Dance Web

keeping a finger on the pulse of music… this might be a difficult concert to attend, but you may find the tracks…

Akon storms Nigeria

The reason for this, Akon says, “There are a lot of negative things going on today and so we need to party and just have fun. Bananza… is a party record. You just go in the club, party and enjoy those beautiful women.”

However, life does not solely revolve around beautiful women and leisure time and Akon is well aware of this.

On the somber, soulful “Ghetto” and the meditative, impressive “Journey,” Akon gives listeners an in depth look into a harsher world, one that is just as gripping as it is chilling. But rather than sensationalize his own drama, Akon transmits, to his audience, the feeling of being a part of his inner circle.

i could do without the sandwich reference on this one, but…

Turkey club: Oojami makes a musical sandwich

“We’re trying to connect with people, cross over and build up the bridge and defuse the negative feelings between cultures. But most important, we want people to have a good time because we live in a world and in times that are difficult. We need to go out and help put a smile on people’s faces.”

picking up on the theme of music related to dance, the washington post has a piece, In the Arab World, Pop Stardom Can Be A Touchy Subject, related to the upcoming big-deal Nancy Ajram show here in the DC area.

it’s worth checking out, if you can catch it before it gets locked behind the archive-wall at the post.

that said, i do want to pick one small nit with the story…

In 2003, the Egyptian Parliament banned the video for another of her songs. (The legislature’s jurisdiction covered only Egyptian television stations; the video was still seen in Egypt via satellite from Lebanese broadcasts.) By Western standards, the video is demure. She is shown swaying her hips and arms while wearing a black dinner dress that covers her ankles.

it’s entirely possible that i saw a different version of this video, but that little black dinner dress didn’t cover much ankle when i saw it.

i don’t have much time to devote to this (i wasted all of my ‘free time’ for the month yesterday eating cake and ice cream), but it is something that came to my attention this week and i wanted to say something… so, since i have a short break now, here’s something.

oojami came through the area recently, near the start of their east coast tour. six musicians off on the road, bringing their stuff (which you may know from the first bellydance superstars disc or elsewhere)… and while they were here, i learned that their next stop was… canada. i don’t have anything against canada (and even tried to push a few people into the show), but that struck me as a pretty odd place to go from this area. it’s 500-ish miles, with two big cities in between (pittsburgh and philadelphia) and several others (in no particular order and off the top of my head – frederick, md; hagerstown, md; york, pa; harrisburg, pa; morgantown, wv; cleveland, oh; erie, pa; syracuse, ny; buffalo, ny; rochester, ny). so i decided to check out the rest of their tour, and it looks like this:

01-Jun Wed NYC NY Joes Pub (joespub.com, 180 seats, dining, $15)
02-Jun Thu Alexandria MD Birchmere (birchmere.com, 500 seats, dining, $19.50)
03-Jun Fri Toronto ON Lula Lounge (lula.ca , 180 seats, dining, $15)
04-Jun Sat Montreal QC Le Swimming (leswimming.com, pool hall/show bar, $15)
05-Jun Sun DARK
06-Jun Mon Raleigh NC The Pour House Music Hall (the-pour-house.com, 350 people, bar, $15)
07-Jun Tue DARK
08-Jun Wed Jacksonville FL The Globe/Euro Club (clubeurope.net, club, $15)
09-Jun Thu Tampa FL Royalty Theatre (royaltytheatre.org, 433 seats, theater, $15)
10-Jun Fri Atlanta GA Club Europe (clubeurope.net, club, $15)
11-Jun Sat Nashville TN Rcktwn (rcktwn.com, 250 people, club, $10)
12-Jun Sun Columbus/Chicago OH Barrister Hall (Tavern, $15)
13-Jun Mon DARK
14-Jun Tue Detroit MI Magic Bag (themagicbag.com, 300 people, bar, $15)
15-Jun Wed Rochester NY Water St. Music Hall (waterstreetmusic.com, 1000 people, music hall, $15)
16-Jun Thu Cleveland OH Peabodys (peabodys.com, bar, 200 people, $10)
17-Jun Fri DARK
18-Jun Sat Albany NY Valentines (valentinesalbany.com, 150 people, bar, $15)
19-Jun Sun Boston MA Regent Theatre (regenttheatre.com, 520 seat, theater, $15)
20-Jun Mon DARK
21-Jun Tue Baltimore MD Funk Box (thefunkbox.com, 400 people, bar, $15)

in many cases, oojami is sharing the bill with one or two other bands, and, of course, i’m not privliged to the split or any other details on this adventure, so everything from here is pure speculation on my part, but since this site is about dancers, i thought you’d enjoy a window on some musician stuff.

the first thing i noticed on this trip is that it’s almost 6000 miles (5800-and-change) over 21 days, so about 276 miles a day, average – which isn’t bad as an average. but tucked into this tour are three overnight legs more than 400 miles (about 7 hours driving) – tampa to atlanta; alexandria to toronto and boston to baltimore. beyond that, there are two dark days to accomodate two legs more than 700 miles (montreal to raleigh and cleveland to albany) and one over 400 (raleigh to jacksonville).

the second thing i noticed is that the downtime (5 days out of 21) is pretty significant – almost a quarter – particularly for such a short tour. don’t get me wrong, downtime is both unavoidable and necessary on a tour, particularly if there’s some question about the depth of the audience in a given market.

i don’t know some of these venues (and i don’t have time to go digging for details), but it looks like with a couple exceptions (rochester and alexandria), these are sub-500-capacity venues, and generally in the 200-300 cap range. i do know something about the local promotion and attendance for alexandria, but that’s one point on the map, and i don’t want to apply it everywhere. so, let’s just make some stuff up for fun.

call the average capacity 250, average attendance 80% (200, for easy math and being generous), average ticket $15, average split 1/2, and you get $1500/gig. 16 dates @ $1500 gives you $24,000 for the tour. remember, i’m making this all up, and i’m not counting merchandise sales at all. then there are expenses…

first, we have to get to the united states (and back), so that’s airfare for 6 from london to new york and from baltimore to london. highly volatile pricing market, and certainly we can swing some discounts, but then we have a lot of gear to bring, so let’s call it $1000 per body, or $6000. then we have to get to all these gigs, so there’s a bus – these small busses get 10-12mpg – so that’s about 500 gallons of fuel to make this tour go. at $2/gallon, $1000. then food, if these guys (and girl) probably want to eat. i don’t know how they’re eating, but i don’t think the ramen solution is going to work. let’s figure $150 a day, for 21 days, or $3150. and a place to sleep (let’s not have them sleeping on the bus), 6 people for 21 nights, let’s call that $200/night, or $4200.

don’t forget to take 15% off the top for management ($3600).

sure, there’s other stuff (for example, they get the bus for free, since i don’t feel like looking that up), but we have $17,950 in expenses against $24,000 in revenue. round it for easy math, and it’s $6000, divided by 6 people in the band, $1000, or a little less than $50/day for the length of the tour.

yeah, i skipped a lot of stuff to make it end up at $6000, but since i’m making stuff up to tell this story, that’s my prerogative :)

i like oojami. they’re good people. so don’t take this as picking on good people – i just wanted to lend some perspective on life on the road, and with oojami as a current example, well, dancers might relate.

someday if you catch me in a really motivated kinda mood, maybe i’ll make up some stuff about merchandise, too. but that’s all i have time for, for now.

update here’s a visual: