Re: digress
Posted by DJ Rick on 2005-09-04 2:22:36pm
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:well actually... the issue is that sacramento is a mass market mass consumer town. the reason that you see the same people at shows all the time is there are few people that like or even give a dang about alternative musics. most of the general public in sacramento only care about eating in yet another new restaurant downtown.
I think that describes most adults, especially those that live "full-fledged" adult lives involving families, SUV payments, mortgages, and alimony. But kids everywhere want some action.
Parents with teenage kids don't live in Sacramento proper; they live in Elk Grove and Natomas and Citrus Heights and places like that. This is true of scenes everywhere...even Portland, where most of the kids are in places like Hillsboro and West Linn. And the DIY music scenes of large urban centers usually play out amongst a relatively close-knit group of twentysomethings and a few thirtysomethings while kids in the burbs often miss out on the chance to learn of this fun shit happening downtown.
And to talk to the bands and the show-promoting people about inviting more youth into the scene, it usually meets with disapproval ("those kids are all lame mall-punkers") or skepticism ("yeah, but how?").
If you take one look at the youth scene of Los Angeles that's supported by the Smell, then you can see how this could pay off in terms of making more shows happen that would be well-attended and lotsa fun. The so-called "local bands" that play at the Smell are often teenagers, and they don't actually live in L.A. They come from suburbs miles and even hours away, and they battle through traffic to come to this place in one of America's worst neighborhoods where people walk the streets like zombies without hope. Silver Daggers live in Burbank. Abe Vigoda comes from Chino. Hello Astronaut... comes from Tujunga. Freakin' Child Pornography and Quem Quaeritis drive there all the way from Riverside!
In Sacto and the Bay Area and most every other city center, kids get written off or ignored, and as closeknit circles of friends age and fun people get unfun and graduate into full-fledged adulthood and funmakers peter out or move to other cities, the show-going population gets smaller and smaller.
I know it doesn't matter to some bands if anyone outside of your circle of friends comes to see you, but as for show promoters, your shows will get smaller and smaller by attrition if you care not to attract any youth to your shows. I'm not saying you hafta flier every skateshop in the burbs, but there are ways to get some more kids out to shows.
I met about 8-10 teenagers at the last DAM House show who were not from Davis...they were from Woodland and Vacaville. By the looks of their faces, they were the most excited people to be there. I got all their email addresses and urged them to check Undietacos for other fun times. I asked them to listen to KDVS, and they were already in the fold. So I asked them to tell everyone they knew how much fun they had, and they said they would.
One of them said he'd been to the last two shows, and that he'd tripped across a blurb I posted on a myspace bulletin board during a mad cutting 'n' pasting campaign. He clicked on the band links and thought they sounded good, so he got his friend with a driver license to bring him here. Totally made my entire month!
Seriously, you gotta believe that there are kids out there.
Had you come to that show at the Best Western in Placerville, you'd have a good feeling about the future of music in this area.