Legacy Familia Primed for World Dominaton

There are those who feel Boston simply isn’t an ideal town for nightlife. With 2 a.m. closings and a lack of all-night subway service, it’s not hard to see why some promoters and talents from other major cities in the United States tend to shy away from the Bean.

Truth be told, there are many amazing destinations in town for nightlife and some tremendous dance parties to be found here. After all, we wouldn’t exist if we didn’t have a healthy dose of nightlife in New England. However, there are a few who feel the scene needs something radically different to shake things up. In essence, take everything that makes the idea of nightlife an escape from reality, mix in the most wildly eclectic selection of music you’ll find anywhere, shake it up, and pop out something unlike anything else found within any other nightlife event on the Boston circuit.

DJSK3

That event is called “Legacy,” and after an absence of nearly a year, it’s poised to return on Wednesday night, June 8, with a new destination (OM Lounge in Cambridge), the same man behind the booth and the shades (with a new handle), and a more impressive crew than ever before. The theme of this upcoming event is centered around a bold slogan: “The World Is Ours”.

It’s not yet a name that is immediately recognizable to local industry players. Perhaps this is because he’s better known by his previous moniker: “DJ Sterling Golden”. Over the last two years, Mr. Golden carved out a unique niche for himself with the Legacy dance party. Having come into the scene as an avid, longtime supporter (he was a fixture at the legendary Manray nightclub for years) and with no prior experience behind the booth, he brought with him one of the largest libraries of music you’ll find from any DJ in Boston and a keen sense of what the audience wants to get down to.

In a recent interview with DJ Fuse, SK3 admitted he’s “no mixmaster”, meaning he sticks to the classic, traditional style of DJing at its simplest form: presenting a series of tracks that get the party started, and keep it raging all night long. Understandably, some may roll their eyes at this and dismiss SK3 as nothing more than a glorified wedding DJ, but trust us when we tell you: having been to several Legacy events since its 2009 inception, it’s one of the most exciting dance nights you’ll ever be a part of. Legacy first appeared at Cambridge’s Cantab Lounge, quickly migrating to the legendary Model Café in Allston, where SK3 held a residency for the next year. By its one-year anniversary, local press was taking notice: the Boston Phoenix, the area’s largest weekly publication, featured Legacy on the cover of its July 23-29, 2010 issue. The Phoenix also presented a massive pictorial of their “Year 1″ event on their website, which can still be seen today.

So, what makes Legacy so different from other dance nights? Well, we surely can’t think of any other party in the Bean that dares to present an evening of sounds that covers dubstep, rock, hip-hop, house, trance, classic & rare disco tracks, vintage funk, soul, reggae, Britpop, goth, industrial, punk, indie, world music, and Top 40…all in one night. No joke. We’ve been there, and people really get into the eclecitic nature of this show. A typical night at Legacy could feature music from Lady Gaga, KISS, the Beatles, Bodega Girls, The Smiths, Gregory Isaacs, Fela Kuti, Odd Future, and Duke Ellington. In the same setlist. DJ SK3 says his library dates back to 1860. This isn’t hyperbole: we once heard him drop a track from 1895 during the first half hour of the night. It certainly fascinated the evening’s early birds.

vKash

SK3 doesn’t come alone. v.Ka$h and VJna have been working hard on the local scene for several years now, presenting fantastic visual presentations alongside some of the most respected DJs in town. They’re surely multi-talented as well: v.Ka$h and VJna also excel in the field of body artistry, and regularly “tattoo” their attendees with beautifully rendered works upon the skin of the willing. Speaking of VJna, we should also note she is a stellar fashion model as well: she’s been nominated for her first pageant, Miss New Hampshire USA 2011.

Rounding out what SK3 has dubbed “Legacy Familia” is the presence of a new hostess, Zarine, a spunky spitfire of a gal who can set fire to a dancefloor like few others we know. She’s a longtime supporter of many of the local circuit’s finest dance parties as well, so we think it’s safe to say SK3 chose the event’s hostess wisely.

VJna

OM Restaurant & Lounge is the setting for the new age of Legacy, beginning Wednesday night, June 8 (10 PM, 21+, no cover). You’ll surely find them somewhere on the dancefloor, or the outdoor garden, sweating gloriously with the scene’s sexiest people.

I’m a Red Sox Doodle Dandy

Happy 4th of July to all Americans around the world (especially our troops overseas)!

Congratulations to Shannon Donnelly who won The Sitchie’s 4th of July Red Sox ticket giveaway and will be at Fenway Park today. The Sitchie did a ticket giveaway back in April, but this giveaway seemed to get a much better response. Perhaps it’s because The Sitchie has grown since then and is getting a lot more well known. Or maybe it was the relative ease to enter: all people had to do was sign up with The Sitchie and then tell me their favorite bar listed on the site. Whatever the reason, I was quite pleased with the response and look forward to doing more giveaways– and getting more creative with them.

The overarching goal of any giveaway is to get people familiar with the website or the product, so having people register with the site in order to qualify was a quick and easy way to accomplish that. Still, I’d like more participation on the site from registrants, that is posting events or joining a conversation in the ‘nightlife buzz’ section. It’s hard to draw people away from the behemoths that are Twitter and Facebook for nightlife purposes, but I think there is a niche to be carved out that can supply what FB and Twitter lack in terms of nightlife outreach.

And speaking of Twitter, The Sitchie is pleased to be sponsoring a ‘Tweet-Up’ at The Lansdowne Pub on July 6. The Lansdowne is a classy sports bar across from Fenway Park, and it is embracing social media by inviting those who love to tweet and network down to the pub for a gathering.

More and more, I find myself participating in the nightlife scene and social media events. Whether it’s with bar managers or promoters of events or sponsoring benefits (see the Gulf oil spill benefit that The Sitchie will be co-sponsoring in August) or connecting with other nightlife websites and enthusiasts such as Instant Nightlife.com, The Sitchie continues to grow in scope and popularity.

On this very special day in American history, I’m feeling quite the Red Sox (I would never say Yankee) Doodle Dandy.

The Sounds of Silence

Yes, I am ripping off Simon and Garfunkel, but I have good reason: there’s a new silence in Boston, and it’s called SILENT DISCO. Silent Disco is a bold concept in nightlife. With the “silent storm” technology, bar-goers are issued a pair of headphones. Any music the bar or club is playing comes through the headphones. Two channels on the headphones allow the listener to switch back and forth to different music selections. Patrons can listen to music or take the headphones off and listen to their friends (no shouting at a noisy bar necessary). One of the funniest spectacles you may ever see at a bar is a room full of people dancing with headphones on, but there’s no music playing. Feels kind of strange at first, but, like a new lover, soon you can’t resist.

People dancing with Silent Disco

Silent Disco plays a regular Thursday night show at OM Lounge in Cambridge, but on June 9 (a Wednesday), Silent Disco made a trip to Allston to team up with DJ Sterling Golden who does a once a month show at The Model Cafe. DJ Golden’s monthly show is called LEGACY, and he spins tracks from all of recorded music history. The variation is amazing, and you never know what you’ll get; Madonna played after Robert Johnson and then right to Usher or Steely Dan.

DJ Golden spinning as people dance to his tracks

And if you haven’t been to The Model Cafe, you should check it out. There’s no mincing words about it: it’s a dive bar. But it’s got character and, like Legacy, a wide variety of patrons. You’ll see everyone at The Model. From BU and BC students to aging hipsters to 20-something yuppies to punk rockers and metal heads, The Model truly has it all. Located in the heart of Allston, it’s easy to get to by T, bus, cab, or foot.

The Sitchie has featured events for both Legacy and Silent Disco. Like Legacy, The Sitchie is searching far and wide for bands, DJs, bars, event coordinators in an effort to promote their shows and parties at Boson nightlife venues. And like, Silent Disco, The Sitchie hopes to stealthily and silently make a name for itself as one of Boston’s top nightlife destinations on the web.

Learn more about Silent Disco at their website: http://www.silentdis.co/

Another happy Silent Disco dancer

Zombies!

When I started The Sitchie I envisioned it solely based around nightlife in Boston . Events at bars, clubs, and lounges would be my focus, but in the course of building the site and getting word out I started to meet folks who not only hosted events at nightlife venues but also gatherings of other kinds.

A few weeks ago, I was asked to feature an event on The Sitchie: the annual Zombie March through Boston. Once a year, “the undead” gather to march through the streets of Boston. These zombies go all out. Fake blood, gouges, ripped clothing, masks, costumes, and more. They lurch, growl, and screech as they terrorize ‘civilians.’ It sounds scarier than it is. The city sanctions it, and there are strict rules about behavior.

The Zombie March took place in broad daylight, so it was really the furthest thing from a nightlife event, and it wasn’t held at a bar or club. And it got me to realizing that in seeking to grow The Sitchie I couldn’t think like a zombie. I have to be creative and flexible, and when opportunities come along that weren’t in my original conception of the website I have to seize them–even if that means getting a little fake blood on my hands.

And to my surprise, one of the highest day’s for traffic ever on The Sitchie was a day or two before the Zombie March. Those zombies are a tight knit bunch (even if they are clamoring for human flesh), and they were really psyched up about the event.

The lesson: the social web is a phenomena unlike any other and it will take you places you never thought of when you started out. So when you encounter a zombie on the internet, don’t necessarily recoil in horror. Take a closer look, and that zombie might just be your best friend…

It’s Enormous!!!

Forgive me faithful readers for my long blogging absence. Business with The Sitchie (www.thesitchie.com) has been brisk, and it’s a full-time job keeping the site current and the events flowing.

The Sitchie will have  a new feature shortly, the “bar spotlight,” where any venue that wishes can be spotlighted on the home page with a link to a dedicated page about that bar. With increased traffic to the site and greater awareness about The Sitchie in general, this is a natural draw for bars.

More important is our first big interactive show, which is May 12 at Enormous Room in Cambridge (www.enormous.tv). Since early this year, The Sitchie has been working with an up and coming internet radio station in Boston called UnRegular Radio (www.unregularradio.com) to put on a weekly music and nightlife show. Well, this week we will broadcast our radio show live from the Enormous Room, which is a progressive and chic venue in Cambridge, MA. The hosts of our show, DJ Sterling Golden and K’Loni Sky, will play music (K’Loni Sky will perform a song live), dish about upcoming events, and engage with the audience.

In the age of new media, you have to think  on your feet. The paradigm is always shifting and you have to look at more than just your website as an outreach tool. Social media, internet radio, and actually getting out there and showing your face are all elements of the battle that must be employed.

We’re expecting a big crowd tomorrow night and a lot of visibility. It should be an ENORMOUS evening!!!

Radio Days

A few months ago, I was contacted via Twitter (thank you very much social media) by an internet radio station called UnRegular Radio, www.unregularradio.com. UnRegular is a new station located in the Boston area wanting to tap into the nightlife scene. It was suggested that I feed the stream of Sitchie events and updates to UnRegular’s site (for this I’d have to set up a RSS Feed, something I did not know much about but do now). In addition to that, I was offered a radio show on the station–a nightlife show where I could talk about what was happening in Boston’s nightlife community as well as other related topics.

I’m no dinosaur, but I didn’t even know internet radio existed or how it differed from the traditional radio that I grew up on. Internet radio could be the wave of the future or at least a serious competitor for terrestrial and satellite radio. It’s pretty simple: you go to a website and listen to the station through your computer. There are also ways to listen in your car and on mobile devices. Like satellite radio, internet radio is not regulated so just about anything goes.

I’ve done several shows now, and for anyone who thinks doing a radio show is easy…think again! There are no commercials (only breaks for songs), so you can’t rely on being able to chatter for ten minutes and then have seven minutes of ads come on. You have to be prepared (guests or co-hosts help) with a plan and segments laid out. Right now, The Sitchie show is only an hour and once a week, so I marvel at how some people can prepare and pull off a daily show of 3-4 hours in length. 

Considering that The Sitchie is part of the new media wave and that UnRegular is part of the new radio wave, it’s been a great and interesting partnership so far. When I launched The Sitchie last year, I had no idea that in a few months I’d be doing an internet radio show, but one of the keys to surviving in the world of e-business, it would seem, is to be flexible and go where you have to go to make your site work.

In the case of The Sitchie, it would appear that going on the radio –internet radio– is one of those places I need to be to spread word about the site.

Seduced by the Dark Side?

When I first set up The Sitchie the idea I had was to make the site an extremely functional one, like Craigslist. It would be pretty much no frills with a lot of useful information. Make it easy to use was my thought. If it’s all visual bells and whistles and there’s no substance, then who would care what it looks like. Along the way, however, I received more than enough feedback to tell me that the look of the site could help (or harm) its chances. After all, The Sitchie is a nightlife website, so it must exude some fun and convey the feeling that a dynamic, nightlife experience is what the site is all about.

Some changes were in store.

These changes will debut in mid-to-late January 2010. In addition to some new functions, one of the major changes will be a new look–a facelift so to speak. But what kind of cosmetics would I apply? I was told repeatedly that I needed a “web 2.0″ look. That could of course mean many things, but one thing I knew it meant –especially in the realm of social media– was a better color scheme.

But which way to go? Dark or light? Many people told me that The Sitchie is a nightlife site, so make it dark and seductive like a nightclub might appear. Others pointed out that most social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and even my old pal Craigslist, embraced light color schemes. My first inclination was to go with the darker colors. But it kept nagging at me to see a light template, so I asked my designer to draw one up for me.

I sent both templates out to friends and current Sitchie users to get feedback. I was hoping for a very definite response, as in 90% would opt for the light or dark color scheme. I was not so lucky. It was about 60/40 in favor of light. And that is what my gut tells me, that light is the way to go. It’s easier to read (especially on handhelds in dark night clubs) and really does convey the web 2.0 look that most social media sites are embracing.

So, though I was initially seduced by the dark side, the new Sitchie website will have a light color scheme. I guess Obi-Wan Kenobe would be proud of me. We’ll see what the general public’s reaction is…

It Takes Money to Make Money

Now that The Sitchie is becoming a known factor on the Boston bar and social media scene, it’s time for changes. I’ve received some great feedback over the last few months about how to make The Sitchie more appealing and more useful to bar-goers, bar owners, DJs, promoters, and on. I’m also ready to implement the first monetization effort for The Sitchie, but I’m in a curious place: in order to make money off the site, I’ll have to spend money.

The changes I’d like to make  require more development of the site. That means calls to my desginer and site developer. Every time I have my team (and they are very good) makes changes, it costs me. This go around for The Sitchie is crucial. It will determine whether or not the site can be a profitable venture, but in order to see black I must first run red. I need to spend money to make changes which will put me in a position to earn revenue.

This is by no means an unknown concept to business, but when you are self-financed how much do you outlay and when do you stop? I could keep making changes to the site in order to put it in a postion to offer more, compete with other sites, and have a better look, but at some time I will reach a breaking point.

There are many fabulous ideas in life and business, but not all of them are achievable–sometimes physically, sometimes financially. The Sitchie is a great idea: there are very few people who disagree with that. However, the financial factor is the key consideration here. How much more can I put out and put up in order to realize that return?

This is a question every business faces, but it’s never seemed so important for The Sitchie as it does now…

There are Your Friends and Then There are Your “Friends”

After building up a number of Facebook friends and Twitter followers, I thought the time was right to meet some of these folks. So I scheduled the first “Sitchie Meet and Greet.” I found an eager partner in The Lansdowne Pub (www.lansdownepubboston.com) which offered to provide an area and some appetizers free of charge in exchange for the business a Sitchie party might bring in.

I blitzed my Facebook and Twitter friends and followers for ten days prior to the party. I put together an invite on Facebook and sent it out to the almost 1,300 friends The Sitchie has on FB. By the day of the event, I had about 105 responses of ‘yes’ to attend and about 160 ‘maybes.’ I knew this number would not be exact, but I was suprised to find that only a small fraction of either ‘yes’ and ‘maybe’ showed up.

What’s more, the people who did come I had actually met personally in other places. The people who did not show, even though they answered ‘yes’ and ‘maybe,’ were my ‘friends’ through Facebook, but I had met very few of them in the flesh. It prooved to me that in the digital and viral ages, good old face-to-face meetings remain indispensable. It’s not enough to know someone through the ether. You need to sit down with them and talk; it’s then that you make a real connection, real ‘friends.’

It was an eye opening and instructive situation. Here I am building a social media network, which is built around viral connections, but that cannot –and should never– replace wholly live interaction as the basis of commerce and networking.

It only emphasizes to me that building a website is more than tapping away at the keyboard and clicking the mouse. I have to be out there, meeting new folks and forming new relationships in order for my internet business to thrive.

-RS

Does a Giveaway Give Back?

Having launched the site in July, I knew I had to rely on more than a “if you build it, they will come” strategy. But short of a huge budget for advertising, how could I draw people to the site? A great suggestion was passed along to me: do a giveaway. Offer people something to come to the site and use it in return for the chance at some prizes. It’s a pretty quick and easy way to spread word about the site, and it gives people an incentive to do more than just peek at the site and then bolt.

I held the first Sitchie giveaway this fall. It closed November 1. It was a good way to pitch the site to the media and the public, and a number of people did ‘sign up and sitch’ for the prizes. I think it helped tremendously in spreading word about the site and making it real to people who may have heard about it in passing but had less incentive before to spend time browsing the content and participating–that is posting ‘sitchies’ about what was happening at bars in Boston.

But does the giveaway give back, and what are its perils? There is a downside to everything, and though more people certainly know about the site now I have to ask myself: do they only see The Sitchie as a site that does giveaways? I may in fact do another giveaway to keep the momentum going, but that is not the primary goal or raison d’etre of the site. I had seen a bump in traffic to the site during the giveaway, but once it closed the traffic slowed. One always wants more and new visitors, so what do you do when the giveaway is over and those visiting the site have less incentive to return? Like a casino, you want to keep them coming back and playing–whether you have a giveaway or not. But how to get beyond the giveaway stigma?

On balance, I think the positives far outweigh the negatives. A giveaway is not only a good way to spread word about the site, but also a vehicle to get feedback from people who have now used the site. Those who entered the giveaway are far more likely to tell you what they liked about the site and what changes they would want to see than random members of the public who you might have to beg to give you feedback.

All in all, the giveaway was a terrific learning experience for me, and I think it will help to improve The Sitchie and move it forward in a productive, positive, and –hopefully– profitable way.

-Randy