Politics of Headlining
As a relative newbie on the live show scene I pretty much defer to the more established artists in terms of what the performance order should be. The more established you are usually means you "headline" or "finish" or "play last". This makes sense when the artist clearly has a draw and brings in lots of people. it gets muddier when there's a group of emerging artists. In those cases I tend to go with programming a show so it has a certain continuity - a flow - a cadence. But I digress.
I've been put in the odd position of choosing to either play before or after a very well established artist.
Guitarist Kaki King.
How does something like this happen? It's a long story - but the short of it is this.
My boss, Dave Benson (KFOG radio program director) came to my solo show in May with Michael Manring, Jean Baudin and Dave Grossman. After the show he asked me if I would do a show in our radio station's performance space for the staff - he though the staff would get into it. I engineer all the performances that happen in the space so I thought it would be a total trip to actually play there myself.
So a few weeks go by without another word about it - and then - in a casual conversation about "what did you do this weekend" this whole thing came into being.
I had told Benson about going to see guitarist Preston Reed perform. He didn't know who Preston Reed was so I explained how he and MIchael Hedges started playing around in the same sandbox many years ago and that one of Preston's proteges was none other than Kaki King. Benson informed me that Kaki had a new CD coming out - and when I told Benson that I really enjoy Kaki's music he said in a totally off the cuff way - let's have her come in - and you can play too! Holy Shit.
Since it's technically our space and our private concert I can choose to play before Kaki - or after.
Benson was the one who suggested I play after Kaki because my material is more up-tempo. His vibe is about show continuity - about having the type of music be the guide as to how a show should unfold - rather than who is the biggest name. In general I tend to agree - and since it's totally up to me - I have to think about it.
Pretty wild heh?
Comments
your stuff is more uptempo than Kaki?? unless your set has changed a lot, I'd say you were probably more mellow, or on a level with hers. She gets pretty frantic with that tapping stuff...
FWIW, I'd go first. Audience has fresh ears, you've got less to live up to and Kaki's more likely to invite you to open for her again somewhere else... ;o)
Posted by: Steve | September 18, 2006 01:13 PM
Well - my set has changed pretty significantly and Kaki's new CD is really mellow - HA! I think that is what Benson was basing his "show order" thoughts on. But he's leaving it up to me.
I'm well aware Kaki can kick it!
I think I'd feel more comfortable "opening" - mostly from a respect point of view.
But I was pretty blown away at the idea of having the choice.
Posted by: Jeff Schmidt | September 18, 2006 02:41 PM
Oh yeah - if you haven't already heard Kaki's new CD "...Until We Felt Red" - it's worth a listen.
Much more ambient - no solo guitar and Kaki sings.
Posted by: Jeff Schmidt | September 18, 2006 02:58 PM
Hey Jeff. On the topic of guitarists have you heard of Jerry Preston? Hes a great solo player in the rochester area and plays alot with Chuck Bianchi.
Posted by: Clay | September 19, 2006 05:16 PM
Hey Clay - I finally got a chance to listen to some clips of Jerry - very sweet stuff!
Thanks for the tip on that!
--jeff
Posted by: Jeff Schmidt | October 4, 2006 07:01 PM