What We're Looking For: 21 Grand's main focus is presenting local musicians doing innovative, experimental, or weird and esoteric music and interdisciplinary projects. We do feature visiting and touring performers, mostly when invited or recommended by someone local, or with connections to the local music community (e.g. "I lived here for 8 years and moved to Portland last year." or "Our former bassoonist lives here now and we want to do a show with his new band," "We have a split 7" with this local band and are doing a short tour with them."). As far as genres go, we tend to program things that can be described as: avant-garde, free improv, experimental electronic, noise, noise rock, art punk, improv jazz, free jazz, classical, EAI, drone, experimental folk, and countless hybrids involving hyphens before or after the words "jazz," "art," "wave," "noise," "prog," "new," and "punk," but in the case of the latter, only in combination with other words not commonly associated with the word, "punk." We also have a propensity for booking performers of unusual or "unfashionable" instruments: ukelele, accordion, harmonium, koto, saw, toys, sheet metal, etc.
Times and Dates: We generally book 2 months in advance, though will occasionally have a last minute opening or slot on a bill. We aim to be flexible and wish to accomodate as many wonderful and interesting performers as we can, but time is a fixed, linear commodity in limited supply. We program, on average, 3 or 4 events a week. We generally prefer events to occur between Wednesday and Sunday, though we can sometimes accomodate a Monday or Tuesday night show. We prefer weeknight shows (including Sundays) to end by 11:30pm, and weekend shows to end by 1 am. As a volunteer-run non-profit, our staff has day jobs and appreciates the occasional night off and full night's sleep.
How to Communicate Your Desire to Play Here: Please e-mail us a brief (or not-so-brief, we really like to read) description of your project with links to audio examples that are a good representation of what you sound like or are planning to sound like. Information about where and with whom you have performed in the past are quite helpful, as are reviews or previews of recordings and performances. A link to a myspace page is fine. Please allow two weeks for someone to respond. If you've waited longer than two weeks for a response or this is an emergency show, feel free to call or e-mail to remind us of your existence. Sometimes we are overwhelmed by the existence of so many other musicians and forget things. Sometimes our lack of response signifies that the one and only date you want to perform at 21 Grand is already booked or that musically you are not a good fit for our venue. We often fail to respond when we receive an e-mail from a band or booking agent addressed to another venue or we see the addresses of 20+ other booking people in the "To:" field. (if you don't have the email address of the booker at the Hemlock Tavern in SF, we do!)
Money: 21 Grand is a non-profit arts space and is not a bar, thus we generally can't offer door splits as generous as clubs that primarily exist to sell alcohol. Our normal split is 40 (us)/60 (you), but this is negotiable on a case by case basis as are guarantees. We do not take money off the top to pay sound or door staff. We recognize that the cost of touring as well as the cost of living in the Bay Area is high. As a non-profit arts organization, we receive grant funding from time to time, primarily for experimental music performances, thus for experimental musicians, we can offer honoraria or a higher percentage of the door.
Bills and Packages: Many of our shows are presented to us as a "package" by outside curators and booking agents. It is often easier to schedule a show if you present us with a full night's bill, rather than just requesting a set for you or your group. For booking agents, we can arrange for local support for the touring acts you represent, though we are eminently grateful and appreciative if you can line this up or at least provide suggestions and contact info for local acts that would work well on the bill.
Audience Issues: 21 Grand is a medium sized venue and can accomodate between 150 and 200 people. We can accomodate very large ensembles. We don't expect every show to "pack the house." However, we have to pay rent. There are a significant number of venues (both public and private) for all sorts of performance styles and genres. If you seriously expect only 10 people to attend your show, we would suggest a more intimate venue.
Last Minute Bookings: We consider a "last minute" booking to be a show requested less than 3 weeks in advance. We do not say no to all last minute bookings, but it is likely that we will. Many of our shows are booked/curated by people that aren't 21 Grand staff. Occasionally we can add you to an existing bill, but this is unlikely.
Law of Diminishing Returns: We often find ourselves between a rock and a hard place when it comes to performers who want to play many shows in the area in a short amount of time. Some venues discourage the practice by requiring performers not to play other shows in the area within a certain time frame of their appearance at said venues. We are very reticent to impose such constraints on performers. However, if we find out that the exact same line-up of performers is playing the night before or after at a nearby venue, it makes us fearful of low attendance and saddened that we aren't special.
Basic Guidelines: 21 Grand has no problem if you have a show in San Francisco the same week. 21 Grand has no problem if you are in town for a festival. We have no problem if you perform at an underground or private show the same week. 21 Grand has no problem if your show has mostly different performers than other shows in the area in the same week. 21 Grand does have a problem when you and almost everyone you are playing with have a show scheduled at a public East Bay venue within days of your 21 Grand show. While we won't cancel your 21 Grand show, if a very small number of people attend your show, we will go home and drown our sorrows with a stiff drink and one of the half-eaten containers of ice cream that we keep sitting in our freezer for this very purpose.
Equipment and Tech Stuff: 21 Grand has its own PA, speakers, monitors, mics, cables, video projector, cd player, and other equipment found in a standard music venue. We don't have the best stuff money can buy. We also don't have much money to replace equipment that gets damaged or broken. We do not have extra money to rent equipment we do not already own. 21 Grand is a very live room. You may want to consider using smaller amps or turning them down lower than at a heavily acoustically-treated club.
Contact 21 Grand
• phone: 510-44GRAND
• email: 21grand@21grand.org
myspace: www.myspace.com/21grand
• mail:
21Grand
416 25th St.
Oakland, CA 94612