Bottletree among vendors left unpaid by City Stages

Thanks for the great coverage of the City Stages debacle both here and on Twitter, Whitney.

What really sucks is Bottletree was closed down and there are a ton of good bands spilling over from Bonnaroo that could've played here. Too bad.

mentioned bottletree in my interview with Fox 6. Curious if they'll play it. We'll find out at 9 and 10 tonight.

This friggin sucks. First City Stages takes a quarter million from Sloss, now they rip off the Bottletree. Not only did the crappy festival fold, it tried to take down two of my Birmingham favorites with it. What's next...City Stages will start stealing dollar bills from the garters of my favorite 'entertainers' at Sammy's?

I'm sure McMillan's company received all of their payment.

Sad to see people making George into a heavy when he's made been so generous to our city for so many years. The people who actually get things done here in Birmingham understand the vast initiative it took to produce the festival year after year and how lucky we have been to have a man of George's capabilities dedicated to the task.... taking out a small fraction of what he might have made in other more lucrative endeavors.

The truth is that, despite the best efforts of talented people 9 out of 10 restaurants fail and nine out of ten Broadway productions fail. The fact that George was able to mount this show for 20 years is a miracle of perseverance.

And the fact is that the success of artistic endeavors is not measure by the bottom line but by the enjoyment of the, in this case millions who participated.

If there is any large question, it is that George was unwilling to limit attendance an raise prices, Instead choosing to expand, maybe over-expand, and welcome as many as would come. rich or poor, black or white. So, in the long run George's grand fight finally ended - and for three days a year for 20 years we had the pleasure of living in Georges grand dream for our community.

Thanks, George - very cool.

as a former city employee who has dealt with mcmillian i can only say no big surprise. he has made a career out of bilking the city for millions, sloss furnaces and the southern museum of flight being the two biggest victims of the past decade. if you check out political donors you will find that this crook donates the max to every candidate in the mayoral race and i imagine he does the same for the council. george's "grand dream" includes nothing more than stealing money and sodomizing adolescent boys.

"What really sucks is Bottletree was closed down and there are a ton of good bands spilling over from Bonnaroo that could've played here. Too bad."

Fortunately, this is not true. Bonnaroo has a "radius clause" in their artist contracts that prevents performers from scheduling other dates within a 300-mile radius of the festival 15 days before or after the event.

Something new for Birmingham!
BetaFest
July 25 @ Sloss Furnace

See betafestival.com for more information.
Thanks:)

Also Bottletree is having a benefit
july 11th

It's late. I'm sick of hearing about City Stages all day and night, but strangely I have decided to be cathartic and just start typing. I would like to say in no way do I represent Bottletree, other promoters, or anyone other than my dumb old self. Please forgive any errors caused from the instantaneousness of this. I don't really have a desire to go through more than the one time when I'm actually writing it. So here goes (sorry again if this is hasty, but I have to get this down in the moment before I lose the candor and fervor my feelings have about what has happened in the last two weeks):

Look, no matter how you slice the City Stages cake, it is a messy piece. Regardless, of whose fault it all is, it's a horrific predicament for the sound companies and other vendors who will have to lay off their employees to survive because of the insolvency of the festival. There had to be some pre-determination based on ticket sales that this one was going to tank. Who knows what could have been done, but it is just a tragedy all around (for everyone, City Stages staff included). But I do sincerely mean it and have tremendous empathy for the people who worked and who will ever get paid, for the people owed from years past who will never get paid, and especially for those who will be losing jobs over this.

Again, heat: yes. Economy: yes, but the failure ultimately has to go to the lineup. Who wants to see classic schlock rock like .38 special and Reo Speedwagon at all much less with less than 50% of the original members. It was like one of those cruise boat lineups this year. They turned our downtown into a gigantic, boring-ass cruise ship--and with no guest star cameos like you would get on the Love Boat.

Birmingham is a hipper city than the talent buyers (based in Nashville) could ever know. They just looked at us of as this middle of the road Southern semi-tropolis and stuck us with something dumbed down and safe. There just doesn't need to be 5 stages and hundreds of thousands of dollars going to bands to have a good festival here (i know that's an oversimplification, but ultimately it is absolutely true).

So my advice for any future Birmingham festival organizers is to: KEEP IT SMALL. Only 2 band stages and a dance / dj tent--which would serve as a comedy tent Saturday day for Patton Oswalt--type alternative comics with a couple good local comedians to host. Friday night--headliners. Saturday day--locals and small acts--catering heavily to Birmingham and regional artist. Saturday night--more headliners. No Sunday.

Headliners would be like Wilco, Drive By Truckers, Mos Def, Broken Social Scene, Cat Power, The Roots, Vampire Weekend, Beastie Boys, MGMT, Crystal Castles, TV on the Radio, Andrew Bird, Neko Case, Grizzly Bear, Of Montreal, Sharon Jones, Nick Cave, Mastodon, Band of Horses, Les Savy Fav, Phoenix, Bat for Lashes, Lucero, Dan Deacon, Dr. Dog, Explosions in the Sky, Wolf Parade, Animal Collective type of bands. Diverse but complementary. Maybe a couple good "reunion" acts like the Jesus Lizard, Pixies, My Bloody Valentine, Wire, Gang of Four, etc. Keep expenses (and tickets) way down. I like the multiple clubs (non-outside) SxSW--type idea, but unlike Austin, the clubs here are too spread out. I would do 2 stages, in a confined area--sort of like Beerfest meats All Tomorrow's Parties.

If it went well, maybe the in the next year or two you could have Prince or Neil Young or Elvis Costello or Morrissey or Radiohead or Outkast or Tom Waits or The Cure or R.E.M.--someone that would indeed cost a lot of money, but not be a jokey throw-a-away retro act that inspires little or no enthusiasm from people WHO ACTUALLY CARE ABOUT SEEING LIVE MUSIC. Why was there no survey and real demographic research done, and if it was done: why was it so off the mark off what Birmingham likes.

Seriously, Birmingham has become a mecca for touring music in the last 3 years. and this is because of the kids and everyone who has done this for so long in town to fight for a rightful place as a tour stop for excellent music of all kinds. I appreciate all the credit people have given to Bottletree for changing things somewhat, but Birmingham now is strong music landscape-wise more so from the fight of long-timers who have been here fighting here forever. The music scene is more hearty and healthy than it ever has been in Birmingham. I have so many great local bands to pair with nationals at Bottletree that it astounds me. Great bands. Great fans. Great clubs.

And look, you're right in thinking seriously, what the hell does this guyreally know? Well, I do at least know no person in Birmingham that is between 16-40 is stoked on hearing "Come Sail Away" sung by a non-original member of Styx. You could have asked a kid on a skateboard in Homewood that and they would have told you that the lineup sucked.

I have no interest in tar and feathering anyone, but why didn't we the people of Birmingham have to get dictated to by what an out of state company thinks we are. Honestly, this sounds snobby as hell (I don't care at this moment,), but I frankly thought the entire city's taste and pedigree was insulted by the lineup this year, and people voted a big "Hell No" on the City Stages ballot this year--a vote, to finish the analogy that has removed it from office. Hey, I guess that's actually a literal statement at this point.

I guess my conception is why not break it all down again and start small? Baby steps. Throwing money at everything is sometimes useless. Do something fun, cheap, and in touch with a younger audience. Sure we're not Atlanta or Chicago or even Austin, but we do love music in this town. Really though, thank God we're not one of those cities. We're self-deprecating and humble. We're a left-for-dead industrial Southern anomaly that has always had its share of mass conundrums, but we still deserve and demand respect, because we are real (in the "realest" sense of the word) people here. We live here because it's cheap or because we were born here and because we just didn't won't be a stereotypical Alabama ex-pat in of the greater big city hellholes this country has to offer. Whatever, maybe the radio towers on Red Mountain just look cool at night. to us. Anyway, we're here and we're staying.

Birmingham folk appreciate it when a great band comes to town, because we've known times when the well was dry. Even if I have a crowd at Bottletree that's a third as big as the Atlanta crowd a band had the night before, the bands always love it here, because kids still aren't jaded. They say, "Oh my God, I can't believe you came to play here. Thank you so much. Please come back!' People from Atlanta cross their arms and saunter off, because they know a band will come back through on their next tour and it all just is taken for granted.

Maybe we just don't need to have a festival at all—I personally don’t enjoy going to or even playing them. Enough great bands play here between Workplay, The Nick, Bottletree, Zydeco, Greencup, house parties, etc. already. Are we really that starved for entertainment that we need to have a huge-ass music festival on some of the hottest days of our muggy-ass summers?

To wrap up and shut up, here it is, in all earnestness: It's absolutely a time to give thanks to when City Stages was inarguably great and also a time to mourn the loss of such noble 20-year institution. Nonetheless, it is a distinct moment for us to decide how we want our music presented to us concerning the near and greater future. My ideas are just rambling scraps of things I have learned from putting on shows in this city. To build a great festival it takes a village...or is it just a red guitar, three chords and the truth? You decide. It is, ultimately, your decision.


--Oh yes, depending, on the response and desire from involved parties, I would like to do a benefit for the sound companies who are out of luck and don't have a bar where people can come and show their support. I guess I'll call it Sound for Sound, mostly because that's all I can think of right now. Please contact me if you want to help in anyway. Thanks.

--Brian Teasley