Alive After Five will celebrate its 11th year this summer. It’s a long tradition of bringing mediocre cover bands to Uptown stages on Thursday evenings where guys in business suits and girls in their finest summer dresses can hang out, get drunk and listen to what amounts to a glorified top-40 radio station.
Of course, people will complain about the above comment and say, “No one goes to listen to the music.” To which I reply, “Then there’s no reason not to give local, original bands the chance to play.” Sadly, the only original band I noticed on the long list is Simplified.
Once again, I call on the organizers of Alive After Five to support the music scene and give Charlotte bands a chance to play at their weekly event. Offer local, original acts a 20- or 30-minute spot before or after one of the cover bands. Allow them to sell their merchandise on site. Perhaps you could give them a bit of money, too, but most of all, give them the opportunity. Don’t wait until next year. You can still add them on to the shows listed below.
Oh, and it’s now called AT&T Alive After Five. A sponsor means they can afford to get better quality bands out on the stage, right? You would think…
Here’s the 2012 lineup (the event starts at 5 p.m.):
WELLS FARGO PLAZA
April 5 – Hot Sauce
April 12 – Right On
April 19 – Sol Fusion
April 26 – Zoso
EPICENTER ROOFTOP STAGE
May 3 – Maxx
May 10 – Rubberband
May 24 – The Boomers
June 7 – Funky Monks
June 14 – Girlz, Girlz, Girlz
June 21 – Frontiers
June 28 – Groovetown
July 5 – Mo Money
July 12 – Liquid Pleasure
July 19 – The Dickens
July 26 – Who’s Bad
Aug. 2 – Early Ray
Aug. 9 – Breakfast Club
Aug. 16 – Voltage Brothers
Aug. 23 – Swingin’ Richards
Aug. 30 – Slippery When Wet
Sept. 13 – Simplified
EPICENTRE COURTYARD STAGE
May 3 – Alternate Take
May 10 – Coconut Groove
May 17 – Skate Rink Jukebox
May 24 – Rockstar
June 7 – White Chocolate
June 14 – The Buchanan Boys
June 21 – Suckerpunch
June 28 – The Business
This article appears in Mar 27 – Apr 2, 2012.
Thank you Jeff for telling it how it is. The Alive After Five team unfortunately has no interest in supporting the local scene at all, I’ve tried numerous times to get Side by Side (http://www.sidebysidemusic.net) on their bill and do exactly what you said (play before or after one of the cover bands) with no avail.
Hey Jeff Hahne, instead of crying like a little baby, why don’t YOU start the Jeff Hahne Weekly Music Festival For Original Artists, using YOUR OWN MONEY and hire the bands that you like and see if you get anyone to show up? Or, spend 15 seconds to look up Chris McClure at East Coast Entertainment ( the Internet has this great new feature called a “search engine”) and interview him to find out why AA5 focuses on cover bands. BTW I doubt you go to AA5 because nobody there wears suits and dresses, but it doesn’t surprise me that you’d prefer to make shit up rather than get off your couch.
I’m sorry that I said “suits.” I should have written “shirt and tie.”
http://clclt.com/charlotte/alive-after-fiv…
http://clclt.com/charlotte/alive-after-fiv…
http://clclt.com/qcafterdark/archives/2011…
nailed it
Hey Big Dog
I don’t normally have or take the time to respond to blog posts on the internet but you are so far off the mark I can’t resist. Let me start by confessing I am a local promoter of live and original music in Charlotte and certainly have a dog in this fight! So let’s get started.
1) In Jeff’s defense, not that he needs me to do this, he is out watching, listening to and photographing live music almost every night of the week – often at multiple shows in one night. He is a strong advocate for local artists – as evidenced by his monthly “Off The Record” series at The Evening Muse which features local artists playing and discussing their songs. And I really doubt his couch gets as much time alone with him as most of the rest of ours do.
2) You clearly have no understanding of how the live music business model works. Do you actually think that East Coat Entertainment is risking money on these shows or any others for that matter? They are paid a fee to book , as Jeff correctly calls it, “mediocre cover bands”. They don’t risk a penny. So, to rephrase Jeff’s point, “Since East Coast Entertainment is collecting a fee to provide live music, shouldn’t we as a city (or AT&T as sponsors) demand selections that require some thought and creativity, not just “picked-from-a-hat” cover bands. Do they not owe it to the city to include local original artists?” As a local music promoter, I consider it part of my obligation to use local artists as support for larger concerts when I am allowed.
3) The business model you elude to, one where promoters & venues risk their own money every day to bring live music to Charlotte certainly exists. I just did one of those internet searches you talked about .. turns out East Coast is based in Richmond, VA. I don’t have any real fight with Virginia – sent two kids to college in that state. However, I have friends who live in Charlotte, NC – our fair city – and run businesses that improve the culture here, that help attract those uptown jobs. I would encourage everyone who regularly attends Alive After Five to purchase one less over-priced beer each week, save that money and go hear live original music at The Visulite, The Evening Muse, The Double Door Inn, Snug Harbour, The Neighborhood Theatre, The Milestone, The Tremont, McGlohon Theatre or any other live music venue in town. Make it your version of “buy local”!! (disclaimer – I do not mean to imply that all Alive After Five attendees do not support live original local music. I am clearly trying to set the record straight with regard to the comments above).
Gregg McCraw
MaxxMusic (you can also find us by doing one of those internet searches)
Very well said, Gregg
Mr. McCraw,
Rephrasing your first point, there are so many local bands playing every night that Mr. Hahne has to bar hop to catch all of them. Sounds like, then, that there is no reason for AA5 to further flood that market and that they are providing needed diversity.
Simply put, AA5’s target audience is different from the Evening Muse’s target audience (you do know this, right, Mr. Muzik Bidnezz?). AA5’s purpose is to sell beer to young professionals, who will drink more beer if the performers are playing tunes they know, even if they’re not technically “there for the band”.
Yes, I do know that East Coast is paid a fee to book bands, but they’re paid a fee *by somebody*, and that somebody tells them what kind of bands to book, because that somebody’s money is on the line and they need a “hook” to get customers to the venue to buy beer. Looks like you are the one who doesn’t understand the business model at play here. Would you ever think of walking into a Hollister or Abercrombie & Fitch, and telling the store manager, “no no no all these skinny ripped jeans and threadbare tees are garbage – you need to sell Charvet shirts and Zanella trousers”?
BTW, a substantial percentage of the performers at the venues you cite are NOT from the Charlotte area, nor do they all play their own tunes – the Visulite has a band called “Abbey Road Live” coming from Georgia next month: care to guess how many originals they play? So even your “support local original artists” dog don’t hunt.
I suppose I should mention that I don’t even go to AA5 that much anymore – only ZOSO is a “must-see” for me. I wish they’d hire a soundboard technician who knows what he’s doing rather than dialing everything up to waytoofuckingloudwhitenoise; by the time ZOSO gets to “Kashmir” I’m at the side of the stage listening to the monitor feed.
Oh well that’s enough for now, I’m off to listen to some crappy “cover artists” like Ella Fitzgerald and the Berlin Philharmonic…
I agree with Big Dog 100%. Why doesn’t CL have a music festival for local/regional music?
I know why, CL’s “music” editor, Jeff Hahne, doesn’t really support local music SCENE either. Hear me out,
Has anyone ever looked @the bands he regularly features for Creative Loafing? They are always very similar in style and usually the hipster crowd favorites. He doesn’t support the SCENE, he supports HIS ACTS. I would even go out on a limb and say that Gregg of MaxxMusic is in the same boat. To be a music editor, shouldn’t you have a diverse music taste? Maybe even, and I know this might be asking alot, but PLAY/WRITE music too? You think that rolling stone’s music editors like EVERY single band they have to cover, NO, are they able to write unbiased articles for the markets that artist caters to, YES.
Straight from Gregg: ” In Jeff’s defense, not that he needs me to do this, he is out watching, listening to and photographing live music almost every night of the week”
Well what shows is he going to? I know PERSONALLY of 3 bands in this area that regularly pack out venues, and 2 of them are on the track to getting signed to a national recording deal, and one had their music featured on an MTV show AND a SXSW performance. Yet they have NEVER been featured in CL, not once. Every other local/regional magazine has featured these 3 bands at some point in the last year. (Unfortunately they don’t play the evening muse)
I’m not going to list the band names either, because then it would turn into a this band is better than this and thats not my point. Not only that, but I don’t want to give CL the leg up on something they totally missed.
CL’s music editor Jeff Hahne is a hipster, who tries to write this article to seem cool but in actuality he comes off as a total dou***bag. Lead by example, not your keyboard
The problem is that Charlotte is brain dead! “Support the Local Charlotte Music Scene” is nothing more than a PIPE DREAM! Even the majority of the city’s local musicians DO NOT go out to shows and it is their f*#king industry. We are a community made up of predominantly nouveau riche wannabe punks who simply CAN’T wait to jump on ANYONE doing ANYTHING constructive in this town, be it Hahne, Maxx/McCraw or other significant people trying to make this shithole better. And as far as the AA5 folks, F U too. Perfect for Charlotte in everyway…Hey everyone, keep ignoring the local scene and soon enough it will be totally dead, not just mostly dead… pathetic!!!
-FAY
Rock On!!
Does it not occur to any of you that members of these “mediocre cover bands” that do these kind of gigs that you want to shit on, are also members of original bands that you support?
Jason – Yes, I am, but please ask those band members if they’d rather be performing the gig with their original band or with the cover band? While many musicians have side gigs in cover bands to “pay the bills,” I’d say 99% would much rather be playing with their original band.
I don’t have to ask anybody, I am a working musician in Charlotte. I live it everyday. I love playing with all the wonderful talent this town has to offer- cover or original it doesn’t matter. Its not as black and white as its being made out to be. The real working musicians in this town do both and don’t subscribe to the Original vs Cover mentality you’re trying to propagate. I mean, I played 2 Live after 5’s and one of your “Off the Record” shows in the same month. To each his own in what he wants to invest his time in playing or going to hear. . .
The beauty of opinion and freedom of speech is that it strikes up debate and conversation…