NYC is thriving with music that deserves to be heard, but musicians aren’t always compensated for their handwork in this business. Our very own Michelle Eliza will now be organizing a monthly event called “Wicked Wednesdays” to be held at Brooklyn’s Our Wicked Lady located at 153 Morgan Ave, at the corner of Morgan Ave and Meserole Street in Brooklyn.
Wicked Wednesdays will be held on the fourth Wednesday of every month, featuring bands from the five boroughs and the surrounding areas. The first Wicked Wednesday is scheduled for February 22nd and will feature the bands Sharp Violet at 8, Holy Smokes at 9 and Shapes on Tape at 10. The following Wicked Wednesday will take place on March 22nd with bands TBA.
About her reasoning for creating the special event, Michelle states:
“As Brooklyn has become more fashionable, it has become less accessible to the musicians that continue to build it. Wicked Wednesdays is a two-pronged solution to the problems faced by musicians, and people who enjoy music.
Getting paid as a musician is really hard. Being a musician myself, I certainly understand and sympathize with this struggle. Music is work, and musicians should be compensated for the work that they do without having to bend over backwards to try and meet a required minimum. Even more than a matter of compensation, this is a matter of respect to the people that have spent years in training, crafting their art, creating original material, and rehearsing. All of the bands and performers that play at Wicked Wednesdays keep a large portion of their ticket sales, with no minimum headcount.
Shows are expensive, and this is a big deterrent for people to go out and discover music they’ve never heard before. Cover charges for Wicked Wednesdays will never be more than $10 per person, and generally will be much less than that. This also works to the advantage of the bands playing, as a lower cover charge means the show is more accessible to more people.”
There are no advance tickets, just a $5 cover at the door. In the meanwhile, you can check out the Facebook event and RSVP here:
https://www.facebook.com/events/239650196494513/
To check out the bands on the bill for the first Wicked Wednesday, check out their bandcamp profiles:
https://sharpviolet.bandcamp.com/
https://soundcloud.com/shapesontape