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NYC - a fire marshal of NYC came down to ROTHKO the weekend
before our 2 scheduled shows there and shut the venue down.
he told the club that he would come back on wednesday to
re-open, but in fact came back and told them that the club
would not be allowed to open for at least another week. so
then the owner, and our agent tried solidly all day for what
remained of wednesday and thursday to find an alternative
venue. the only one they could get was sin-é. we had hoped
to play both nights there, but after the first night we were
told that we play too loud and they were fearful of getting
themselves shut down too. so we were forced to abandon the
second night because we literally had no where to go. now i
cannot agree that we lacked organisational skills as Yaniv
Levy says in his guest book entry. we were the victim of an
incredibly bureaucratic system - this is a city where any
venue that doesn't have a "cabaret licence" is found by the
police to have people dancing in it, they will shut the
place down. we are very sorry for the end result and can
only promise to be back. and Yanvi, you never know, Nitzer
Ebb played two shows in Tel Aviv in 1989 at the height of
the first intafarda and the weekend after the US shot down
an Iranian airbus, so i'm not averse to playing Israel.
OSLO + VIENNA - we have to take the advice of promoters when
it comes to venues and/or territories we cannot possibly
know first hand as a new act trying to do shows in the
alternative scene in europe (i make this distinction of
scenes because terence is very knowledgeable about the
techno party scene). based on this we were not even advised,
we were told by the respective promoters in OSLO and VIENNA
that the shows were not going ahead. it is very important to
us that we do not let people down, but we are not yet in a
position of power where by we can command enough clout to
force situations. the fledgling Nitzer Ebb were, and every
other band starting out is, in a precarious situation when
putting together first tours with promoters who in most
cases will lose money. the trick is to convince them that
it's a worthwhile investment, and that they will make money
next time. thank fully that was the situation every where we
were able to play. made possible by us playing a
professional show and you guys, the audience, being
amazingly receptive. it is extremely regretful that we were
not able to do this in OSLO and VIENNA. sorry for the
inconvenience especially for you neil james smith.
yours sincerely
Douglas McCarthy
November 2004 |
