Surviving my theatre gig: I almost completely messed up

I admit that my concert last weekend at the Bernie Legge Theatre in New Westminster, where I performed with the new William Chernoff Quintet, came from pessimism. I told myself, They'll turn down my jazzfest application again; I'll just have to make my own version of a jazzfest gig. No-one will book me again, because I failed to sell out their venues; I'll just have to book myself at a non-traditional space.

I had these ultimately false thoughts on December 5, 2022, the day after I played to a mostly empty 2nd Floor Gastown with my trio. That afternoon, I emailed the Vagabond Players Society, who run the Bernie Legge Theatre:

Reaching out today to inquire about a rental/booking idea for a concert in May 2023. I'm a jazz musician born, raised, and residing in New West, with strong ties to the New Westminster Secondary School music/band program.

I would like to present a jazz concert on a Saturday in late May 2023, featuring my band (multiple NWSS alumni).

We would invite a music class from NWSS for free but sell the rest of the house as general admission tickets that evening.

Would love to discuss further. Thanks,
Will

The next six months were an adventure en route to pretty much exactly what I first outlined above (which some of you attended – thanks!), and now I have memories of what ended up being a dream concert.

But producing the concert was a huge source of personal stress; let's look at how it went down.

The Vagabond Players replied in mid-January of this year with good news: they'd co-produce the evening, so I wouldn't have to go get insurance. We'd split the door, so I wouldn't pay a rental fee out-of-pocket. They'd supply a door person, bar people, and a sound person. They'd sell the tickets on their website.

At this point, I rounded up my new quintet. We didn't have a final date yet but could all get excited about the music we'd play and the special nature of this concert in New West – for three of us, our hometown.

It took another month for the Vagabond society board members and I to meet in-person at the theatre, where we settled on a healthy door split for me and my band; at the meeting in February, I talked a lot about how I live here (in New West), I'm in the community, we will get the word out locally because we're here with the school and we love it here. I also mentioned Rhythm Changes and how I could promote the concert alongside my writing there.

Then it took another month to confirm the final date. In mid-March, I wrote up a contract for the event and signed it together with Vagabond. It was set for May 27th.

One problem: behind the scenes, I was now in personal chaos, having learned that by May 1st I would have to unexpectedly move out of New West. There was also quite a story at my work in mid-March, which I hope to find a way to tell you discreetly someday.

In April, I let all my free time slide into stressing over my work and then packing-up the suite we'd been living in for the past four years. I did manage to get the poster to Vagabond at the beginning of the month, and on April 5th I got the sound person's phone number to discuss which equipment we'd need to source.

But I then proceeded to drop the ball on everything I said I'd do in the contract. The sound person and I were to confirm the backline equipment by April 30th; I never called him. New Westminster Secondary School's music department, who booked my quintet for an open rehearsal the day before the concert, were eager to co-promote; I never even sent NWSS the poster. I was to invite 20 NWSS students for free; I made no steps toward figuring out who was interested. April just passed me by, right up to the 12-hour day of cleaning on the 30th and the wistful look back at my old place on Hamilton Street for the last time.

The bright side was May 3rd, when four of us from the quintet would play at the Tangent and try out some of the music. Unfortunately – though certainly not because of my great bandmates in any way – I left that night with weird vibes. It didn't help that the Tangent's new owners had just removed everything we liked from the menu. I just felt like I had botched the musical preparation, like the rest of the production. The set list didn't jive with the personalities within the band; the music sounded as unrehearsed as it was, as I hadn't given anyone much direction beyond sending charts in advance.

Back at our new home in Coquitlam, I had entered full pity-party. Tickets had gone on sale with typically soft uptake four weeks out, and I was talking about how much I wanted to cancel the event – not a mindset that makes you want to promote it. I still didn't make the calls to discuss sound equipment or to help NWSS co-promote.

Then – with all due respect – came the Hard Rubber Orchestra featuring John Hollenbeck, plus Raagaverse and Gabriella Yorke. Downtown, on the same night as me. Body blow! (Revenge for that infamous review? I joke...) It's all good and I bet you had an excellent time if you were there that night. But that took the wind out of my sails in terms of getting Rhythm Changes readers out to New West. Right up until the day before, my friends would ask if they'd see me out at Hard Rubber.

In another palpitation, Bill Sample of the Inlet Theatre Music Series told me this in our interview:

Bill's advice to anyone wanting to present a new concert series? "Make sure the sound is good, because if the musicians on stage are happy and the audience can hear most of the words and everything, then it's a recipe for success, and the opposite is also true."

Oof. It was like he knew with x-ray vision that I was about to throw my band into an unknown stage situation at my own theatre gig.

I still really wanted to cancel. I felt a need to rework the repertoire after the Tangent but couldn't find time to do it, so I was sitting on the same set list and charts from the mixed bag of May 3. It was getting to be a bit too close to drop a bunch of new music on the quintet members, anyway.

The May long weekend passed with no progress from me. It was Wednesday, May 24th, the open rehearsal at NWSS was on Friday, and the concert was on Saturday. I hadn't communicated with my bandmates at all since the Tangent gig and still hadn't invited any NWSS students either.

I finally worked up whatever meagre courage it took to call the sound person, over three weeks too late. When he picked up, I started with what I thought was small-talk: So, you'll be there on Saturday night, right?

He said no.

Now, that would have been great to know three weeks ago if I had only called like I said I would. We continued a now-pointless exchange about the lack of equipment at the theatre, and I ended the call with the same anxiety I had going into it.

I even missed the opportunity to gather and submit my personal guest list, so my close friends and bandmates' partners had gone ahead and bought tickets on their own dimes.

On Thursday, I messaged my bandmates the advance info for the open rehearsal at NWSS the next day, trying to keep it cool. At the school, we were greeted warmly by 50+ students and my favourite band teacher; we signed up a party of 12 for complimentary tickets right there. The bandmates contributed wonderful ideas to the arrangements that made me feel suddenly great about the set list I had brought to the Tangent.

I managed the expectations of every bandmate regarding sound, telling them that maybe we'd show up and just have to play acoustically (even if Bill Sample would laugh with me at my woes). The two horn players probably didn't love that, knowing they'd have to work their chops hard if that was the case, but they nodded along.

On Saturday, I left Coquitlam with everything and the kitchen sink: electric bass, amp, guitar stand, 2 music stands, cash to buy the band dinner, 20 copies of Aim to Stay on CD, a printed-out list of the 12 NWSS comps, drum carpet, dress shirt, dress shoes, sheet music. I indulged the unthinkably rare luxury of taking a $15 taxi from Braid SkyTrain Station to the theatre after bussing and SkyTraining to Braid.

A Vagabond volunteer, who had been at my first meeting with them, showed up to do sound for us. At 5:00 PM, I walked in and began setting up the speakers, mic stands, and microphones that he had brought to go with his rented mixing board. The band members arrived for a soundcheck and then takeout dinner in Victoria Hill, just a walk over the McBride Boulevard overpass at the foot of the theatre.

When we got back, the doors were open and the house was already over two-thirds full. The rest is now in the books.

When I'm in the mindset that put me in the trouble of my own making en route to this gig, I feel that I don't deserve everything to just somehow happen and work out fine. It's so simple to just keep communicating with the people who need to hear from you, and I couldn't even do that properly. It's an issue I keep butting up against in my professional life.

I messed up, so shouldn't I be punished with poor results? That does happen sometimes. Not this time: I was the beneficiary of a lot of grace by a lot of people.

So I don't have any other lessons learned from this concert yet, beyond the all-importance of that grace. Hopefully I paid some of it forward with the performance and can do more to pay it forward in the future. It's what I'll remember most from May 27, 2023, the maiden voyage of a new band.