The State of The Breaks : Vancouver

[Filo]

ok.. it's pretty clear i think..... I go out when I wanna go out, as does pretty much the entire population. I love breaks and electronic nights, but I'm not going to go out to a night just to support and that alone. In a perfect world I'd have the money and flexible schedule to do this, but this ain't no perfect world.

We all have friends outside of the "electronic music lovers" clique we seem to have formed. Those people don't wanna listen to "techno" all night and would rather hit up other nights. I rarely go out and when I do, if I'm the only one that wants to go to an electronic night then, guess what. I'll end up at a top40 club or a bar. I'm not going to limit myself to hanging out with certain groups of people solely based on musical preference.

Until it hits the masses, electronic music is gonna stay the way it is. House is the only one that has broken through. Hopefully there are more genres to do so.

Also, last point, myself as well as a bunch of breaks heads ended up missing top nothc shows (ie: Evil Nine) because of bigger priorities( such as school and money ) , do you honestly think I would go to a local weekly night when I'm missing out on shows like that???

Don't take this the wrong way. I have tons of respect for the promoters but I'm just trying to voice my opinion. Supporting the "scene" isn't a priority and doesn't always mesh with plans.

[inside]

Originally Posted by decypher

Also, making that random dude or girl that you've never seen before feel welcome, i'm sure they'll be back again and again! Just at the last Zinc show, there were a couple "hardcore" Junglist biatches who were treating my friend like she didn't belong, and me like i didn't know shit. I just laughed and walked away.

The Junglist (not all! just most!) are a funny bunch, don't dress the right way and your dissmissed.

[Lenny]

Maybe if promoters spent less time DJ'ing and more time promoting their nights, we'd all be happier with the scene!!! There I said it, heh.

[dj_soo]

Originally Posted by thump666

The Junglist (not all! just most!) are a funny bunch, don't dress the right way and your dissmissed.

have you even been to a dnb night in vancouver? Most of the headz here are super-chill and super nice.

[miss.myra]

Bottom line:

Vancouver is not a large enough city to sustain any kind of scene for a lot of genres (breaks, hip hop, dnb, techno, etc.) having weeklies with consistent high attendance week in and out.

[set2hate]

Originally Posted by dj_klockwize

valuble points being adressed!

we sure as hell dont have alot of "breakz kids" supporting.

all i hear is people love breakz, but when it comes time to support, they are not where to be found! - and its not about what locals you would pay 5 bucks to see, its about keeping the scene alive plain and simple! - if we dont support it now, there will be nothing to support later!

as for breakz not being interesting.....hahah aiight man, if you say so!

breakz are one of the most diverse electronic genres...hands down!



i for one am really stoked on breakz, and ive been assisting blaze and rori with dynamix every second fri. its been ok, but never really that bumpin! - this is usually because we are competeing with another club night, or a party! but i think its the venue aswell, although i must say......as much as everyone says they hate tribeca, i still see everyone there sometime or another! - but i do believe its time for a venue switch!

so, im putting myself out there.....if anyone is interested in assisting on holding a weekly/bi-weekly breakz night with me, please leave me a pm, or hit me up on msn!
i want to keep this alive, and im goin to do what i can! - dynamix will still be under me, but i would like to do a night that doesnt compete! - so anyone with an interest, and a bit of know how....... holla back!

you have a lot to say for someone that was a hated trance dj until last month

[klockwize]

Originally Posted by set2hate

you have a lot to say for someone that was a hated trance dj until last month

good one buddy!

[Van Tek]

my opinion is that the problem 20Hz was having was that you guys want to charge $10 minimum for the door... hence eliminating a LOT of people from attending... the most your average person wants to pay to get into a club is $5... and most people don't even want to pay that... the best idea (to my mind and I'm no expert, obviously) would be to charge less at the door and then make your money off drink sales... honestly, the big names in breaks are all kinda whack IMO... Meat Katie, Dylan Rhymes, all those plod-step superstars... I never buy anything they ever put out on wax and I'm assuming that they play similar music to what they produce... therefore, the last thing I want to do is pay $10 or more to go see them play music that I don't want to hear... even the truly good names, like Hybrid, just can't convince me to part with more than $10... I'm barely surviving, working at Starbucks, I can't afford that kind of money every week and I don't think I'm really too crazy or rare of a type of person who wants to hear electronic music

to a person with a solid, decently paying job, it probably sounds crazy to read this... but a lot of people who are in the electronic music scene are struggling with money... they can't reconcile paying so much money just to get in... but once they're in they'll generally spend money indiscriminantly on booze

[set2hate]

wasn't joking

at all.

[angst]

Originally Posted by Thanatos

my opinion is that the problem 20Hz was having was that you guys want to charge $10 minimum for the door... hence eliminating a LOT of people from attending... the most your average person wants to pay to get into a club is $5... and most people don't even want to pay that... the best idea (to my mind and I'm no expert, obviously) would be to charge less at the door and then make your money off drink sales... honestly, the big names in breaks are all kinda whack IMO... Meat Katie, Dylan Rhymes, all those plod-step superstars... I never buy anything they ever put out on wax and I'm assuming that they play similar music to what they produce... therefore, the last thing I want to do is pay $10 or more to go see them play music that I don't want to hear... even the truly good names, like Hybrid, just can't convince me to part with more than $10... I'm barely surviving, working at Starbucks, I can't afford that kind of money every week and I don't think I'm really too crazy or rare of a type of person who wants to hear electronic music

to a person with a solid, decently paying job, it probably sounds crazy to read this... but a lot of people who are in the electronic music scene are struggling with money... they can't reconcile paying so much money just to get in... but once they're in they'll generally spend money indiscriminantly on booze

To my knowledge twentyHz never had a weekly where they charged $10. In fact the last weekly that twentyHz hosted had little to no cover most of the time. (If you're referring to Break Yo Self, twentyHz was not the promoter, plus there were free passes to that night everywhere). Although I disagree because I think $10 to get into a club on a Friday or Saturday is reasonable, I do see your point about charging less at the door. One reason that's not always possible is because the money from the door goes towards paying the DJ and covering promotional expenses, clubs do not usually give the promoters a percentage of bar sales. Unfortunatley as tough as everyone's economic situation may be, these shows do cost money to put on and you gotta pay to play.

[dj_soo]

^ you have to understand that you just can't "make" the money from the bar. The grand majority of clubs and bars enter into a promoter/venue agreement where the promoters take the door and the bar takes the bar sales (and in some cases, the venue even demands some of the door). It's very rare that a club or venue will agree to a percentage cut to the promoters so the promoters have to cover the costs of the night somehow especially when there is a big act in town...

edit: for Thanatos

[twentyHz]

We have never run a weekly night with a $10 cover. Break Yo Self was $8 b4 11:30... $10 after. Totally resonable pricing for a weekend club night. Also we were not the promotions team behind BYS, just the resident DJs.
The Lotus twentyHz Wednesdays were $5 weekly. The Freeland & Pilgrem shows were only $15, Tipper was only $8.... i mean come on dude, cut us some slack. We never drove door prices up. Even the Vivid Breaks shows we did were reasonably priced. First 100 tix to Stanton Warriors were $15! Thats cheap... considering how much they cost to have on a Friday.
As for making our $$ off the bar sales. I'm assuming you've never run a night at any of the clubs here in Van... but bar sales are the clubs sales. The door goes to the promoter.... so that theory doesn't work.

I think many of the people are missing the point of the thread. Always happens on this board. Whatever.... i'm done trying to explain myself.

-s

[Van Tek]

a lot of this I didn't know... forgive my ignorance... just my take on the situation, if the case was charging $10 cover... but it wasn't

either way, I don't think the Adam Freeland or Rennie Pilgrem shows would bring me out to pay $15... but that's just me, they're obviously the popular breaks DJs for a reason... just wish I knew what the reason was though, hehe

[Moon]

interesting thread. seems to apply to the electronic music culture (maybe more so breaks and drumnbass)

funny how i'm starting to really like breaks when all you guys are saying nothing is appealing to you. I think breaks has a HUGE club rockin potential. breaks and house are so much fun to hear at clubs like caprice. mixed up with some neptunes styles we got a sweet ass night.

[dangamouse]

Originally Posted by decypher

If it was easier (like Seattle) to throw All ages events in clubs with a roped off drinking area for the 19+, I'm sure we could pack in alot more people for every genre.

that sounds horrible!!!!

Last thing id want when out partying is having to go to a roped off area to drink and when i want to dance having 15 year old jail bait runing about!! fuck that!!!


over here there are under 18's clubs that start at 6pm and end at 10pm usualy playing comercial pop ,trance ,hardcore or rnb.

being a promoter im all for geting more people into clubs but not this way .i had to waittill i was over 18 to go out clubbing and drinking and it should defo stay that way.

[angst]

Originally Posted by decypher

If it was easier (like Seattle) to throw All ages events in clubs with a roped off drinking area for the 19+, I'm sure we could pack in alot more people for every genre.

The drinking age here is 19, there it's 21, so we really don't need clubs to be all ages. If you're not old enough to legally drink, clubs do not want you in there. Insurance costs for having underage kids in a club that is serving alcohol are obscene and prohibitive.

[Wood]

^i hear that, i see enough under-agers at the clubs as it is

i think there's a whole bundle of reasons why club attendance is poor for breaks & electronic music in general... but as many have already mentioned, it's not the clubber's responsibilty to show up & 'support', it's the promoter's responsibility to present a product that genuinely entices people to come through the door. Single genre, electronic/dj nights have grown incredibly stale imo. People have other options, and they're choosing them because the majority of electronic nights haven't evolved since the heyday of the late 90's. It's not just top 40 clubs, it's also rock shows, retro/eclectic dj nights & other different kinds of parties that are pulling these days. If you're a promoter and you're not happy with your attendance, don't point the finger at the punters - take a look at what you're doing to make your night appealing. Because just playing this or that genre all night is not gonna do it!

[klockwize]

Originally Posted by Wood

^i hear that, i see enough under-agers at the clubs as it is

i think there's a whole bundle of reasons why club attendance is poor for breaks & electronic music in general... but as many have already mentioned, it's not the clubber's responsibilty to show up & 'support', it's the promoter's responsibility to present a product that genuinely entices people to come through the door. Single genre, electronic/dj nights have grown incredibly stale imo. People have other options, and they're choosing them because the majority of electronic nights haven't evolved since the heyday of the late 90's. It's not just top 40 clubs, it's also rock shows, retro/eclectic dj nights & other different kinds of parties that are pulling these days. If you're a promoter and you're not happy with your attendance, don't point the finger at the punters - take a look at what you're doing to make your night appealing. Because just playing this or that genre all night is not gonna do it!

TURBO SNAP!!

[Van Tek]

i think there's a whole bundle of reasons why club attendance is poor for breaks & electronic music in general... but as many have already mentioned, it's not the clubber's responsibilty to show up & 'support', it's the promoter's responsibility to present a product that genuinely entices people to come through the door. Single genre, electronic/dj nights have grown incredibly stale imo. People have other options, and they're choosing them because the majority of electronic nights haven't evolved since the heyday of the late 90's. It's not just top 40 clubs, it's also rock shows, retro/eclectic dj nights & other different kinds of parties that are pulling these days. If you're a promoter and you're not happy with your attendance, don't point the finger at the punters - take a look at what you're doing to make your night appealing. Because just playing this or that genre all night is not gonna do it!

couldn't agree more

why not have a night with more than one core genre? is that so evil and unappealing?

as long as u don't throw truly crappy DJs on the turntables the night will generally do pretty good... just make sure you book talented DJs who know a fair-sized amount of people who are willing to come out and see them play at a club

I would personally love to go to a club and hear it open with deep/funky house, then go into breaks, then end with some dnb or something like that

it works for parties, why not for clubs? u don't have to specialize in just one genre just because you want to target a certain crowd

[Van Tek]

example:

Big Trouble @ The Lotus, Wednesdays

they play a mishmash of whatever the hell music they want to hear at any given moment and people show up in force to support

[Wood]

^all that said though, i don't think that's the reason why BYS failed... they had a good product & good marketing as well... i think that might have been more of a case of thye venue being a little too pricey (as in drink prices) for the targeted audience... especially when you've got The Met around the corner with it's rowdy vibe and budget drink prices.

[dj_soo]

To be fair, I'm pretty sure Soda was ranting about the "punters" out there that don't support and then go bitching about the promoters not throwing "enough good nights in town" afterwards...

whatever happened to all the breaks/dnb nights in town? Not 3 years ago you could find a few nights that tended to open with breaks then go to dnb later on in the night... now these things are usually relegated to parties or raves...

[ill-esha]

Originally Posted by mofo-x

House nights

Hey wtf! Elements has at least 5 really hot girls! =)

[miss.myra]

Originally Posted by mofo-x

whatever happened to all the breaks/dnb nights in town? Not 3 years ago you could find a few nights that tended to open with breaks then go to dnb later on in the night... now these things are usually relegated to parties or raves...

scenes, interests evolve and change, I think things like that go in cycles.

People grow up, move on, get jobs, sometimes they come back. I still think my original point was a good one, and is definitely the way this city is.

[dj_soo]

i was more referring to breaks & dnb combo nights rather than talking about the scenes in general. Used to be those 2 genres would often be heard in the same night but now, there almost seems to be a bit of a rift between the 2 crowds...