Today I was driving around, doing all the things that my crazy life requires I do...taking my Dad to the hospital for more tests, fixing my Mom's car, renting chairs for my upcoming wedding this weekend, and other stuff...and I get a call from the bar I'm supposed to be playing at tonight. They're cancelling me...because of a last-minute Tigers game that's gonna fill their bar with people who'll want to watch it on their giant TVs. So we're superfluous, and we're out. At the last minute too. Now I have to call my bandmates, who are as thrilled about this as you might imagine, and try to buoy their spirits up and share their pain at the same time. Some of us have cancelled other gigs to make this one, which now won't pay us for our lost time, and may decide to ax us altogether if we squawk too much about it. I grind my shiny shiny teeth.
The problem is that we have so very little leverage in the music world at this time. There's a million bands that would love to play every gig (granted, not as gifted as the band I'm fortunate enough to be in, but still), and the Musician's Union is as sad dusty shell that can essentially do nothing about situations like this. I know, I worked for the MU for a while, doing their paperwork. I wish it were otherwise. We're playing as much as any band in our area doing this Roots-oriented stuff, and I'm having a lot of fun doing it, but moments like this remind me that a lot of these clubs don't really give a crap about live music, or they're doing it on a whim, or under duress from one of the owners, or whatever. I won't say that they're bottom-feeder gigs....hey, I've BEEN on the bottom...but we're not too high up the food chain either. I've been to so many clubs without stages, or dressing rooms, or lights, or actual space to set up, that when I get said stuff I'm startled. And that's sad.
It's a whole other blogs worth of words to talk about the changes in the public's perception of Music and their valuation of it...certainly there are other things people are doing with their time (like me right now). But is live music an endangered species? Yeah, I think it is. Am I gonna keep at trying to do it? Yeah, because I can't stop. Does it get me down sometimes? Yeah...hey, if you're gonna keep asking questions you might at least buy the next drink, buddy.
