3/12 evening Interviews

Hema chandra Chittuluri
Location Dupont Circle

Cafe Citron
Cafe citron has many bands playing live music and is a place frequented by MSB students. I talked to the manager Aidda who explained me that they have a huge number of bands playing with them and they have a dedicated person to select the bands. The bands are auditioned in the cafe and then chosen to play, unless they are have already made a name for themselves. When i explained the platform she said she will give it a try if it can provide access to more bands.

Midtown Lounge
I was refused entry into the lounge and was instead spoken to on intercom. The person on the other side said the manager wont be available for another week and politely asked me to leave. When i tried to ask about the bands that play there, i did not get a response.

Dirty martini
I talked to manager at dirty martini bar who said that they dont have live music everyday but they do have latino saturdays when bands play there. They have arrangements with promoter and the promoters arranges the bands to play on the venue. There is no direct interaction between bands and the venue and many times they do not know who is playing that day, which was interesting.

18th street lounge
Its a known and classy venue where live music is available everyday. I talked to the manager Yonis who said that the bands that are regulars there are not treated as on contract or even as a separate entity but as employees of the lounge and they are playing since last 10 years. Very recently they added latino music to the regular jazz bands that play there. This is a more exclusive and selective venue because its owned by a DJ with a taste. Unlike other venues which look forward to host bands, this venue hosts a nee band only of the band approaches and if the owner likes their offering.

Bayou
It is a place known equally for its food and live music. Since the manager was away I talked to Joe who was at the reception. Even though she didnt participate in the decision making, she seemed to be knowledgable about the love music scene there. She said there are always new musicians coming there and based on performance, they get more gigs or never return. And they find bands through multiple sources.