Finally made it to the Fillmore in Silver Spring for Danzig – with Doyle –  last night, and it’s still nice and shiny.

If you’re familiar with the 9:30 Club in DC, the Fillmore has a very similar layout – a big open area with two bars where the concert happens, a balcony upstairs which is apparently special access only, then a smaller bar downstairs. The Fillmore is designed to look a bit upscale – there are the legendary screen print posters from the original Fillmore in San Francisco, some crystal chandeliers way the hell up in the rafters, the bathrooms are larger, (I didn’t have to wait in line for the ladies’ room once!) and the bar downstairs has a whole bunch of lava lamps, plus a couple of TVs simulcasting the show upstairs: very handy. The beer also has an upscale price. I paid $18 for two draft beers one point in the evening. Yikes. Good bartenders, though – they kept the bar moving.

The show was good and loud, but there was a good deal of feedback between Danzig’s microphone and the monitor speakers.  He even tossed a monitor off the front of the stage, and complained about the sound guy. We heard feedback from Danzig’s mike all the way through to the encore, and that is darn frustrating for both the artist and the audience.

The security team was on their toes. There were no photos allowed, and I saw at least four folks given stern talking-tos from a duo of security folks, and one guy, brazenly wielding his phone camera towards the end of the show, grabbed and tossed out. There was also a ‘no moshing’ sign, and the security team handled the inevitable crowd-surfers fairly as they rolled over the barricades, one by one.

I really like the fact that Silver Spring has tons of free city parking lots – don’t ever park in a pay lot if you go there. The Cameron Street lot off Georgia Avenue is free after 7pm, and very accessible from the beltway. And of course there is the Metro station, also walkable. There are also dozens of nearby restaurants if you want to make a night of it.

Will we go again? You betcha, even though I will have to take out a loan to buy my beer. It all depends on who’s playing, though – and I doubt Danzig will be back after that feedback fiasco. Fix the sound, Fillmore. Or the musicians will head back to the 9:30 Club.

Music has been a guiding force for me since I was a kid. I got the opportunity to be a part of musical theater performances in high school. As a part of the cast, I found a place to belong, a gang to hang with. Since then, I’ve found leadership positions in college radio, local music zines, and a record store.

Now I’m volunteering with Girls Rock! DC — a rock camp for Washington-area girls — and though I joined to donate my time and talents, I have found that after volunteering for a couple of years, I have gotten back as much as I’ve given, especially in the form of leadership experience. I have a few tips I can share, which apply to more than just musical organizations:

1. Share the microphone. Leaders aren’t responsible for providing ALL the solutions, but for guiding the team towards one. Don’t shy away from leadership because you don’t know all the answers. 
2. Audition your band members carefully. Better teams make better leaders. When you have a good group working for you, it’s easier to communicate, to reach goals together, and eventually succeed.
3. Write lyrics as a group. Seek solutions from the people you are leading, and help them organize a path to the best solution.
4. Enunciate. Especially when you are delegating, be clear with expectations.
5. Go wild on stage! …to a degree. Leaders take risks, but that doesn’t mean doing things haphazardly. Risks can be taken after looking at the necessary considerations, and then moving forward in an educated manner.
6. Now, with feeling! Passion is contagious. Gratitude is rewarding. These tools are free and if they are genuine, they can brighten up a workspace more than changing the wallpaper.
7. Practice, practice, practice! Don’t ever stop learning. The world is changing around us. People learn and work in different ways, and effective leaders must be willing to adapt. Keep on your toes. Take a class, or volunteer somewhere like Girls Rock! DC, where you can energize your leadership batteries.

As much as non-profit organizations like Girls Rock! DC can benefit from your time and talents, you can often use your volunteer experience on the job. For instance, I kept my website and design skills sharp at Girls Rock! DC, talents I’ve been able to take back to work with me. Groups like Girls Rock! DC are real résumé-building opportunities.

This year, Girls Rock! DC is planning their fifth annual camp for girls 8-18 years old. If you have some time to donate, especially if music is one of your passions, visit girlsrockdc.org for more information. No musical talent is necessary. If you are interested in being a role model for these young people, we’d like to hear from you!

*This post originally ran on Sisarina Speaks! a blog from Sisarina, under Melanie’s Be a Leader series. Check out their awesome branding, marketing and web design services.

We just got back from a whirlwind road trip to Cleveland. We had the week off between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, so we decided to drive up to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, because — well, why not?

It was totally worth it.

I’ve heard from a few friends, both here and in Cleveland, that there are many obvious vacancies/exclusions in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (the HOF), and this is true. The HOF is not as old as ROCK, after all, and there have been a limited number of inductees into the hall each year. So some folks are undoubtedly missing that each of us would like to see there. But I recommend appreciating it for what IS there. And that is a LOT of stuff. But I wanted to see one specific exhibit that is there only until February, the Women of Rock, and that was incredible. The place also includes an unbelievable amount of rock memorabilia, starting with the very first radios and recordings and going up to the Beatles, Elvis and the Rolling Stones.

Beyond that, there is large-scale memorabilia like the concert puppets from Pink Floyd’s The Wall concert tour, and tiny things that mean so much like hand-written lyrics by people like Joan Jett and Janis Joplin. Then there are tons of instruments and stage clothes. We spent the entire day, from doors open to doors closing, and we didn’t quite see the entire thing. We tried to watch most of the movies and get into most of the exhibits but there just is more than a day’s worth of stuff in there.

The Women Who Rock exhibit let us see the original lyrics to the Runaways’ ‘Cherry Bomb’ and Siouxsie Sioux’s fur cape, as well as Lady Gaga’s meat dress. I also really loved seeing Elvis’s set list on his TCB letterhead, and one of Flavor Flav’s clock necklaces. Just so much to look at.

If you ever get the chance, visit Cleveland. Besides the HOF, there is a science museum right next door, a world-class art museum, and we also found the A Christmas Story house – where they filmed the exteriors for the classic holiday movie.

We spent a couple evenings out in suburban Lakewood, which got us to My Mind’s Eye records, an excellent independent record store, especially for vinyl collectors. There are good restaurants out that way and friendly people. Thanks Charles!

I just wrapped up my first year as a volunteer with GirlsRock! DC, and what an experience!

About 70 campers from all over the District, Maryland and Virginia put on an unforgettable showcase on Saturday morning at the 9:30 Club. As a girl, I had recitals for flute, violin and voice. I performed in plays and musicals. But nothing I ever did before college was like this.

These girls were so confident on stage, all performing original songs or DJ sets. It was really overwhelming, especially after spending two days with them earlier in the week as a workshop teacher. I’d seen them just learning to get along, just meeting each other, and here are all these great cohesive bands up on stage looking just as good as any college band. (Sometimes better…)

If you didn’t get the chance to attend the show on Saturday, I encourage you to click around the GirlsRock! DC website. See what they’ve done and check out some of the stories that have been written on them. (Donations would be appreciated, I might add!) This is really a super opportunity for families that rock to take in together, and for girls 8-18 to take part in.

For older girls like me, I encourage you to follow my lead and volunteer some time. It is all kinds of inspirational and FUN!

If you have been wondering why I’ve been so quiet lately, it’s because I found this great volunteer organization to donate some time to.

On August 14th at 11:00am, more than 70 Washington area girls will take to the stage at the 9:30 Club, just as many legendary rock stars have done before them. Girls Rock! DC (GR!DC), a volunteer-run, non-profit organization, is launching its third annual, week long rock camp for girls ages 8-18.

During the week of August 9th – 13th, a volunteer staff of female educators, musicians and community organizers provide campers instruction on electric guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, vocals and turntables. The campers form bands and are coached by counselors to write, collaborate and perform original songs and DJ sets before a live audience at the 9:30 Club.

The aim of Girls Rock! DC is to create a supportive, inclusive and creative space for girls to build community, stand up and rock out! With a base in music education, the camp will focus on building girls’ self-confidence, leadership and cooperation skills.

Campers also attend workshops on team building, performance and body confidence, songwriting and other skills young women need to take over the world of rock. I’m on the media literacy team. Whee!

I encourage you to join us (bring your kids!) at the showcase on Saturday to see these girls rock out. I can’t wait!

The girls will showcase their original works at Washington’s 9:30 Club on Saturday, August 14th at 11:00 am.
The showcase is open to the public.
Tickets are $10 at the door.
Free admission for youth 12 and under.
More information is available at the Girls Rock! DC website: www.girlsrockdc.org.

Girls Rock! DC is part of a national Girls Rock Camp Alliance. There are Girls Rock camps all over the world.

UPDATE: We got some coverage from NPR’s The Kojo Nnamdi Show (check out the video)

I find the passion of music people contagious. People in the music biz are in it for the love of music. I also love music, (My personal passion is promotions/marketing, but that’s another story.), and the more time I spend near musicians and music people, the more I love them.

One big irony of the music business is that the more successful you are, the less certain your life can become. Someone with a garage band can plan on Saturday rehearsals with their friends, but if you are in a hugely successful band, your workplace changes each night, and you often sleep in a hotel and hang out in restaurants or backstage at nightclubs. Of course big rock stars make tons of money, which makes this kind of schedule worth it in a way.

But it’s not that easy to make money being a musician. Even selling CDs is getting harder. There are only a handful of artists that get to the top and stay there. More likely even successful artists have only one album that gets some notoriety, and going on tour costs a lot.

Still, musicians keep on rockin. There are songs to be sung, there is music to be made. Musicians do it because they love what they do. I’ve seen bands play in parks, and on stages only three inches above the crowd. Bands give out free CDs and play free shows just so people can hear their music. Musicians stand by each other and support each other. They know full well that there is only a chance in a million that they may get discovered or signed, and yet they keep keepin’ on. [Don't believe me? Watch the Anvil documentary, an excellent story of persistance, passion and rediscovery.]

Just recently, the rock family lost Malcolm MacLaren, who created and managed the Sex Pistols, and we lost Peter Steele, a musician I really enjoyed seeing. He sang for Type O Negative, a metal/goth band that had been around for a long time, and I had the pleasure of meeting him and the rest of the band in person a couple of times. The band often argued amongst themselves, but always came back together even through the very worst of personal tragedies. The music world is showing its support with a number of kind tributes coming out about both Malcolm’s and Peter’s talent and personality.

April 17 is Record Store Day, which was formed “as a celebration of the unique culture surrounding over 700 independently owned record stores in the USA, and hundreds of similar stores internationally.” I used to be co-owner of a record store, so it means a lot to me. I’ll be heading to a record store in Baltimore to shop for some of the special releases and enjoy some in-store performances. I encourage you to do the same.

And, on a side note, there will be an awesome retrospective in this week’s Sunday Washington Post Magazine by J.Freedom du Lac on the 9:30 Club, often called the best nightclub on the east coast, and one of my personal favorite places in the world.

I hope that you love what you do. Life is way too short to spend your day doing something you don’t enjoy, and we can’t judge our talents by money alone.

Rock on! \m/

We lost some big names in entertainment this year, I just wanted the chance to say one last goodbye to some of my favorites.

• Actor Patrick Swayze, 57 – I really enjoyed Dirty Dancing and many more of his movies.
• Director John Hughes, 59 – His films were some of the first that I rented from video stores and watched over and over again.
• Actress Farrah Fawcett, 62 – What a courageous documentary she made at the end of her life.
• Actor Dom DeLuise, 75 – Always made me laugh.
• Actor Ricardo Montalban, 88 – I still want to visit Fantasy Island.
• George Michael, sports broadcaster, 70 – I watched his ‘Sports Machine’ show for years in DC.
• Vic Chesnutt, singer/songwriter, 45 – Just an amazing talent.
• Actress Brittany Murphy, 32 – I loved her voice work for King of the Hill.
• Ed McMahon, 86 – I’ll remember him from Star Search, way before American Idol.
• Pitchman Billy Mays, 50 – He could sell me the shoes on my feet, what a guy.
• Walter Cronkite, 92 – Sad to see him go, but that’s the way it is.

There were many more notable deaths, as The New York Times notes in their annual review.