dear touring musicians

if you like playing to a crowd, then do not stop in la grande.  unless you are taylor flipping swift, no one here is going to come see you.

the other day an argument came up on the blue social networking site about such few people caring about live music in la grande and said that no one comes EVER. the post was removed by the next day because it was "attracting too much drama" and potentially alienating future patrons.  it was said that the networking site "isn't good for that sort of thing."  now, if that isn't what a networking site is for, then i have no idea what the networking site is good for.  digressing from the point of irrelevance, to the very relevant matter of audiences in la grande...

two main points to be made here.

one is that people continually don't show up to live music events.  it doesn't really matter what the excuse is, there still is always an excuse.  it is not supposed to be taken personally.  it was intended to be a blanket statement that people in la grande don't care about live music. ie, that live music is not a big priority for most residents. no matter when the event is, whether other events are going on or not, turnout is poor.  even the bigger musicians that play in la grande, do so to increasingly smaller crowds.  if it's a local band, people come out to see their friends.  hell, even most of the local bands don't stay around to watch the other bands, unless, there again, a certain relationship exists.  that to me says that people are not interested in seeing the music, but socializing.  when half the audience in the venue gets up to leave when the band starts to play, that is a further indication that no one wants to hear the music.  i challenge anyone to find me one example within the last two years of a traveling musician bringing in anything close to 50 people without the aide of a local band.  good luck finding one in which 20 people showed up.

i'm not saying that people in la grande don't like live music.  they'll pay $100s to go see concerts in tri-cities, boise, portland or anywhere else, but trying getting anyone to a free concert or a $5 or $10 concert in la grande is a ridiculous proposition.  that again suggests something in the way of a popularity contest, rather than interest in live music.  pendleton doesn't seem to have this problem.  on a friday night that people in la grande had "so much going on," one person showed up to the strangled darlings concert (which was advertised in every media outlet in town). contrast to the next night, graduation saturday in pendleton, forty-eight people showed up to see red jacket mine (a concert that was only advertised by the venue itself on a random social network post and a poster in the window).  based on that sampling situation, it would seem that the la grande show should draw in more patrons.   however,  48x more people show up in pendleton?   not that people like in la grande don't like strangled darlings.  a picture of them playing in studio at the radio station received at least 10 "likes", just apparently those ten people didn't like them enough to actually go see them.

the second point is that  this is bad for business.  i like going to live music events.  i do it at least once a week here in la grande.  i don't even really care if no one shows up.  in fact, i like it better when no one shows up.  i am not there to see other people.  and i certainly hate to engage anyone in conversation while the music is playing.  but what is bad about this is that when these bands come here and have a bad experience, word will circulate throughout the industry.  i used to hear radiation city talk a lot about wanting to come play here.  they might still say it, but they don't say it that much anymore.  even if the band gets paid well, it doesn't matter.  they would probably rather have an audience than a paycheck, if they had to choose one of the two.  (if they choose the money, then they are a proprietor and not a musician.)  musicians play to be heard.  if no one hears them, did they play?   once the word circulates that la grande sucks for live music, bands will stop playing here, meaning that i won't get to see as much music and have to continue driving to pendleton once a week.  that will get old.  and i eventually will want to just move to a place where music happens.  i have been to concerts in portland, eugene, tacoma, seattle, in which only a few people show up.  however, i am not worried about those places ceasing to have live music.  in la grande, i seriously do worry about that.  the day the music dies here, if it already hasn't, i am done living here.

i am past the point of trying to tell people in la grande that if you don't come support the few musicians who are willing to come here, then you will never see anyone bigger (like the celebrity mentioned above) play here.  all that really needs to be said is that people don't care about the music.  still, the concept is not supposed to be taken personally.  (if you take such things personally, then maybe there is a reason for that?)   the excuses are endless, "i didn't know" "i forgot" "i was so tired" "i had this other thing to do" "stock show weekend is a really bad time"...  the point is that people have other priorities that matter more than live music.  that is not a bad thing.  kids need to be fed and bathed and stuff.  a person can only do so much.   the statement, like the "alienating" post, is simply recognizing that the market for live music sucks.