Here's How YOU Are Killing "The Scene"

Well, to be fair, the "scene" that I was raised in is already dead. But here's some reasons why YOU are killing whatever this version of the scene is.


To qualify that I have the right to talk on all these counts, I will give you a brief history of myself in this industry. As a "fan" I have been in the "scene" and going to shows of all shapes and sizes since 2000. There are certainly people that can trump me there, but 10 years is a long time, and I had dove in pretty hard when I did. As a musician, I have been playing out in bands since I was 14. More notably was Human Flight Committee, which whether or not you liked the band you can't really argue our local success and some of our touring success. And most recently To Speak of Wolves, which I left by choice, but had a major hand in helping to get them where they are now. As a promoter, I had booked a few of the biggest shows in the area (pre the rise of New England concerts anyway) and have brought in bands to NH that had never come closer than Boston. I also owned my own venue for a year, which was quite successful, the only reason I don't have it anymore is because the town it was in decided to pull the plug and I did not have the money to start in a new building. Again, I am honestly not trying to make myself sound cool, in fact I hate listing that stuff because I really don't care what you think about me on a personal level. I am just trying to qualify my right to speak on these matters for those who don't know.

That being obnoxiously said, let's begin...

*(I would also likely to quickly point out that this is not aimed at any individual or group of people, this is aimed at EVERYONE.)


BANDS: There is the obvious argument that the bastardized genres of things like breakdowns mixed with auto tune and things like that are having a large hand in killing the scene on it's own. But let's go beyond the fact that 90% of bands today just completely suck in every way imaginable. Let's address what a lot bands, good or bad, are doing to harm their own scene. If I had to sum it up in one word, I think it would be "priorities." Bands priorities are soooo out of whack these days it's nuts. The fact that fashion and look has become the single most important thing in the music industry is disgusting. You expect that sort of thing from the major label side of things, but this was NEVER the case 20 or even 10 years ago in the scene. I know that music can't be blamed entirely for the importance of looks because that is just a worldly thing in general, especially in this country. But bands can be blamed for how hard it's pushed. It's unfortunate that it's already come so far that you almost HAVE to have an incredible image to get anywhere in a band, because every time a new band with long flowing straightened hair, and v-necks showing chest pieces, and pretty boy images playing tough guy music comes out, the importance of look is furthered and furthered. I miss the days when a band's press shot consisted of each member wearing a different band's t-shirt. That is support. When I was in TSOW, we had a theory that if a few big bands started wearing band t-shirts on stage more often, it could very well change the touring band economy. We always used Underoath as an example, so I will now. If at least one or two dudes in Underoath were constantly seen in their favorite band's t-shirts, kids would go nuts and go to that band's shows and buy their merch. Then that band has more money and, in theory, get bigger themselves. Hopefully that band by now will be wearing their favorite band's t-shirts and encourage their fans to continue the trend. With in 6 months to a year, EVERYONE is wearing band t-shirts again (like they used to) and the touring band economy is in the best shape it's been in years. It may seem like i've strayed slightly from my original point, but I haven't it's the same thing in my mind. The importance of fashion is encouraging kids to refocus their priorities towards looking cool instead of supporting bands. I know that some bands do support other bands in this way, and other ways, and I know that plenty of kids do buy shirts, but nowhere near the way it used to be. I can remember less than 10 years ago when you would be at a show and 95% of anyone there was wearing a band shirt. Now it's all v-necks and striped shirts and tank tops and whatever else they bought at H&M or Urban Outfitters that day. And that's totally cool, I appreciate fashion as much as the next guy, perhaps a little too much, but the inner-band support system is crumbling.

Another thing bands need to do, and get ready for this... STOP TOURING!!! Confused? Let me explain. Bands tour TOO much, and here's where it fails on several levels. If every band in the country thinks that they just need to be out there touring non-stop, that puts like 865,000 bands on the road at the same time. That's horribly exaggerated of course, but their are just WAY too many bands out there these days. When there are so many tours happening at the same time, that makes it so there are an average of like 5 shows a week in every single city. Now if there are 5 shows a week anywhere from $10-$20 a show, or more, this is leaving kids no other option but to choose which show they go to. If an Underoath tour, a Bring Me The Horizon tour, an Attack Attack tour, and a Vanna tour all come through the same city in the same week, kids that very well may have gone to all 4 tours if they were spread out, are going to have to chose favorites, and in a lot of cases, the smaller bands are going to lose. Not to mention the even smaller DIY tours of bands that are desperately trying to be heard. Even if people choose the Vanna tour over other "bigger" tours, then that means the all local show or the upcoming band tour is going to suffer greatly. (By the way, I am not lumping any of those bands in together in anyway, they are just the first names I thought of. I would never intentionally group the dudes in Vanna in with a hack band like Attack Attack, don't hate me guys.) Anyway, so now you've got kids choosing which shows they want to go to, and at SOME point, your band IS going to lose to another tour, no matter how awesome you may be. Another reason you need to stop touring so much is competing against yourself. If you return to the same city in a month, you are not going to get all the same people back each show. Some people JUST saw you, and other people JUST saw some other tour. It's giving me a headache trying to reason this, but it should be simple to understand, YOU'RE ALL SPREADING THE SCENE TOO THIN. Space out your touring, make them the best, most profitable tours you can, and when not on the road, support your careers by doing some shows in your surrounding states, you make the most money there anyway. Oh, and this brings up a point to smaller bands, YOU DON'T DESERVE TO TOUR UNTIL YOU CAN DRAW KIDS IN YOUR HOMETOWN! Is this clear to everyone? If you can't even draw 100 kids in your hometown, you have NO business going out on the road taking up the other hard working bands tour dates. Struggling bands are killing the scene faster than signed bands are if you ask me. If all the small little shitty tours would stop, the number of shows would go down about 50% and this would solve this entire problem almost completely.



Does this blog not effect you yet? Don't worry, I'm getting there.


PROMOTERS: Oh man, as a former touring musician my hatred for most promoters is tangible. First thing is as a promoter, just read everything I said about booking too many shows, it applies to you too. Too many shows means spreading the attendance out which means some of the shows are going to suck which means both you and those bands are going to lose money. That whole theory not only applies to you, but can be blamed almost exclusively on you. Look, I know a lot of promoters try really, really hard and still get shit on by whiney bands, I've been on both ends, I've bitched at a LOT of promoters, but I also know how much it sucks to have everything on your head for shows, but it is still YOUR responsibility to make a show successful. If you can't handle it, then stop doing it. Is it the band's job to promote? Yes, of course it is, but it is YOUR job to make sure they do. Make a flyer and send it to all the bands, tell them how you want the show worded on their website/myspace, follow up and make sure they are also promoting. Their promotion is nothing but a tool of YOUR job. Making a band sell tickets is NOT part of being a promoter. Let me say this one more time... making a band sell tickets is NOT part of being a promoter. If a band is big enough to draw an audience, then it's insulting to even ASK them to sell tickets, luckily most bands like that are smart enough to refuse to do so. If a band is unknown to the point that the only reason them being on the show is worth it to you is to have them sell tickets, then they most likely don't belong on that show to begin with. But you want to "give smaller bands an opportunity to play with bigger bands" right? Nope. If you want to give a smaller band an opportunity because you think it will be good for them, then just do it. Just accept the fact that them being on the show is for them, not for you, and help the local community out. BUT WAIT, act now and I'll still throw in a selfish act for you to gain from! Check this math out promoters. If you put an unknown local band on a show with a big band that draws 500 kids, guess what? 500 kids just saw that local band and they are now on the fast track to being a band to make you more money! HOORAY, everyone wins!

Let's talk about guarantees for a second. I feel it's ridiculous that this is even an issue, but it sadly is. Promoters, incase you are unsure of the word guarantee, let me help you with it's actual definition. "Guarantee: an assurance for the fulfillment of a condition: as a : an agreement by which one person undertakes to secure another in the possession or enjoyment of something b : an assurance of the quality of or of the length of use to be expected from a product offered for sale often with a promise of reimbursement." If you are stupid enough to guarantee a band money, you fucking pay them no matter what the circumstances. I don't care if you have to sell your car to get the money, pay what you promised. I won't name names, but I remember one time we had to bring an e-mail up on a phone to prove to a promoter what he said and he still wouldn't pay which we then had to threaten a him that we were friends with all the bands on his upcoming shows and we would make sure they were canceled if he did not pay us what he promised us. He then proceeded to go across the street to an ATM and take out money from his own bank account to pay us, and we took every last penny he promised. To be honest, as a human being, that is a disgusting thing for me to have to share with people, I'm embarrassed that I had to do that, but I'm also disgusted that my hand was forced in that manner. I know of some bands that have strong armed promoters to an ATM and forced him to take money out, so you can imagine how much worse it gets. Anyway, you get the point. A band, especially a touring band, is a business and they rely on what you promised them. You owe them that money no matter what the cost, even if only 2 people showed up. I'm sorry that you may be losing money on the guarantee, but the lack of attendance is most likely due to YOUR shitty promoting, so you only cost yourself money. You should've either been smart enough to not book that show in the first place, or done a better job promoting it. This goes so much deeper than money though. Bands are your business, you are NOTHING with out them. I've got a hot newsflash for all promoters. BANDS DON'T NEED YOU. But you sure need them. Local bands can set up shows in basements or halls, and touring bands can just skip your area all together. I know so many bands that won't step foot in certain cities or sometimes even states because they hate everyone they've worked with, so they just skip it all together. There are ALWAYS ways for bands to by pass you as a promoter no matter how awesome you think you are. There is ALWAYS some kid out there that will book his favorite band at a college for 10 times what you would've paid them anyway. You are a luxury and you need to be in the business for the right reasons, because you love music and you love it's community, and you want to make a career out of flourishing it, NOT EXPOSING IT. If you do your job as a promoter the right way and do it to further the music community, it WILL turn around to make you more money. There is a dude in Mass, that will remain nameless, that would pay hundreds of dollars out of his pocket to bands before he let them go home empty handed, even if he didn't promise them anything. These bands and other bands via word of mouth would flock to him as a promoter anytime they needed a show. He grew in to one of the bigger booking companies in the state and has since moved on to buying in to huge venues themselves. THIS IS HOW IT'S DONE PEOPLE.


This is getting lengthy so lets move on to the "fans."


FANS: You are quite possibly the most to blame for the downfall of the scene. Your snotty close minded pompous trendy attitudes are doing nothing for nobody. For one, open your minds up to legitimate music please. Yeah, I know that you love them breakdowns and you love to punch other kids in the face when that 808 goes off. And I know that you girls can't help but love all that long straight hair and auto-tuned vocals. And you crazy kids love your zombie shirts and crazy cartoon designs of what would normally be considered gruesome imagery. But COME ON PEOPLE, try listening to some other stuff too. For every CD you buy that has auto-tuned singing mixed with breakdowns and two step parts mixed in, you should be forced, at gun point, to buy a jazz album. If you're listening to Brokencyde right now, please smash the computer you're on against a wall, go guy a Mumford & Sons CD and think about what you've done wrong. That being said, even in your own little closed world of music you are still killing the industry. Download music "illegally" if you wan't, I don't care, you're going to anyway. But if you do, for the love of God, go to that band's show and buy a shirt! If you are in possession of band's album and you have never given them any form of money, you are an asshole. There's no two ways about that. You suck, and you are destroying your scene, I hope you're happy. And stop whining about how much money it cost to get into the show. The bands, the promoters, the venue, the label, the managers, the merch guys, the security, etc, they ALL expect to be paid for their services, and that costs money, friends. I recently read an article by the singer of Trap Them that I think was worded perfectly. You'll pay $15 to go see a movie in IMAX and then drop $8 on popcorn and $6 on a drink, but you won't drop $20 to go see hard working bands play their hearts out, an experience that is different every single time you attend? And you call yourself a fan of music?

Also, back to the band shirts I talked about at the start of the blog. Bands should be supporting other bands by wearing their shirts, but more importantly, YOU should be wearing band shirts if you like them so much. You going out and buying a striped v-neck shirt from American Apparel just because you saw some lead singer wearing it is not helping anything. You're certainly not supporting that singer or his band, and 9 times out of 10 you look like a dickhead anyway. Buy your favorite bands shirt, and wear it to the next show you go to. (But not to that band's next show, you never wear the shirt of the band you're going to see, everyone knows that. Don't be THAT guy.) Now, granted, a lot of bands are way over paid in the grand scheme of life, but that's a whole other topic I won't get into because it's pointless. It's the same as actors, it's disgusting how much money they make while people across the world are starving, but it's never going to change, so let's not get into it.

Along all the same lines, but in my opinion the most important level, SUPPORT LOCAL MUSIC. Oh you idiots, please support local music. You've seen Every Time I Die 47 times, and yeah they're a good band and good dudes, but don't forget to head out to the local hall show every now and again. The scene is 100% dependent on local music, and here's why. Huge bands don't need local bands because the tour package usually is self reliant and draws all the kids themselves, but huge bands do need middle sized bands to open for them on the tours. Middle sized bands need big local bands to open for them to ensure a good crowd. Big local bands need little local bands to open for them to ensure a stable show and a growing community. So bands, promoters, fans, everyone, here's how it works: New bands need to open for big local bands so they can get a following and become big local bands. Big local bands need to open for medium size/touring bands so they can get their name out to a larger audience and the touring bands themselves so that they, the big local bands, too can become medium/touring size bands. Medium/touring size bands need to be put on opening slots for huge bands so they can get an even larger audience so that they can become huge bands. Then the new huge bands now let the new medium/touring bands open for them so those new medium/touring bands can let new big local bands open for them so they can let brand new bands open for them. SEE HOW THIS WORKS?! It is literally painful in it's simplicity. And yet, the concept is failing miserably by most.


The problems of the music industry and the "scene" go a lot deeper than this and it all stems from greed and the over all economy and the dumbing down of the entertainment industry and so on and so on. You could write an entire book on this stuff, and I'm sure people have. But this is the stuff that YOU can change. This is the stuff that YOU can be conscious of. It sounds stupid, but it starts on an individual basis. All it takes is for a couple bands, a couple promoters and a group of kids to start doing things FOR the music community and not for themselves and we can turn it all around. And as hippie as it sounds, if we can make the "scene" more positive, we can make the entire music industry more positive. And if we can change that, we can use that major outlet to better the world. It sounds cheesy even to me as I'm writing it out. But it's all about starting somewhere, and this is an easy problem to fix. Stop making music about you and your greed. The "scene" should be a large supportive community, a family. It starts on a local level and grows from there. Do your part.

Like I said, the scene I grew up in, as my generation knew it, is pretty much dead and buried. And this current generation scene is dying quick. I can't even imagine what the next scene will look like, it's borderline scary. Get involved now, keep the community alive before 5 more years pass and you're all writing stupid blogs like this one about how your scene is dead and the new generation needs to save theirs.


What I wouldn't give to go to a Coalesce/Get Up Kids show right now.