ALBANY — On the fourth Thursday of every month, shortly before 7 p.m., WAMC’s Linda Norris Auditorium looks roughly the same as it does before any other concert.

There’s the usual array of amplifiers and drums onstage, and sound engineers move about diligently, checking levels and preparing for the musicians about to perform. But you’ll also find rows of vendor tables set up to the left side of the small theater, with local bands, record labels and other music industry professionals chatting with concert goers. And those concert goers themselves, more often than not, will be taking notes, or handing out materials of their own.

It’s the usual scene at The Linda before CRUMBS Nite Out, a monthly networking night for local musicians and music industry professionals organized by CRUMBS (Capital Region Unofficial Musicians and Bands Site, www.crumbs.net). Since January of last year, CRUMBS and The Linda have put on the event, which was initially just a live performance, but since October of last year has included a panel discussion by industry professionals and an open forum as well.

Positive results

“When we first started doing this back in October, most people walked out of there with either a great contact or a gig to some other show,” said Mike Guzzo, current owner of CRUMBS, during a recent interview at the Robb Alley in Proctors. “They got booked by Valentine’s, or they got booked by Crumbs Cafe. Everybody walked away with something in their hands, whether it was a gig, or whether it was some great information or a great contact.”

When Sea of Trees performed at the March 26 CRUMBS Nite Out, it was the first time any of the band’s five members had been to the event. Nevertheless, they were able to score at least one contact to help them out with their recent release, “Animal Sounds.”

“During our interview, the question came up — Howard [Glassman, Linda manager, who conducts the interviews] asked us how we’re going to market the album, and we said, ‘Basically, anyone who can help, get in touch,’ ” said drummer Ian White. “Actually, a woman, a PR woman with a lot of experience in the Catskill area, got in touch with us. We’re not sure if we’ll end up using her services right off the bat, but that was one cool thing that happened a couple days later.”

Since then, White and bassist Mitch Masterson attended the April event, and the band has plans to keep going. The next CRUMBS Nite Out, on Thursday will feature Saratoga Springs roots rock combo Railbird.

“We had a great time at the last one; we saw Sgt. Dunbar [and the Hobo Banned],” White said. “I think the next one, we’re really interested in the next [panel discussion], the B3nson and Collar City [Records] one. We really like all those bands.”

Local music fans may recognize the CRUMBS Nite Out name. From 1996, when SUNY Albany student Ron McClamrock first started CRUMBS as a college project, to 2005, the Web site held an open jam with a featured band every month under the name CRUMBS Nite Out.

Forum for debate

“A lot of it had to do with the message board back in the day, because the message board was — there was some pretty heated debates on the message board,” Guzzo said. “So the guy who owned CRUMBS at the time said, ‘You know what? Let’s get all the stuff out on the table, let’s meet each other person to person and let’s settle all our differences actually in person.’ So that was the kickoff for CRUMBS Nite Out: saying, Let’s get off the Internet, let’s get into a bar and let’s shake hands; let’s be musicians.”

When Guzzo first took over CRUMBS roughly three years ago from Andy Gallo, the site had been neglected for a year. Since then, he’s built it back up, starting the CRUMBS Cafe radio show on WEXT-FM, Exit 97.7. WAMC originally approached Guzzo about bringing in local bands for concerts, which led to a revival of CRUMBS Nite Out.

“We were looking at different venues, and we didn’t know where to bring it to, so at the time it just happened to work out well,” Guzzo said.

Although the event is now free, initially there was a small cover charge. After the addition of the panel discussion, the cover was eliminated, and the event gained a larger audience.

“We did it for, I think it was six or eight months, probably six months, and the turnout, we just weren’t getting any traction from it,” Glassman said. “So we reconfigured it to free, and then we added the panel discussion; we got Paul Czech and Paul Rapp involved. Really, we’re doing anywhere from 40 to 70 people.

“And of course, in this area if you put free next to anything, you could be giving away liverwurst sandwiches and people would show up. But people are really here to see the music, and a lot of people are sticking around to hear the panel discussion regarding the music industry.”

Czech and Rapp are both entertainment attorneys with ties to the region — Czech lives in Wynantskill, while Rapp, now in Great Barrington, Mass., lived in Albany from 1973 to 2001 and played drums in local band Blotto. The two have connections with music business insiders in New York City, Los Angeles and Nashville, to name a few, and frequently bring on guests pertinent to the night’s discussion.

“We thought initially like Paul Rapp and Paul Czech would just stop by and just promote them as being lawyers,” Guzzo said. “But it quickly evolved into, hey, we should get these guys onstage; they have a lot to say and some good advice.”

Rapp and Czech come up with discussion topics themselves, with past topics including songwriter royalties (March of this year) and music in TV and film (November of last year). Afterward, they turn the panel over to a question-and- answer session from the audience.

“We had a panel discussion one night; it was how to sell your music online,” Guzzo said. “It’s kind of a simple question, but really, how do you do it? What’s the best way to do it? And a lot of people were quite intrigued on what folks up there had to say. We had one guy who did the CD Baby way, and we had another guy who did his own independent way. It was two different models of selling your music, two different distribution models.”

Response, especially from musicians, has been positive.

“Someone, a musician, a local musician came up to me after one of the shows and said, ‘You know what, in order for me to get this level of information out of industry professionals like this, I’d have to pay tons of money to get into CMJ [College Media Journal], or I’d have to go off to one of these panels,’ ” Czech said. “So I think that it’s actually a very valuable service to the musicians in the area; I think they’re getting a lot of insight. They have the ability to approach us after each show; it’s a free event; it doesn’t cost anything. Talk about win-win situations — I think this is perfect.”

Aaron Smith, guitarist and vocalist for Albany band Scientific Maps, first went to a CRUMBS Nite Out event when his band performed on the Jan. 22 edition.

“Even just for self-promotion for the band or for online distribution, we’ve used some of the information we got from the panel on the show we performed,” Smith said. “We used some of that for our own stuff, things we’re going to be doing in the future with online releases, companies and businesses to use for CD distribution and releases, the best way to go about promoting through using the Internet.”

All CRUMBS Nite Out events are recorded as well, with the music performances and interviews rebroadcast on WAMC. Eventually, WEXT will be broadcasting the panel discussions.

Looking ahead

For now, both Guzzo and WAMC are comfortable with the size and scope of the event. Eventually, Guzzo hopes to open up a real CRUMBS Cafe in the region with Bill Booker, who helps to book bands for the CRUMBS Cafe radio show and CRUMBS Nite Out. The two are also working on a TV show, which they’ve pitched to WMHT and Time Warner.

“Taking that first step is the hard part,” Guzzo said. “Bill and I work together at Knolls Atomic in Niskayuna, so on our lunch breaks we’ll get together and pow-wow about CRUMBS, and the future of the local music scene. We have to keep our day jobs; we can’t open a real CRUMBS Cafe yet.”

But local musicians are happy just to be getting some kind of attention.

“I honestly think it’s awesome that there’s just an organization that local bands can look to to get shows,” said 17-year-old Dom Brino, frontman for Albany hard rockers Stuck on Stupid, which performed at the February event. “As a band, it’s hard to even get your name out, and they do a great job.”