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The Truth About the Cranston West ISE


	Released: 05.03.01
	Source: rattlehead
	Author: ferret
	Original source link

The following was written five hours following the Cranston East/West Competition of the Institute for Sonic Evolution in 2001 held on 05.03.01. It has not been altered in any way since then and we preserve it here as our formal record of what occurred that evening.

SOMETIMES IT DOESN'T PAY TO DO A GOOD THING

Subtitle: Our experience at the Institute for Sonic Evolution competition at Cranston West only five hours ago.

I have to relate the most amazing case of ignorance I have ever witnessed in all of my personal and professional life. And I saw it only five hours ago, so I want put it down while it's fresh.

Okay, all of you know what we've been doing to bring the music scene back to life...I walked you through every thing we've done and why we're doing it. Some of you have been reading this nonsense from us for 2 years. The Institute for Sonic Evolution, you know, is the culmination 9 months of work and organization, the purpose of which is to reconnect the music scene with the youth...a connection that we believe has been missing for some time, and is one of the contributing factors to the decline of the scene. We get the student bands up to perform for their peers, and fill the dead time between sets with live music from Providence musicians.

The kids get to see and fall in love with musicians they probably would never have seen otherwise, and the student bands get to work closely with other cool musicians who are out there doing it every day. The first two we've done, at Pilgrim and Woonsocket were received with great appreciation. Despite the facts that they were production headaches, both schools have already offered to host next year's Institute. Without any solicitation on our part. By all accounts, the community-building aspect was going very well. The students were really loving the Providence bands, and in the Woonsocket show members of other students bands were freestyling with Blackstone Valley Crew during the breaks. It was inspiritational in a way to see that connection being made. It's the whole purpose -- after all, it's not like we're rolling in the dough from these things.

Then came Polly.

I won't mention last names. She knows who she is, and everyone who was there knows who she is. She is a teacher at Cranston West and our school liason. When we first contacted Cranston West about hosting the event, we spoke to a very cool teacher in the music department that understood exactly the reasoning behind the shows...most musicians do. But after talking to him, he handed us over to Polly because Polly was already doing a "battle of the bands" in the same time frame.

Polly was overjoyed to talk with us. I told her about the Institute and she loved the idea. The big thing a lot of these schools like about these shows is that it's something they're doing already and now we handle all the headaches. Plus, we do it better. And the cost to them is minimal... we take a portion of the door, nothing up front from them. After janitors and police and trucks have been paid for, we usually net between $100-200 (at least that's how it's worked so far). And in this business, when you break even, it's cause for celebration.

So, over the three months since she agreed to do it... she received posters for the event which she hung in the school, press releases went to all the major media outlets (who have been pushing it), three of the student bands approached her to get in the show BECAUSE of our involvement, I was interviewed by Riley at WBRU, and I actually attended a meeting of the student bands some weeks prior to the show to clear up details about voting and whatnot.

Somehow, in all that time and communication, she was still under the assumption that it was her original "battle of the bands". Despite the fact that we had our own host, five other schools competing, an open competition at the Century Lounge (5/17!), a finals at the Living Room (6/14!), and despite the fact that it's called the "Institute for Sonic Evolution" and posters are all over the damn school, she still manages to somehow not get the idea that this isn't her battle of the bands.

Can you see a train wreck coming? Just wait.

Enter RattleHead. My day starts about 9:00, 15 foot box truck is gotten and loaded, promotional materials picked up. I arrive at the school at 1:30 and begin unloading. Shortly thereafter, a promotional girl that works for us cruises the grounds and hands out flyers advertising tonight's show to the kids as they leave school. Then, the PA setup. Three hours of connecting cables, positioning mics and monitors, leaving briefly to get a stupid adapter I forgot. (Isn't it always the way?) Other staff start to arrive; Thom the stage manager, then Missi, then the host Erik Narwhal. Then, setting up the recording equipment (each show is broadcast on DownCitySignal and available for download from our libraries), then soundchecking the first band as they arrive. A full day...it doesn't stop from the moment we arrive at the school until we've packed up and left about 11/11:30.

Polly goes home and comes back twenty minutes before show time. We've been optimizing the setup the past two shows, and now we can get it together pretty quickly. Everything's going well, and we're actually ahead of schedule. Soundcheck's half done, and people are beginning to line up early outside the doors. Polly comes up to me while I'm checking levels and starts yelling at me about how the Providence musicians are ruining her show, that it'll throw everything off. I explain that they only fill the slack time between student bands, and will add continuity to the show...no dead air.

She doesn't want to hear it. She starts screaming about how the student bands don't want to play with the Providence musicians and they've complained to her. She wants the Providence musicians gone or she'll yank the show. I said that this is ridiculous; why do I have to send them home, when they're not detracting in any way from the show and the kids will like it? All of our experiences with these shows point to this...we've had nothing but appreciation from students, student bands, and faculty at the other schools. And besides, this is the show she signed onto; it'd be like "renting the Conan O'Brien show" and getting pissed off when that "Conan guy" shows up.

She wanted none of it and told us to leave.

I looked at her, amazed at the sheer idiocy of what she was contemplating. I said, "regardless of what your notions were about this event...we are here, right now, ready to go. It's fifteen minutes to show time and there are already 75 people outside the door. You have two options: you can go ahead and have a great show and everyone here will be happy and thank you later, or you can derail this whole thing right now and turn away hundreds of kids, disappoint all of the bands, and lose all the money you wanted to raise for your literary magazine." She swore at me told us to get out. I looked around at all of the equipment, and students beginning to file in. I was completely at a loss.

When at first she seemed angry, I was simply into "angry client/customer service" mode... now I was completely beginning to doubt her sanity. When I was speaking with two other parents, she came over and started arguing again, and in the middle of the cackling, she stops and looks at me and says, "you said, 'f**k', how dare you speak like that to me!" I looked at the other two parents, and they were dumbfounded. I asked them, "did I say anything?" They both shook their heads. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The staff started ripping up the cables and packing up, it seemed there was no other option. Basically, we just rented a truck and spent five hours transporting and setting up a PA just to soundcheck a Fiona Apple cd. Amazing. Erik Narwhal, a soon-to-be Principal himself, was astounded. You couldn't reason or talk with her at all. All this while, students are coming in and parents are beginning to pull me aside. They don't understand what the problem is. They see how she's behaving and can't figure out what's wrong. One father of one of the student musicians actually offers to pay me for the costs to re-set up the PA. I look at the PA; it would take almost an hour to get it back together at that point. The very thought of it is turning my stomach. I said, "not enough time, the show would be too delayed, we'd never get out on time." This is when she came over and accused me of saying, "f**k". And that pretty much did it for me...RattleHead was already into this for $300, and it was worth every penny not to see Polly ever again.

Other student bands started arriving late (budding young musicians, eh?) and were pissed that she cancelled the show. Monty's Fan Club leaves to get their own PA, so some kind of show gets put on. (True professionals, the show must go on.) It turns out the original complainers were three musicians from two of the bands that barely made the cut for the show. They were nervous playing for the Providence musicians. The rest were into it. One of the bands grabbed Turning Blue before they left, and got them to hang around and try and play. Then, we learned that Polly had cancelled last year's show, too. It's just so bizarre; the students of Cranston West could have seen such a great show! We had seven great school bands -- four of which were already playing in clubs -- and the Jim James Band, The Mockingbirds, and Turning Blue supporting the effort. How often do these kids get to see three WBRU rock hunt finalists in one show in their own auditorium? It would have been an amazing night of music, to be sure.

If it wasn't for Polly.

I and everyone at RattleHead work very hard trying to do some good, and bring the scene together. You've all been especially supportive and appreciative over this long journey, and I think many of you now understand what it is we've been trying to do and how we've been trying to do it. But this... this shakes me. I have never stood face to face with such unadulterated ignorance in all of my life. I've been in the music biz for 15 years and dealt with some of the biggest asshole club managers on the east coast--she had them all beat. The simple fact that aborting a show like this 15 minutes before show time is an acceptable option to her... is frightening.

In life, we all have choices. Every choice we make can contribute to the world or take away from it. Of all the possible solutions to her quandry last night, Polly chose the one solution that hurt the most people. It screwed the fans, the student bands, the Providence bands, the parents, RattleHead... you name it, everyone lost in this situation.

Except for her...all the people had already paid and she kept all the door money instead of having to split it with anyone. Funny how it works out that way.

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