High gas prices are affecting everyone, but even musicians are becoming more reluctant to get their motors running and head out on the highway.
“I think it’s having a huge effect,” said Greg Stevenson, vocalist for local rock band The Happy Accidents. “We know a few bands that are cutting back.”
Piling into a van with your bandmates to play a series of dive bars and rental halls has never been about getting rich for most young, independent musicians, but they hope to at least break even. That has become increasingly difficult as gas prices have continued to rise.
Tim Waite — guitarist for local rock band Farwell, which just returned home after more than 40 days on the road — said they ran into a band that had run out of money and was “selling CDs at a gas station to make enough to fill up their van and continue.”
Local venues that primarily book touring musicians said some acts have started to request more money as compensation. It’s just another way that the gas prices are affecting their bottom line.
“It definitely has an effect on everything — all our deliveries, everything, all around,” said Brad Moorehead, co-owner of Motorhead’s Bar and Grill in Michigan Center. “There’s no getting away from it.”
The Michigan Center bar has been booking both regional and nationally touring hard rock acts for more than a year now, accounting for about 75 percent of the shows there.
Asking prices can vary greatly, from a couple hundred dollars to more than $10,000.
Booking these bands may have gotten more expensive, but at least so far it’s not getting more difficult.
“Actually, I think it’s bringing the national (acts) into smaller venues because it helps them limp along,” Moorehead said. “They’ll (stop at) two or three on the way to the next big show because it helps take down that gas bill.”
Likewise, Jackson Coffee Co. owner Brian Surgener said there is no shortage of acoustic musicians from outside the Jackson area interested in playing at his cafe on Friday nights.
If anything, he said, there’s more interest. As independent coffee stores get pushed out of business by chains, which typically don’t book live music, there are fewer places to perform.
“If gas was really a factor, I wouldn’t be booked a year in advance,” he said.
He has, however, had musicians ask him to increase his minimum compensation, which is typically $50 plus free drinks for someone’s first time at the coffee house.
He said about 75 percent of the acts he books are from outside the Jackson area, some coming from as far away as New York and Connecticut.
The Happy Accidents set out for a month-long tour after a July 5 show at The Rocket Night Club in Jackson. They drove to North Carolina, worked their way up the East Coast and are scheduled to perform tonight in Syracuse, N.Y., before returning to Michigan.
Earlier this year, the ska-punk band bought an old shuttle bus. It seemed like a great idea right up until they set out for a two-week tour of Ontario and Quebec in late May.
“It didn’t really hit us until we had to fill up on our way to Canada,” Stevenson said. “We put in $100 and it didn’t even fill up the tank. We didn’t expect it to cost that much.”
By the time it was all over, the band was more than $250 poorer than when the group started.
When it came to planning their current tour, they found many venues “won’t book touring bands because bands are asking for more money to cover gas,” Stevenson said.
He said most venues promise to pay between $50 and $100. The rest of the band’s expenses have to be made up by selling CDs, T-shirts and other merchandise.
The band had planned to do a show in New Orleans but couldn’t book enough shows between here and there to make the drive financially feasible, so they had to cancel the first week of the tour.
“I’m sure there are a lot of bands that aren’t touring right now because of (gas prices),” Waite said.
“We knew that was probably going to be our biggest struggle, selling enough CDs for gas, because it’s not cheap to haul a 5-by-8 trailer.”
Farwell has been spending $150 to $250 a day on gas, he said.
“In California, it was like five bucks a gallon everywhere, and that was just killing us,” he said.
The band has been fortunate and has sold more CDs than expected, allowing them to splurge on such luxuries as decent meals and the occasional hotel room.
Waite said several bands he has talked to are looking into buying kits that will allow them to run their vehicles’ diesel engines on waste vegetable oil from restaurants.
“It’s definitely had an impact on all of us,” he said.
Read Bill Chapin’s blog at blog.mlive.com/citpat-pluggedin.
