Alright, so the local music scene is getting amazing here, no doubt… But what about when an out of town band comes to play and “headline” a show, which usually means that they are playing 15 minutes before last call and the bar is almost empty when they play.
While the local bands, who play almost every weekend, bring their friends & play extra long sets for them and then leave when they’re done, taking their friends and showing no support to the out of towners.
Well we’re getting a rep for this and bands will stop travelling to play here because only 10 people will show up. It’s embarrassing. —Likes out of town bands
This article appears in May 20-26, 2010.
You can thank Facebook and Twitter for this. Facebook gets the word out for a show much better than The Coast (sorry guys) or any other channel… so local bands get these massive networks where they can announce their bi-weekly shows at Gus’. So when that “awesome” indie band from Restigouche comes to town, nobody knows about it, meanwhile the hometown band gets all the love.
Agreed. I think shows should start a bit earlier too, say right at 10pm, rather than being advertised as such and THEN starting at 11:30 (or later sometimes). Bands need to play shorter sets as well, 40 minutes tops. This forces bands to play only their best songs. Any more than four bands in an evening is too many IMO. Four is almost too many in some cases.
And who says that the live music needs to go right to closing time? An hour or 45 mins of post gig cool down is cool. Maybe that way there’d be more than 10 people hanging out to see the headliners.
And for pete’s sake, can’t we have shows that aren’t so genre biased. Just as four metal bands in a row is too much, so is four indie bands or four hip hop bands…the similarities start to become too evident. Let’s have shows that feel like a really cool mix tape, a bit of everything.
whe the hell ever said that you can find any talent, local or otherwise in this town. give your heads a fucking good shake. halifax is the dead zone of the east coast.
The local scene is getting amazing? Since when?
If you’ve only got 10 people hanging around to see the headliners, they can’t be much of a headliner…
Booer— I think the problem there is that all the live venues are so genre biased… I think the last place to be really eclectic was The Marquee. Even it’s spiritual successor (The Paragon) doesn’t seem to make the effort.
I still remember that brief “Halifax – The Next Seattle” phase. People still say that, just with a different tone of voice.
Halifax the next Seattle!?!? Wow, obviously you’ve never been to Seattle.
yea i was in Seattle in ’91 hmmm Halifax not so much
Well, since Joel Plastikk hasn’t sucked on a 12 gauge and Halifax’s version of Courtney Hole has yet to reveal herself I’d say Macleans were a tad off the mark. But we do have lots of rain, slugs and S-bux.
and crows, sorry i’ll stop with the corbie references.
Don’t you dare. We have starlings that nest in the light bulb housing of the street lamp in the parking lot. Makes sense, its warm and protected. We can always tell when they have eggs and nestlings because there’s usually a ticked off looking crow perched on the standard trying to get at the treats within and failing. Kind of like a modern day Aesop fable.
Hungry, Pissed-Off Rawk.