General Music Chat

I have a feeling that in about 10 years the only thing left will be the American Legion and V.F.W.

The Watson Goose Bar: open for over 50 years, closed
The Montevideo Main Street Pub open for over 60 years closed
and The video room bar seats over 500 open for over 35 years closed.

It's sad when established clubs finally close. Usually new ones spring up, buying or leasing the old one, but it's never the same. New club owners generally don't have a clue how to run a club and end up closing within the first year or two. Then the cycle repeats itself.

Well, between MADD cops & the smoking nazis, it's a wonder Americans even go out at all, anymore. I don't see this changing anytime soon, in fact, it's been happening to the festival circuit as well.

Damned shame.

These may very well be the end of times...

Clubs open and close all the time, as was noted. But young people will always want to go out and get their rock on Friday night. The trick is to be relevant and play places where young people like to go. The drinking laws are more restrictive than when I was young but it's for the better, I don't get bombed when I go out anymore. If I want to exceed 0.08 I'll stay home.

Perhaps it's the poor behaviors and total lack of concern for the rights of others is at the root of the problem.
My father was / is a smoker. But he never smoked or wore a hat indoors.
I met an old friend of mine at a small club last night for a few hours.
It was loud with people talking over each other, three TV's on different channels, the language of the women was fouler than mine (and that can be hard to do at times) and the smoke made my eyes burn, and a deep breath was impossable (and you guys know I smoke cigars... outside)
Other than having a cold one (or two) with my friend, there was nothing pleasant or entertaining about the whole experience.
The best club I ever went too outside New Orleans, jacket and a collard shirt or go away, they had a smoking "deck", and if you cursed loudly the gents (big gents) in a three piece suit would show you the door.
The jazz was freaking awsome, I could hear and see the musicians because everyone was seated with their hats off, and the dance floor was sunken just enough.
Class place my friends.............whew did I drink too much or what. LOL

In my area quite a few live music bars have closed. Plus the ones that are still there are clamping down on how much they will pay. But this is a cycle that goes on and on, Its really nothing new.

I think Ive posted more this morning than I have in the last month.

It's good to have you around John.
Other than working on new tunes, we have been kinda shakey of late.
Jeanette still has some residula problems from her MVC.
Ray and his wife are still in recovery mode from their MVC.
Tony wrecked his bike on the 4th after our last gig.
I think somebodys pissed at us.
All I can say is bring it on MF!

Careful, George. It might be God pissed off for your aforementioned cigars, cold ones and foul language. I don't think I'd be calling Him a MF.
Just kidding, you know?

Yea, all kidding aside you may be right!
It may be our Father testing me.
Perhaps I should not walk quite so close to the edge of that lake of fire.
I do stumble quite often.
But it feels more like opposition, if ya know what I mean.
Thanks for the reality check.

It's definitely not the same as it was 20 years ago, there were lots of places where original bands could play back then, lots of them have closed up or either book national acts or have cover bands playing the same songs the other bands do week after week. America is definitely nothing like Europe.

There's a few reasons...


America is spread out, you'll be hard pressed to find anyone wanting to drive 50 miles to see your band at 11pm at a bar.
With the lack of public transportation during "gigging hours" in most areas of the country, it's hard to get a following that will take the risk and expense to "follow" your band to gigs. I've seen bands that play to sold out 50,000 seat shows in other countries...come to America and can't even fill a 1000 person gig!

#2 Lack of local radio support, sure there are a couple shows that play local music..usually broadcast when they have the least listeners...but beyond that, there is little support or radio play for local bands, even most of the college stations have gone mainstream. I know a couple people that have done radio shows and didn't get a single hit from their website from it.

#3 Lack of music support, an actual hatred for ANY kind of music - Understanding why this is could be the topic of a long drawn out conversation, I'll try to keep it short.... I actually know places where you can get fired for actually just mentioning music or bands of any kind!! I was completely blown away by this. a person I know got warned and written up at certain local large printing company...where no music is allowed at all, when my friend just talked with another employee about the subject of music...he was ratted out by an employee...who actually works a second job as program director for a local radio station!!!!!.... that just blows my mind...but that is just how crazy it has become. Musicians who are really into bands, just don't have the time or money to come out and see you play all the time.

#4 This is an EXPENSIVE time to live in with all sorts of taxes, expenses at every turn, most working class people just can't afford to go see a show at a bar and spend $50 to get a buzz. The people working good jobs are either too tired to go out at 10pm when your band starts at some bar 50 miles away or have no interest in going to their local bars to have people with no teeth pick fights with them or risk losing their job over a DWI, Lets face it, the taxes and costs of living verses the pay is horrible...the jobs that paid $15-$25.00 twenty years ago pay $9-$15 these days...not a lot of disposable income.

Your best bet is ....do everything yourself, create your own "events" and promote them to wide group of people...just not drunks at bars, create your own web site, upload free music, sell shirts people would actually want to wear "probably the best promotion for a band sometimes is T-shirts, more people will see your T-shirt in the audience at a big show than hear about you on a Radio interview. Buy radio advertising time for your event....that will get you much better gigs from the radio station (since they want you to succeed...so you buy more radio time) and really increase the number of people that know your bands name more than a radio interview...and will help when you do future gigs because of the name recognition.

If you are doing 1000-2000 person shows even just once a week, and sell $10 tickets, T-shirts and CD sales, that's some great money when you don't have a middle man and you'll make more than playing in bars for 6 months to people who would rather hear the jukebox than your band when they are getting drunk and trying to pick up women.

I have a feeling that in about 10 years the only thing left will be the American Legion and V.F.W.

The Watson Goose Bar: open for over 50 years, closed
The Montevideo Main Street Pub open for over 60 years closed
and The video room bar seats over 500 open for over 35 years closed.

This happened with a club in Winston-Salem (20 min west of Greensboro) called Ziggy's. Ziggy's was THE place to go play music or hear music in the Triad area (Winston-Salem, Greensboro, High Point, and surrounding areas) for over 20 years. I closed about 2 or 3 years ago. Other places are trying to emulate what Ziggy's was, but I don't think they will be able to because Ziggy's was so unique. I miss that place.

I'm 10 full years younger then myself.