Speculation of a scene, pretense and delusions, oh what a wonderful time!

I approached Saturday with some optimism. I left with MORE optimism...

but not in the normal, comforting sense. I had a conversation the night before with a good friend and former bandmate in regards to the show Saturday. He said it seemed like a lot of people were coming out, many even had a sense that it may be the start of a new "scene". Everybody talks about "the scene is dead..." or "music sucks around here now...". Not really, it's just hard to find an enjoyable event sometimes. Anyway, I foolishly agreed with my friend about the feeling of something being started anew. Wrong about the scene, right about something starting.

My singer booked the show a few months ago and set the lineup with the owner of the venue, who by the way, puts any club owner to shame with his promotional efforts and genuine advocacy for original bands. Fast forward to the show: one band showed up early, set up all their stuff and basically tried to dictate the lineup putting our back to the wall to clarify things with the other band who was bitching about going last. Don, the owner, told us the actual lineup and then the band going last started sulking and bitching through the bar. When I told the guitar player that they would have to go last and he says to me "Oh, that kind of sucks. We told everyone we were playing at 10 and they were going to watch our set and then leave..." Wow...WOW. Perhaps I just heard it wrong?? What the fuck is that??? The other band demanded the slot right before my band and they deserved it because they were the other band on the bill with us the whole time. They played their music. They broke down their gear and then, none of them were seen in the bar during our set. As if they are really something??? It's ok, a couple hundred other people decided to stay in the room to watch our set. My band's never been anything but cool to this crew but they sure like to talk shit about my band for some reason. It is endlessly flattering when you're a relatively big target. Shit like that doesn't nurture a scene. It destroys it. The fucking self serving, self consumed and delusional musicians that have such tiny visions for themselves they can't even see beyond their own recognition or praise seeking. I'd love to see musicians out supporting each others shows, saying decent things, not being jealous when other bands get success but rather using it to fuel their fire...it's nearly impossible to succeed alone.

Something DID get started after Saturday. A few key people are on fire again and that means some fucking good things are going to happen. So, people, get together. Drop your storylines, issues and what you think you know and we all may get the vibes we want again.

This is the first post for the new blog: zero fun John.