A Sober Breath is a nonprofit corporation in Yakima, WA that primarily serves as a coffee shop and a relatively upscale meeting hall for people in recovery from chemical dependency (that's alcoholism and drug addiction for the laymen).
OUR NEW SUMMER LOCATION!!!!!NOW OPERATIONAL!!THE JAM SHACK at Exit 69 near Grandview!!!!2270 Tear Road, Grandview, WA 98930
Carload Specials for most showsAs you may already know, the Zone is now closed for business because the angry neighbor, Craig Schultz, bought the building and served us with our eviction papers.We have an awesome temporary solution in The Jam Shack. Be a part of this awesome new project and come on out to some of our shows.If you are a band or artist, then let's set up a date for you to play. We are large enough for most underground bands, but small enough to maintain an intimate setting with the crowd.If you would like to set up a gig, give Brian a call at 509-949-6797.ALSO, as you probably already know, we also put on on an annual music festival called Evergreen MusicFest. (
For info on that, be sure to visit EVERGREEN MUSICFEST
A WORD TO THE BANDS:Local Bands: You are generally the reason people come out to see the shows. I make no bones about it. We need you so we can be successful as a business. People want to support their friends' bands. That's awesome, and that's the way it should be.
But as most of you know, much of the time, friends of bands leave the venue as soon as their friends are done playing-even if the local bands ask people to stick around. As you might imagine, this really sucks for out-of-town bands who don't have any local fans and who might have very well driven a long way to play here. So as a professional courtesy, we TRY to place out-of-town bands somewhere in the middle of the lineup- Not First and not Last. It's only fair. This is our ideal, although there are exceptions to this. We do try to adhere to this policy, but there are times when schedules just don't permit. If a well-established band with a large Yakima fanbase comes to town, they might be placed last, but only because we know they have a fanbase here and we know people will stick around for them. Not the case with many regional bands. The biggest underground band from South Dakota might not have ANY fans in Yakima! It's not rocket science, but you might be surprised at some bands' reactions to this policy. Most of the time, nobody wants to play first and nobody wants to play last. Unfortunately, we sometimes have to put an out-of-town band first, but we try our best not to.
Also, LOCAL BANDS: I (Brian) am the promoter and by definition, it is my job to promote your show. I love my job and that's why I do it. (Believe me, it ain't for the money!) I think most bands will agree that I do my part at trying to promote bands and help further your careers.
With that said, it is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY as a band to help get people in the door. MEET ME HALFWAY! PROMOTE YOURSELVES! Shameless self-promotion is one of the keys to success and it's one that can't be overlooked, lest people overlook you!
Presumably you want your show to be a success as much as I do and this means getting getting the word out amongst people you know AND people you don't. Local people. This means:
1)promoting like crazy to all your myspace friends (from your band page AND your band members' personal pages) preferably using the digital version of the poster that I took the time to design
2)getting the band involved in hitting the streets and getting the word out about this week's show.
Forget about what your mother told you. TALK TO STRANGERS! Let them know that you are gonna set the stage on fire (please don't though) and that your band is the best thing to hit Yakima since the shopping cart. Sell yourselves!
3)meeting with me early in the week to distribute flyers.
I don't print up handbills every week, but I do print 11x17 posters for every show I do. I think this is one of the things that sets me apart from some of the other local promoters. You should be willing to hand out at least a few of them-and when the show is over, take them down and hang them in your band room. Please don't hang them in your band room first!
4) (optional) make up your own fliers. Black & Whites are cheap (or even colored paper with black ink), especially if you make strips of paper (aka locker stuffers)one inch by 8 1/2. You can do hundreds of these for just a few dollars and they're easy to design
5) (optional) Get creative! Make bumper stickers and get all your friends to put them on their car. T-shirts work well too. Give your demo disc to the college station.
Promote yourselves everywhere!Some of you know about the work we do with the homeless. Most of you do not. We don't like to pat ourselves on the back for doing what people should be doing anyway. The song 3003, by Lyle K'ang and Stagnant will be the soundtrack to a DVD presentation we are putting together, in conjunction with Yakima County (no, this is NOT a governmental project-not even close!), to help spread awareness and alleviate the serious homeless problem and also to help spread the word about the statewide effort to end homelessness by 50 percent in 10 years (we think we can do better than that in the county). We believe it can happen and we are pulling out all the stops to ensure that we are successful and that we are efficient at doing it. No top-heavy bureaucratic bullshit here.
If you or your business are interested in this free DVD, aimed at helping raise funds to end homelessness at a grass roots level, feel free to ask me for a copy of the DVD, which you would be encouraged to show to potential donors. Thank you.
