Franklin's Garage to Stage
All things starting a musical band. From garage to stage getting your band going and beyond.
Interviews with musician's, Producers, club owners, recording artist's and others in field of recording or performing.
Discussions on pitfalls to avoid and what works from personal and other's experiences.
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Franklin's Garage to Stage
The Rooster - Venue that supports original bands and community - Michael -Owner
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
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Hi, welcome to Franklin's Garage to Stage podcast. My name is Rob Wardrums Franklin and my co-host is Dana Thunderbase Franklin.
Dana Franklin:How are you doing?
Rob Franklin:man, I'm doing really good. Hey, today we've got with us Michael Carpenter. He is the owner of an outstanding venue called Rooster Bar in Gastonia, north Carolina, located at 334 West Main Avenue in Gastonia, north Carolina. Michael, how are you doing today?
Michael Carpenter:I'm doing all right. How are you?
Rob Franklin:You're doing real well. Hey, can you tell us a little bit about your venue and then from there we'll just start popping some questions your way?
Michael Carpenter:Well, the Rooster is a small venue in downtown Gastonia. What we do is we host live music and entertainment events is a small venue in downtown Gastonia. What we do is we host live music and entertainment events and anything having to do with the arts. Most of our shows are concerts. We're open typically we're open Wednesday through Saturday. We have Sunday shows about half the time. Occasionally we're open on a Monday or Tuesday if we happen to catch like a tour coming through.
Michael Carpenter:Every Wednesday we host an open mic. We call it our singer songwriter open mic, but it's really open to anybody with an artistic talent. We've had standup comedians. We've had poetry readings. We've had stand-up comedians. We've had poetry readings. We've had people that come in to do drum solos. We have a full back line with a drum kit and amps and full PA. You just bring whatever instrument it is you play, you bring it, you plug it into our system and we give it three songs. We've played around with a lot of different things.
Michael Carpenter:On Thursday nights we have a first Thursday folk night, which is hosted by a gentleman called AP Rogers, which, by the way, we have two open mic hosts. They rotate weeks. We have Jade Moore the wonderful, the beautiful, the amazing Jade Moore. She hosts every other week and Mariah Van Cleef hosts on the opposite weeks and Mariah Van Cleef hosts on the opposite weeks and these are two of the most talented women in all of Charlotte in terms of their vocal range and what they can do on stage. So we have somebody that's kind of like a mixture of folk, americana, country, appalachia, anything kind of in that vein.
Michael Carpenter:Ap will do. He'll go on first and do a set. He'll bring in a guest every month and do a set and then we open the stage up to anybody that 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 the rest of the week. It's all shows you know. We've hosted, we host festivals throughout the year. We've done toy drives, fundraisers, we've done stand-up comedy shows. We do everything from heavy metal to hip-hop, country singer-songwriter, indie rock, anything entertainment. We host it at the Rooster.
Rob Franklin:Wow, that's incredible, Nice nice.
Dana Franklin:So how did you go about getting into this business and getting that bar started? I mean, what prompted that?
Michael Carpenter:I've told my story as much through the years. It all started from my wife and I we we were avid concert goers, you know. We'd go to comedy shows, concerts, you know, whatever musicals. And we always found ourselves on these long drives home back to where we live outside of Gastonia, and one night, on one of those ride homes, we started discussing the possibility of how cool it would be if we had something like that in Gastonia that hosted entertainment, and it was just kind of a offhand conversation. We were having that one night.
Michael Carpenter:We didn't think much about it the next day, but a few years later I found myself unfulfilled with the business that I had going. So I sold that, you know, kind of revisited that idea and I sold the business and bought the property that is now the rooster. I spent a lot of time in my youth managing bars and restaurants. I kind of had a pretty good understanding of how to do that. The only aspect of the business that I didn't have much experience with was booking, but uh, that didn't take me very long to figure out. Uh, we, I kind of. I think I've got it down now.
Rob Franklin:Well, that actually leads right into my question is uh, our podcast is all about helping musicians everywhere, from starting in the garage to when you're finally on stage, so I guess my question for you is how do bands approach you?
Michael Carpenter:Is it through management companies, booking agents or directly through you? Well, there's a hundred different ways to book a show. I get a lot of emails Every single day. I get emails of bands and artists that are looking for a place to play, and it's been just over two and a half years we've been open. I've tried a few different methods. I, to this day, I still book shows with booking agents. I book shows with individual artists. Sometimes I'll throw a show together of bands that I think will make a great deal.
Michael Carpenter:But the most important thing for an artist, for a band that's looking to get booked, the first thing I do when I get an email from an artist is I go to their social media. I don't even go to their website first. I go to their social media and I 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 they play? And a lot of times I'll go to a band's social media and they haven't posted in two months. Or I'll go to a band's social media and I'll see that they are constantly engaging their audience. They're constantly getting in conversations in the comment sections of their posts and they're promoting the hell out of their shows. Well, I'm going to tell you right now those are the bands that I am most likely to look for dates to book shows with. If you have a stagnant social media, you're probably not going to get a call back from me, because that's telling me that you are not working hard enough to make sure the show is successful. Again, there's a hundred different ways to book a show. I still work with promoters a lot.
Michael Carpenter:What I have found is that, or what I've learned, and what I think bands need to understand is for a venue, my goal is to provide opportunities to artists. That's why we exist is to provide this platform where people can come and play. Whether you're just starting out, whether you've been doing it for 30 years, whether you're a smaller band that's trying to put tours together, we'll host those shows. Band that's touring, trying to put tours together, we'll host those shows. But this is a partnership between the venue and the people that are performing. You know, you might be the best guitar player on planet Earth, but nobody knows about it, and the reason why nobody knows about it is because you're not doing a good enough job of promoting how good you are at guitar and so you know my responsibility is we provide the platform, we provide the stage, we provide security, we provide pa, we have a green room, we have a bar, we provide the space to put these events on and we promote all of our shows just as much as each other. But your responsibility as artists is to get people in. I mean mean, sure, we have a following, but that doesn't guarantee people are going to come see you. You need to promote your show. You need to show that you can get 50, 75, 100, 150 people to come out and have a good time with us.
Michael Carpenter:In the very beginning it was very frustrating, because I'm such a nice guy, I want to give everybody opportunities. So I was giving all kinds of people opportunities for shows. And as time went by, you know we're not making money, we're losing money because people aren't coming to shows and I started to ask myself am I really doing this the right way? So I kind of went back to the drawing 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 in a way that puts the responsibility not just on us but on the artists themselves to to get people out. So, because you know we want to keep doing it, but we can't keep doing it with empty rooms, right, right. So that's you know.
Michael Carpenter:When you ask me about how do bands get booked, well, you need to have a history first of promoting your own shows. That's, that's the number one most important thing that I'm looking at when I look at emails that get sent to me on on a daily basis. Of course I'm listening to the music as well, you know. I mean, sometimes I might really like a band. I'll go listen to their music and be like, wow, these guys are really good, but they don't promote their shows for shit. So in that instance maybe I'll like them enough to where I'll find an opportunity for them to open up a show somewhere with a similar bill.
Michael Carpenter:But nowadays a lot of bands, they've got a bill ready for me. When they reach out, hey, we've got these three other bands and we've got a show we want to put together, we're all going to promote it, yada, yada, yada. And then sometimes promoters when I deal with promoters, typically what I do is I rent the venue to them and let them keep all of the ticket money. That's another way. If you're having trouble getting booked, offer to rent the space out and that this that doesn't just go for the rooster, that's anywhere you're trying to play. You're having a hard time booking a show. You offer an event or you offer a venue uh, a room fee for the show they're.
Michael Carpenter:They're gonna take that money guaranteed money we're not, we're not looking away from that and that has worked out really well for us. We book more and more shows these days on a rental model and when that happens now, everyone has a financial stake in the event. So now everybody is concerned about getting people out, so everyone's working just a little bit harder to get people out to that show. So everyone's working just a little bit harder to get that people out to that show. And of course, we prefer those types of shows as well because it helps us guarantee that. Ok, well, we can cover the cost of of the things we need. Now we just need to get people in here buying drinks so that you make money on the bar and then, as the promoter or as the artist, you're keeping 100 percent of ticket sales. You're not having to split that with us, you know. You're just making your room feedback and everything on top of that. It's profit.
Rob Franklin:Like I said, there's 100 different ways to do it, nice.
Dana Franklin: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:in hand with each other. Um, I do have relationships with other club owners. Uh, we don't talk every day. Um, there's, there's um. Every now and then there will be something worth discussing with another club owner, or or maybe there's a there's something flying around the scene that needs to be dealt with and we may all kind of reach out to each other and talk, but those distances are few and far between Most of the promoters I've met have just come through our doors.
Michael Carpenter:Smart ones will come see you. Smart promoters will come to a show. They'll come and they won't even tell you they're a promoter. They'll have a few drinks, support the show and then, before they leave, they'll introduce themselves and say hey, I'm a promoter, I do this, this and this, and then we exchange emails and we get a conversation going that way.
Michael Carpenter:I get a lot of messages on social media through Instagram, facebook, whatever, and I always direct people to our email. We get so many messages through social media that a lot of times messages will just fall through the cracks. You know, I might see a message like oh okay, I need to deal with that, and then I get carried away with my day and next thing I know a couple of days have passed and I haven't responded. But I don't delete emails until I'm done with them. So you know, if you're. I don't know about other venue owners, but for the rooster the best way to start a conversation is to do it through our website, through our booking tab, which goes directly to our email. Well, I'd say that's the second best. The best way is to come to a show, come see our space. You know, don't reach out to me if you've never been to a show, telling me that you want to put a show together that can get 300 people out. Well, we can't hold 300 people. So I already know that where you're coming from is bullshit.
Michael Carpenter:You don't know us well enough to know that we can't hold that many people. I get a lot of messages like that, where people just assume that this is what the venue wants to hear, and I can guarantee you that any venue owner worth a damn can sniff that bullshit out really quick and easily.
Rob Franklin:Okay, well, you actually answered a couple of my questions, but what is your capacity? And speaking of the stage, you said you have a house peak, correct? Do you use a sound guy as well, or does the band need to supply that?
Michael Carpenter:No. So we cap ticket sales at $175. So we can sell 100, and we've sold out, you know, at this point I'd say probably a dozen to two dozen shows. We've sold out the venues. So that's not a lot in two and a half years, but for us it's pretty awesome because Gastonia is a small town. Our stage is 26 feet wide and 12 feet deep. We have a drum riser that's six feet by eight feet in the center of the stage and we have a full PA with a 32-channel stage box and a Behringer X32 soundboard. We provide a sound tech for all of our shows. We have mics and all the XLR. When bands come to play, all they got to do is bring either their amps and their instruments, or sometimes bands will already have their own stage rig and we just go from their rig right into our stage box.
Rob Franklin:Nice.
Michael Carpenter:We have very rudimentary basic lighting. You know, we can do a few cool things with the lights. Uh, it's mostly par 58s. Um, you know, we have a program that's got just kind of basic lighting. I would love to have more lighting and more um light programming, but I don't have a guy for that.
Rob Franklin:So so we got what we got in the future cool, all right so you say, uh, that you're.
Dana Franklin:You stop your ticket sales at 175, um, and so with that amount of people, you know, if you're filling the place up, do the bands do you? Do they get paid as like a percentage of the bar, or is that something that you work out with them? As far as pre-sales on tickets, I mean, how does that work with with the pay for the that?
Michael Carpenter:all depends on the deal that we make. It all depends on the deal we make with the promoter of the band. Like I said, if it's a room rental and you've rented the room, wait, this is perfect. Example Two weeks ago we had riffraff and riffraff sold out. The promoter for that show rented the bar, so we got we didn't take any of that ticket money because they paid up front to rent our space out and that covered our expenses for the show. So they kept 100 of those ticket sales.
Michael Carpenter:There are other times where it's a percentage cut of the door. You know I have a pretty standard formula. If I'm booking with local bands and they're not renting the room, you know there's a split there and that all depends on what the show is, who I'm dealing with, what is the relationship. You know people that I have long-term relationships with that I trust I'm a little more lenient with the percentages because I trust them to do their job. So I'm not looking so much to make money off the door for those shows.
Michael Carpenter:It's not that I'm looking to make money off the door ever. It's just that there's a level of accountability that needs to be met and until you prove to me that you can do that. I'm going to hold you accountable this way Once a relationship has been built and over time. You know, I kind of pull back a little bit on that stuff because I'm not worried too much about it. It's not basically what I'm saying. It's not really about the money. For me it's about the responsibility that we all have to promote the show, the responsibility that we all have to promote the show.
Rob Franklin:Good attitude.
Michael Carpenter:The money doesn't really matter as much as how we approach, how we do this.
Rob Franklin:Very cool. Okay, are the majority of your shows multiple bands, or how many just?
Michael Carpenter:single band acts come in. Okay, very rarely do we have a concert where it's just one band. I've had a couple like that where usually, if it's like that, it's some sort of a tribute or a cover band, which we do. Very few of those shows. We do host tribute bands from time to time, but my major focus and my main goal is to provide opportunities for artists that make original art.
Michael Carpenter:I don't have anything against cover bands. There's some people out there that probably think that I hate cover bands and that's not really the case. It's not it at all. It's just that dealing with cover bands is such a different animal. Cover bands are used to going to breweries and bars that have a built-in audience that are packed out every weekend, and these bars have. They pay these cover bands ridiculous amounts of money to show up and play. They can support that because they're slinging chicken wings and burgers and fries. They can afford to pay out $600 to $1,500 to have a band come and do three hours of covers. Well, we don't. So in the past when we have dealt with cover bands, it always boils down to that they're used to getting a certain amount of money and there's always one guy in the band that's not willing to take a pay cut for a door deal.
Rob Franklin:So that's why we don't do a lot of cover bands, Well yeah, bass or drummers. Oh damn.
Michael Carpenter:Drummers do most of the work they're the ones lugging all the gear. They're always the last ones left. After every show, it's always the drummer tearing his shit down while the singer and the guitar player's at the bar drinking.
Michael Carpenter:I like this guy. But we've got nothing against cover bands. It's just that we can't afford to give cover bands what they're used to, because that's another thing about cover bands is they don't really promote their shows that well. Most cover bands don't have much of a social media presence, if at all, and the ones that do don't do a very good job of promoting their bands. Now tribute bands do.
Michael Carpenter:I've found that a lot of tribute bands do a really good job of promoting their show and I used to try to do one or two tribute shows a month. I've kind of gotten away from that. When a good opportunity presents itself, I'll take it. I try not to force the tribute thing Again, because any night that we book a tribute band, we're taking a night away from local artists that make their own music Right, which is ultimately our goal is to help promote local arts.
Michael Carpenter:So I try not to do too much of that because I don't want to take away more opportunities from local artists that are putting in all that extra work to promote themselves and create original material. You know there's a you know when you get to see a band that you've never heard of or an artist you've never heard of and you know, all of us have had had this experience where we've gone to a concert and we've seen an opener that was so impressive you almost become more of a fan of that opening band than the band you were there to see in the first place, very true, and you'd never heard of them before.
Michael Carpenter:Well, that's what we do every night.
Rob Franklin:Cool, very cool.
Michael Carpenter:You know what I'm saying we do that every single night. We bring in bands that you've never heard of. That could be your next favorite artist if you just gave them an opportunity, if you gave them a chance and we do, and I've heard a lot of in the past. People have said well, I don't know who this band is.
Michael Carpenter:Well, if you go to our website, every single show we book, if you see a flyer that looks interesting to you and you click on that flyer, there's going to be links to every band on that show, and that's something that I do with every show I book. I always embed links into the description of the event so that you can just go to their YouTube or their Spotify or their website and you can look and you can give this band 30 seconds of your time to listen to a song, half of a song, and say, this sounds like something I'd enjoy and then make a decision. So that's kind of what we do to help you. One of the small things we do to help promote the show is every every show on our website has links to the performers that are performing nice, nice, okay.
Dana Franklin:Well, with the whole music world, and especially, you know, musicians, with the whole drug, sex and rock and roll, I mean, have you ever come across a time where there's a band that just couldn't perform because somebody got stupid drunk or did drugs or something ridiculously stupid before the show? And and how did you? How did you cope with that?
Michael Carpenter:so not really. Um, you know, I guess that's a good thing. I think that the here's what I'll say. We haven't had anyone that's gotten too fucked up to perform, but we've had. We have had shows where maybe they shouldn't have. We've got a couple of sloppy performances, but it's so few and far between it hasn't really made its way into, like my sphere. Like most of the bands that that we have booked are so grateful for the opportunity to perform it in a, you know, like an actual real venue, event, venue space that most of them treat it with that kind of respect and reverence that they don't want to fuck up you know what I mean.
Michael Carpenter:Like they. You know I mean that's not to say that bands don't. I mean look, I've watched guys get hammered and go up there and just kill on stage.
Michael Carpenter:Oh, yeah, yeah and that's a young man's game. You know most people that are my age or older. They touch the drink until after the show, which is fine too. You know, look, you know it's. We're providing you the opportunity. What you do with it is up to you. You know we want you to win, we want you to succeed, we want you to sound and look great on stage and we want you to feel like a rock star.
Michael Carpenter:You know we have a. We have a green room space where 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 band shows, I've got a stage manager that's back there making sure you've got what you need and hyping you up and making you feel important. It's really important to me that we have that, that we make artists feel appreciated and important and we get that feedback from them. You know a lot, a lot two of the two. Two of the biggest um feedback things that we get from artists is they love how they were treated and people love how clean our bathrooms are nice. We get more compliments cleanliness from our bathroom than anything else.
Rob Franklin:Well, you've got an absolutely killer attitude. I love it. Hey, in general, how long of sets are?
Michael Carpenter:these bands playing when there's, like, multiple band shows. So if it's, you know, if it's three bands, then you know we're looking at maybe 30 to 40 minutes a band, with the headliner doing an hour to hour and a half. If it's four bands, it's usually 20 to 30 minutes for your openers and then an hour or longer for the headliner. A lot of tribute bands will do an hour and a half to two hours. We'll try to bring in an opener or two to do 20 and 30.
Michael Carpenter:My goal is to have three hours. I want people in the building for three hours. That's kind of my baseline If I can. Every show I book I always tell people I want three hours of entertainment and if it goes beyond that, great. But if it's anything short of that I feel like you're not getting your money's worth. So I want three hours of stage time for every show, at least for every show we do. I want three hours of stage time for every show, at least for every show we do. And we do a lot of these festivals too, where we'll have an all-day event or we'll have an outside stage. We'll have music going on inside and outside.
Rob Franklin:Oh cool.
Michael Carpenter:We just had Rooster Olympics back last month in May, where we had bands in and out all day. We've got a couple coming up this summer. I've got a fundraiser for Time Out Youth on June 14th. Well, we've got, like I want to say, 12 bands are on that bill. I've got the Carolina Vet Fest on July the 5th. Saturday, july 5th, we're going to have an outdoor stage and an indoor stage. Music is going to be going on all day. Uh, august 2nd, we're hosting the wet, hot punk rock summer, which is kind of a throwback to the vans warp tour era.
Michael Carpenter:So it's all like punk pop and hardcore bands that kind of have that similar sound to the the warp tour bands.
Michael Carpenter:That'll be an indoor, outdoor show. And then, uh, in september we're hosting our biggest event of the year, brewstock music festival. Uh, we have the pre-party show on friday the 26th. We've got five bands. In September we're hosting our biggest event of the year, brewstock Music Festival. We have the pre-party show on Friday the 26th. We've got five bands performing indoors like a regular show, and then, saturday, the 27th, we'll have a huge stage set up outside. We have music inside and outside all day. That show is actually headlined by Butcher Babies, a pretty big metal band right now. So we'll do shows like that as well, where bands are doing 30-minute sets all day long. But for a typical Friday or Saturday night, the standard is we want three hours of entertainment minimum.
Dana Franklin:Nice, you say that you've been established for what two and a half three years now been. You know, established for what two and a half three years now. So, as of as of the date, what has been your, your biggest band, your best show?
Michael Carpenter:that you've, that you've procured. Well, I mean, god, that's such a difficult question to answer. I mean there's there's different answers to that. Like you know, I would I'd probably say the biggest name that we've ever had was probably Black Flag. I had Black Flag back in.
Michael Carpenter:September of last year. But you know, last year Psycho Stick headlined Brewstop. You know we just had Riff Raff. We've had oh God, we've had so many. We've had like legacy shows, like we've had Head PE, We've had Scotty Olson from Saving Abel like legacy shows, like we've had Head PE, we've had Scotty Olson from Saving Able.
Michael Carpenter:But I would probably if I had to say the show I'm probably most proud of is, for three years now we've hosted that event, rooster Olympics, in May, which is a fundraiser for Webb Street School here in Gastonia, and that festival has always been with all local and regional bands and in three years we've raised over twenty one thousand dollars for web street school. So every year we've raised right around seven grand for this school and it's a school for disabled, intellectual and developmentally disabled kids and there's also a transition school there. So they're in school from kindergarten all the way to 22 years old. So some of these, some of the kids, can actually do jobs when they become adults. Others can't, and it's just, they always need resources.
Michael Carpenter:But I'm really proud that we've been able to raise that much money. And then in December every year our party, we do a toy drive for the domestic violence shelter here in town and the organization is called Hope United Survivors Network and they do more than just domestic violence shelter. They have multiple arms of that organization that help people that are in crisis situations. And that toy drive has provided Christmas for the last three years to families that really, really needed it and could use that help. So I'm really proud of those events, more so than the bigger names that we've had through the years.
Rob Franklin:That's incredible Sounds like you guys are doing a lot of good work for the community as well. That's so cool.
Michael Carpenter:We're trying. I mean we've had cancer benefits a couple times. We've done, you know, we've done fundraisers for individual, you know, individual organizations that needed help at certain times. You know I love a good fundraiser, I love to help people. You know, like I said, our whole mission is helping local artists. Sometimes the local artists want to help others. Know, and you know, I've got one coming up on a june 22nd. Uh, there's a guy who had reached out to me and he wanted to put together like this acoustic songwriter showcase deal and I was like, cool, let's do it. It sounds like that's a great idea for a sunday matinee show. Right, some kick, you know, laid back acoustic stuff. So we booked a show, we get ready to announce it, and then this guy found out that this couple that he's close friends with they get in this motorcycle wreck. Oh, no.
Michael Carpenter:And you know they got seriously injured and you know they need help. So he reached out to me and said, hey, I'd like to turn this into a fundraiser for this family that needs help. And I said, great, I'm all for it. All of the artists on the bill agreed to go along with it. So now this, what was going to be just this fun little acoustic showcase on a Sunday afternoon, has turned into this fundraiser that's going to change the lives 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 eight artists 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 my favorite thing about doing what I do. This community of artists are some of the most generous, amazing people I've ever met. I mean, I just turned 46, and I've never had the pleasure of being surrounded by so many awesome people in my life.
Rob Franklin:That's awesome. In my life, it's truly remarkable. Okay, well, on the flip side of the best, let's talk about the worst. We have a moment called oh shit, where it's basically when something that's gone either really really wrong or really really embarrassing.
Michael Carpenter:So is there one particular thing that stands out to you? That's maybe a show that something went terribly wrong. Well, there's two things there's an oh shit moment, and then there's an embarrassing moment.
Rob Franklin:Okay, we'll take them. We'll take them both.
Michael Carpenter:Well, I'll start with the embarrassing moment.
Michael Carpenter:I've got no problem with self-deprecation, no problem with self-deprecation. So I alluded to this earlier in the conversation about how early on, I was just trying to give as many opportunities as possible and I wasn't given too much weight or too much thought about. You know how we're going to make money with this and I strung together enough shows that didn't make money to where I got in a pretty tight financial situation and last end of end of August last year, you know, I found myself really, really close to losing my business. In fact, it was pretty much a done deal that we were going to have to close our doors and you know I really hated that. You know we were only two years in and or not even we were almost two years in or not even we were almost two years in and I felt like I had a lot more work to do, but financially it wasn't making sense. So as a last-ditch effort to kind of save the business, I announced that we were starting to go fund me. We had two weeks to raise $40,000.
Dana Franklin:Wow.
Michael Carpenter:And this community rallied around us and we raised exactly forty thousand dollars is that right in? Two weeks. Well, it all culminated. It all came to head with that saturday, september 6th of last year. Uh, we had a punk show scheduled that night but the bands agreed to extend, like add more bands to that show and turn it into a fundraiser for us as part of the gofundme. And we actually had a band, haymakers at metal band, that's based here in gastonia. They actually played on the roof of our building that night and so we turned.
Michael Carpenter:Yeah, we, we turned a situation where I was, we were going to lose it all, and we turned it into this call to to arms for this community and I really do think that after that happened, it kind of woke everyone up and was like, hey, we need to get out here and go to shows because we're going to lose this space if we don't support it, and so that was really embarrassing for me. I've never been the type to to ask for handouts or or bailouts. Um, everything I've done in my I've never been the type to ask for handouts or bailouts. Everything I've done in my life, it's all self-made. That's not to say I haven't had help through the years. I've always been blessed with good people that have worked for my businesses in the past and you know this was just.
Michael Carpenter:It was really humiliating to have to go and say, hey, we failed, can you help us out? And ultimately, what it was was I just wasn't making good enough decisions with booking shows booking shows that would get people out, and that's part of the reason I changed the way that we booked shows. So that would probably be my most embarrassing moment. The oh shit. Moment came earlier this year. We I work with. I set a handful of promoters. One of the promoters reached out and wanted to book a band at my place and it's a band that most people, specifically people my age they know who this band is. I'm not going to mention the name of the band because I don't want this to turn into a whole other thing.
Rob Franklin:Yeah, I get it, gotcha.
Michael Carpenter:Most people already know what I'm about to say. If they're listening and they're fans of what we do, they probably already know where I'm going with this. But I booked this band because it's a big, recognizable name and I was like cool, Didn't know that this band came with some baggage that I was unaware of. This band has. There's been some accusations made that one of the members of the band has gone on social media and said some pretty wild shit and it got a lot of people upset that we had booked this band.
Michael Carpenter:People were coming at me all different kinds of ways. I got threatening emails. I got messages on social media threatening me and my business. But there were a handful of people in the community that reached out to me personally and was like, hey, this is why you shouldn't book this band and explained to me what the issue was. Now, I was completely unaware that there were these issues. So after reading through all of that and learning what the issues were, I said, well, it's not in my best interest to keep this show, so I took it off the books. So I was like, all right, I'm pulling this show.
Michael Carpenter:Then I got backlash tenfold from the other side. I got all of the people. I got all these messages and comments telling me why I shouldn't do this, so I pulled the 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-lose situation. But it was a good lesson for me as someone who owned a venue and book shows. I'm not a very political guy, but a lot of people are, so the lesson there was just to stay away from the political shit, there's a band out there that's making their bones politically.
Michael Carpenter:We're probably not going to book them, because I just don't want that. That's not what we're about. In fact, we're the exact opposite of that. If you go to our website and you read our mission statement, my whole thing is this is a place for everyone to come together. This isn't a place to divide people. That's not what we're about.
Michael Carpenter:So there was a little bit of naivety there making that booking, and I learned my lesson about. So you know there was a little bit of naivety there making that booking, and you know I learned my lesson. What I will say is it was really disappointing with. You know how ungraceful some of the reaction to it was. There was a lot, of a lot of people out there that had an opinion about how I should run my business. That don't really do jack shit for my business, and so that's something that people need to realize. If you're going to sit behind a keyboard all day and talk shit about things you don't like, your time would be much more valuably used putting that energy and effort into the things you do care about and you do believe in yeah very true.
Michael Carpenter:Hearing people down is not really. You don't really get the reaction you're looking for when you're using your energy to tear people down, but when you're building people up, not only does your energy go towards something useful. At the end of the day, you can feel good about yourself and you don't have to spend your day miserable, just shit posting on social media.
Rob Franklin:It usually comes back to you, whatever you give you get.
Dana Franklin:Yeah, it's so easy to get on social media and say shit when you don't even know what you're talking about, just because you want to vent. It's one of those necessary evils you know, yeah, so you know what you were talking about. Actually brings me into something you know. Another thing I wanted to ask is have you ever actually had a band, something you know? Another thing I wanted to ask is have you ever actually had a band you?
Michael Carpenter:know perform. That was so ill received that you had to pull them early or turn off the power or any shit like that. Thank, god no thank god we have not had that yet and we've had. We've had some people get up and make a fool of themselves, but uh, we haven't had to to pull anyone off stage and I don't think we ever will. You know, we and make a fool of themselves, but we haven't had to pull anyone off stage.
Michael Carpenter:I don't think we ever will. We've had a couple of ego-ridden people come through. I'm really big on just no ego, there's no need for it. Say what you've got to say with your 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 with your performance. You know you don't. You don't have to be a jackass, you know. Just you get on stage and be undeniable. Then you don't have to walk around. People will do it for you. Um, and we've been very, very fortunate in that we really haven't had that many issues like.
Michael Carpenter:So we've had a couple of assholes, but you're always bound to my staff and I are really really good at dealing with assholes, so well, it's usually the drummers anyway hey, michael.
Rob Franklin:uh, like I mentioned earlier, we're all about like helping musicians, so, um, are there any promoters out there that you would recommend to like? Maybe a band that's having difficulty getting a show booked, maybe new to the game, as far as you know, playing in venues?
Michael Carpenter:Sure, well, you know I don't want to. You know I don't really play favorites.
Michael Carpenter:You know I'm a opportunity type of guy, but I will. I will shout out some of the promoters that I work with that I've had success with that. I trust creative music with that. I trust Creative Music Management, Missy Wood. She is the owner and the CEO, so to speak, of Creative Music Management CMM. They do a really good job of promoting local bands. Cutthroat Promotions. Johnny Nethercutt he's another promoter that I enjoy working with. I have a good success rate with him. Shell Shock Promotions is a newer promotion company that recently formed it's. Dj Bloodbath, young Bird from Two Stroke Smoke and a couple other guys have gotten together and created Shell Shock Promotions. Those are guys that I'll mess with anytime. Aj from Carolina Headbangers Anytime the Carolina Headbangers want to put something together, I'll work with them. And then there's Cole with Crack a Smile. Crack a Smile. He's putting in work. In fact, if your listeners would be so kind as to go check out the Rock and Roll Circus that we've got coming up June 27th and 28th, that's a Crack a Smile promotion show.
Rob Franklin:He's got.
Michael Carpenter:Trickster and Bad Marriage and Prowess and Shanky DeVille and Fury 58 and Anthony Corder from Tora Tora. It's a Friday and Saturday night show that we've got, so you can go to our website and get all the information on this. But you can buy a Friday ticket, a Saturday ticket or a whole weekend ticket and I think there's two or three VIP tickets left where you'll get to do some meet and greets and get some signed swag and get some signed swag. But Tommy London, who is a SiriusXM DJ on Ozzy's Boneyard, he will also be there hosting the show. So it's going to be an awesome, awesome weekend that's happening later this month that people should pay attention to.
Michael Carpenter:But yeah, those are just a handful of the promoters. I'm sure I'm forgetting about somebody and I do apologize if I'm forgetting somebody right now, but those are the promoters that I have done the most with over the years that we've been open. There's other promoters out there that have reached out and that I would like to work with in the future. I'll even give a shout out to Welcome to the Family Fest. They do shows mainly at the Milestone in Charlotte and at the Radio Room in Greenville. Every time I see a Welcome to the Family Fest promotion show. It's always a killer lineup.
Michael Carpenter:If those guys ever wanted to fuck with the rooster, I'd be down to put a show together with them. Again, like I said earlier, if you are a promoter and you're established and you want to put a show together, come talk to me. You know, don't send me some bullshit message on Facebook or Instagram or send me some email talking about you've done this, this and this. Come talk to me personally and let's talk about it. 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 and I want to know that you mean what you say.
Rob Franklin:There you go.
Michael Carpenter:There's a lot of guys out there that think we can put a show together, that think they know how to promote a show, but they're off and they're full of shit. That's why I like talking to people in person, because I can get a good sense of whether you mean what you say or not. You know face to face well.
Rob Franklin:Speaking of which, what's nights are usually down at your venue. I'm new to the area so I want to come down and definitely see your venue, but what nights are you typically there? They come down and have a beer with you.
Michael Carpenter:I'm there pretty much every night you know, occasionally I'll take a night.
Michael Carpenter:I'll have something going on. I'm a family guy as well, so I've got kids and a wife at home. Occasionally stuff gets planned and I can't be there, but most of the time I'm there Wednesday through Sunday when we're open Occasionally. Now I won't be there this Saturday. I don't know when this comes out, but I won't be there on June the 7th. I'm going to a show myself, but yeah, I'm usually our doors open at 5 or 6. Even when a flyer says the door's open at 6 or 7, we're usually there and ready around 5. I always try to encourage people to come early and come have some beers and hang out. Get there early. That's when you're going to have a chance to talk to me Once things get moving and we're busy. I'm not trying to talk business in the middle of a show.
Rob Franklin:Yeah, of course.
Michael Carpenter:Usually get there early and talk to me, or stay late, hang out after the show and talk to me, or come on an open mic on a Wednesday because open mics are a lot of fun. You're getting the real sense of what we have for talent in the area. I'm always in a good mood because I love my Wednesday open mic family, so that's a good time to come talk to me.
Rob Franklin:Okay, well, hey, micah, we really appreciate this. And in closing, for all the like newer bands out there, what would be your advice? Just in general?
Michael Carpenter:for playing at a place like yours. I would say show up and support the local scene. Like if you're trying, if you're doing local, if you're doing original music and you're trying to break through in the Charlotte scene, the easiest and quickest way to get invited on bills is to show up and that that actually that philosophy. Philosophy extends further than local music. You know. Same thing goes with your community. You know politics, anything. That's something I learned early on with one of my first businesses. If you just show up, opportunities and doors will open up.
Michael Carpenter:You know, if you're just refusing to go support other local bands and refusing to support venues, how do you expect anyone to take you seriously 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 band route. You don't have to go support nobody, 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, there's not a big demand from the general public. We have to make it ourselves. We have to create that demand and we do that by showing up for each other, showing up for shows, and then you.
Michael Carpenter:You talk to the bands, you talk to the promoters excuse me you talk to the venue owners and you're like well, hey, I've got this band. You know you should check us out. This is our website or this is our social media. Or say you know, here, here, why don't you give this a listen? Let me know if there's a show we can get on, and that's probably the easiest and quickest way to get onto a show. Now, that's harder to do for some people, I realize. If you're in a position where it's not feasible for you to come out to a show or whatnot, then I don't really know what to tell you. Maybe you've got too much going on. There's a reason I'm not in a band. I don't have time for it.
Dana Franklin:It's all time consuming, no doubt about it. Well, you know, in closing and it's funny that you know what your advice was, because you know we've recently had a bunch of you know interviews and episodes with bands over in the UK and you know they say the same thing you just got to get out there and support your local music and in the local venues, just to get the word out and help everybody out. So, for all you guys listening to this episode, we encourage you to get out there to Gastonia to check out the rooster and Michael and his club and you won't be disappointed. And I will hand this over to Rob. We'll close this out.
Rob Franklin:Okay, and once again listeners.
Michael Carpenter:Well, the last thing I'll say before you close out is you know how many times have you heard someone say support locals, but do you actually do it?
Rob Franklin:Yeah, exactly.
Michael Carpenter:If you're going to say support local, then do what you say and support local. Otherwise, the whole country is going to be Walmart and Amazon.
Dana Franklin:Amen to that, amen, yep.
Michael Carpenter:Same thing with your music.
Rob Franklin:Hey, michael, thank you very much and, listeners, please do go visit the Rooster in Gastonia, north Carolina. Sounds like an outstanding place.
Michael Carpenter:Thanks a lot, fellas. I appreciate you having me on. I appreciate the opportunity and thanks for doing what you do, man All right.
Rob Franklin:Thank you, and you have a good rest of your day.
Michael Carpenter:You too Bye-bye.
