June 4, 2025 • 49 mins
Michael Carpenter, owner of Rooster Bar in Gastonia, North Carolina, shares his journey from music fan to venue owner and his philosophy on creating opportunities for musicians. He offers a behind-the-scenes look at how venues select artists, emphasizing the importance of social media presence and self-promotion for booking success.
• Rooster Bar hosts diverse music styles including heavy metal, hip-hop, country, singer-songwriter, and indie rock
• Regular events include Wednesday open mic nights and First Thursday Folk Night with rotating hosts
• The venue provides a full backline with drum kit, amps, and PA system for performers
• When booking bands, Michael prioritizes artists who actively promote shows and engage with audiences
• The venue operates on various models including room rentals, percentage splits, and promoter partnerships
• Rooster Bar survived a financial crisis through a community fundraiser that raised $40,000 in two weeks
• The venue hosts annual charity events including Rooster Olympics which has raised over $21,000 for disabled students
• Michael works with trusted promoters including Creative Music Management, Cutthroat Promotions, and Shell Shock Promotions
• His advice for new bands: "Show up and support the local scene" to build relationships and create opportunities
Visit Rooster Bar at 334 West Main Avenue in Gastonia, North Carolina or check out upcoming shows on their website.
https://linktr.ee/theroostergastonia
Thank you and please visit our social medial sites to leave feedback and or support our project.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Rob Franklin (00:01):
Hi, welcome to Franklin's Garage to Stage
podcast.
My name is Rob WardrumsFranklin and my co-host is Dana
Thunderbase Franklin.
Dana Franklin (00:10):
How are you doing ?
Rob Franklin (00:10):
man, I'm doing really good.
Hey, today we've got with usMichael Carpenter.
He is the owner of anoutstanding venue called Rooster
Bar in Gastonia, north Carolina, located at 334 West Main
Avenue in Gastonia, northCarolina.
Michael, how are you doingtoday?
Michael Carpenter (00:29):
I'm doing all right.
How are you?
Rob Franklin (00:30):
You're doing real well.
Hey, can you tell us a littlebit about your venue and then
from there we'll just startpopping some questions your way?
Michael Carpenter (00:39):
Well, the Rooster is a small venue in
downtown Gastonia.
What we do is we host livemusic and entertainment events
is a small venue in downtownGastonia.
What we do is we host livemusic and entertainment events
and anything having to do withthe arts.
Most of our shows are concerts.
We're open typically we're openWednesday through Saturday.
(01:00):
We have Sunday shows about halfthe time.
Occasionally we're open on aMonday or Tuesday if we happen
to catch like a tour comingthrough.
Every Wednesday we host an openmic.
We call it our singersongwriter open mic, but it's
really open to anybody with anartistic talent.
We've had standup comedians.
(01:22):
We've had poetry readings.
We've had stand-up comedians.
We've had poetry readings.
We've had people that come into do drum solos.
We have a full back line with adrum kit and amps and full PA.
You just bring whateverinstrument it is you play, you
bring it, you plug it into oursystem and we give it three
(01:42):
songs.
We've played around with a lotof different things.
On Thursday nights we have afirst Thursday folk night, which
is hosted by a gentleman calledAP Rogers, which, by the way,
we have two open mic hosts.
They rotate weeks.
We have Jade Moore thewonderful, the beautiful, the
amazing Jade Moore.
She hosts every other week andMariah Van Cleef hosts on the
opposite weeks and Mariah VanCleef hosts on the opposite
(02:03):
weeks and these are two of themost talented women in all of
Charlotte in terms of theirvocal range and what they can do
on stage.
So we have somebody that's kindof like a mixture of folk,
(02:36):
americana, country, appalachia,anything kind of in that vein.
Ap will do.
He'll go on first and do a set.
He'll bring in a guest everymonth and do a set and then we
open the stage up to anybodythat wants to join them for like
a folk jam session at the end.
So it's a really fun thing.
The first Thursday and then therest of the week.
It's all shows you know.
We've hosted, we host festivalsthroughout the year.
We've done toy drives,fundraisers, we've done stand-up
(02:59):
comedy shows.
We do everything from heavymetal to hip-hop, country
singer-songwriter, indie rock,anything entertainment.
We host it at the Rooster.
Rob Franklin (03:11):
Wow, that's incredible, Nice nice.
Dana Franklin (03:14):
So how did you go about getting into this
business and getting that barstarted?
I mean, what prompted that?
Michael Carpenter (03:25):
I've told my story as much through the years.
It all started from my wife andI we we were avid concert goers
, you know.
We'd go to comedy shows,concerts, you know, whatever
musicals.
And we always found ourselveson these long drives home back
to where we live outside ofGastonia, and one night, on one
(03:47):
of those ride homes, we starteddiscussing the possibility of
how cool it would be if we hadsomething like that in Gastonia
that hosted entertainment, andit was just kind of a offhand
conversation.
We were having that one night.
We didn't think much about itthe next day, but a few years
later I found myself unfulfilledwith the business that I had
(04:08):
going.
So I sold that, you know, kindof revisited that idea and I
sold the business and bought theproperty that is now the
rooster.
I spent a lot of time in myyouth managing bars and
restaurants.
I kind of had a pretty goodunderstanding of how to do that.
The only aspect of the businessthat I didn't have much
experience with was booking, butuh, that didn't take me very
(04:31):
long to figure out.
Uh, we, I kind of.
I think I've got it down now.
Rob Franklin (04:36):
Well, that actually leads right into my
question is uh, our podcast isall about helping musicians
everywhere, from starting in thegarage to when you're finally
on stage, so I guess my questionfor you is how do bands
approach you?
Michael Carpenter (04:56):
Is it through management companies, booking
agents or directly through you?
Well, there's a hundreddifferent ways to book a show.
I get a lot of emails Everysingle day.
I get emails of bands andartists that are looking for a
place to play, and it's beenjust over two and a half years
we've been open.
I've tried a few differentmethods.
I, to this day, I still bookshows with booking agents.
(05:18):
I book shows with individualartists.
Sometimes I'll throw a showtogether of bands that I think
will make a great deal.
But the most important thing foran artist, for a band that's
looking to get booked, the firstthing I do when I get an email
(05:39):
from an artist is I go to theirsocial media.
I don't even go to theirwebsite first.
I go to their social media andI go to look and I ask myself
does this band promote?
Do they promote their shows?
Do they have a following?
Do people show up when theyplay?
And a lot of times I'll go to aband's social media and they
haven't posted in two months.
Or I'll go to a band's socialmedia and I'll see that they are
(06:00):
constantly engaging theiraudience.
They're constantly getting inconversations in the comment
sections of their posts andthey're promoting the hell out
of their shows.
Well, I'm going to tell youright now those are the bands
that I am most likely to lookfor dates to book shows with.
If you have a stagnant socialmedia, you're probably not going
(06:22):
to get a call back from me,because that's telling me that
you are not working hard enoughto make sure the show is
successful.
Again, there's a hundreddifferent ways to book a show.
I still work with promoters alot.
What I have found is that, orwhat I've learned, and what I
(06:42):
think bands need to understandis for a venue, my goal is to
provide opportunities to artists.
That's why we exist is toprovide this platform where
people can come and play.
Whether you're just startingout, whether you've been doing
it for 30 years, whether you'rea smaller band that's trying to
put tours together, we'll hostthose shows.
(07:04):
Band that's touring, trying toput tours together, we'll host
those shows.
But this is a partnershipbetween the venue and the people
that are performing.
You know, you might be the bestguitar player on planet Earth,
but nobody knows about it, andthe reason why nobody knows
about it is because you're notdoing a good enough job of
promoting how good you are atguitar and so you know my
responsibility is we provide theplatform, we provide the stage,
(07:27):
we provide security, we providepa, we have a green room, we
have a bar, we provide the spaceto put these events on and we
promote all of our shows just asmuch as each other.
But your responsibility asartists is to get people in.
I mean mean, sure, we have afollowing, but that doesn't
guarantee people are going tocome see you.
(07:48):
You need to promote your show.
You need to show that you canget 50, 75, 100, 150 people to
come out and have a good timewith us.
In the very beginning it wasvery frustrating, because I'm
such a nice guy, I want to giveeverybody opportunities.
So I was giving all kinds ofpeople opportunities for shows.
(08:09):
And as time went by, you knowwe're not making money, we're
losing money because peoplearen't coming to shows and I
started to ask myself am Ireally doing this the right way?
So I kind of went back to thedrawing board and read you know,
restructured how I book shows,and now the way that I book
shows is I'm I'm booking them ina way that puts the
(08:32):
responsibility not just on usbut on the artists themselves to
to get people out.
So, because you know we want tokeep doing it, but we can't
keep doing it with empty rooms,right, right.
So that's you know.
When you ask me about how dobands get booked, well, you need
to have a history first ofpromoting your own shows.
(08:52):
That's, that's the number onemost important thing that I'm
looking at when I look at emailsthat get sent to me on on a
daily basis.
Of course I'm listening to themusic as well, you know.
I mean, sometimes I mightreally like a band.
I'll go listen to their musicand be like, wow, these guys are
really good, but they don'tpromote their shows for shit.
So in that instance maybe I'lllike them enough to where I'll
(09:13):
find an opportunity for them toopen up a show somewhere with a
similar bill.
But nowadays a lot of bands,they've got a bill ready for me.
When they reach out, hey, we'vegot these three other bands and
we've got a show we want to puttogether, we're all going to
promote it, yada, yada, yada.
And then sometimes promoterswhen I deal with promoters,
(09:34):
typically what I do is I rentthe venue to them and let them
keep all of the ticket money.
That's another way.
If you're having troublegetting booked, offer to rent
the space out and that this thatdoesn't just go for the rooster
, that's anywhere you're tryingto play.
You're having a hard timebooking a show.
You offer an event or you offera venue uh, a room fee for the
(09:55):
show they're.
They're gonna take that moneyguaranteed money we're not,
we're not looking away from thatand that has worked out really
well for us.
We book more and more showsthese days on a rental model and
(10:16):
when that happens now, everyonehas a financial stake in the
event.
So now everybody is concernedabout getting people out, so
everyone's working just a littlebit harder to get people out to
that show.
So everyone's working just alittle bit harder to get that
people out to that show.
And of course, we prefer thosetypes of shows as well because
it helps us guarantee that.
Ok, well, we can cover the costof of the things we need.
(10:37):
Now we just need to get peoplein here buying drinks so that
you make money on the bar andthen, as the promoter or as the
artist, you're keeping 100percent of ticket sales.
You're not having to split thatwith us, you know.
You're just making your roomfeedback and everything on top
of that.
It's profit.
Rob Franklin (10:51):
Like I said, there's 100 different ways to do
it, nice.
Dana Franklin (10:54):
So what kind of networking do you do as far as
like with promoters or, you know, booking agents and even other
clubs?
I mean, do you guys work hand?
Michael Carpenter (11:05):
in hand with each other.
Um, I do have relationshipswith other club owners.
Uh, we don't talk every day.
Um, there's, there's um.
Every now and then there willbe something worth discussing
with another club owner, or ormaybe there's a there's
something flying around thescene that needs to be dealt
with and we may all kind ofreach out to each other and talk
(11:28):
, but those distances are fewand far between Most of the
promoters I've met have justcome through our doors.
Smart ones will come see you.
Smart promoters will come to ashow.
They'll come and they won'teven tell you they're a promoter
.
They'll have a few drinks,support the show and then,
before they leave, they'llintroduce themselves and say hey
(11:50):
, I'm a promoter, I do this,this and this, and then we
exchange emails and we get aconversation going that way.
I get a lot of messages onsocial media through Instagram,
facebook, whatever, and I alwaysdirect people to our email.
We get so many messages throughsocial media that a lot of
(12:13):
times messages will just fallthrough the cracks.
You know, I might see a messagelike oh okay, I need to deal
with that, and then I getcarried away with my day and
next thing I know a couple ofdays have passed and I haven't
responded.
But I don't delete emails untilI'm done with them.
So you know, if you're.
I don't know about other venueowners, but for the rooster the
(12:34):
best way to start a conversationis to do it through our website
, through our booking tab, whichgoes directly to our email.
Well, I'd say that's the secondbest.
The best way is to come to ashow, come see our space.
You know, don't reach out to meif you've never been to a show,
telling me that you want to puta show together that can get
300 people out.
(12:54):
Well, we can't hold 300 people.
So I already know that whereyou're coming from is bullshit.
You don't know us well enough toknow that we can't hold that
many people.
I get a lot of messages likethat, where people just assume
that this is what the venuewants to hear, and I can
guarantee you that any venueowner worth a damn can sniff
(13:15):
that bullshit out really quickand easily.
Rob Franklin (13:20):
Okay, well, you actually answered a couple of my
questions, but what is yourcapacity?
And speaking of the stage, yousaid you have a house peak,
correct?
Do you use a sound guy as well,or does the band need to supply
that?
Michael Carpenter (13:34):
No.
So we cap ticket sales at $175.
So we can sell 100, and we'vesold out, you know, at this
point I'd say probably a dozento two dozen shows.
We've sold out the venues.
So that's not a lot in two anda half years, but for us it's
pretty awesome because Gastoniais a small town.
Our stage is 26 feet wide and12 feet deep.
(13:57):
We have a drum riser that's sixfeet by eight feet in the
center of the stage and we havea full PA with a 32-channel
stage box and a Behringer X32soundboard.
We provide a sound tech for allof our shows.
We have mics and all the XLR.
When bands come to play, allthey got to do is bring either
(14:20):
their amps and their instruments, or sometimes bands will
already have their own stage rigand we just go from their rig
right into our stage box.
Rob Franklin (14:28):
Nice.
Michael Carpenter (14:31):
We have very rudimentary basic lighting.
You know, we can do a few coolthings with the lights.
Uh, it's mostly par 58s.
Um, you know, we have a programthat's got just kind of basic
lighting.
I would love to have morelighting and more um light
programming, but I don't have aguy for that.
Rob Franklin (14:48):
So so we got what we got in the future cool, all
right so you say, uh, thatyou're.
Dana Franklin (14:56):
You stop your ticket sales at 175, um, and so
with that amount of people, youknow, if you're filling the
place up, do the bands do you?
Do they get paid as like apercentage of the bar, or is
that something that you work outwith them?
As far as pre-sales on tickets,I mean, how does that work with
with the pay for the that?
Michael Carpenter (15:17):
all depends on the deal that we make.
It all depends on the deal wemake with the promoter of the
band.
Like I said, if it's a roomrental and you've rented the
room, wait, this is perfect.
Example Two weeks ago we hadriffraff and riffraff sold out.
The promoter for that showrented the bar, so we got we
didn't take any of that ticketmoney because they paid up front
to rent our space out and thatcovered our expenses for the
(15:40):
show.
So they kept 100 of thoseticket sales.
There are other times where it'sa percentage cut of the door.
You know I have a prettystandard formula.
If I'm booking with local bandsand they're not renting the
room, you know there's a splitthere and that all depends on
(16:00):
what the show is, who I'mdealing with, what is the
relationship.
You know people that I havelong-term relationships with
that I trust I'm a little morelenient with the percentages
because I trust them to do theirjob.
So I'm not looking so much tomake money off the door for
(16:21):
those shows.
It's not that I'm looking tomake money off the door ever.
It's just that there's a levelof accountability that needs to
be met and until you prove to methat you can do that.
I'm going to hold youaccountable this way Once a
relationship has been built andover time.
You know, I kind of pull back alittle bit on that stuff
because I'm not worried too muchabout it.
(16:41):
It's not basically what I'msaying.
It's not really about the money.
For me it's about theresponsibility that we all have
to promote the show, theresponsibility that we all have
to promote the show.
Rob Franklin (16:51):
Good attitude.
Michael Carpenter (16:52):
The money doesn't really matter as much as
how we approach, how we do this.
Rob Franklin (16:57):
Very cool.
Okay, are the majority of yourshows multiple bands, or how
many just?
Michael Carpenter (17:08):
single band acts come in.
Okay, very rarely do we have aconcert where it's just one band
.
I've had a couple like thatwhere usually, if it's like that
, it's some sort of a tribute ora cover band, which we do.
Very few of those shows.
We do host tribute bands fromtime to time, but my major focus
and my main goal is to provideopportunities for artists that
(17:31):
make original art.
I don't have anything againstcover bands.
There's some people out therethat probably think that I hate
cover bands and that's notreally the case.
It's not it at all.
It's just that dealing withcover bands is such a different
animal.
Cover bands are used to goingto breweries and bars that have
a built-in audience that arepacked out every weekend, and
(17:53):
these bars have.
They pay these cover bandsridiculous amounts of money to
show up and play.
They can support that becausethey're slinging chicken wings
and burgers and fries.
They can afford to pay out $600to $1,500 to have a band come
and do three hours of covers.
Well, we don't.
(18:14):
So in the past when we havedealt with cover bands, it
always boils down to thatthey're used to getting a
certain amount of money andthere's always one guy in the
band that's not willing to takea pay cut for a door deal.
Rob Franklin (18:30):
So that's why we don't do a lot of cover bands,
Well yeah, bass or drummers.
Oh damn.
Michael Carpenter (18:40):
Drummers do most of the work they're the
ones lugging all the gear.
They're always the last onesleft.
After every show, it's alwaysthe drummer tearing his shit
down while the singer and theguitar player's at the bar
drinking.
I like this guy.
But we've got nothing againstcover bands.
It's just that we can't affordto give cover bands what they're
(19:04):
used to, because that's anotherthing about cover bands is they
don't really promote theirshows that well.
Most cover bands don't havemuch of a social media presence,
if at all, and the ones that dodon't do a very good job of
promoting their bands.
Now tribute bands do.
I've found that a lot of tributebands do a really good job of
promoting their show and I usedto try to do one or two tribute
shows a month.
(19:24):
I've kind of gotten away fromthat.
When a good opportunitypresents itself, I'll take it.
I try not to force the tributething Again, because any night
that we book a tribute band,we're taking a night away from
local artists that make theirown music Right, which is
ultimately our goal is to helppromote local arts.
(19:46):
So I try not to do too much ofthat because I don't want to
take away more opportunitiesfrom local artists that are
putting in all that extra workto promote themselves and create
original material.
You know there's a you knowwhen you get to see a band that
you've never heard of or anartist you've never heard of and
you know, all of us have hadhad this experience where we've
(20:08):
gone to a concert and we've seenan opener that was so
impressive you almost becomemore of a fan of that opening
band than the band you werethere to see in the first place,
very true, and you'd neverheard of them before.
Well, that's what we do everynight.
Rob Franklin (20:22):
Cool, very cool.
Michael Carpenter (20:23):
You know what I'm saying we do that every
single night.
We bring in bands that you'venever heard of.
That could be your nextfavorite artist if you just gave
them an opportunity, if yougave them a chance and we do,
and I've heard a lot of in thepast.
People have said well, I don'tknow who this band is.
Well, if you go to our website,every single show we book, if
(20:44):
you see a flyer that looksinteresting to you and you click
on that flyer, there's going tobe links to every band on that
show, and that's something thatI do with every show I book.
I always embed links into thedescription of the event so that
you can just go to theirYouTube or their Spotify or
their website and you can lookand you can give this band 30
(21:08):
seconds of your time to listento a song, half of a song, and
say, this sounds like somethingI'd enjoy and then make a
decision.
So that's kind of what we do tohelp you.
One of the small things we doto help promote the show is
every every show on our websitehas links to the performers that
are performing nice, nice, okay.
Dana Franklin (21:28):
Well, with the whole music world, and
especially, you know, musicians,with the whole drug, sex and
rock and roll, I mean, have youever come across a time where
there's a band that justcouldn't perform because
somebody got stupid drunk or diddrugs or something ridiculously
stupid before the show?
And and how did you?
How did you cope with that?
Michael Carpenter (21:49):
so not really .
Um, you know, I guess that's agood thing.
I think that the here's whatI'll say.
We haven't had anyone that'sgotten too fucked up to perform,
but we've had.
We have had shows where maybethey shouldn't have.
We've got a couple of sloppyperformances, but it's so few
(22:11):
and far between it hasn't reallymade its way into, like my
sphere.
Like most of the bands thatthat we have booked are so
grateful for the opportunity toperform it in a, you know, like
an actual real venue, event,venue space that most of them
treat it with that kind ofrespect and reverence that they
(22:33):
don't want to fuck up you knowwhat I mean.
Like they.
You know I mean that's not tosay that bands don't.
I mean look, I've watched guysget hammered and go up there and
just kill on stage.
Oh, yeah, yeah and that's ayoung man's game.
You know most people that aremy age or older.
They touch the drink untilafter the show, which is fine
too.
You know, look, you know it's.
(22:55):
We're providing you theopportunity.
What you do with it is up toyou.
You know we want you to win, wewant you to succeed, we want
you to sound and look great onstage and we want you to feel
like a rock star.
You know we have a.
We have a green room spacewhere you can go and collect
yourself before your performance.
It's got a private bathroom.
We have a stage manager.
So if we have any multiple bandshows, I've got a stage manager
(23:17):
that's back there making sureyou've got what you need and
hyping you up and making youfeel important.
It's really important to methat we have that, that we make
artists feel appreciated andimportant and we get that
feedback from them.
You know a lot, a lot two ofthe two.
Two of the biggest um feedbackthings that we get from artists
(23:43):
is they love how they weretreated and people love how
clean our bathrooms are nice.
We get more complimentscleanliness from our bathroom
than anything else.
Rob Franklin (23:54):
Well, you've got an absolutely killer attitude.
I love it.
Hey, in general, how long ofsets are?
Michael Carpenter (24:04):
these bands playing when there's, like,
multiple band shows.
So if it's, you know, if it'sthree bands, then you know we're
looking at maybe 30 to 40minutes a band, with the
headliner doing an hour to hourand a half.
If it's four bands, it'susually 20 to 30 minutes for
your openers and then an hour orlonger for the headliner.
A lot of tribute bands will doan hour and a half to two hours.
(24:26):
We'll try to bring in an openeror two to do 20 and 30.
My goal is to have three hours.
I want people in the buildingfor three hours.
That's kind of my baseline If Ican.
Every show I book I always tellpeople I want three hours of
entertainment and if it goesbeyond that, great.
But if it's anything short ofthat I feel like you're not
(24:47):
getting your money's worth.
So I want three hours of stagetime for every show, at least
for every show we do.
I want three hours of stagetime for every show, at least
for every show we do.
And we do a lot of thesefestivals too, where we'll have
an all-day event or we'll havean outside stage.
We'll have music going oninside and outside.
Rob Franklin (25:04):
Oh cool.
Michael Carpenter (25:05):
We just had Rooster Olympics back last month
in May, where we had bands inand out all day.
We've got a couple coming upthis summer.
I've got a fundraiser for TimeOut Youth on June 14th.
Well, we've got, like I want tosay, 12 bands are on that bill.
I've got the Carolina Vet Feston July the 5th.
(25:26):
Saturday, july 5th, we're goingto have an outdoor stage and an
indoor stage.
Music is going to be going onall day.
Uh, august 2nd, we're hostingthe wet, hot punk rock summer,
which is kind of a throwback tothe vans warp tour era.
So it's all like punk pop andhardcore bands that kind of have
that similar sound to the thewarp tour bands.
(25:46):
That'll be an indoor, outdoorshow.
And then, uh, in septemberwe're hosting our biggest event
of the year, brewstock musicfestival.
Uh, we have the pre-party showon friday the 26th.
We've got five bands.
In September we're hosting ourbiggest event of the year,
brewstock Music Festival.
We have the pre-party show onFriday the 26th.
We've got five bands performingindoors like a regular show,
(26:07):
and then, saturday, the 27th,we'll have a huge stage set up
outside.
We have music inside andoutside all day.
That show is actually headlinedby Butcher Babies, a pretty big
metal band right now.
So we'll do shows like that aswell, where bands are doing
30-minute sets all day long.
But for a typical Friday orSaturday night, the standard is
we want three hours ofentertainment minimum.
Dana Franklin (26:26):
Nice, you say that you've been established for
what two and a half three yearsnow been.
You know, established for whattwo and a half three years now.
So, as of as of the date, whathas been your, your biggest band
, your best show?
Michael Carpenter (26:41):
that you've, that you've procured.
Well, I mean, god, that's sucha difficult question to answer.
I mean there's there'sdifferent answers to that.
Like you know, I would I'dprobably say the biggest name
that we've ever had was probablyBlack Flag.
I had Black Flag back in.
September of last year.
But you know, last year PsychoStick headlined Brewstop.
You know we just had Riff Raff.
(27:03):
We've had oh God, we've had somany.
We've had like legacy shows,like we've had Head PE, We've
had Scotty Olson from SavingAbel like legacy shows, like
we've had Head PE, we've hadScotty Olson from Saving Able.
But I would probably if I had tosay the show I'm probably most
proud of is, for three years nowwe've hosted that event,
(27:29):
rooster Olympics, in May, whichis a fundraiser for Webb Street
School here in Gastonia, andthat festival has always been
with all local and regionalbands and in three years we've
raised over twenty one thousanddollars for web street school.
So every year we've raisedright around seven grand for
this school and it's a schoolfor disabled, intellectual and
(27:50):
developmentally disabled kidsand there's also a transition
school there.
So they're in school fromkindergarten all the way to 22
years old.
So some of these, some of thekids, can actually do jobs when
they become adults.
Others can't, and it's just,they always need resources.
But I'm really proud that we'vebeen able to raise that much
(28:10):
money.
And then in December every yearour party, we do a toy drive
for the domestic violenceshelter here in town and the
organization is called HopeUnited Survivors Network and
they do more than just domesticviolence shelter.
They have multiple arms of thatorganization that help people
that are in crisis situations.
(28:31):
And that toy drive has providedChristmas for the last three
years to families that really,really needed it and could use
that help.
So I'm really proud of thoseevents, more so than the bigger
names that we've had through theyears.
Rob Franklin (28:46):
That's incredible Sounds like you guys are doing a
lot of good work for thecommunity as well.
That's so cool.
Michael Carpenter (28:51):
We're trying.
I mean we've had cancerbenefits a couple times.
We've done, you know, we'vedone fundraisers for individual,
you know, individualorganizations that needed help
at certain times.
You know I love a goodfundraiser, I love to help
people.
You know, like I said, ourwhole mission is helping local
artists.
Sometimes the local artistswant to help others.
Know, and you know, I've gotone coming up on a june 22nd.
(29:15):
Uh, there's a guy who hadreached out to me and he wanted
to put together like thisacoustic songwriter showcase
deal and I was like, cool, let'sdo it.
It sounds like that's a greatidea for a sunday matinee show.
Right, some kick, you know,laid back acoustic stuff.
So we booked a show, we getready to announce it, and then
this guy found out that thiscouple that he's close friends
(29:38):
with they get in this motorcyclewreck.
Oh, no.
And you know they got seriouslyinjured and you know they need
help.
So he reached out to me andsaid, hey, I'd like to turn this
into a fundraiser for thisfamily that needs help.
And I said, great, I'm all forit.
All of the artists on the billagreed to go along with it.
So now this, what was going tobe just this fun little acoustic
(30:02):
showcase on a Sunday afternoon,has turned into this fundraiser
that's going to change thelives of this couple that really
needs help right now.
You know like that's to me,that's incredible.
You know he's got like eightartists on that bill and all of
the artists agreed to say, hey,we'll come play for free to help
these people out.
And that, right there, is myfavorite thing about doing what
I do.
This community of artists aresome of the most generous,
(30:25):
amazing people I've ever met.
I mean, I just turned 46, andI've never had the pleasure of
being surrounded by so manyawesome people in my life.
Rob Franklin (30:36):
That's awesome.
In my life, it's trulyremarkable.
Okay, well, on the flip side ofthe best, let's talk about the
worst.
We have a moment called oh shit, where it's basically when
something that's gone eitherreally really wrong or really
really embarrassing.
Michael Carpenter (30:54):
So is there one particular thing that stands
out to you?
That's maybe a show thatsomething went terribly wrong.
Well, there's two thingsthere's an oh shit moment, and
then there's an embarrassingmoment.
Rob Franklin (31:02):
Okay, we'll take them.
We'll take them both.
Michael Carpenter (31:06):
Well, I'll start with the embarrassing
moment.
I've got no problem withself-deprecation, no problem
with self-deprecation.
So I alluded to this earlier inthe conversation about how
early on, I was just trying togive as many opportunities as
possible and I wasn't given toomuch weight or too much thought
about.
You know how we're going tomake money with this and I
(31:28):
strung together enough showsthat didn't make money to where
I got in a pretty tightfinancial situation and last end
of end of August last year, youknow, I found myself really,
really close to losing mybusiness.
In fact, it was pretty much adone deal that we were going to
have to close our doors and youknow I really hated that.
(31:51):
You know we were only two yearsin and or not even we were
almost two years in or not evenwe were almost two years in and
I felt like I had a lot morework to do, but financially it
wasn't making sense.
So as a last-ditch effort tokind of save the business, I
announced that we were startingto go fund me.
We had two weeks to raise$40,000.
Dana Franklin (32:13):
Wow.
Michael Carpenter (32:14):
And this community rallied around us and
we raised exactly forty thousanddollars is that right in?
Two weeks.
Well, it all culminated.
It all came to head with thatsaturday, september 6th of last
year.
Uh, we had a punk showscheduled that night but the
bands agreed to extend, like addmore bands to that show and
(32:34):
turn it into a fundraiser for usas part of the gofundme.
And we actually had a band,haymakers at metal band, that's
based here in gastonia.
They actually played on theroof of our building that night
and so we turned.
Yeah, we, we turned a situationwhere I was, we were going to
lose it all, and we turned itinto this call to to arms for
(32:57):
this community and I really dothink that after that happened,
it kind of woke everyone up andwas like, hey, we need to get
out here and go to shows becausewe're going to lose this space
if we don't support it, and sothat was really embarrassing for
me.
I've never been the type to toask for handouts or or bailouts.
Um, everything I've done in myI've never been the type to ask
for handouts or bailouts.
Everything I've done in my life, it's all self-made.
(33:19):
That's not to say I haven't hadhelp through the years.
I've always been blessed withgood people that have worked for
my businesses in the past andyou know this was just.
It was really humiliating tohave to go and say, hey, we
failed, can you help us out?
(33:39):
And ultimately, what it was wasI just wasn't making good
enough decisions with bookingshows booking shows that would
get people out, and that's partof the reason I changed the way
that we booked shows.
So that would probably be mymost embarrassing moment.
The oh shit.
Moment came earlier this year.
We I work with.
I set a handful of promoters.
(33:59):
One of the promoters reachedout and wanted to book a band at
my place and it's a band thatmost people, specifically people
my age they know who this bandis.
I'm not going to mention thename of the band because I don't
want this to turn into a wholeother thing.
Rob Franklin (34:16):
Yeah, I get it, gotcha.
Michael Carpenter (34:19):
Most people already know what I'm about to
say.
If they're listening andthey're fans of what we do, they
probably already know where I'mgoing with this.
But I booked this band becauseit's a big, recognizable name
and I was like cool, Didn't knowthat this band came with some
baggage that I was unaware of.
(34:39):
This band has.
There's been some accusationsmade that one of the members of
the band has gone on socialmedia and said some pretty wild
shit and it got a lot of peopleupset that we had booked this
band.
People were coming at me alldifferent kinds of ways.
I got threatening emails.
(35:00):
I got messages on social mediathreatening me and my business.
But there were a handful ofpeople in the community that
reached out to me personally andwas like, hey, this is why you
shouldn't book this band andexplained to me what the issue
was.
Now, I was completely unawarethat there were these issues.
So after reading through all ofthat and learning what the
(35:25):
issues were, I said, well, it'snot in my best interest to keep
this show, so I took it off thebooks.
So I was like, all right, I'mpulling this show.
Then I got backlash tenfold fromthe other side.
I got all of the people.
I got all these messages andcomments telling me why I
(35:47):
shouldn't do this, so I pulledthe show because it was the
right decision for my business,and then I got even more
criticism from the other side.
So it was such a lose-losesituation.
But it was a good lesson for meas someone who owned a venue
and book shows.
I'm not a very political guy,but a lot of people are, so the
(36:11):
lesson there was just to stayaway from the political shit,
there's a band out there that'smaking their bones politically.
We're probably not going to bookthem, because I just don't want
that.
That's not what we're about.
In fact, we're the exactopposite of that.
If you go to our website andyou read our mission statement,
my whole thing is this is aplace for everyone to come
(36:35):
together.
This isn't a place to dividepeople.
That's not what we're about.
So there was a little bit ofnaivety there making that
booking, and I learned my lessonabout.
So you know there was a littlebit of naivety there making that
booking, and you know I learnedmy lesson.
What I will say is it wasreally disappointing with.
(36:55):
You know how ungraceful some ofthe reaction to it was.
There was a lot, of a lot ofpeople out there that had an
opinion about how I should runmy business.
That don't really do jack shitfor my business, and so that's
something that people need torealize.
If you're going to sit behind akeyboard all day and talk shit
about things you don't like,your time would be much more
valuably used putting thatenergy and effort into the
(37:19):
things you do care about and youdo believe in yeah very true.
Hearing people down is notreally.
You don't really get thereaction you're looking for when
you're using your energy totear people down, but when
you're building people up, notonly does your energy go towards
something useful.
At the end of the day, you canfeel good about yourself and you
don't have to spend your daymiserable, just shit posting on
(37:41):
social media.
Rob Franklin (37:41):
It usually comes back to you, whatever you give
you get.
Dana Franklin (37:46):
Yeah, it's so easy to get on social media and
say shit when you don't evenknow what you're talking about,
just because you want to vent.
It's one of those necessaryevils you know, yeah, so you
know what you were talking about.
Actually brings me intosomething you know.
Another thing I wanted to askis have you ever actually had a
(38:11):
band, something you know?
Another thing I wanted to askis have you ever actually had a
band you?
Michael Carpenter (38:13):
know perform.
That was so ill received thatyou had to pull them early or
turn off the power or any shitlike that.
Thank, god no thank god we havenot had that yet and we've had.
We've had some people get upand make a fool of themselves,
but uh, we haven't had to topull anyone off stage and I
don't think we ever will.
You know, we and make a fool ofthemselves, but we haven't had
to pull anyone off stage.
I don't think we ever will.
We've had a couple ofego-ridden people come through.
(38:34):
I'm really big on just no ego,there's no need for it.
Say what you've got to say withyour performance.
You don't have to be a jackass.
Get on stage and be need for it.
You know you've, you know.
Say what you got to say withyour performance.
You know you don't.
You don't have to be a jackass,you know.
Just you get on stage and beundeniable.
Then you don't have to walkaround.
People will do it for you.
Um, and we've been very, veryfortunate in that we really
(38:57):
haven't had that many issueslike.
So we've had a couple ofassholes, but you're always
bound to my staff and I arereally really good at dealing
with assholes, so well, it'susually the drummers anyway hey,
michael.
Rob Franklin (39:12):
uh, like I mentioned earlier, we're all
about like helping musicians, so, um, are there any promoters
out there that you wouldrecommend to like?
Maybe a band that's havingdifficulty getting a show booked
, maybe new to the game, as faras you know, playing in venues?
Michael Carpenter (39:27):
Sure, well, you know I don't want to.
You know I don't really playfavorites.
You know I'm a opportunity typeof guy, but I will.
I will shout out some of thepromoters that I work with that
I've had success with that.
I trust creative music withthat.
I trust Creative MusicManagement, Missy Wood.
She is the owner and the CEO,so to speak, of Creative Music
(39:51):
Management CMM.
They do a really good job ofpromoting local bands.
Cutthroat Promotions.
Johnny Nethercutt he's anotherpromoter that I enjoy working
with.
I have a good success rate withhim.
Shell Shock Promotions is anewer promotion company that
recently formed it's.
(40:13):
Dj Bloodbath, young Bird fromTwo Stroke Smoke and a couple
other guys have gotten togetherand created Shell Shock
Promotions.
Those are guys that I'll messwith anytime.
Aj from Carolina HeadbangersAnytime the Carolina Headbangers
want to put something together,I'll work with them.
(40:34):
And then there's Cole withCrack a Smile.
Crack a Smile.
He's putting in work.
In fact, if your listenerswould be so kind as to go check
out the Rock and Roll Circusthat we've got coming up June
27th and 28th, that's a Crack aSmile promotion show.
Rob Franklin (40:52):
He's got.
Michael Carpenter (40:52):
Trickster and Bad Marriage and Prowess and
Shanky DeVille and Fury 58 andAnthony Corder from Tora Tora.
It's a Friday and Saturdaynight show that we've got, so
you can go to our website andget all the information on this.
But you can buy a Friday ticket, a Saturday ticket or a whole
(41:14):
weekend ticket and I thinkthere's two or three VIP tickets
left where you'll get to dosome meet and greets and get
some signed swag and get somesigned swag.
But Tommy London, who is aSiriusXM DJ on Ozzy's Boneyard,
he will also be there hostingthe show.
So it's going to be an awesome,awesome weekend that's
(41:34):
happening later this month thatpeople should pay attention to.
But yeah, those are just ahandful of the promoters.
I'm sure I'm forgetting aboutsomebody and I do apologize if
I'm forgetting somebody rightnow, but those are the promoters
that I have done the most withover the years that we've been
open.
There's other promoters outthere that have reached out and
(41:56):
that I would like to work within the future.
I'll even give a shout out toWelcome to the Family Fest.
They do shows mainly at theMilestone in Charlotte and at
the Radio Room in Greenville.
Every time I see a Welcome tothe Family Fest promotion show.
It's always a killer lineup.
If those guys ever wanted tofuck with the rooster, I'd be
(42:17):
down to put a show together withthem.
Again, like I said earlier, ifyou are a promoter and you're
established and you want to puta show together, come talk to me
.
You know, don't send me somebullshit message on Facebook or
Instagram or send me some emailtalking about you've done this,
this and this.
Come talk to me personally andlet's talk about it.
(42:38):
You know it's the best.
I'm an old school guy.
I'm old school like that.
I want to look in your eye andI want to know that you mean
what you say.
Rob Franklin (42:48):
There you go.
Michael Carpenter (42:48):
There's a lot of guys out there that think we
can put a show together, thatthink they know how to promote a
show, but they're off andthey're full of shit.
That's why I like talking topeople in person, because I can
get a good sense of whether youmean what you say or not.
You know face to face well.
Rob Franklin (43:08):
Speaking of which, what's nights are usually down
at your venue.
I'm new to the area so I wantto come down and definitely see
your venue, but what nights areyou typically there?
They come down and have a beerwith you.
Michael Carpenter (43:21):
I'm there pretty much every night you know
, occasionally I'll take a night.
I'll have something going on.
I'm a family guy as well, soI've got kids and a wife at home
.
Occasionally stuff gets plannedand I can't be there, but most
of the time I'm there Wednesdaythrough Sunday when we're open
(43:42):
Occasionally.
Now I won't be there thisSaturday.
I don't know when this comesout, but I won't be there on
June the 7th.
I'm going to a show myself, butyeah, I'm usually our doors
open at 5 or 6.
Even when a flyer says thedoor's open at 6 or 7, we're
usually there and ready around 5.
I always try to encouragepeople to come early and come
have some beers and hang out.
(44:03):
Get there early.
That's when you're going tohave a chance to talk to me Once
things get moving and we'rebusy.
I'm not trying to talk businessin the middle of a show.
Rob Franklin (44:12):
Yeah, of course.
Michael Carpenter (44:13):
Usually get there early and talk to me, or
stay late, hang out after theshow and talk to me, or come on
an open mic on a Wednesdaybecause open mics are a lot of
fun.
You're getting the real senseof what we have for talent in
the area.
I'm always in a good moodbecause I love my Wednesday open
mic family, so that's a goodtime to come talk to me.
Rob Franklin (44:32):
Okay, well, hey, micah, we really appreciate this
.
And in closing, for all thelike newer bands out there, what
would be your advice?
Just in general?
Michael Carpenter (44:43):
for playing at a place like yours.
I would say show up and supportthe local scene.
Like if you're trying, ifyou're doing local, if you're
doing original music and you'retrying to break through in the
Charlotte scene, the easiest andquickest way to get invited on
bills is to show up and thatthat actually that philosophy.
Philosophy extends further thanlocal music.
(45:04):
You know.
Same thing goes with yourcommunity.
You know politics, anything.
That's something I learnedearly on with one of my first
businesses.
If you just show up,opportunities and doors will
open up.
You know, if you're justrefusing to go support other
(45:26):
local bands and refusing tosupport venues, how do you
expect anyone to take youseriously about being part of
this scene?
If that's not what you're about, then start a cover band.
That's kind of the cover bandroute.
You don't have to go supportnobody, you're doing your thing.
There's demand for what you do,so you don't need to get out
there and support.
But with local music, you know,unsigned and unknown artist,
(45:49):
there's not a big demand fromthe general public.
We have to make it ourselves.
We have to create that demandand we do that by showing up for
each other, showing up forshows, and then you.
You talk to the bands, you talkto the promoters excuse me you
talk to the venue owners andyou're like well, hey, I've got
this band.
You know you should check usout.
This is our website or this isour social media.
Or say you know, here, here,why don't you give this a listen
(46:11):
?
Let me know if there's a showwe can get on, and that's
probably the easiest andquickest way to get onto a show.
Now, that's harder to do forsome people, I realize.
If you're in a position whereit's not feasible for you to
come out to a show or whatnot,then I don't really know what to
(46:31):
tell you.
Maybe you've got too much goingon.
There's a reason I'm not in aband.
I don't have time for it.
Dana Franklin (46:42):
It's all time consuming, no doubt about it.
Well, you know, in closing andit's funny that you know what
your advice was, because youknow we've recently had a bunch
of you know interviews andepisodes with bands over in the
UK and you know they say thesame thing you just got to get
out there and support your localmusic and in the local venues,
just to get the word out andhelp everybody out.
So, for all you guys listeningto this episode, we encourage
(47:03):
you to get out there to Gastoniato check out the rooster and
Michael and his club and youwon't be disappointed.
And I will hand this over toRob.
We'll close this out.
Rob Franklin (47:15):
Okay, and once again listeners.
Michael Carpenter (47:17):
Well, the last thing I'll say before you
close out is you know how manytimes have you heard someone say
support locals, but do youactually do it?
Rob Franklin (47:27):
Yeah, exactly.
Michael Carpenter (47:30):
If you're going to say support local, then
do what you say and supportlocal.
Otherwise, the whole country isgoing to be Walmart and Amazon.
Dana Franklin (47:39):
Amen to that, amen, yep.
Michael Carpenter (47:41):
Same thing with your music.
Rob Franklin (47:44):
Hey, michael, thank you very much and,
listeners, please do go visitthe Rooster in Gastonia, north
Carolina.
Sounds like an outstandingplace.
Michael Carpenter (47:54):
Thanks a lot, fellas.
I appreciate you having me on.
I appreciate the opportunityand thanks for doing what you do
, man All right.
Rob Franklin (48:00):
Thank you, and you have a good rest of your day.
Michael Carpenter (48:04):
You too Bye-bye.
Hi, welcome to Franklin's Garage to Stage
podcast.
My name is Rob WardrumsFranklin and my co-host is Dana
Thunderbase Franklin.
Dana Franklin (00:10):
How are you doing ?
Rob Franklin (00:10):
man, I'm doing really good.
Hey, today we've got with usMichael Carpenter.
He is the owner of anoutstanding venue called Rooster
Bar in Gastonia, north Carolina, located at 334 West Main
Avenue in Gastonia, northCarolina.
Michael, how are you doingtoday?
Michael Carpenter (00:29):
I'm doing all right.
How are you?
Rob Franklin (00:30):
You're doing real well.
Hey, can you tell us a littlebit about your venue and then
from there we'll just startpopping some questions your way?
Michael Carpenter (00:39):
Well, the Rooster is a small venue in
downtown Gastonia.
What we do is we host livemusic and entertainment events
is a small venue in downtownGastonia.
What we do is we host livemusic and entertainment events
and anything having to do withthe arts.
Most of our shows are concerts.
We're open typically we're openWednesday through Saturday.
(01:00):
We have Sunday shows about halfthe time.
Occasionally we're open on aMonday or Tuesday if we happen
to catch like a tour comingthrough.
Every Wednesday we host an openmic.
We call it our singersongwriter open mic, but it's
really open to anybody with anartistic talent.
We've had standup comedians.
(01:22):
We've had poetry readings.
We've had stand-up comedians.
We've had poetry readings.
We've had people that come into do drum solos.
We have a full back line with adrum kit and amps and full PA.
You just bring whateverinstrument it is you play, you
bring it, you plug it into oursystem and we give it three
(01:42):
songs.
We've played around with a lotof different things.
On Thursday nights we have afirst Thursday folk night, which
is hosted by a gentleman calledAP Rogers, which, by the way,
we have two open mic hosts.
They rotate weeks.
We have Jade Moore thewonderful, the beautiful, the
amazing Jade Moore.
She hosts every other week andMariah Van Cleef hosts on the
opposite weeks and Mariah VanCleef hosts on the opposite
(02:03):
weeks and these are two of themost talented women in all of
Charlotte in terms of theirvocal range and what they can do
on stage.
So we have somebody that's kindof like a mixture of folk,
(02:36):
americana, country, appalachia,anything kind of in that vein.
Ap will do.
He'll go on first and do a set.
He'll bring in a guest everymonth and do a set and then we
open the stage up to anybodythat wants to join them for like
a folk jam session at the end.
So it's a really fun thing.
The first Thursday and then therest of the week.
It's all shows you know.
We've hosted, we host festivalsthroughout the year.
We've done toy drives,fundraisers, we've done stand-up
(02:59):
comedy shows.
We do everything from heavymetal to hip-hop, country
singer-songwriter, indie rock,anything entertainment.
We host it at the Rooster.
Rob Franklin (03:11):
Wow, that's incredible, Nice nice.
Dana Franklin (03:14):
So how did you go about getting into this
business and getting that barstarted?
I mean, what prompted that?
Michael Carpenter (03:25):
I've told my story as much through the years.
It all started from my wife andI we we were avid concert goers
, you know.
We'd go to comedy shows,concerts, you know, whatever
musicals.
And we always found ourselveson these long drives home back
to where we live outside ofGastonia, and one night, on one
(03:47):
of those ride homes, we starteddiscussing the possibility of
how cool it would be if we hadsomething like that in Gastonia
that hosted entertainment, andit was just kind of a offhand
conversation.
We were having that one night.
We didn't think much about itthe next day, but a few years
later I found myself unfulfilledwith the business that I had
(04:08):
going.
So I sold that, you know, kindof revisited that idea and I
sold the business and bought theproperty that is now the
rooster.
I spent a lot of time in myyouth managing bars and
restaurants.
I kind of had a pretty goodunderstanding of how to do that.
The only aspect of the businessthat I didn't have much
experience with was booking, butuh, that didn't take me very
(04:31):
long to figure out.
Uh, we, I kind of.
I think I've got it down now.
Rob Franklin (04:36):
Well, that actually leads right into my
question is uh, our podcast isall about helping musicians
everywhere, from starting in thegarage to when you're finally
on stage, so I guess my questionfor you is how do bands
approach you?
Michael Carpenter (04:56):
Is it through management companies, booking
agents or directly through you?
Well, there's a hundreddifferent ways to book a show.
I get a lot of emails Everysingle day.
I get emails of bands andartists that are looking for a
place to play, and it's beenjust over two and a half years
we've been open.
I've tried a few differentmethods.
I, to this day, I still bookshows with booking agents.
(05:18):
I book shows with individualartists.
Sometimes I'll throw a showtogether of bands that I think
will make a great deal.
But the most important thing foran artist, for a band that's
looking to get booked, the firstthing I do when I get an email
(05:39):
from an artist is I go to theirsocial media.
I don't even go to theirwebsite first.
I go to their social media andI go to look and I ask myself
does this band promote?
Do they promote their shows?
Do they have a following?
Do people show up when theyplay?
And a lot of times I'll go to aband's social media and they
haven't posted in two months.
Or I'll go to a band's socialmedia and I'll see that they are
(06:00):
constantly engaging theiraudience.
They're constantly getting inconversations in the comment
sections of their posts andthey're promoting the hell out
of their shows.
Well, I'm going to tell youright now those are the bands
that I am most likely to lookfor dates to book shows with.
If you have a stagnant socialmedia, you're probably not going
(06:22):
to get a call back from me,because that's telling me that
you are not working hard enoughto make sure the show is
successful.
Again, there's a hundreddifferent ways to book a show.
I still work with promoters alot.
What I have found is that, orwhat I've learned, and what I
(06:42):
think bands need to understandis for a venue, my goal is to
provide opportunities to artists.
That's why we exist is toprovide this platform where
people can come and play.
Whether you're just startingout, whether you've been doing
it for 30 years, whether you'rea smaller band that's trying to
put tours together, we'll hostthose shows.
(07:04):
Band that's touring, trying toput tours together, we'll host
those shows.
But this is a partnershipbetween the venue and the people
that are performing.
You know, you might be the bestguitar player on planet Earth,
but nobody knows about it, andthe reason why nobody knows
about it is because you're notdoing a good enough job of
promoting how good you are atguitar and so you know my
responsibility is we provide theplatform, we provide the stage,
(07:27):
we provide security, we providepa, we have a green room, we
have a bar, we provide the spaceto put these events on and we
promote all of our shows just asmuch as each other.
But your responsibility asartists is to get people in.
I mean mean, sure, we have afollowing, but that doesn't
guarantee people are going tocome see you.
(07:48):
You need to promote your show.
You need to show that you canget 50, 75, 100, 150 people to
come out and have a good timewith us.
In the very beginning it wasvery frustrating, because I'm
such a nice guy, I want to giveeverybody opportunities.
So I was giving all kinds ofpeople opportunities for shows.
(08:09):
And as time went by, you knowwe're not making money, we're
losing money because peoplearen't coming to shows and I
started to ask myself am Ireally doing this the right way?
So I kind of went back to thedrawing board and read you know,
restructured how I book shows,and now the way that I book
shows is I'm I'm booking them ina way that puts the
(08:32):
responsibility not just on usbut on the artists themselves to
to get people out.
So, because you know we want tokeep doing it, but we can't
keep doing it with empty rooms,right, right.
So that's you know.
When you ask me about how dobands get booked, well, you need
to have a history first ofpromoting your own shows.
(08:52):
That's, that's the number onemost important thing that I'm
looking at when I look at emailsthat get sent to me on on a
daily basis.
Of course I'm listening to themusic as well, you know.
I mean, sometimes I mightreally like a band.
I'll go listen to their musicand be like, wow, these guys are
really good, but they don'tpromote their shows for shit.
So in that instance maybe I'lllike them enough to where I'll
(09:13):
find an opportunity for them toopen up a show somewhere with a
similar bill.
But nowadays a lot of bands,they've got a bill ready for me.
When they reach out, hey, we'vegot these three other bands and
we've got a show we want to puttogether, we're all going to
promote it, yada, yada, yada.
And then sometimes promoterswhen I deal with promoters,
(09:34):
typically what I do is I rentthe venue to them and let them
keep all of the ticket money.
That's another way.
If you're having troublegetting booked, offer to rent
the space out and that this thatdoesn't just go for the rooster
, that's anywhere you're tryingto play.
You're having a hard timebooking a show.
You offer an event or you offera venue uh, a room fee for the
(09:55):
show they're.
They're gonna take that moneyguaranteed money we're not,
we're not looking away from thatand that has worked out really
well for us.
We book more and more showsthese days on a rental model and
(10:16):
when that happens now, everyonehas a financial stake in the
event.
So now everybody is concernedabout getting people out, so
everyone's working just a littlebit harder to get people out to
that show.
So everyone's working just alittle bit harder to get that
people out to that show.
And of course, we prefer thosetypes of shows as well because
it helps us guarantee that.
Ok, well, we can cover the costof of the things we need.
(10:37):
Now we just need to get peoplein here buying drinks so that
you make money on the bar andthen, as the promoter or as the
artist, you're keeping 100percent of ticket sales.
You're not having to split thatwith us, you know.
You're just making your roomfeedback and everything on top
of that.
It's profit.
Rob Franklin (10:51):
Like I said, there's 100 different ways to do
it, nice.
Dana Franklin (10:54):
So what kind of networking do you do as far as
like with promoters or, you know, booking agents and even other
clubs?
I mean, do you guys work hand?
Michael Carpenter (11:05):
in hand with each other.
Um, I do have relationshipswith other club owners.
Uh, we don't talk every day.
Um, there's, there's um.
Every now and then there willbe something worth discussing
with another club owner, or ormaybe there's a there's
something flying around thescene that needs to be dealt
with and we may all kind ofreach out to each other and talk
(11:28):
, but those distances are fewand far between Most of the
promoters I've met have justcome through our doors.
Smart ones will come see you.
Smart promoters will come to ashow.
They'll come and they won'teven tell you they're a promoter
.
They'll have a few drinks,support the show and then,
before they leave, they'llintroduce themselves and say hey
(11:50):
, I'm a promoter, I do this,this and this, and then we
exchange emails and we get aconversation going that way.
I get a lot of messages onsocial media through Instagram,
facebook, whatever, and I alwaysdirect people to our email.
We get so many messages throughsocial media that a lot of
(12:13):
times messages will just fallthrough the cracks.
You know, I might see a messagelike oh okay, I need to deal
with that, and then I getcarried away with my day and
next thing I know a couple ofdays have passed and I haven't
responded.
But I don't delete emails untilI'm done with them.
So you know, if you're.
I don't know about other venueowners, but for the rooster the
(12:34):
best way to start a conversationis to do it through our website
, through our booking tab, whichgoes directly to our email.
Well, I'd say that's the secondbest.
The best way is to come to ashow, come see our space.
You know, don't reach out to meif you've never been to a show,
telling me that you want to puta show together that can get
300 people out.
(12:54):
Well, we can't hold 300 people.
So I already know that whereyou're coming from is bullshit.
You don't know us well enough toknow that we can't hold that
many people.
I get a lot of messages likethat, where people just assume
that this is what the venuewants to hear, and I can
guarantee you that any venueowner worth a damn can sniff
(13:15):
that bullshit out really quickand easily.
Rob Franklin (13:20):
Okay, well, you actually answered a couple of my
questions, but what is yourcapacity?
And speaking of the stage, yousaid you have a house peak,
correct?
Do you use a sound guy as well,or does the band need to supply
that?
Michael Carpenter (13:34):
No.
So we cap ticket sales at $175.
So we can sell 100, and we'vesold out, you know, at this
point I'd say probably a dozento two dozen shows.
We've sold out the venues.
So that's not a lot in two anda half years, but for us it's
pretty awesome because Gastoniais a small town.
Our stage is 26 feet wide and12 feet deep.
(13:57):
We have a drum riser that's sixfeet by eight feet in the
center of the stage and we havea full PA with a 32-channel
stage box and a Behringer X32soundboard.
We provide a sound tech for allof our shows.
We have mics and all the XLR.
When bands come to play, allthey got to do is bring either
(14:20):
their amps and their instruments, or sometimes bands will
already have their own stage rigand we just go from their rig
right into our stage box.
Rob Franklin (14:28):
Nice.
Michael Carpenter (14:31):
We have very rudimentary basic lighting.
You know, we can do a few coolthings with the lights.
Uh, it's mostly par 58s.
Um, you know, we have a programthat's got just kind of basic
lighting.
I would love to have morelighting and more um light
programming, but I don't have aguy for that.
Rob Franklin (14:48):
So so we got what we got in the future cool, all
right so you say, uh, thatyou're.
Dana Franklin (14:56):
You stop your ticket sales at 175, um, and so
with that amount of people, youknow, if you're filling the
place up, do the bands do you?
Do they get paid as like apercentage of the bar, or is
that something that you work outwith them?
As far as pre-sales on tickets,I mean, how does that work with
with the pay for the that?
Michael Carpenter (15:17):
all depends on the deal that we make.
It all depends on the deal wemake with the promoter of the
band.
Like I said, if it's a roomrental and you've rented the
room, wait, this is perfect.
Example Two weeks ago we hadriffraff and riffraff sold out.
The promoter for that showrented the bar, so we got we
didn't take any of that ticketmoney because they paid up front
to rent our space out and thatcovered our expenses for the
(15:40):
show.
So they kept 100 of thoseticket sales.
There are other times where it'sa percentage cut of the door.
You know I have a prettystandard formula.
If I'm booking with local bandsand they're not renting the
room, you know there's a splitthere and that all depends on
(16:00):
what the show is, who I'mdealing with, what is the
relationship.
You know people that I havelong-term relationships with
that I trust I'm a little morelenient with the percentages
because I trust them to do theirjob.
So I'm not looking so much tomake money off the door for
(16:21):
those shows.
It's not that I'm looking tomake money off the door ever.
It's just that there's a levelof accountability that needs to
be met and until you prove to methat you can do that.
I'm going to hold youaccountable this way Once a
relationship has been built andover time.
You know, I kind of pull back alittle bit on that stuff
because I'm not worried too muchabout it.
(16:41):
It's not basically what I'msaying.
It's not really about the money.
For me it's about theresponsibility that we all have
to promote the show, theresponsibility that we all have
to promote the show.
Rob Franklin (16:51):
Good attitude.
Michael Carpenter (16:52):
The money doesn't really matter as much as
how we approach, how we do this.
Rob Franklin (16:57):
Very cool.
Okay, are the majority of yourshows multiple bands, or how
many just?
Michael Carpenter (17:08):
single band acts come in.
Okay, very rarely do we have aconcert where it's just one band
.
I've had a couple like thatwhere usually, if it's like that
, it's some sort of a tribute ora cover band, which we do.
Very few of those shows.
We do host tribute bands fromtime to time, but my major focus
and my main goal is to provideopportunities for artists that
(17:31):
make original art.
I don't have anything againstcover bands.
There's some people out therethat probably think that I hate
cover bands and that's notreally the case.
It's not it at all.
It's just that dealing withcover bands is such a different
animal.
Cover bands are used to goingto breweries and bars that have
a built-in audience that arepacked out every weekend, and
(17:53):
these bars have.
They pay these cover bandsridiculous amounts of money to
show up and play.
They can support that becausethey're slinging chicken wings
and burgers and fries.
They can afford to pay out $600to $1,500 to have a band come
and do three hours of covers.
Well, we don't.
(18:14):
So in the past when we havedealt with cover bands, it
always boils down to thatthey're used to getting a
certain amount of money andthere's always one guy in the
band that's not willing to takea pay cut for a door deal.
Rob Franklin (18:30):
So that's why we don't do a lot of cover bands,
Well yeah, bass or drummers.
Oh damn.
Michael Carpenter (18:40):
Drummers do most of the work they're the
ones lugging all the gear.
They're always the last onesleft.
After every show, it's alwaysthe drummer tearing his shit
down while the singer and theguitar player's at the bar
drinking.
I like this guy.
But we've got nothing againstcover bands.
It's just that we can't affordto give cover bands what they're
(19:04):
used to, because that's anotherthing about cover bands is they
don't really promote theirshows that well.
Most cover bands don't havemuch of a social media presence,
if at all, and the ones that dodon't do a very good job of
promoting their bands.
Now tribute bands do.
I've found that a lot of tributebands do a really good job of
promoting their show and I usedto try to do one or two tribute
shows a month.
(19:24):
I've kind of gotten away fromthat.
When a good opportunitypresents itself, I'll take it.
I try not to force the tributething Again, because any night
that we book a tribute band,we're taking a night away from
local artists that make theirown music Right, which is
ultimately our goal is to helppromote local arts.
(19:46):
So I try not to do too much ofthat because I don't want to
take away more opportunitiesfrom local artists that are
putting in all that extra workto promote themselves and create
original material.
You know there's a you knowwhen you get to see a band that
you've never heard of or anartist you've never heard of and
you know, all of us have hadhad this experience where we've
(20:08):
gone to a concert and we've seenan opener that was so
impressive you almost becomemore of a fan of that opening
band than the band you werethere to see in the first place,
very true, and you'd neverheard of them before.
Well, that's what we do everynight.
Rob Franklin (20:22):
Cool, very cool.
Michael Carpenter (20:23):
You know what I'm saying we do that every
single night.
We bring in bands that you'venever heard of.
That could be your nextfavorite artist if you just gave
them an opportunity, if yougave them a chance and we do,
and I've heard a lot of in thepast.
People have said well, I don'tknow who this band is.
Well, if you go to our website,every single show we book, if
(20:44):
you see a flyer that looksinteresting to you and you click
on that flyer, there's going tobe links to every band on that
show, and that's something thatI do with every show I book.
I always embed links into thedescription of the event so that
you can just go to theirYouTube or their Spotify or
their website and you can lookand you can give this band 30
(21:08):
seconds of your time to listento a song, half of a song, and
say, this sounds like somethingI'd enjoy and then make a
decision.
So that's kind of what we do tohelp you.
One of the small things we doto help promote the show is
every every show on our websitehas links to the performers that
are performing nice, nice, okay.
Dana Franklin (21:28):
Well, with the whole music world, and
especially, you know, musicians,with the whole drug, sex and
rock and roll, I mean, have youever come across a time where
there's a band that justcouldn't perform because
somebody got stupid drunk or diddrugs or something ridiculously
stupid before the show?
And and how did you?
How did you cope with that?
Michael Carpenter (21:49):
so not really .
Um, you know, I guess that's agood thing.
I think that the here's whatI'll say.
We haven't had anyone that'sgotten too fucked up to perform,
but we've had.
We have had shows where maybethey shouldn't have.
We've got a couple of sloppyperformances, but it's so few
(22:11):
and far between it hasn't reallymade its way into, like my
sphere.
Like most of the bands thatthat we have booked are so
grateful for the opportunity toperform it in a, you know, like
an actual real venue, event,venue space that most of them
treat it with that kind ofrespect and reverence that they
(22:33):
don't want to fuck up you knowwhat I mean.
Like they.
You know I mean that's not tosay that bands don't.
I mean look, I've watched guysget hammered and go up there and
just kill on stage.
Oh, yeah, yeah and that's ayoung man's game.
You know most people that aremy age or older.
They touch the drink untilafter the show, which is fine
too.
You know, look, you know it's.
(22:55):
We're providing you theopportunity.
What you do with it is up toyou.
You know we want you to win, wewant you to succeed, we want
you to sound and look great onstage and we want you to feel
like a rock star.
You know we have a.
We have a green room spacewhere you can go and collect
yourself before your performance.
It's got a private bathroom.
We have a stage manager.
So if we have any multiple bandshows, I've got a stage manager
(23:17):
that's back there making sureyou've got what you need and
hyping you up and making youfeel important.
It's really important to methat we have that, that we make
artists feel appreciated andimportant and we get that
feedback from them.
You know a lot, a lot two ofthe two.
Two of the biggest um feedbackthings that we get from artists
(23:43):
is they love how they weretreated and people love how
clean our bathrooms are nice.
We get more complimentscleanliness from our bathroom
than anything else.
Rob Franklin (23:54):
Well, you've got an absolutely killer attitude.
I love it.
Hey, in general, how long ofsets are?
Michael Carpenter (24:04):
these bands playing when there's, like,
multiple band shows.
So if it's, you know, if it'sthree bands, then you know we're
looking at maybe 30 to 40minutes a band, with the
headliner doing an hour to hourand a half.
If it's four bands, it'susually 20 to 30 minutes for
your openers and then an hour orlonger for the headliner.
A lot of tribute bands will doan hour and a half to two hours.
(24:26):
We'll try to bring in an openeror two to do 20 and 30.
My goal is to have three hours.
I want people in the buildingfor three hours.
That's kind of my baseline If Ican.
Every show I book I always tellpeople I want three hours of
entertainment and if it goesbeyond that, great.
But if it's anything short ofthat I feel like you're not
(24:47):
getting your money's worth.
So I want three hours of stagetime for every show, at least
for every show we do.
I want three hours of stagetime for every show, at least
for every show we do.
And we do a lot of thesefestivals too, where we'll have
an all-day event or we'll havean outside stage.
We'll have music going oninside and outside.
Rob Franklin (25:04):
Oh cool.
Michael Carpenter (25:05):
We just had Rooster Olympics back last month
in May, where we had bands inand out all day.
We've got a couple coming upthis summer.
I've got a fundraiser for TimeOut Youth on June 14th.
Well, we've got, like I want tosay, 12 bands are on that bill.
I've got the Carolina Vet Feston July the 5th.
(25:26):
Saturday, july 5th, we're goingto have an outdoor stage and an
indoor stage.
Music is going to be going onall day.
Uh, august 2nd, we're hostingthe wet, hot punk rock summer,
which is kind of a throwback tothe vans warp tour era.
So it's all like punk pop andhardcore bands that kind of have
that similar sound to the thewarp tour bands.
(25:46):
That'll be an indoor, outdoorshow.
And then, uh, in septemberwe're hosting our biggest event
of the year, brewstock musicfestival.
Uh, we have the pre-party showon friday the 26th.
We've got five bands.
In September we're hosting ourbiggest event of the year,
brewstock Music Festival.
We have the pre-party show onFriday the 26th.
We've got five bands performingindoors like a regular show,
(26:07):
and then, saturday, the 27th,we'll have a huge stage set up
outside.
We have music inside andoutside all day.
That show is actually headlinedby Butcher Babies, a pretty big
metal band right now.
So we'll do shows like that aswell, where bands are doing
30-minute sets all day long.
But for a typical Friday orSaturday night, the standard is
we want three hours ofentertainment minimum.
Dana Franklin (26:26):
Nice, you say that you've been established for
what two and a half three yearsnow been.
You know, established for whattwo and a half three years now.
So, as of as of the date, whathas been your, your biggest band
, your best show?
Michael Carpenter (26:41):
that you've, that you've procured.
Well, I mean, god, that's sucha difficult question to answer.
I mean there's there'sdifferent answers to that.
Like you know, I would I'dprobably say the biggest name
that we've ever had was probablyBlack Flag.
I had Black Flag back in.
September of last year.
But you know, last year PsychoStick headlined Brewstop.
You know we just had Riff Raff.
(27:03):
We've had oh God, we've had somany.
We've had like legacy shows,like we've had Head PE, We've
had Scotty Olson from SavingAbel like legacy shows, like
we've had Head PE, we've hadScotty Olson from Saving Able.
But I would probably if I had tosay the show I'm probably most
proud of is, for three years nowwe've hosted that event,
(27:29):
rooster Olympics, in May, whichis a fundraiser for Webb Street
School here in Gastonia, andthat festival has always been
with all local and regionalbands and in three years we've
raised over twenty one thousanddollars for web street school.
So every year we've raisedright around seven grand for
this school and it's a schoolfor disabled, intellectual and
(27:50):
developmentally disabled kidsand there's also a transition
school there.
So they're in school fromkindergarten all the way to 22
years old.
So some of these, some of thekids, can actually do jobs when
they become adults.
Others can't, and it's just,they always need resources.
But I'm really proud that we'vebeen able to raise that much
(28:10):
money.
And then in December every yearour party, we do a toy drive
for the domestic violenceshelter here in town and the
organization is called HopeUnited Survivors Network and
they do more than just domesticviolence shelter.
They have multiple arms of thatorganization that help people
that are in crisis situations.
(28:31):
And that toy drive has providedChristmas for the last three
years to families that really,really needed it and could use
that help.
So I'm really proud of thoseevents, more so than the bigger
names that we've had through theyears.
Rob Franklin (28:46):
That's incredible Sounds like you guys are doing a
lot of good work for thecommunity as well.
That's so cool.
Michael Carpenter (28:51):
We're trying.
I mean we've had cancerbenefits a couple times.
We've done, you know, we'vedone fundraisers for individual,
you know, individualorganizations that needed help
at certain times.
You know I love a goodfundraiser, I love to help
people.
You know, like I said, ourwhole mission is helping local
artists.
Sometimes the local artistswant to help others.
Know, and you know, I've gotone coming up on a june 22nd.
(29:15):
Uh, there's a guy who hadreached out to me and he wanted
to put together like thisacoustic songwriter showcase
deal and I was like, cool, let'sdo it.
It sounds like that's a greatidea for a sunday matinee show.
Right, some kick, you know,laid back acoustic stuff.
So we booked a show, we getready to announce it, and then
this guy found out that thiscouple that he's close friends
(29:38):
with they get in this motorcyclewreck.
Oh, no.
And you know they got seriouslyinjured and you know they need
help.
So he reached out to me andsaid, hey, I'd like to turn this
into a fundraiser for thisfamily that needs help.
And I said, great, I'm all forit.
All of the artists on the billagreed to go along with it.
So now this, what was going tobe just this fun little acoustic
(30:02):
showcase on a Sunday afternoon,has turned into this fundraiser
that's going to change thelives of this couple that really
needs help right now.
You know like that's to me,that's incredible.
You know he's got like eightartists on that bill and all of
the artists agreed to say, hey,we'll come play for free to help
these people out.
And that, right there, is myfavorite thing about doing what
I do.
This community of artists aresome of the most generous,
(30:25):
amazing people I've ever met.
I mean, I just turned 46, andI've never had the pleasure of
being surrounded by so manyawesome people in my life.
Rob Franklin (30:36):
That's awesome.
In my life, it's trulyremarkable.
Okay, well, on the flip side ofthe best, let's talk about the
worst.
We have a moment called oh shit, where it's basically when
something that's gone eitherreally really wrong or really
really embarrassing.
Michael Carpenter (30:54):
So is there one particular thing that stands
out to you?
That's maybe a show thatsomething went terribly wrong.
Well, there's two thingsthere's an oh shit moment, and
then there's an embarrassingmoment.
Rob Franklin (31:02):
Okay, we'll take them.
We'll take them both.
Michael Carpenter (31:06):
Well, I'll start with the embarrassing
moment.
I've got no problem withself-deprecation, no problem
with self-deprecation.
So I alluded to this earlier inthe conversation about how
early on, I was just trying togive as many opportunities as
possible and I wasn't given toomuch weight or too much thought
about.
You know how we're going tomake money with this and I
(31:28):
strung together enough showsthat didn't make money to where
I got in a pretty tightfinancial situation and last end
of end of August last year, youknow, I found myself really,
really close to losing mybusiness.
In fact, it was pretty much adone deal that we were going to
have to close our doors and youknow I really hated that.
(31:51):
You know we were only two yearsin and or not even we were
almost two years in or not evenwe were almost two years in and
I felt like I had a lot morework to do, but financially it
wasn't making sense.
So as a last-ditch effort tokind of save the business, I
announced that we were startingto go fund me.
We had two weeks to raise$40,000.
Dana Franklin (32:13):
Wow.
Michael Carpenter (32:14):
And this community rallied around us and
we raised exactly forty thousanddollars is that right in?
Two weeks.
Well, it all culminated.
It all came to head with thatsaturday, september 6th of last
year.
Uh, we had a punk showscheduled that night but the
bands agreed to extend, like addmore bands to that show and
(32:34):
turn it into a fundraiser for usas part of the gofundme.
And we actually had a band,haymakers at metal band, that's
based here in gastonia.
They actually played on theroof of our building that night
and so we turned.
Yeah, we, we turned a situationwhere I was, we were going to
lose it all, and we turned itinto this call to to arms for
(32:57):
this community and I really dothink that after that happened,
it kind of woke everyone up andwas like, hey, we need to get
out here and go to shows becausewe're going to lose this space
if we don't support it, and sothat was really embarrassing for
me.
I've never been the type to toask for handouts or or bailouts.
Um, everything I've done in myI've never been the type to ask
for handouts or bailouts.
Everything I've done in my life, it's all self-made.
(33:19):
That's not to say I haven't hadhelp through the years.
I've always been blessed withgood people that have worked for
my businesses in the past andyou know this was just.
It was really humiliating tohave to go and say, hey, we
failed, can you help us out?
(33:39):
And ultimately, what it was wasI just wasn't making good
enough decisions with bookingshows booking shows that would
get people out, and that's partof the reason I changed the way
that we booked shows.
So that would probably be mymost embarrassing moment.
The oh shit.
Moment came earlier this year.
We I work with.
I set a handful of promoters.
(33:59):
One of the promoters reachedout and wanted to book a band at
my place and it's a band thatmost people, specifically people
my age they know who this bandis.
I'm not going to mention thename of the band because I don't
want this to turn into a wholeother thing.
Rob Franklin (34:16):
Yeah, I get it, gotcha.
Michael Carpenter (34:19):
Most people already know what I'm about to
say.
If they're listening andthey're fans of what we do, they
probably already know where I'mgoing with this.
But I booked this band becauseit's a big, recognizable name
and I was like cool, Didn't knowthat this band came with some
baggage that I was unaware of.
(34:39):
This band has.
There's been some accusationsmade that one of the members of
the band has gone on socialmedia and said some pretty wild
shit and it got a lot of peopleupset that we had booked this
band.
People were coming at me alldifferent kinds of ways.
I got threatening emails.
(35:00):
I got messages on social mediathreatening me and my business.
But there were a handful ofpeople in the community that
reached out to me personally andwas like, hey, this is why you
shouldn't book this band andexplained to me what the issue
was.
Now, I was completely unawarethat there were these issues.
So after reading through all ofthat and learning what the
(35:25):
issues were, I said, well, it'snot in my best interest to keep
this show, so I took it off thebooks.
So I was like, all right, I'mpulling this show.
Then I got backlash tenfold fromthe other side.
I got all of the people.
I got all these messages andcomments telling me why I
(35:47):
shouldn't do this, so I pulledthe show because it was the
right decision for my business,and then I got even more
criticism from the other side.
So it was such a lose-losesituation.
But it was a good lesson for meas someone who owned a venue
and book shows.
I'm not a very political guy,but a lot of people are, so the
(36:11):
lesson there was just to stayaway from the political shit,
there's a band out there that'smaking their bones politically.
We're probably not going to bookthem, because I just don't want
that.
That's not what we're about.
In fact, we're the exactopposite of that.
If you go to our website andyou read our mission statement,
my whole thing is this is aplace for everyone to come
(36:35):
together.
This isn't a place to dividepeople.
That's not what we're about.
So there was a little bit ofnaivety there making that
booking, and I learned my lessonabout.
So you know there was a littlebit of naivety there making that
booking, and you know I learnedmy lesson.
What I will say is it wasreally disappointing with.
(36:55):
You know how ungraceful some ofthe reaction to it was.
There was a lot, of a lot ofpeople out there that had an
opinion about how I should runmy business.
That don't really do jack shitfor my business, and so that's
something that people need torealize.
If you're going to sit behind akeyboard all day and talk shit
about things you don't like,your time would be much more
valuably used putting thatenergy and effort into the
(37:19):
things you do care about and youdo believe in yeah very true.
Hearing people down is notreally.
You don't really get thereaction you're looking for when
you're using your energy totear people down, but when
you're building people up, notonly does your energy go towards
something useful.
At the end of the day, you canfeel good about yourself and you
don't have to spend your daymiserable, just shit posting on
(37:41):
social media.
Rob Franklin (37:41):
It usually comes back to you, whatever you give
you get.
Dana Franklin (37:46):
Yeah, it's so easy to get on social media and
say shit when you don't evenknow what you're talking about,
just because you want to vent.
It's one of those necessaryevils you know, yeah, so you
know what you were talking about.
Actually brings me intosomething you know.
Another thing I wanted to askis have you ever actually had a
(38:11):
band, something you know?
Another thing I wanted to askis have you ever actually had a
band you?
Michael Carpenter (38:13):
know perform.
That was so ill received thatyou had to pull them early or
turn off the power or any shitlike that.
Thank, god no thank god we havenot had that yet and we've had.
We've had some people get upand make a fool of themselves,
but uh, we haven't had to topull anyone off stage and I
don't think we ever will.
You know, we and make a fool ofthemselves, but we haven't had
to pull anyone off stage.
I don't think we ever will.
We've had a couple ofego-ridden people come through.
(38:34):
I'm really big on just no ego,there's no need for it.
Say what you've got to say withyour performance.
You don't have to be a jackass.
Get on stage and be need for it.
You know you've, you know.
Say what you got to say withyour performance.
You know you don't.
You don't have to be a jackass,you know.
Just you get on stage and beundeniable.
Then you don't have to walkaround.
People will do it for you.
Um, and we've been very, veryfortunate in that we really
(38:57):
haven't had that many issueslike.
So we've had a couple ofassholes, but you're always
bound to my staff and I arereally really good at dealing
with assholes, so well, it'susually the drummers anyway hey,
michael.
Rob Franklin (39:12):
uh, like I mentioned earlier, we're all
about like helping musicians, so, um, are there any promoters
out there that you wouldrecommend to like?
Maybe a band that's havingdifficulty getting a show booked
, maybe new to the game, as faras you know, playing in venues?
Michael Carpenter (39:27):
Sure, well, you know I don't want to.
You know I don't really playfavorites.
You know I'm a opportunity typeof guy, but I will.
I will shout out some of thepromoters that I work with that
I've had success with that.
I trust creative music withthat.
I trust Creative MusicManagement, Missy Wood.
She is the owner and the CEO,so to speak, of Creative Music
(39:51):
Management CMM.
They do a really good job ofpromoting local bands.
Cutthroat Promotions.
Johnny Nethercutt he's anotherpromoter that I enjoy working
with.
I have a good success rate withhim.
Shell Shock Promotions is anewer promotion company that
recently formed it's.
(40:13):
Dj Bloodbath, young Bird fromTwo Stroke Smoke and a couple
other guys have gotten togetherand created Shell Shock
Promotions.
Those are guys that I'll messwith anytime.
Aj from Carolina HeadbangersAnytime the Carolina Headbangers
want to put something together,I'll work with them.
(40:34):
And then there's Cole withCrack a Smile.
Crack a Smile.
He's putting in work.
In fact, if your listenerswould be so kind as to go check
out the Rock and Roll Circusthat we've got coming up June
27th and 28th, that's a Crack aSmile promotion show.
Rob Franklin (40:52):
He's got.
Michael Carpenter (40:52):
Trickster and Bad Marriage and Prowess and
Shanky DeVille and Fury 58 andAnthony Corder from Tora Tora.
It's a Friday and Saturdaynight show that we've got, so
you can go to our website andget all the information on this.
But you can buy a Friday ticket, a Saturday ticket or a whole
(41:14):
weekend ticket and I thinkthere's two or three VIP tickets
left where you'll get to dosome meet and greets and get
some signed swag and get somesigned swag.
But Tommy London, who is aSiriusXM DJ on Ozzy's Boneyard,
he will also be there hostingthe show.
So it's going to be an awesome,awesome weekend that's
(41:34):
happening later this month thatpeople should pay attention to.
But yeah, those are just ahandful of the promoters.
I'm sure I'm forgetting aboutsomebody and I do apologize if
I'm forgetting somebody rightnow, but those are the promoters
that I have done the most withover the years that we've been
open.
There's other promoters outthere that have reached out and
(41:56):
that I would like to work within the future.
I'll even give a shout out toWelcome to the Family Fest.
They do shows mainly at theMilestone in Charlotte and at
the Radio Room in Greenville.
Every time I see a Welcome tothe Family Fest promotion show.
It's always a killer lineup.
If those guys ever wanted tofuck with the rooster, I'd be
(42:17):
down to put a show together withthem.
Again, like I said earlier, ifyou are a promoter and you're
established and you want to puta show together, come talk to me
.
You know, don't send me somebullshit message on Facebook or
Instagram or send me some emailtalking about you've done this,
this and this.
Come talk to me personally andlet's talk about it.
(42:38):
You know it's the best.
I'm an old school guy.
I'm old school like that.
I want to look in your eye andI want to know that you mean
what you say.
Rob Franklin (42:48):
There you go.
Michael Carpenter (42:48):
There's a lot of guys out there that think we
can put a show together, thatthink they know how to promote a
show, but they're off andthey're full of shit.
That's why I like talking topeople in person, because I can
get a good sense of whether youmean what you say or not.
You know face to face well.
Rob Franklin (43:08):
Speaking of which, what's nights are usually down
at your venue.
I'm new to the area so I wantto come down and definitely see
your venue, but what nights areyou typically there?
They come down and have a beerwith you.
Michael Carpenter (43:21):
I'm there pretty much every night you know
, occasionally I'll take a night.
I'll have something going on.
I'm a family guy as well, soI've got kids and a wife at home
.
Occasionally stuff gets plannedand I can't be there, but most
of the time I'm there Wednesdaythrough Sunday when we're open
(43:42):
Occasionally.
Now I won't be there thisSaturday.
I don't know when this comesout, but I won't be there on
June the 7th.
I'm going to a show myself, butyeah, I'm usually our doors
open at 5 or 6.
Even when a flyer says thedoor's open at 6 or 7, we're
usually there and ready around 5.
I always try to encouragepeople to come early and come
have some beers and hang out.
(44:03):
Get there early.
That's when you're going tohave a chance to talk to me Once
things get moving and we'rebusy.
I'm not trying to talk businessin the middle of a show.
Rob Franklin (44:12):
Yeah, of course.
Michael Carpenter (44:13):
Usually get there early and talk to me, or
stay late, hang out after theshow and talk to me, or come on
an open mic on a Wednesdaybecause open mics are a lot of
fun.
You're getting the real senseof what we have for talent in
the area.
I'm always in a good moodbecause I love my Wednesday open
mic family, so that's a goodtime to come talk to me.
Rob Franklin (44:32):
Okay, well, hey, micah, we really appreciate this
.
And in closing, for all thelike newer bands out there, what
would be your advice?
Just in general?
Michael Carpenter (44:43):
for playing at a place like yours.
I would say show up and supportthe local scene.
Like if you're trying, ifyou're doing local, if you're
doing original music and you'retrying to break through in the
Charlotte scene, the easiest andquickest way to get invited on
bills is to show up and thatthat actually that philosophy.
Philosophy extends further thanlocal music.
(45:04):
You know.
Same thing goes with yourcommunity.
You know politics, anything.
That's something I learnedearly on with one of my first
businesses.
If you just show up,opportunities and doors will
open up.
You know, if you're justrefusing to go support other
(45:26):
local bands and refusing tosupport venues, how do you
expect anyone to take youseriously about being part of
this scene?
If that's not what you're about, then start a cover band.
That's kind of the cover bandroute.
You don't have to go supportnobody, you're doing your thing.
There's demand for what you do,so you don't need to get out
there and support.
But with local music, you know,unsigned and unknown artist,
(45:49):
there's not a big demand fromthe general public.
We have to make it ourselves.
We have to create that demandand we do that by showing up for
each other, showing up forshows, and then you.
You talk to the bands, you talkto the promoters excuse me you
talk to the venue owners andyou're like well, hey, I've got
this band.
You know you should check usout.
This is our website or this isour social media.
Or say you know, here, here,why don't you give this a listen
(46:11):
?
Let me know if there's a showwe can get on, and that's
probably the easiest andquickest way to get onto a show.
Now, that's harder to do forsome people, I realize.
If you're in a position whereit's not feasible for you to
come out to a show or whatnot,then I don't really know what to
(46:31):
tell you.
Maybe you've got too much goingon.
There's a reason I'm not in aband.
I don't have time for it.
Dana Franklin (46:42):
It's all time consuming, no doubt about it.
Well, you know, in closing andit's funny that you know what
your advice was, because youknow we've recently had a bunch
of you know interviews andepisodes with bands over in the
UK and you know they say thesame thing you just got to get
out there and support your localmusic and in the local venues,
just to get the word out andhelp everybody out.
So, for all you guys listeningto this episode, we encourage
(47:03):
you to get out there to Gastoniato check out the rooster and
Michael and his club and youwon't be disappointed.
And I will hand this over toRob.
We'll close this out.
Rob Franklin (47:15):
Okay, and once again listeners.
Michael Carpenter (47:17):
Well, the last thing I'll say before you
close out is you know how manytimes have you heard someone say
support locals, but do youactually do it?
Rob Franklin (47:27):
Yeah, exactly.
Michael Carpenter (47:30):
If you're going to say support local, then
do what you say and supportlocal.
Otherwise, the whole country isgoing to be Walmart and Amazon.
Dana Franklin (47:39):
Amen to that, amen, yep.
Michael Carpenter (47:41):
Same thing with your music.
Rob Franklin (47:44):
Hey, michael, thank you very much and,
listeners, please do go visitthe Rooster in Gastonia, north
Carolina.
Sounds like an outstandingplace.
Michael Carpenter (47:54):
Thanks a lot, fellas.
I appreciate you having me on.
I appreciate the opportunityand thanks for doing what you do
, man All right.
Rob Franklin (48:00):
Thank you, and you have a good rest of your day.
Michael Carpenter (48:04):
You too Bye-bye.
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