Big Dreams and Ponzii Scheme’s
By Russ Rorher
I was recently reading about a superstar athlete and how he got burned in a ponzii scheme to the tune of 15 million dollars and I thought, how does that happen to someone like that? With all that money you would think that he has financial advisors, lawyers, etc. Whose only job it is to protect said athlete from this very thing? It also reminded me of my own recent victimization from a scam which I call; “The audacity of hope”? So mother; may I have another; another chance to have dreams smashed and broken? True; a bit harsh but it’s also a harsh reality of the music business. I speak from experience.
Recently, my band got a call from a local club we play at regularly and the owner was excited to the point of annoying? Understandably; we’re his favorite band and he felt like he was affording us with a once in a lifetime opportunity from a promoter that just fell out of the sky? His bar is small and although it has a really cool vibe and we always have great shows there, it still seemed highly unlikely that a viable “break” in the music biz would come from that place? Usually; if it seems too good to be true, it is? Don’t get me wrong, we’ve cut our teeth in this town and paid our dues, but again, if things seem too good to be true, they probably are. Sometimes; you work so hard for so long at something, when it seems like a break is finally coming you want so badly for it to be true that you ignore your own red warning flags. So this promoter calls the bar who calls us and this promoter had his pitch down pat. So I call and inquire as to why his company would be looking under carpets and beating bushes for a national opener when the fact is there are plenty of well promoted acts in town locally that even have radio and other backing; so why wouldn’t he just go through normal channels? To make a long story short, he had had a falling out with the local rock radio station and all of their cronies and wanted to prove to them that he didn’t need them to book nationals.
OK, a likely story so far, then I asked him what the catch was. Basically, he wanted us to perform at a bar down on Colfax as an audition for the promotion company, we would be competing with five other groups over a two day period, three bands each night, and then the promoter would choose the opener. The audition was based on talent, originals, music compatibility, and crowd response and draw. The usual suspects in battle of bands type shows? No biggie. So we scrambled to contact our fans via social networks, emails, phone calls, snail mails, etc. In the end, we show up to the unpaid (free food and drink from the establishment) audition with all of our gear and lights in tow and we were nothing short of amazed by the amount of our fans that showed up. We had the most fans there hands down, and then the promoter informs me that one of the other bands canceled so it would just be between us and one other band this night? Cool, narrows the plays field you know? So the other band went on first and they were actually pretty good albeit maybe a bit incompatible with the national act Alice In Chains on the BlackDiamondSkyeTour with Mastodon, and the DefTones. So, we went on and played our original set and the response and support we got from our fans was amazing!
About half way through our set, the promoter jumps on stage grabs the mike and starts yelling to the crowd; “How many of you want to see these guys at Red Rocks?!” Whipping the crowd into frenzy! We thought; “Wow, maybe this is a real deal?” So after the show he tells us, you got the gig! My boss and I have already made our decision and we are not even going to proceed with the other three bands we had lined up tomorrow, you guys peeled the paint, congratulations, you guys will be opening for Alice In Chains on October 4th at Red Rocks! This includes three backstage passes for your roadie’s which is an absolute must for show of this magnitude, 25 tickets to the show, blah, blah, blah? So I ask him, “What’s the next step?” he says we need to get a contract signed with his lawyer and he runs through a time line of events to occur prior to the show which at that time was about two months away.
The first deadline was the contract signing in two weeks at his company. Then the promo photo shoot, blah, blah, blah? As those two weeks went by, there was such a fervor of activity on our myspace profile and on our facebook accounts, our fans were ecstatic with the thought of seeing us at Red Rocks. They were even running out buying tickets to the show, it was exciting to say the least. Then the contract deadline passed and nothing happened, I began to become skeptical, but dude assured me all was well just delayed by the lawyers? The guy was slick, and a fast hand talker, like a car dealer? Then the second deadline came and went and at this point I lost all contact with them, I eventually contacted the bar owner who originally got the call to see if he had heard from them because he had also lined up some promotional stuff through their company, he had not heard from him either and now was skeptical as well, and angry? We finally did track this guy down via his business associate and girlfriend who were with him the night of the audition and she informed us that he was in jail? Hmm. Big surprise eh? Then as it became clear that it was too late for anything to happen, I realized that this was all just an elaborate scam to get bands to play for free? So I started my own little investigation and lo and behold, I find the company listed on a scam alert section of the web site Colorado Musicians Coalition. Apparently, they have scammed many bands this way in the last few years. So, with much regret, I painfully posted the scam alert on our myspace and facebook and had to own up to the fact that we all got duped? It sucked; I felt really bad for those 3MI fans that went out and bought tickets just to see us? But we live and learn.
So in the end I did end up going to the show and although I thoroughly enjoyed myself, it was somewhat bittersweet in the 10th row instead of the stage? Am I bitter about what happened, well, maybe a little? But; oh well, hey, it could be worse; at least I’m not out of 15 million dollars? By The Way; this scam promoter’s name is Jason and his company is Evil Empire Promotions. BANDS BEWARE!
Westminster, Colorado
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