Candice Jones is the new booker at the Black Cat and she also happens to be one of my best friends. I’ve known her for 10 years and she is one of the funniest and most entertaining people i’ve had the pleasure of sharing company with. It is exciting news that Candice will be coming back to D.C. to work at the Black Cat after a stint in New York working for the music management firm Figure Eight. It’s also exciting because Jones, who previously worked the door at the Black Cat, now has a permanent home here instead of crashing on my couch. (Kidding, kidding.) I asked Jones five quick questions over Google Chat about her new gig:
What band would you love to book at The Black Cat?
That’s a tough question. Vicki [Savoula] and Dante [Ferrando] have done such a rad job booking the Black Cat, I feel anyone that I would mention, they have probably already booked at some point. I’m really into Insane Clown Posse, KoRn, Dream Theatre, Mushroomhead… I’m so pissed Limp Bizkit broke up. I kid. Sort of… I don’t really know. There are a lot of smaller bands I am into these days that would be good for the backstage. Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of punk, hardcore, garage rock, metal and hip hop.
What is your favorite memory of the club?
Growing up? Seeing The Wrens backstage and TV On The Radio backstage. Going to see those shows were so much fun. The benefit show for Callum Robbins that Dismemberment Plan played in 2007. However, not the part where I walked back to my car and some drunk guy had smashed it into the side of a tree up on the sidewalk. Also, Inauguration Day 2004, when they had the Noise Against Fascism show and Thurston Moore addressed some kid from the crowd as “Hey you, cigarette-face…”
Working there—I GOT SOME STORIES. Most of them involve drunk customers doing drunk things that at the time were annoying but looking back were actually hilarious. My favorite from the 40 Watt (in Athens, Ga.) was the kid who snuck a gallon-sized Ziploc bag of Makers Mark into the club, pulled it out from under his shirt, walked up to the bar and grabbed a straw and popped it in the bag like it was a Capri Sun. That guy was kind of my hero.
What do you think you will bring to the Black Cat that it hasn’t seen?
The Black Cat has been around for almost 20 years. Is there anything it hasn’t seen? Maybe your idea for “EMO DJ NIGHT” in the Backstage, the one where all you play is Taking Back Sunday and Saves The Day, and the oldest person in the room has to buy you a drink? I don’t know if anyone needs to see that though.
What do you think will be the most challenging part of the job?
I think the most challenging part will be keeping up with the local scene and learning as much as I can about local bands in D.C. I know a bunch already, but there are some I am not super familiar with. The first few months I will definitely try to check out as many local bands that I haven’t seen before or don’t know very well.
What does D.C. have that New York didn’t? Or Athens, Ga. for that matter?
I just feel more at home in D.C. I love Athens. That city is awesome, but while I will always love visiting, after a while it was too small. There wasn’t a lot of opportunity for growth, professionally speaking. NYC, while I dig visiting and I love my pals up there, it’s just… a clusterfuck. It’s fun, for sure, and I definitely benefitted from all the people I got to meet in my field and I had the opportunity to see a lot of rad stuff. But if I ever thought I was busy before living in New York, I was never busy. Some of the things I don’t like about it is that I felt like it was a constant schmooze-fest, always having to make an appearance somewhere or talk to someone. And while you’d think, that with all that going on, I’d have a ton of people to hang out with, I didn’t. It’s a pretty isolating city. Everyone is so busy. I’m glad I tried it. But I’m definitely happy to be headed back to D.C.
