Just Thinking Out Loud

It's been a while since I've posted. I've posted a few comments and communicated with a few of you out there on the side. It's not that I haven't seen any music lately. I saw Alex and the All Stars again (can't get enough), Todd Donnelly who plays steel drums and other stuff for Mr Myers (excellent) and a couple of other guys.

I'm a little bummed because downtown Crystal Lake is taking a hit from McCool's. Don't get me wrong. Finn McCool's is a great place. Crystal Lake needed something like that downtown. However, it's come at the expense of the other establishments downtown that only add to the great atmosphere downtown Crystal Lake always had. I don't like Duke O'Brien's, but it served a purpose as a place to see live music. It could have been so much better but apathy on the part of the owner(s) let McCool's beat it up.

If McCool's had been located out on Rt 14 where everything else was, things would be somewhat different. This last Wednesday Night Before Thanksgiving told a lot.

It used to be that you couldn't shoehorn your way into the Cottage on this sacred night. This last Wednesday, you could get yourself a table at 6:30 without hardly waiting. There was nobody in the tent on the deck. This is what I heard from a friend as I wasn't in town that night. I was playing somewhere farther away because there's only two places in the entire area to get a gig anymore, Govnors on a Friday and Duke's. Soon it may only be Govnors. The only other option is to sing mindless karaoke at 85 Brink Street with the same people who sing the same songs every Friday.

It's a sad state of affairs. As much as the town and the 20-somethings need Finn McCool's, the rest of the establishments are taking a beating because they simply appeared to have lost interest before Finn McCool's even came to town. The owners of the old Downtown Bank Club had their chance. Now they can see how it could have been.

One thing's for sure ... things always change. I can only hope the big corporate establishments don't take over downtown Crystal Lake and I hope that someday live music will come back onto the scene. We've lost Porters, Escape (in FRG), Cary Indoor Golf, River Bend, Sloppy T's, and others. I'm hoping we don't lose more live music clubs or lose live music clubs to karaoke. There's the niche nobody else has ... live music!