Some Food For Thought: Supporting the music scene

Tonight I went out and chatted with a few friends from my local scene before they went off to see The Cult at Mill City Nights. I didn't go because it was a work night but I still felt like hanging out with them for some good conversation before the concert. One of the topics discussed was the upcoming shows for Kilted Farmer Koncerts and in general supporting the music scene hence tonight's blog entry.

For the last few weeks with all the drama that is going on in the dark underground music scene (i.e Alt-Fest, and the retirements of XP8 and now 16 Volt), there is all this chatter about how our scene is dying. Personally I think to say that our scene is "dying" is being overly dramatic HOWEVER considering the fact that there have been a drop in numbers of attendance at concerts within in our scene should be of serious concern.

I will be the first to admit that I am not crazy that many of the concerts I attend are on a work night. If I had a choice, they would all be on the weekends but I don't have that choice. Over the years I have come to conclusion that I need to stop being a big baby over shows held during the work week. Unless you just started a new job, try asking the following day after the concert off from work. That is what I do. Sometimes I don't and you know what? I lived the next day after I went to shows the previous night. Case in point, I went to see the Dum Dum Girls in April on a work night. I didn't get home until around 11:30. Got up the next day at 6am so I could ease into my morning. I am not one of those people who can sleep until the last second and do what I need to do in a short period of time. That ain't going to happen. I need to get cleaned up, make breakfast, check email, feed my fish, and get my shit together for work. I was perfectly fine at work that day. Same thing when I went to see God Module and didn't get home until midnight or was it one am? I can't remember ;). Long story short...stop making excuses.

Secondly, attending shows does contribute to the scene. Here in Minneapolis/Saint Paul, if it wasn't for Kilted Farmer Koncerts I seriously doubt someone else would be bringing in acts like Grendel with Ludovico Technique as well as Hocico with Hardwire.  One way to help is by buying tickets before the show. Here is the link to the Grendel show and this link is for the Hocico show. Both shows are going to be at Amsterdam Bar and Hall in Saint Paul which is right next to the newly opened green line that goes between Saint Paul and Minneapolis. As someone who has been on the green line a few times, this is perfect transportation. If you are worried about how late the light rail will be running, from what I have read, it will still be running (although not as frequently as the daytime). You can check out the schedule here.

Finally...share the FB events, Tweets, links, articles related pertaining the artist of the upcoming shows with your friends on social media. Spread the news. Get your friends to go to the shows.

I am not always perfect when it comes to attending [local/national] concerts (sometimes I will end up backing out of the show because I don't feel like going) but I go to as many live shows I can. I do pride myself in trying to attend as many shows as I can as well as buying tickets in advanced to help the concert promoter. I don't know why people are bitching and whining about the scene "dying" when they have the power to do something about it by attending the concerts. Considering how far in advance the shows are announced where I live, people should be able to scrimp and save money for tickets.

P.S...you can buy tickets at various local stores in the Twin Cities for Kilted Farmer Koncert shows if you follow Kilted Farmer Koncerts on FB and on their Twitter page. Of course as a member of the street team I do re-tweet and re-post information as much as I can via my own FB and Twitter page, not to mention my blog. Duh! lol

Comments

Popular Posts