I'm so excited to see these guys," Mike says side-stage, thumbing quickly through a stack of camera tapes. "They played last year in Philly but it was at Johnny Brenda's so I couldn't go." A freshman at University of the Arts, Mike Tyson turned 18 this past summer; Johnny Brenda's - to the chagrin of music loving minors throughout the city - is a 21+ venue. With characteristic optimism, he goes on, "Now they let me in to film shows though, so it's cool."
In the next few moments Menomena, the night's headliner, takes the stage in the First Unitarian Church and Mike begins filming. A frizz-topped sentinel stationed just off-stage, Mike can be found up to three nights a week at Philly area shows, capturing live music for anyone with an Internet connection.
To view Mike's polished online webpage, eattapes.com, it's hard to believe that this massive media enterprise has its origins in footage from his parent's HI-8 digital camera. The site now catalogs the 410 performances he has recorded and made available to the public for download. According to Mike, he filmed his first show in 2005 with no plans to make it a habit.
"I filmed it and showed it to some of my friends and they were like, 'This is awesome,' and of course it looked terrible," Mike reflects. "But still, that was the start of the idea: filming a show and bringing it back to share."
As he frequented and filmed more shows, Mike became immersed in the thriving network of Philly's do-it-yourself music operations. He made friends with Mike Brennan of the now defunct Veggieplex house in West Philly, Brian Adoff of the "D.I.Y. alternative to the gym," Punk Rock Bootcamp, and perhaps most notably, Sean Agnew and the R5 Productions team, responsible for shows at the First Unitarian Church and Johnny Brenda's, among others. Through the DIY community ethos, Mike has received contributions to help fund his new camera and website. Reciprocating the love from the community, he runs lights for R5 events, has shot an online commercial for Adoff's camp and continues to share his videos through torrents, Stage6.com and his own site.
"It's people getting together and doing things themselves, and completely forgetting about the whole idea of having to seek out a higher power or boss or something like that," Mike says, outlining the DIY ethic. "It's just awesome."
The limits of this endemic spirit, however, were tested when Mike took on what became his largest project to date: chronicling musician Panda Bear (aka Noah Lennox, of Animal Collective fame) on his U.S. mini-tour this past summer.
Organized just before the tour began, Mike followed Lennox from Philly, to Baltimore, to New York, filming his performances along the way. At the end of the tour, Noah and Mike decided to release the footage as a free DVD, and additionally, to defray Mike's expenses, offered a bonus "deluxe" version for $5. Only expecting 50 to 100 orders from avid fans, the undertaking seemed feasible. But the project soon caught the attention of the online press - first from more niche music blogs, and eventually, from indie tastemaker pitchforkmedia.com.
The day Pitchfork ran its story, Mike's website - accustomed to somewhere between 100 and 200 visits per day - had over 22,000 hits, and orders skyrocketed.
"A lot of people in their donations were really generous, but 10 times that number just wanted a free DVD," Mike recalls. "I actually went and calculated it and it turned out I was going to be out of literally thousands of dollars, which I wasn't really expecting."
Faced with substantial debt heading into his freshman year of college, Mike, with Noah's consent, decided to extend the $5 charge to the regular edition of the DVD. Almost immediately, he faced attacks by fans expecting free copies. One patron warned Mike in an email: "I am going to discredit you with every method I have available to me."
With few alternatives, Mike ultimately decided to scrap the DVD altogether and release the material for free through his website. Panda Bear's management, in turn, reimbursed him for some of his expenses. In spite of the drama surrounding its release, Mike considers the project a success: "At first it was disheartening, like, 'I guess this is how people really are,' but honestly, as many people who complained, ten times that number were supportive."
Mike plans to continue putting in the time and energy to record local shows, but only as a hobby, a way of meeting new friends and discovering great music. "I really just don't think I want to make it into a career," he explains, "because then I would have to go film bands that I don't care for, and I don't think I could really warm up to the idea of supporting bad music"
