Some time ago I wrote about the Long Island music scene. In doing so, I approached it from the perspective of a musician, as well as one that grew up on Long Island in what could be considered it's hey-day of live music. There were venues back then that filled the space between the local pubs and places like Madison Square Garden and Nassau Coliseum. Mid-size places. By mid-size I mean places that could hold more than 30 people and up to 300-400 people. They had names like Hammerheads, Wooden Ships, Rumbottoms, Speaks, Malibu, The OBI, Rumrunners, and of course My Fathers Place. You could go to these venues and see all kinds of music from great cover bands to original artists including some that would become legends of their era. Those days seemed to have disappeared. Or, at least the venues of this type did. Economy? Changes in the drinking age? Changes in smoking and DUI laws? A combination of all of these? Add to that the changes in the music industry both in genera as well as distribution. CD, mp3's, iPods, Internet peer to peer sharing all made going out to see a band seem like more effort than was necessary. Classic Rock while still enjoying the remainder of it's 9-lives is mainly found on the radio and in smaller bars where the bands playing it rely on their aging friends to come out at what is excessively late for working middle class people with kids to have their 8/10ths of a drink per hour with a two drink limit and to get home in time to pay the baby sitter or make sure the teenagers aren't having a party of their own, and still be able to do their weekend errands the next day. The newer genres such as rap, hip-hop, electronic, house, dub, etc, all tend more towards a DJ / dance club environment and less a serious live music venue. Jazz is all but gone and best found in Manhattan. Other than Metal / Hard Core which seems to dominate the Long Island "live" music scene, there's not a lot of options.
Recently (and by karmic intervention) I've had the opportunity to approach the experience from the venues perspective. In a sincere attempt to help a local fraternal organization of which I am a member, the Glen Cove Moose Lodge, I attempted to use the opportunity to make a plug for live music. It started as a small open mic night which would use the main hall of the lodge as a place local musicians can go for free and play and anyone can go and listen or join in. With $100 from my pocket, I purchased a small PA for this purpose. The word went out and interested musicians showed up. Quiet a few after a few months and we had to upgrade the PA. No problem there, it was worth the effort and working out. Once a week, whatever musicians we interested came down and either played solo for the crowd or joined in a larger jam. Unfortunately as the warmer weather approached people had other things to do and the City also hosted a free downtown concert series on the same night. They obtained fairly large name acts and drew a good crowd. There was no thought of competing with that. In fact, there was never a thought of competing at all. The entire exercise had been to help the lodge stay afloat while promoting music for both musicians and their audience. That was about to change.
As the fall off in attendance was felt, I used the wonders of modern technology to advertise the lodge facility more. A hall that could hold 100 people, a PA system, a full bar downstairs complete with a free pool table, dart board and shuffle board table all available to musicians and bands at no cost to do a show... what more could one ask for? I'll tell you... My advertising was noticed by some promoters of the metal / hard core genera. They inquired about doing shows. We set it up with them and its worked out wonderfully. In fact so much so, that we had to upgrade the PA system again. This time substantially. (They play loud!) So... with funds donated by a very generous member, we put in four large 3-Way JBL speaker cabinets powered by three separate power-amps with an active 3-Way crossover and EQ pre-amping them and a small mixing board. A separate monitor system with its own power-amp and 4 speakers we also added ...and while we were at it, we decided to add a small lighting system. What did we end up with? A real venue. It wasn't planned that way, it evolved that way. It dawned on us when one event drew over 200 people that we needed to be able to handle all this. With the upgrade to the PA and the lights, came the need to upgrade the way we were doing business. Business??? Yes.., it became a business. We had to have staff, clean up before and after every show, stock supplies, have security, ID people, purchase food, maintain the equipment and all the activities and costs that go with the territory. We ended up with a mid-sized venue. The very thing I had lamented on the loss of. So now I know first hand what's involved in running such an enterprise. But here's the thing... we don't want to restrict it entirely to this genera. We have a great facility. One that's still evolving and improving. But we can't seem to break out of this genre.
As a not-for-profit fraternal organization, we are not a traditional business. We are not really a bar or open 6-7 days a week or serving food or any of that. This is reflected in our drink prices which are kept well below what most bars charge. Since this is done for our membership that won't be changing. So we're not able to pay bands from our bar take. There isn't much of one to speak of and what we do make goes back into keeping the doors open. It was our original intent to make the place available to musicians and bands to "do their thing". We always let them have the option of doing a door charge for a show and that's fine. We want no part of that. Run the show however you think best. We have a great place for you to do that. And we've had some great local cover and tribute bands come and play. In fact, many are top-notch entertainment. But the crowd isn't there. Where are all the local people??? We've had an outstanding Pink Floyd tribute band, an amazing Soul -Motown band, a rocking Led Zeppelin tribute band. All well worth a 5$ or $10 door charge which will be made up in the savings on drink prices. Even the soda and water is cheap. So... Where are all the local people??? We have a show featuring a Metal band from California and people come from Fl, MD, TN, IL, VA and Canada to see them. Yes.. Calgary, Canada. People come from all over the country to the Glen Cove Moose Lodge to see a band from out-of-state, but a local band, a GREAT local band cant seem to draw 30 people.... So what is the real problem here? Is there a complete apathy on Long Island for live music?? Have most of the people who would appreciate these other genres gotten too old or mostly died off? Are they too poor or too cheap to pay $10?? Is Glen Cove so far across town that it's too much of a drive? I am at a complete loss as to what factors are at work here...
A simple attempt to bring local music by local musicians to the local community has been a miserable failure while becoming an international success...
What is going on??? Anyone?? Anyone? Bueller??
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