Gas Panic! Area musicians feel pinch at the pump

By Josh Eiserike

Published: July 10, 2008

Sulaiman Azimi has to trek from his home in Woodbridge to Midland every time his band, Centuries, has a practice.

"We feel like we go on tour every time we go out there," Azimi, 17, who plays guitar, said. "It's a gas killer."

Rising gas prices are pretty much affecting everyone these days—including musicians, right here in Prince William County.

To deal with the long drive, Azimi said the band members meet in Manassas to carpool. It's over 30 miles, one way, for Azimi. He said gas prices really affect how often the band practices. But there's talk of a tour next summer.

"Just thinking about being on tour, with a big van, that's loaded with equipment that's heavy… it's mind-blowing," Azimi said.

For artists without equipment to haul around travel might be a bit easier.

Woodbridge-based rapper Hunit Grand drives a 200 Ford Crown Victoria. As a rapper, he said he doesn't have much equipment to haul around to concerts.

"Of course I'm upset that it's got to come out of my pocket a little more for gas, but it's not hurting me too much," Hunit Grand, born Kareem Dunlap, said. "I guess it's putting a little dent in my pocket. The gas prices are outrageous."

That's not going to stop him though.

"The show must go on," 24-year-old Hunit Grand said. "Regardless if gas is $10 a gallon, I still gotta go where I need to go."

This includes an upcoming performance in Atlanta.

Other musicians have to cut back on touring.

Zakk Farkas, 22, of Dumfries is the guitarist in pop-metal band Madison Apart. Unlike a hip-hop artist like Hunit Grand, Madison Apart has plenty of equipment.

"We've had to cut back on production costs drastically," Farkas said. "Selling T-shirts and CDs is how we and most bands make money… . When we play a club, the money the owner pays us goes straight to the gas tank. No food, no drinks, no rock 'n' roll about it. Gas prices suck. As of lately club owners ask for a gas receipt and since it's so high, that's the amount we get if we're lucky."

Farkas said it costs nearly $100 to fill their vehicle, a 1987 Ford E-150 the band calls "Old Karl." The band plays almost every weekend out of state, going as far as a one-week tour to Syracuse, which he said cost the band more than $1,300 in gas. The van has a 20-gallon tank and gets about 13 or 14 miles per gallon.

"We used to make a profit for playing grueling sets on a stage hundreds of miles away from home," Farkas said. "Now we're lucky to break even."

Smaller, local musicians aren't the only ones taking a hit as the summer concert season hits its stride.

"Four-dollar-a-gallon gas prices are eating away at the summer-concert business, with top festivals and tours taking unexpected box-office hits over the past few months. Bonnaroo and Coachella fell short of sellouts for the first time in years, tours such as Stevie Wonder, Janet Jackson, Maroon 5 and George Michael are struggling, and even perennial sure things like Bruce Springsteen and Nine Inch Nails are soft in some cities," Steve Knopper wrote in Rolling Stone last week.

But, for bands like Madison Apart, there's no luxury of having a major promoter back their tour. Sleeping in a van and McDonald's dollar menu is all part of the hard work toward a rock 'n' roll dream … which rising gas prices make even more difficult.

Farkas said the band has no choice but to wait until gas prices go down before going out of state for long tours. For now, the band is only playing about a show a month, the lowest number of shows it has ever played, Farkas said. The only show in Madison Apart's near future is in Fredericksburg this August.

"Madison Apart and NOVA musicians in general are not dead but we are very hurt," Farkas said. "Gas prices must go down to keep this underground scene alive."

Staff writer Josh Eiserike can be reached at 703-878-8072.