The Living Rockumentary

In the interview with Kristen, Henning writes about Budweiser:

"What it means, exactly, when they say that they are sponsoring this show, I have no idea. What DOES that mean? We're certainly not getting any money or gifts from them or anything."

Actually, I've counted three 2/5th size page ads in the Advocate (all of which feature our photo). These ads are likely paid for in part by Bud/the distribution company and in part by the Advocate. You can argue that the Advo. doesn't need to pay for it because they own the paper, but they still need to pay for their expenses, paper, ink, etc. I don't have a rate card in front of me, but here's my guess: each ad bought by itself would probably run around $800. Tickets are $5, which is most-likely $2 less than if the Horse was to present the series without sponsorship. If we were to fill the house tonight, at around 180 people, that's another $360. I don't know if Bud bought any radio for the series (I have heard generic spots about how they are supporting local music, but they didn't actually mention the local shows). So with just print and ticket help, the sponsorship is worth almost $3,000. For one show.

I don't really mind being the entertainment that draws people to the bar to drink the beer that pays for the entertainment. I get frustrated with local musicians who don't understand that club owners have a business to run and aren't doing it out of the kindness of their hearts (just like we sell our merch. instead of just giving it out, although we end up doing some of that anyway). I'm not picking on Henning - I know he was poking fun at Budweiser, who are big enough to take a little ribbing. And I don't expect any of you to raise a toast to Bud tonight, or even drink one. The beer tastes like cat pee to me (though on a hot summer's day, a cool can of cat pee hits the spot). But in the end, I would rather play the Iron Horse than any other club in town, and if putting our picture underneath a Budweiser logo in the paper brings in 15 more people who wouldn't have heard us otherwise, that's great.