Posts Tagged ‘BoR’

2-6-09

Hi BoR Friends! We interrupt this week’s blog to bring you a true story from a true BoR fan: Vaguy Peterson. Vaguy and our very own Patrick Laird have been lifelong friends, and Vaguy was one of the very first BoR fans. He is an awesome guy: fun spirited and always up for a laugh. Anyway, Vaguy, Patrick, and the boys recently ditched Super Bowl Sunday for something better: A live METALLICA concert at the Prudential Center in New Jersey! Below, Vaguy retells his Metallica experience, more specifically, his plan to get Break of Reality goods into the hands of Metallica!

METALLICA AND THE BEAST

“I’m flying high over Tupelo Mississippi with America’s hottest band, and we’re all about to die…”

Far from the truth, but close to the realities running through my head as the crude, makeshift, emergency Break of Reality street team sprang into action on the night of February 1, 2009. Ah the day had come, Metallica makes their return to New Jersey, a night not worth missing, especially if you’re a Break of Reality fan with a master plan at hand.

So, where to begin?

Possibly the best guerilla marketing tactics begin with the simplest of ideas, followed with careful planning, and of course precise execution, like that of a puma in the circumstance. Much credit goes to the notorious “J-Drew”, mastermind to possibly the greatest plan ever. What was it you ask? Well Pinky, the plan goes like this: to deliver BOR gear to the most influential metal band/rehabbers in the world: METALLICA. My favorite 6’9” cellist delivered the goods: BOR authentic T with a CD wrapped securely inside, and a piece of paper rubber banded to the entire package with the words “FOR METALLICA, SHIRT AND CD.”

Step 1 of 3 complete.

Blue Team, (consisting of J-Drew and P-Cakes, aka Patrick from Break of Reality), have prepared the package and carefully hid it inside a jacket for CO-OP delivery through security at the Prudential Center. The package made it through the security checkpoint, however the whiskey did not have such luck. Shall we say, a leaky cap and wet shoe was the outcome of evading a manly pat down.

Moment of silence for the whiskey…..

OK, Blue Team unfortunately runs into quite the snag. The seats are too far from the stage to deliver the goods. Not bad planning, just an unforeseen circumstance when you have 8th row seats that just happen to be 100 feet from the stage. So it’s time to call in the General Admission, who just so happened to be there out of dumb luck ‘cause we love Metallica. I speak of the oh-so-cool, RED TEAM, consisting of myself (V-Guy), and my friend ERI-O.

A new reason to love the world of cell phones and TXT MSGing is that RED TEAM was easily reached inside the stadium for rendezvous at the tallest wall. The handoff of goods was executed flawlessly amid flashlight-armed guards and merch hungry Metallica Fans. Blue Team has completed their mission successfully and has left the execution of Project “Give Metallica the Break of Reality T-Shirt and CD” to the well-trained, intelligent, highly sophisticated and herbal tea drinking RED TEAM. So as Captain of RED TEAM, I quickly recruited scouts among the crowd for execution. ERI-O secured the goods until the moment was right. We waited and waited, then forgot that we even had the package because a few $8 beers and an amazing performance knocked myself (probably should be “us”) off track. However, Mr. Anheuser Busch himself could not keep me from fate.

The moment had stricken: METALLICA just finished a set. I’m front and almost center. The band is walking just off stage but still visible to everyone, and a guitar tech is running across the stage right toward them. This was my moment, better yet our moment. I quickly called ERI-O for the package, called my scouts to watch for security, and at that moment, when all was clear, shot putted what looked like a small explosive onto the stage. Some people looked fearful as it slid across the floor and came to a gentle rest at the feet of the fleeting guitar tech. Sure enough it landed note side up and was quickly hand-delivered to the man himself, James Alan Hetfield. Delivery was perfect. Metallica was taking a minute break and switching guitars for freshly tuned ones, plenty of time for each member to see the BOR T-Shirt as they unfolded it after reading the attached note.

BOR GEAR WAS IN THE HANDS OF METALLICA.

Pure bliss hit our hearts and the plan was completely successful. Metallica received the goods, they opened the goods, and they enjoyed the goods. Scouts around the stage reported back to V-GUY that the package was meticulously folded back together and placed on the stage, safe and sound with the CD on top of it next to Metallica’s Guitars. This was assuring, knowing that the BOR gear was not thrown away, but placed at one of the safest places on the stage. Throughout the night, we watched as great interest built around the BOR gear as guitar techs and sound engineers all seemed to be drawn to the crazy design of the BOR T-shirt. We caught them reading the back of the CD and all seemed very pleased as they each gave everything not a once over, but the assuring twice over. So that’s my story. I shall call it “METALLICA and the Beast.”

-V-Guy

1-30-09

When I first moved to NYC with Break of Reality, I was ecstatic. Playing shows in the city, in the subways, and in Central Park was such a great feeling. To this day, impromptu street performances are some of the most memorable experiences of my life.

But, as the season changed from fall to winter, performing began to turn into something else, something that eventually cracked the band in two. Since we had to rely on performing to make a living, we never had time to write new music. So, we ended up slaving over the same songs, OVER, and OVER, and OVER, and OVER again. The worst part was that it was becoming noticeable. We just didn’t have that energy that we did when we first started. It had become work.

There was one thing that didn’t change: the bills. They were still due at the end of the month, only this time, (at least for me), there wasn’t as much money in the bank as there was when we first moved. For one, real gigs had slowed down a bit, and because of the cold weather, our audiences got smaller in the subways. On top of all of that, Erin’s tendonitis was getting worse.

Although the logical solution would have been to get “real” jobs, for some reason we just didn’t all think the same way. Some were worried that if we got real jobs, we would lose focus and the band would go nowhere. Others were worried that if we continued to play out the way we did, the band would eventually fold. It was a catch 22, a predicament caused by poor planning and youthful thinking.

My Conversations with Erin

Erin and I were super close, best friends really – we lived in the same apartment complex and went through both the ups and downs of BoR together. I remember one night, after a long day of subway playing, Erin was feeling really down; her arm was completely numb, and she just wasn’t herself. Her spirit had been broken.

I knew she was battling with whether the band was really what she wanted to do. We had talked about it numerous times, and the only thing that was keeping her from leaving was the fact that we were all dependent on each other; if she left, the rest of us would be in bad shape. She didn’t want to let any of us down.

I tried telling her that her well being, both emotionally and physically, were more important than anything or anyone else. She finally came to the same conclusion. Although she didn’t come out and say it just yet, I knew she was leaving us.

In a subtle way, I tried to tell the others, but they didn’t get it. After all, guys are oblivious.

“At our next band meeting, I’m making an announcement,” she said one day. This was it. She was finally ready to let go.

—————————–

Next week on BoR Blog: Erin makes her announcement, and the rest of us try to figure out what to do next.

1-23-09

The first show we threw in NYC was at The Knitting Factory, an indie-rock venue noted for its vintage atmosphere and willingness to host both the famous, the infamous, and the unheard of.

Although I don’t remember too much about the show, I can bet we were probably really out of tune and played every song way faster than we were suppose to. It’s impossible for any cellist to play in tune when there’s a loud drummer pounding cymbals in their ears – (sorry about that guys and gal!). Electric shows were always a little loose, but we made up for it with LOUDNESS, and with some fun, experimental theatrics.

For example, System of a Down’s song BYOB was a great tune to play live. I remember when we were first learning it: we were having trouble figuring out what to do at around the 25-second mark.

You see, at the 25-second mark, Serj, the lead singer for System, belts out a scream meant for the weirdest of horror movies. I mean, it’s just disgusting, and amazing at the same time. We couldn’t figure out how the heck to get a cello to sound like that. We tried fast bowing techniques and glissandi of all kinds. Nothing seemed to work.

And then, it came to Patrick. He randomly tried this:

It was AMAZING, and I’d never seen anyone do that to a cello before: He scraped his hand across the back of his cello, creating a loud screeching sound. It was pretty cool acoustically, but as soon as he plugged in and threw distortion on, it KILLED!

Every time we do a public school performance, the “cello scream” is one of the big highlights, along with another BoR invention…

The Over The Head Cello Solo

Yep, I remember this like it was yesterday. We were playing at The Knitting Factory, performing Parabolic Cosmos, a composition by our friend (Brian Sanders), and we get to the break down section. This is always a fun section to play; I get to lay down the slowest, sickest, loudest drumbeat ever heard in Western music, and the cellos follow suit.

This run through, however, went above and beyond normalcy thanks to a little pre-planning by Patrick and Chris.

Rather than laying down the bass line, Chris and Patrick both stood up with huge grins on their faces. Erin and I looked at each other and were like, “This CANNOT be good.”

As it turns out, it was the best thing in the world, ever.

I think Patrick and Chris rehearsed this in private, and just decided to go for it at the show. Thus, the Over The Head Cello Solo was born.

More Shows!

Yeah, lots of them. We performed at The Triad on West 72nd Street, Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater, Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn, The Luna Lounge in Brooklyn, Baruch Performing Arts Center, the Laguardia Performing Arts Center in Queens, and various corporate and special events around the city. Each show was larger than the one before, and the “Break heads” in NYC took cabs, subways, rode bicycles, and roller bladed out to our shows.

Although our calendar was filled with both real performances and street performing, the overwhelming amount of playing continued to take its toll on all of us, especially Erin, who developed tendonitis in her wrist. Although she began to see a physical therapist, she found it more and more difficult to play at a loud volume. Soon, playing with pain became the norm for her. I hated to see her like that: I could tell by the look on her face that playing the cello was not as comfortable as it once was for her. To top it all off, winter had started, and the freezing temperatures in subways began hurting us all…

————

Next Week on BOR Blog: It’s freezing out! The band is faced with an injured member, financial woes, and frigid playing conditions. And to top it all off, we’re still playing THE SAME OLD MUSIC. Something’s gotta give…

1-16-09

“Don’t believe it until you see it.”
My mom’s been preaching that motto to me since I was young. She was right.
I never really knew what she meant though, until I moved out to the Big Apple with Break of Reality and got exposed to the music industry, and just how strange the industry is.
As mentioned in previous blogs, our street / park performing allowed us to meet all sorts of people, including producers, record executives, and managers for major companies. They would see us performing for large crowds and immediately see potential, or at least dollar signs. “Here is my card – let’s talk!”
“Maybe THIS is it”, we thought.
Nope.
I can’t tell you how many cups of coffee we had with industry reps, and how almost each meeting left us feeling emptier than the one before.
Many of these reps were flat out weird, more exaggerated than any music industry character in any movie. I smelled something, and it wasn’t pretty.
Each one talked an unbelievable talk, and tried to make us feel like we were lost without their help. Each rep thought they knew what was best for Break of Reality, and was pushing the group to go in different directions, such as:
“A Broadway Show with talking cellos!”
“A stage show with dancing acrobats at Disney World!”
Or the dreaded “Consider changing your sound to easy listening…”
They tried to feed us a large amount of you know what. We heard every line in the book. “You guys are the next Beethoven.” That one makes me pretty sick.
This is a good one, from a potential manager: “What’s Myspace?”
Haha…
No.
Although we weren’t quite sure what we wanted, we knew it wasn’t “talking cellos”, rocking out with Mickey Mouse, or being managed by someone who didn’t know what a social networking site was.
More importantly, we never met an industry insider who was as excited about BoR as we were. Our fans were the only ones who really understood what we were doing.
We were keeping instrumental music alive and relevant, whether playing in the parks, subways, schools, or music venues. That was our mission, and it still is today.
The Joshua Bell Article
During our subway days, The Washington Post wrote a very interesting article about Joshua Bell, who is one of the world’s most famous classical violinists. The article was about a social experiment Bell attempted at the Metro Station in D.C. Bell decided to do what we were doing: busk in the subways.
Being THE violinist of our generation, it is easy to assume that Bell’s playing attracted swarms of people.
Not the case. Not the case at all.
On January 12th, 2008, Joshua Bell (incognito) performed classical music in the subways of D.C., and made a total of $32.17. He never built much of a crowd, and was practically ignored for his entire performance.
I’m sure this speaks volumes about classical music in our society, (a subject for another blog in another life), but it brought something to our attention: In the most humbling way, we realized that in the land of subway musicians, we had a leg up on Joshua Bell.
(In the land of concert halls, however, he makes about $20,000 more a performance than we do, haha). But still, we were glad to hear we were doing something that the world’s greatest violinist couldn’t do: make an instant musical connection with real people.
The press in NYC began taking notice of what we were doing as well.
For example, Steve Smith, a columnist for Time Out New York, met us while we were performing in the subways. He enjoyed our performance and always agreed to publish our “real” performances in Time Out New York:
“Break of Reality puts the classical in classic rock, with is heavy, exotic original compositions and instrumental arrangements of hard-rock standards. If you’re one of the many commuters who’s seen this group in the Times Square subway station, you already know its secret weapon: It plays with genuine technique and solid intonation, but rocks out like it means it.”
- Time Out New York (August 23-29, 2007, Issue 621, page 120)
We were also featured in The New York Post, The New York Press, and the Baruch College Newspaper.
With the press on our side, we had already begun booking real gigs, and our fans came out to support us, one subway commuter at a time.
———————
Next week on BOR Blog: Photos, Videos, and memories from “real” NYC performances! Want to see BOR’s Cello-Over-The-Head stunt? Stop by next week!

1-9-09

Central Park is hot in the summer time, especially at Bethesda Fountain, where we became a regular weekend attraction.
The heat took its toll, on our instruments and us. I remember once when Erin asked me to put my hand on her cello – it was as hot as an iron. Not a good sign, especially since her instrument is worth more than some cars.


On the upside, the crowds at Central Park were SICK! It made it all worth it.
Never in my life would I have expected to perform for so many people around the world in such a short period of time. The results were instant and direct. People wanted cello rock.
I’ll never forget the look on the faces coming from a group of skateboarder kids when we busted out System of a Down’s BYOB. They immediately jumped off their skateboards and ran over to us while gesturing the “metal hand”. Sitting closer to us in the front was an older man dressed in a Hawaiian shirt, and his wife. They were so immersed, if not hypnotized, by the music that they barely noticed the teenage mosh pit that was forming behind them.
Interactions with senior citizens usually went something like this. A little old woman walks up to us and says, “That was a beautiful song you played! What song was that?”
Our usual response: “That was Metallica’s Creeping Death.”
Good stuff.
The listeners in Central Park were even more diverse than in the subways. Central Park is a huge tourist attraction, which helped us build an international fan-base in a way that most bands cannot do.

The Fourth of July
It was a natural high. We were buzzing. As performers, we were feeding off the incredible energy from crowds in the form of smiles, cheers and clapping. We took that energy and gave it right back to them.
As a result, we were playing harder, louder, and faster. Each song turned into a set. Each set turned into hours. The day would go by as the sun continued to punish us.
Before I realized it, I looked down at my djembe and saw my fingers and my drumhead smeared with blood! My finger was bleeding from playing the djembe so hard. I taped it up and kept going.
Fatigue began taking over. My arms were fried. I glanced over at Pat, who was as red as a lobster, covered in sunburns. I looked at Erin who was next to me cringing from the pain in her wrist and shoulders.

Despite the sheer response and the incredible number of CDs we were selling, I simply couldn’t give any more. It was time for us to stop. I had to stop – I was BLEEDING for crying out loud, and I just didn’t feel like making music anymore. Some of the others understood where I was coming from, but insisted on continuing. They had good reason. Money was coming easy that day – we wouldn’t come across another day like that all year.
I didn’t care. I was so spent.
After about an hour of yelling, cursing, hugging, and more cursing, we left without playing anymore that day. The ride home was awkward, to say the least.
On top of that, Erin continued to feel discomfort in her hand and wrist…
Despite all the conflict, we kept heading out to Central Park, every Saturday and Sunday.
[INTERACT: Did you meet BOR in Central Park? Did you take pictures? Videos? Share them with us!]

Yoko Ono and Co.
Usually, we would arrive at Central Park early, eat some granola, and warm up. While the cellists were warming up, I would typically go to the bathroom, call my mom, or sometimes take a walk.
Well, I forgot about the bathroom one morning, and ended up having to go during one of our sets. I ran off, and wasn’t gone for more than 10 minutes.
I ran back, and saw huge smiles on everyone’s faces, especially the guys.
“We just met that lady from Groundhog Day!”, Patrick yelled. “And you missed it!”
Dang it! I missed meeting Andie MacDowell, and apparently that wasn’t the best part.
She was taking a walk with her beautiful daughter, and they happened to walk by our spot. The cellists, who decided to wait for me to play, were just hanging out. Well, MacDowell approaches them and asks about the group. Rather than waiting for me, the cellists decided to play, sans drums. After all, how many chances do you get to play for “that lady from Groundhog Day”?
She dug it, and so did her daughter. They ended up buying a CD and chatted with the group. They left right before I got there.
Jesse said MacDowell was really nice, and the guys all agreed that her daughter was “very nice looking”.
Dang it! I missed it! From then on, I held my urge to go to the bathroom for as long as possible.
Another day, we were playing for a huge crowd at the fountain. We were performing Circles for probably the 15th time that day, when we noticed a small Asian woman making her way to the front of the crowd with her grandson. The little kid was just adorable. He was dancing, jumping, and running with the music. We thought the kid was great, but didn’t pay much attention to his grandmother.
It hit Jesse first.
“That’s Yoko Ono,” he said.
Holy moly.
He was right.

We immediately perked up. We were playing for Yoko Ono and her grandson, and they were both digging it. She left before we could talk to her, but a fan there approached us and said, “I see her in the park all the time. I have never seen her stop to listen to any musician before. You should feel honored; she loved it.”
We were.
————
[INTERACT: Did you hear Break of Reality in Central Park? Tell us about it! If you have photos or videos, please share!]
Next week on BoR Blog – Scammers! We met a lot of nice people in NYC, but we also met some interesting folks, some who promised us the world.

1-2-09

The Big Move

We decided to pack our bags, leave Rochester, and head out to NYC. After all, that’s where musicians get signed, (or almost get signed). We didn’t have much of a plan going in – we were just kind of hoping for the best.

We collectively decided to live in separate apartments, for fear of killing each other.
Erin and I came across some really nice apartments in the quiet town of Ridgefield Park, NJ, which was pretty much an old folks community, also near NYC. We ended up finding two apartments in the same complex, 50 feet away from each other.

There was also a “fifth-member” of Break of Reality at the time. Our friend and colleague Jesse Yang was brought over to NYC to assist with business and administration, such as website maintenance, merchandise sales at gigs, and booking performances. He ended up living closest to NYC, in Fort Lee, NJ.

For the most part, we were clueless. Rather than playing it safe and searching for cheap apartments, we ended up in apartments with monthly payments between $900 and $1100. I know, too much for a subway musician. I still ask myself, “What the heck were we thinking?

And our parents – well, they thought we were nuts. After all, not many graduates of first tier music conservatories strive to be subway musicians.

We did the math and came up with a strict schedule for street performing, (along with real performances), that would hopefully support our living situation

The Subways

Some of our most memorable musical experiences in NYC happened while performing on the 59th Street subway platform. That’s right. The platform. I think our parents were right…

There was one time we spotted a large crowd of commuters waiting for a train that had been backed up. We set up on the platform and busted out Welcome Home by Coheed and Cambria. They soon forgot about their train.

At the end of Welcome Home, we typically chant a melody, just like in Coheed’s version. When we got to this part of the tune, Chris stood up and encouraged everyone to chant along. And they did. The whole crowd, probably about 75 people or so, was chanting the melody to Coheed and Cambria’s Welcome Home on a subway platform. It was weird, in a remarkable and amazing way.

During this year, I’m sure we performed for more people than most classical musician do in an entire lifetime. It was the best part of street performing – being so close to, and connecting with, so many strangers through our music.

Given our quota, we really needed to find and play in good “spots” in the subways, with lots of people. We’d wake up at the crack of dawn to get to some of the good spots. Sometimes, other musicians were already there. Other times, when we’d finally get a good spot, we would be arbitrarily asked to leave by NYC police officers. It was tough, especially since we had bills to pay.

We eventually came up with a system of spots that worked, and worked them hard. We found that 42nd Street Times Square was great, but almost always taken by permitted subway musicians. Eventually, we figured out how to get a permit by becoming MUNY (Music Under New York) musicians, and life became a tad less difficult.

INTERACT: Do you have videos or photos of Break of Reality performing in the NYC subways? Share them with us by uploading them on YouTube or your Flickr account!

TEASER:

Believe it or not, we played real gigs in NYC – lots of them. We performed at the Knitting Factory, Joe’s Pub At The Public Theater, Baruch College, and The Triad to name a few. And lots of people showed.

Read Baruch College’s Article on Break of Reality

There was a definite upside to subway playing. We would promote to our subway fans by passing out flyers – two weeks later we’d see the same fans in the front rows of our shows. [More on our “real” gig experiences in blogs to come.

The Business Plan

For some time, someone said something about creating a business plan. We didn’t think much of it. They were persistent, and kept bringing it up. Finally, we were all convinced of this, put our ideas on paper, and came up with a mission statement to dictate our actions as a band. We actually took a good week off from performing to get this done.

Although a fantastic idea, we came to realize a big flaw in our scheme: real businesses operate in the real world, not in the subways. Financially, we couldn’t dictate how much money we would make in the subways, given the outside factors beyond our control, such as weather, other subway musicians, police, etc.

This meant that when we had a good spot, we had to stay there as long as possible, to bring in as much loot as possible. So much for our mission – this was survival.

Some days, we’d spend an entire eight hours planted in one spot. It was tough, sometimes sad. But, we forced it, and made it work for the time being.

One sunny day, tired of the subways, we tried something different. We decided to lug our stuff out to Central Park…

——————–

Next week on BOR BLOG: BOR meets Yoko Ono and that lady from Groundhog Day, sells many CDs, and has its first “fight” in Central Park.

Stay Tuned!

Break of Reality Loves Rochester

Rochester, NY is Break of Reality’s haven. We grew up there, went to school there, and started the band there. It’s home. Every time we go back, we know Rochester will come out in full force.

One of our favorite music venues to play in Rochester isn’t a music venue at all. It’s Spot Coffee, located on East Ave.

Patrick, Chris, Erin and myself all loved performing there. The vibe was chill, we were given the occasional free latte, and most Spot patrons had no idea what the heck was going on. After all, many of them were not there to hear us. They were there for a nice, quiet cup of coffee. I’m sure we ruined many a first date… But, it was actually a cool way to bring music to people; the element of surprise worked pretty well for us.

At one Spot performance, a large group of Rochester townies walked in, their bellies filled with garbage plates, (a traditional Rochester cuisine), and Jenny Light I’m sure, and possibly other things.

Patrick looks over to us and calls out Metallica’s “Creeping Death”. Chris immediately starts the opening riff, and the townies’ heads turn. They step a little closer, and one yells out, “Holy #^$*! That’s Metallica!” We hooked ‘em right there.

By the end of the night, Spot Coffee was an underground rock club filled with screams and the occasional “Freebird!” request. It was a cool scene.

We were lucky that night. A writer from Rochester City Newspaper happened to be there, and decided to interview us and write a cover story on the group. We were really lucky that night.

Read Break of Reality’s Cover Story Here

The cover story led to more performances in Rochester, at Water Street Music Hall, Montage Grill, The Bug Jar, and also created some interest among public school music teachers. Soon we were giving educational workshops at Penfield High School, The Hochstein School, The Kanack School, and other educational establishments throughout Rochester. Even our alma mater, Eastman, took notice. We were invited to give a lecture on music business, marketing, and promotion. By the time we were seniors at Eastman, we had built a nice following of friends and fans in Rochester.

TEASER:

During this time, we also began traveling and performing in New York City. During one of these trips, we discovered a form of performance / promotion that would turn Break of Reality upside down, for the better and for the worst.

Street performing.

In the streets, subways, and the parks. We took the concept of musical surprise that we discovered at Spot Coffee and moved it to the streets. Lots of crazy, cool stories with this, which we’ll delve into in blogs to come.

How to Get Signed (Almost)

One trip to NYC, we set up shop outside of the Columbus Circle mall on 59th street. We played a total of two and a half songs before we were promptly asked to leave by mall security, (Circles, A Blind Purpose, and Solid Ground, I believe). During these eight or so minutes, something big happened. A Senior VP for a major music management company happened to walk by. I’m sure he noticed the music we were playing, and probably also noticed the rather nice crowd we had built. He was stunned. He dropped his business card into one of our cello cases, and weeks later we were in his office, sipping coffee and talking shop. He wanted to sign us.

That day, we kept our composure through most of the meeting with Mr. VP. After the meeting, once outside the building, we lost it. We jumped up and down, and hugged each other like we were lost lovers. I’m sure we looked like idiots. No, we definitely looked like idiots. We didn’t care. Every musician’s dream seemed to be coming true for us. Days later, we received a contract in the mail. The whole experience was like something out of a movie.

Almost…

Mr. VP set up a showcase concert for us in Manhattan, and invited lots of his industry contacts. One small problem. Most of his contacts were involved in the classical music industry, and were not accustomed to over the head cello solos and fat drum beats. Although they all enjoyed the show, they were not sure how to represent us.

Soon after, Mr. VP started his own company, which unfortunately didn’t include cello rock. Within the timeframe of a month, we had experienced the highs and lows of the real world music industry.

Fortunately for all concerned, we did not sign that contract.

Despite this curve ball, we all agreed that NYC would be a great fit for us. After all, if eight minutes of street playing could get us a management deal, good things would definitely come our way…

“Rochester Farewell Show”

Before moving to NYC, and before graduating from Eastman, we decided to give one last performance in Rochester. Our good friends at Roberts Wesleyan College had agreed to host the event. We decided this would be Break of Reality’s “Rochester Farewell Show”, and marketed it as such. We wanted to throw a free show to thank our fans in Rochester for all of their support. Both local papers were kind enough to write about and promote the event.

I remember arriving at the venue, and looking around at the empty auditorium, which seated almost 1,000 people. We thought the venue was too large, and there would be too many empty seats. Maybe 300 people would show, maybe…

Well, we were wrong. Dead wrong.

Over 1,000 people showed up that night to hear us play, some standing in the isles and in the balcony, some holding signs that said things like “We love BOR” and “We’ll miss you.”

It was completely, and ridiculously, humbling and unbelievable. It has stayed with all of us I’m sure.

For more photos from Rochester, visit our flickr album HERE

—————

Next week on BOR BLOG: Graduation, Adjusting in NYC, Subway Musician 101, Real Gigs, and The “Business Plan”.

Stay tuned and Happy Holidays!

Did you attend the Rochester Farewell Show, a show at Spot Coffee, or any other Rochester show that Break of Reality performed? Leave a comment and tell us about it!

12-19-08

Hey Friends,

Every Friday for the next couple of months, I will be posting a new blog chronicling Break of Reality’s past and present experiences as a music group. I have decided to start this blog for a number of reasons. For one, I always get emails like “What happened to Chris and Erin?” and “What was it like living and gigging in NYC?” and “Who are the two new members of Break of Reality?”

I hope to give you some personnel insight into what we’ve been through and where we are going. The blog will coincide with our summer album release, which will hopefully make for a more personal album experience for all of you! I hope you guys are 2% as excited about this as I am ☺

Cheers,

Ivan
Break

Next week on BoR Blog: Building our Rochester fan base, The Rochester Farewell Show, and the big move to NYC!