What's Going On Out There!

What's going on out there? I think a lot of us know what's going on out there. It's the economy.

I just got through looking at the web sites for many of the area's larger drawing bands. I mean the ones who usually have a lot of gigs. I'm talking Chasing The Day, Sixteen Candles, ARRA, Mr. Myers, Wedding Banned and others. Nobody's playing the numbers of dates they used to. I mean nobody. It's just not happening out there.

And I'll wager that even with many of these bands, the pay at the end of the night is not at all like it used to be. You know, people just can't afford to go out any more. Things are getting tense. Bar owners want the bands that draw the most customers and want to see where you're playing. It sucks because you can't show them the lists of the future dates you used to to be able to show. Therefore, the bar owners aren't all that impressed any more. Nobody knows better than the restaurant and bar owners about how bad things are out there. They were hoping to crank things up a bit by bringing in some bigger draw performers. Bands that could ask for some very substantial money up front just can't any more. Even the singles and duos are hurting because the smaller places hurt more when things slow down and the first thing to go is the live entertainment.

Musicians, we're now competing against friggin TV sets! It used to be we competed against DJs and karaoke. Now, we're competing against 25 TV sets tuned to eight different stations with the sound turned down and the digital juke box blasting. Some of these places would just as well stop having live entertainment and let their diminishing numbers of customers watch TV than pay someone to entertain them. People, you can watch TV and drink a beer at home for far cheaper that going out. However, you can't watch a live band at home.

It's up to musicians to give everything we have on the gigs we play. Take short breaks. Start a little early if you're already set up and the place has a good turnout and you're all ready to go anyway.

Customers: Patronize the places that have live entertainment! We all need you. If you stopped seeing your friends play because you've seen them 150 times, get back out there and start supporting them again. The musicians need you. The bar and restaurant owners need you. Your home town needs you. Restaurants and bars are struggling. Many of them are trying to keep things going with price reductions and specials. Get out when you can afford to do so.

If you're going to go out, try to go to the places that support the live music scene: Porters Yellowtails in Crystal Lake, Wool Street in Cary, Oddfellows in Woodstock, DC Cobbs in Woodstock, Mulligan's Saloon in McHenry, Gambler in McHenry, Duke's Alehouse in Crystal Lake, All Sports in McCullom Lake, Broken Oar in Port Barrington, Snug Harbor in McHenry and all the others. Especially get out and check out the McHenry County musicians. There's some good ones out there. There's some not-so-good ones out there, too. But you need to support all of them, because that's how they get good.

These are real tough times for all of us. Entertainment and eating out are great distractions, if you can afford it. None of us can afford it like we used to. We will come out of this economic funk. I only hope that not too many places go belly up and I hope not too many bands break up because of the lack of gigs.

Someone had an idea that I should post where musicians are playing. Wassup doesn't post where everyone is playing as Wassup only posts for the clubs that advertise with Wassup. Let me know what you think about that. I could post these things on my MySpace version of this blog.