way it's always been, and I've had to pester the bands to go onstage with pretty sparse crowds at times. Not only can starting late be annoying to us, but it's also frustrating for people and out of town bands who come to 123 for the first time and have to wait around for things to really start, or play to a nearly empty room.

But it's not up to the people who run the venues to change this, it's up to us, the people who attend, set up and play at shows there. If there are only two bands playing on the bill, starting at 11pm might be fine, but shows with four bands shouldn't. It's up to the show's organizers to get that straight. At the bare minimum, the flyer, handbill, myspace announcement, etc. should include a start time for the show, but having the times for the bands listed would be even better. This may not happen much in Morgantown but you'll find it pretty standard in lots of other places.

It might prove impossible to stick to these times exactly at first, but at least they're a starting point. It means that we should discuss the order of bands well before the night of the show and making sure the bands know when they have to be there. It means someone has to take responsibility to make sure everything stays on course and sometimes has to be the annoying to get people off their asses and onto the stage.

If the organizers and bands in Morgantown can do this, then hopefully people will start following the flyers and get there earlier. And then we'll all stay as late as we need and be happy and give each other lots of manly bearhugs.

Reference: Stratagems by Mr. J. Marinelli