I was out shooting a food video in Brossard yesterday when Fred E. Fame hit me by text informing me that he was throwing a random show that evening.
A group of Toronto artists were in town and he wanted help getting some Montreal folk in place. I hit up a few folk and King Browne pulled up. But mostly it was the Toronto artists that from their show the night before, that was better advertised, than this last minute one.
Fred E Fame loves doing last minute stuff under the guise of some unforeseen force “making him do it”.
His way of maneuvering is an acquired taste but it led him to booking a Sunday night show at Bar Saska.
Bar Saska is quite close to my place, being across the street from the Metro grocery store by Snowdon.
Fred E. Fame Shows Are A Particular Kind of Experience
The way Fred E. moves, the majority of his shows are artist meetups.
Artists will get 2-10 minutes to perform. You do your thing, show off your skills then mingle with the other artists. I find these events in Montreal not so valuable for me because they're the same people I see at shows. When you mix in other cities things change. You get the opportunity to meet another version of yourself that can help you build elsewhere.
While some of you reading this may be connected already in Toronto and other places, most of us are not.
A Fred E. Fame show plays its role as helping you Bridge the Gap from complete stranger to, now I know a few people. If you move correctly, following those people will help you unlock more rooms to enter where you are a stranger. After a while you’ll have a few real supporters you can rely on for your expansion.
Fred E. does not throw standard shows and if you ask questions ahead of time you won’t be surprised.
You can either be sad at a turnout or you can make the most of it
A last minute Fred E. Fame show is not always going to be full of people.
Especially on a Sunday evening in a part of town not known for being the life of the party. Still, I suited up and figured I could make a few connections. This is exactly what happened.
There were a few Montreal people in the room trying to create a media company of sorts. There were Toronto folk I’d met in the past I was able to chop it up with solidifying future dealings, folk who were excited to run into me in Toronto again. There were some random Montreal folk in the bar for a birthday party that started after our show was done.
I knew it was time to go when I saw people eating cake.
In many moments of my life I’ve been salty if the turnout at a show was small. The last 3 performances I did had small turnouts, but at each one people paid attention. I’ve been at shows with 100 people where when I performed only 15 stayed in the room anyway.
I went in there with the intention to build and that’s exactly what happened.
I was offered a weekly night at Bar Saska
I chopped it up with the owner as well.
He really liked the unreleased Bonjour-Hi song. He felt where I was coming from because he’s also an English speaker in these parts of Montreal. Either way we talked a bit and he let me know this place was available.
He has his busy nights that pay his bills and wants more action on calmer nights. In theory, we can build out a weekly platform focused on Hip Hop. There’s a lot to consider before doing that, but at the end of the day, I’d like to do something that makes me some money in the game.
Basically my saying yes to Fred E. Fame, gave me more footage of me rapping shared to Instagram, a new venue to use for events and some new friends who actually live in my city.
I’ve been a negative nilly many times, even recently I was criticized harshly for my attitude. It’s a struggle to see the beauty in the moment and find blessings. When I choose that path, the truth is I find blessings.
I encourage everyone to choose faith over negativity when it comes to these events.
Live Long and Prosper Everyone
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