Tags: Children's Music Network, Dave Entwistle, Erin Lee Kelly, Fran, Goldhawk, Lemon Aid, Qdoba, Rebecca Frezza, Red Cross International Relief Fund
Thank you, Hoboken!
On May 20, two days after our 2nd Goldhawk show, Kipley brought up the idea of doing a fund-raiser to benefit earthquake relief in China. Response was positive across the board. I had a rough draft of a “Lemon Aid” flyer prepared the next morning. We’d been talking about doing another gig on June 1 anyway, so we decided to go for it.
A quick call to Dave and Fran at the Goldhawk, and the show was booked. We spent the week after Memorial Day pushing the show HARD, selling tickets and posting flyers all over town.
Looking back, I’m impressed with what we were able to accomplish in a short amount of time. Everyone dove in and made it all happen:
- We raised the ticket price to $10 a head, with the goal of raising a serious amount of money for the Red Cross International Relief Fund.
- We ran with the idea of doing two sets, one at 4:00 and one at 5:15 — and we sold out both sets!
- We printed and sold paper tickets as well as electronic ones, which was a big part of how we sold out both sets.
The week leading up to the gig was a flurry of activity, over e-mail and on the streets. On May 26th we’d sold a total of 22 tickets, which had some folks nervous but come on, we’d only booked the show 48 hours earlier! We got the Wachovia Securities sponsorship again (Kimberly’s boyfriend, now fiance, cheerfully set that up for us) and so we were able to offer a free drink with ticket…. and ID!
Kipley’s e-mail to the LemonList (our incipient fan e-mail list) said “A great cause, a rockin’ family show, and free booze… if anyone can find a more awesome way to spend a Sunday afternoon, I’ll eat a bug,” prompting one of my smart-mouth nephews in Massachusetts to ask “what KIND of bug?” Sheesh.
(Even as all of this was going on, we still somehow found the time to discuss the formation of an LLC, a legal entity that would handle the Lemons’ finances and such.) Tickets continued to fly out the door, and there were about 20 left the day before the gig. They disappeared pretty quickly.
On the Big Day, Fran once again opened his pub for us at 3:30. Dave Entwistle wasn’t around, so Fran himself ran sound (in addition to running the bar!) It was exciting to be able to say were were playing two sold-out shows! Today the Goldhawk, tomorrow the Garden.
Both sets went very well, I think. We added two new tunes, “Sunburn” and “Hey Baby,” plus we covered “Show Me” by Rebecca Frezza. Untested material is always a scary proposition, but we swallowed the fear and forged ahead, with positive results, I think.
Photo courtesy of Marco Ambriz
I love our audience. Hoboken parents are just cool people, and they’re raising good kids who love music. I take great pride in being a part of that, as a Music Together teacher and as a Fuzzy Lemon. Also, Erin Lee Kelly was there, which is awesome. Look for more about her in an upcoming blog entry; for now, the short version is: She’s on the board of the Children’s Music Network and has a LOT of connections in the city, and she knows tons about how to entertain an audience of jaded families. We had a great talk at Qdoba after the show.
At the end of the day, what with ticket sales, additional donations, and a corporate-matching donation from Google (courtesy of Maiken’s husband), we raised somewhere around $3,500 for the Red Cross. I’m really proud of that number.
Thank you to everyone who helped!
Dave
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