Fundraisers and Freebies

I know I've written about this before but seeing as I just played a fundraiser in Toronto, I thought it was timely to mention it again. There is no shortage of free concerts to participate in. Once your name is familiar, they seem to come out of the woodwork and ask if you'll play. When I was first starting out, I played them all. I never missed an opportunity to play in front of an audience. I looked on it as a chance to be seen.

Now that I've been playing for awhile, I'm not so sure it's always the right thing to do. Gordie and I played one on Saturday night and I must admit it was not a lot of fun.

The event was held in a bar, a place I rarely play in. There was a hockey game on the TV and most folks were drinking beer and watching the game. The start of the concert was delayed by 45 minutes to let the game finish and it meant folks who had come to see the show were left waiting for something to happen.

No soundchecks, no emcee, no real organization, just get up there and play. Don't get me wrong, I've done lots of these but it felt wrong.

We played okay but not our usual standard. We felt off. And we probably were.

Someone once said to me that an artist should only play in the places where you are celebrated. But how can you determine that when you are playing in a place where no one knows you? It doesn't always work and in my mind, this was one of those things.

I left vowing I would never play in one of those again. It cost me more money than I made (which was nothing) to participate. I don't even know if I made enough of an impression to be asked back and if I was, I probably wouldn't go.

It's hard when you're a mature artist to know if you have what it takes to play these kinds of gigs. There is no history and you're competing with all the younger artists who have a following already.

It's like playing in a coffeehouse on the road where no one shows up, disheartening at best.

So do you play or not? That's a conundrum.....