Rochester musician and Bug Jar booking impresario Tim Avery
is fighting the good fight with the big C. And musicians and music fans alike
are rallying behind the man with several benefit shows. As a booking agent and promoter,
Avery has proved himself indispensable in filling the void between musicians — whether
local, national, or international — and music fans. There’s rarely a night in
this town with nothing to go see thanks to cats like Tim Avery. And thanks to
Avery, Rochester doesn’t get passed over for other cities by touring bands as
much as it once did.
It’s a labor of love for him. “All I care about is awesome
music, having a great time, and putting together the best bill possible,” Avery
told CITY in 2014. (We had profiled
him for our first Rochester 10 spotlight.)
As an indication of the far-reaching love for the dude, benefit
shows have been popping up to help out Avery with the inevitable bills and
costs. On Saturday, December 3, a massive show will take place at Anthology (336 East Avenue) with Joywave,
KOPPS, Secret Pizza, Mikaela Davis, The Demos, Green Dreams, King Buffalo, and
lot more. The show starts at 2 p.m., and tickets are $20.
We buttonholed a few area bands and asked them to say a few
words about Tim. We invite you to leave your comments below as well.
KOPPS
“Tim shows the rest of us what true passion for your work
looks like. He is generous, honest, and an ‘equal opportunity’ guy when it
comes to lending a helping hand to musicians all over the country.”
Joywave
“Tim is a living local legend. He’s done more than anyone I
know for the local music scene, and he was instrumental in helping set up the
early Joywave shows at Bug Jar. An all-around world
class human. Can’t say enough good things about him.”
Hot Mayonnaise
“Tim has really done a lot to keep the music alive and
thriving in Rochester; he has always been really cool with us and hooked us up
with more shows than we can count. We have nothing but tons of love and respect
for him. We know he will get thru this and continue to be one of the main
players in the Rochester music scene.”
Harmonica Lewinski
“Tim Avery… what can you say about the guy? His initials
are somewhat misleading, don’t come looking for him when you need a little t ‘n’
a …
He is a rabid supporter of live music (a dying art?) and
musicians. He might not be the Bill Graham of Rochester, but I wouldn’t be
surprised if he’s put on 1000 shows in this town alone. When we first started Harmonica
Lewinski, we came to the Bug Jar and Tim told us to come back when we’d learned
how to play. As we walked away dejected he said, “Just kidding fellas, get up
here and show ’em what you got.” The rest is history.
One thing I’ve always thought about Tim is he must be some kinda man to do the job he does. I don’t know anyone that
passionate about live music to year after year book countless bands, many of
which can be hard on the ears, as you know, and hang out and listen to them
even when the bar is empty. On a bad night at the Jar, I’ll look at Tim and
think if I were in his shoes, this would have killed my love of music a long
time ago. But the thing about him is that he’s driven by a different force than
most people, and truly believes that live music — even in a city most bands
will never come through — is something special and something to celebrate. He
is truly his own breed and he’s proven himself to be made of stronger stuff
than most. Especially now.
One heartwarming antidote I’d like to share about Tim is how
our drummer would always bitch to him about how the Bug Jar doesn’t give us
free drinks when we’re booked there, as opposed to certain other joints around
town. Tim just smiled and nodded, but sure enough, the next goddam time we
played Bug Jar, Tim had us all set up with an ice cold
30 rack of Genny down in the basement, on the house.
That night, we drank to our heart’s content, and we toasted Tim with each fresh
beer we cracked.
We couldn’t be happier to be playing this gig for Tim on Saturday,
because we finally get to give back to the dude who’s given so much time and
work to so many bands around this region. I’ve even heard that there’re benefit
shows going on in Syracuse and Buffalo for him, which shows you how his reach
and influence extends even beyond Rochester. If every city had a dude like that,
we’d all be touring the 50 states all year ’round and probably making pretty
good money doing it.
Like a lot of things in Rochester, you sometimes sit back and
say, “We got it pretty good here don’t we?” But it’s like that for a reason,
and it’s like that because of people like Tim doing their thing and making
something out of nothing. We wish him the best.”
This article appears in Nov 30 – Dec 6, 2016.
