[The views represented in this essay are not entirely the views of the staff at NewCreativeMusic.com and pfMENTUM, though they certainly agree with most of what is said. Jeff Kaiser, for one, frequents the club in mention and is good friends with the owner and does not think he is evil. The folks at pfMENTUM appreciate any opportunity given to them by a club to make music. Jeff also does not think of himself as homogeneously clothed and hair styled. But then again, Jeff might be delusional. Enjoy the ranting of Wordsworth. --The Editors]

22 November 2001

First, We Kill All the Club Owners:

A look at the death of a creative music series and the aftermath of disillusionment.

By E. Wordsworth
Angryvegan.com

"[E]ternal return, the doctrine that the same events occurring in the same sequence and involving the same things, have occurred infinitely many times in the past and will occur infinitely many times in the future." --William E. Mann

"If we are sufficiently strong and well disposed to life to affirm it [life] even on the supposition that it will only be the same sequence of events repeated eternally, we have what it takes to endure and flourish in the kind of world in which Nietzsche believed we find ourselves in the aftermath of disillusionment." --Richard Schacht

First off, in this time of heightened sensitivity, understand one thing: I am NOT advocating the killing of club owners. For those of you who might be concerned (especially any FBI, CIA, NSA or even members of the National Association of Restaurant and Bar Owners who might be reading this) I am speaking facetiously, or, what we in the writing business might call metaphorically. Also: my sincerest apologies to Shakespeare for the above title, but it somehow seemed appropriate. I sent the title to a friend who produces concerts and asked if it might be too harsh, because, somewhere out there, there might be a good and honest club owner who was truly interested in creative music. His response was even stronger: "Kill all the club owners, and let God sort them out." In other words, "Manny, don't waste your time looking for a good one." Such cynicism, such depth of emotion, such resignation. Such is the experience of all creative music folk I have spoken with regarding working with clubs. Working with clubs has inspired the ire of innumerable musicians, and has also inspired the great survival guide for working with club owners written by Eugene Chadbourne: "I Hate the Man Who Runs This Bar" (Mix Bookshelf/Mix Books).

Many musicians I know view clubs as a necessary evil, but clubs frequently seem to be more evil than necessary. This all seems to fall under the philosophical concept/doctrine of the "eternal return". Here is how William E. Mann explains it: "eternal return [is] the doctrine that the same events occurring in the same sequence and involving the same things, have occurred infinitely many times in the past and will occur infinitely many times in the future." There it is! We knew it all along. There is a deep philosophical basis for all the CRAP that musicians and creative folk have undergone for all these years. Years! Did I say years? Since the beginning of time evil club owners have been perpetrating themselves on musicians. But let's face it, evil club owners have been giving the shaft to more than just musicians; We would have to include all intellectuals and the other-than-pop-oriented folk in all walks of life. And everybody knows why: Clubs need to make money, and they make money-selling drinks to the less than intellectual crowd. OK, I said it, non-readers populate most of these bars. If they do read, it is only something short enough to be read at a session in the bathroom, or on the back of a cereal box over breakfast.

The main room of "The Club" appalled me that night the doomed pfMENTUM Experimental Music Series began. Everybody dressed the same. Everybody was of a fairly homogenous age group and hairstyle. There was a lot of "Woo-Woo"-ing going on. What is this "Woo-Woo"-ing thing anyway? Some sort of word substitution? Euphemism? Come on folks, we are -- barring fake IDs -- adults. We can use real words and sentences. Leave the baby talk to the babies. I walked through to the backroom to hear Kaiser and Golia. Then, in the back room (The _____ Lounge) where the Experimental Music Series was to take place, I was immediately taken by the diversity of age and gender that came to see the boys play. There also seemed to be a wide socio-economic blend, if clothes and jewelry tell you anything. It was our own little Bohemian intellectual ghetto in the midst of the Barbarians. The Bohos in the midst of the Bar-bars. Did the boys at pfMENTUM really think this educated and enlightened crowd would drink cocktails in sufficient quantities to rate their own series at "The Club"? Our very presence there seemed to threaten the equilibrium of "The Club", to bend the mass psyche of the homogeneously clothed. Did we really think it would last? Did we really think a club owner would allow, even encourage, an environment that would stimulate dialogue and thoughts that went beyond "woo-woo" and "what would you like to drink?" Of course not. But the boys at pfMENTUM tried anyway.

Not being directly involved in the pfMENTUM Experimental Music Series was probably a blessing. But I did get to watch first-hand as promoter/musician Jeff Kaiser went through the stages of initial skepticism ("Why would 'The Club' approach us? Why would 'The Club' want us?") to one of muted amazement ("'The Club' agreed to our stipulations.") to one of "WHAT! THEY WANT TO CHANGE OUR AGREEEMENT! AFTER ONLY TWO CONCERTS!" It was not a pretty sight. At the end it was as if Kaiser was in those hierarchical stages of death: anger, denial, acceptance. Except the denial stage was substituted with an extra stage of more anger. The thing is, Kaiser knew it wouldn't last. He told me so before the series even had its first show. He went into it with his eyes open, having experienced this crap before, and having seen his friends experience it as well.

It seems that anger is appropriate, as passivity teaches acceptance of the mediocre in this world. The boys at pfMENTUM expected this to happen at some point in time. They expected it soon. But they behaved as if the series would go on forever. They booked in advance out of their belief in this art form. By booking in advance (from the end of October through the end of January, with waiting lists for February and March -- without an act ever being booked twice) their belief was shown to be true: that there was enough quality creative music worthy, and capable of sustaining an ongoing weekly series, even in Ventura. But our crowd didn't drink the volume of alcohol required and "The Club" showed its true colors by shouting, "Out with these educated (even intelligent!) sippers of alcohol! Give us the hard-drinking non-readers!" What is sad, is that in discussing this with Kaiser and other musicians of the creative ilk, I found that this experience was pretty universal. Club owners promise one thing, and then don't -- or can't -- deliver. Hence (due to the universality of experience) we come to the linking with the doctrine of eternal return.

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, one of the more modern proponents of the idea of "eternal return", actually gives us a little hope. But it is Nietzsche, so remember, the operative phrase here is "a little." Nietzsche's view is succinctly summed up by Richard Schacht: "If we are sufficiently strong and well disposed to life to affirm it [life] even on the supposition that it will only be the same sequence of events repeated eternally, we have what it takes to endure and flourish in the kind of world in which Nietzsche believed we find ourselves in the aftermath of disillusionment." Hmmm. The aftermath of disillusionment. It seems that is where creative musicians and promoters of this ilk of music keep finding themselves. And yet they keep at it. They keep playing and promoting creative music in spite of all the disillusionment brought on by venues, promoters, and the media. That speaks well of these artists. I hope they find Nietzche's reward that they will not only endure, but also truly flourish. I look forward to the next club gig. Just keep me away from the owner.