> Kent:
>
> I've always believed that music is best
> experienced with other people.
Peter:
I have had many good times at shows over the years, and unfortunately, the city I live in, Buffalo, NY, is now considered a low-priority stop on every good bands tour. Usually, the only shows that even bother to stop in my city, are the garbage acts I referred to in my original post.
Please do not misunderstand me, I am NOT against another person's music, but any music I pay attention to must have three things going for it:
1) Talent/Artistic Vision
2) Honesty/Integrity
3) Artist participates in the writing and production of their own material.
I do not begrudge another person what they enjoy--- hell, my wife likes TOP 40 COUNTRY POP, which I cannot stand, but I am not going to say she cannot go buy the new Dixie Chicks CD, even though it will be something I will never put into any of the CD players we have in the house.
The idiots are ruling the roost at this point, and it shows in the music, where one band makes it, like CREED, and then suddenly, there are twenty other bands sounding the same, looking the same, shooting the same videos, and so on.
I personally think that most if not all of the artists that have something intelligent and thought-provoking to offer are automatically marginalized by today's music industry.
DAVID BAERWALD is an example of this, when he was with A&M, they basically gave him three chances, with little or no support or promotion that I noticed. When he didn't sell ten million copies of BEDTIME STORIES and TRIAGE, they dropped him from the label.
Do you remember the 1970's, when an artist sometimes took three or four albums before they found their fan base? RUSH, KISS, AEROSMITH, YES, GENESIS, and PETER GABRIEL as a solo artist are a few such examples. A band to hit it big on the very first release, such as BOSTON or VAN HALEN, are rare, and even today this is a rare occurance.
Nowadays, if the band doesn't sell a shitload of units, they are dropped from the label. Even long-distance runners like YES got dropped from their labels when they stopped selling out stadiums.
I won't pay $500 to see THE ROLLING STONES, but I had a blast at their 1981 stadium concert, where the opening band JOURNEY, who had a multi-platinum seller called ESCAPE, got booed off the stage. Different fan base, and it was pretty funny to see this band that had the #1 hit on radio that week with WHO'S CRYIN' NOW getting yelled at that they suck!
I also take offense at bands that seem to think that tour receipts are their retirement funds, and they crank up the price as high as the die hards are willing to pay. You're right, THE STONES are a bad parody of themselves today, but when they still kicked ass the tickets were $10, and now they are charging a weeks salary to see one show.
When I used to party aboard the VAN HALEN caravan, I would see ten shows on a tour, and had a lot of fun, and it didn't cost me outrageous amounts of money. Now that it does, I am simply staying home.
I invested in a TOP SHELF home theatre system, and the DVD's are only costing $20-$25 apiece, and I DO NOT have a SONY system, as I have a system that was rated far better than what is now SONY junk. they used to be good, but no longer. If you doubt me, go get a copy of the stereo and home theatre review magazines, and check it out for yourself.
In the last year, our indoor arena, whhere the Buffalo Sabres play hockey had the following for concerts:
1) Janet Jackson
2) Jennifer Lopez
3) Backstreet Boys
4) N*SUCK
5) Britney Spears
6) U2
That was it!
Great selection, huh?
I even have to drive 200 miles round trip to see the NFU on Friday, because no one in Buffalo wants to book them. There is a killer club that holds about 500 and it is where I have seen people like Stanley Jordan and Pierre Bensusan, among others, and the guy that owns the place told me personally that he likes David's music, but he doesn't want to get killed by having only 10 people show up to see the performance.
I was going to book David myself, but I do not have any way of promoting the show, so my wife would not go along. She did however, take off two days from work, so we could go hang out in Rochester to see the show there.
This is the attitude we are dealing with these days in the music industry, and overall, it just ain't conducive to having a good time.
Peace and Prayers,
Kent Daniel Bentkowski
Buffalo, New York UFSA
Re: Don't give up on concerts, Kent!
KentDB741
location: Buffalo, New York USA
listening to: The sweet music of YES
registered: 2001.11.12
posts: 1355
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KentDB741
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> Kent:
>
> I've always believed that music is best
> experienced with other people.
Peter:
I have had many good times at shows over the years, and unfortunately, the city I live in, Buffalo, NY, is now considered a low-priority stop on every good bands tour. Usually, the only shows that even bother to stop in my city, are the garbage acts I referred to in my original post.
Please do not misunderstand me, I am NOT against another person's music, but any music I pay attention to must have three things going for it:
1) Talent/Artistic Vision
2) Honesty/Integrity
3) Artist participates in the writing and production of their own material.
I do not begrudge another person what they enjoy--- hell, my wife likes TOP 40 COUNTRY POP, which I cannot stand, but I am not going to say she cannot go buy the new Dixie Chicks CD, even though it will be something I will never put into any of the CD players we have in the house.
The idiots are ruling the roost at this point, and it shows in the music, where one band makes it, like CREED, and then suddenly, there are twenty other bands sounding the same, looking the same, shooting the same videos, and so on.
I personally think that most if not all of the artists that have something intelligent and thought-provoking to offer are automatically marginalized by today's music industry.
DAVID BAERWALD is an example of this, when he was with A&M, they basically gave him three chances, with little or no support or promotion that I noticed. When he didn't sell ten million copies of BEDTIME STORIES and TRIAGE, they dropped him from the label.
Do you remember the 1970's, when an artist sometimes took three or four albums before they found their fan base? RUSH, KISS, AEROSMITH, YES, GENESIS, and PETER GABRIEL as a solo artist are a few such examples. A band to hit it big on the very first release, such as BOSTON or VAN HALEN, are rare, and even today this is a rare occurance.
Nowadays, if the band doesn't sell a shitload of units, they are dropped from the label. Even long-distance runners like YES got dropped from their labels when they stopped selling out stadiums.
I won't pay $500 to see THE ROLLING STONES, but I had a blast at their 1981 stadium concert, where the opening band JOURNEY, who had a multi-platinum seller called ESCAPE, got booed off the stage. Different fan base, and it was pretty funny to see this band that had the #1 hit on radio that week with WHO'S CRYIN' NOW getting yelled at that they suck!
I also take offense at bands that seem to think that tour receipts are their retirement funds, and they crank up the price as high as the die hards are willing to pay. You're right, THE STONES are a bad parody of themselves today, but when they still kicked ass the tickets were $10, and now they are charging a weeks salary to see one show.
When I used to party aboard the VAN HALEN caravan, I would see ten shows on a tour, and had a lot of fun, and it didn't cost me outrageous amounts of money. Now that it does, I am simply staying home.
I invested in a TOP SHELF home theatre system, and the DVD's are only costing $20-$25 apiece, and I DO NOT have a SONY system, as I have a system that was rated far better than what is now SONY junk. they used to be good, but no longer. If you doubt me, go get a copy of the stereo and home theatre review magazines, and check it out for yourself.
In the last year, our indoor arena, whhere the Buffalo Sabres play hockey had the following for concerts:
1) Janet Jackson
2) Jennifer Lopez
3) Backstreet Boys
4) N*SUCK
5) Britney Spears
6) U2
That was it!
Great selection, huh?
I even have to drive 200 miles round trip to see the NFU on Friday, because no one in Buffalo wants to book them. There is a killer club that holds about 500 and it is where I have seen people like Stanley Jordan and Pierre Bensusan, among others, and the guy that owns the place told me personally that he likes David's music, but he doesn't want to get killed by having only 10 people show up to see the performance.
I was going to book David myself, but I do not have any way of promoting the show, so my wife would not go along. She did however, take off two days from work, so we could go hang out in Rochester to see the show there.
This is the attitude we are dealing with these days in the music industry, and overall, it just ain't conducive to having a good time.
Peace and Prayers,
Kent Daniel Bentkowski
Buffalo, New York UFSA
>
> I've always believed that music is best
> experienced with other people.
Peter:
I have had many good times at shows over the years, and unfortunately, the city I live in, Buffalo, NY, is now considered a low-priority stop on every good bands tour. Usually, the only shows that even bother to stop in my city, are the garbage acts I referred to in my original post.
Please do not misunderstand me, I am NOT against another person's music, but any music I pay attention to must have three things going for it:
1) Talent/Artistic Vision
2) Honesty/Integrity
3) Artist participates in the writing and production of their own material.
I do not begrudge another person what they enjoy--- hell, my wife likes TOP 40 COUNTRY POP, which I cannot stand, but I am not going to say she cannot go buy the new Dixie Chicks CD, even though it will be something I will never put into any of the CD players we have in the house.
The idiots are ruling the roost at this point, and it shows in the music, where one band makes it, like CREED, and then suddenly, there are twenty other bands sounding the same, looking the same, shooting the same videos, and so on.
I personally think that most if not all of the artists that have something intelligent and thought-provoking to offer are automatically marginalized by today's music industry.
DAVID BAERWALD is an example of this, when he was with A&M, they basically gave him three chances, with little or no support or promotion that I noticed. When he didn't sell ten million copies of BEDTIME STORIES and TRIAGE, they dropped him from the label.
Do you remember the 1970's, when an artist sometimes took three or four albums before they found their fan base? RUSH, KISS, AEROSMITH, YES, GENESIS, and PETER GABRIEL as a solo artist are a few such examples. A band to hit it big on the very first release, such as BOSTON or VAN HALEN, are rare, and even today this is a rare occurance.
Nowadays, if the band doesn't sell a shitload of units, they are dropped from the label. Even long-distance runners like YES got dropped from their labels when they stopped selling out stadiums.
I won't pay $500 to see THE ROLLING STONES, but I had a blast at their 1981 stadium concert, where the opening band JOURNEY, who had a multi-platinum seller called ESCAPE, got booed off the stage. Different fan base, and it was pretty funny to see this band that had the #1 hit on radio that week with WHO'S CRYIN' NOW getting yelled at that they suck!
I also take offense at bands that seem to think that tour receipts are their retirement funds, and they crank up the price as high as the die hards are willing to pay. You're right, THE STONES are a bad parody of themselves today, but when they still kicked ass the tickets were $10, and now they are charging a weeks salary to see one show.
When I used to party aboard the VAN HALEN caravan, I would see ten shows on a tour, and had a lot of fun, and it didn't cost me outrageous amounts of money. Now that it does, I am simply staying home.
I invested in a TOP SHELF home theatre system, and the DVD's are only costing $20-$25 apiece, and I DO NOT have a SONY system, as I have a system that was rated far better than what is now SONY junk. they used to be good, but no longer. If you doubt me, go get a copy of the stereo and home theatre review magazines, and check it out for yourself.
In the last year, our indoor arena, whhere the Buffalo Sabres play hockey had the following for concerts:
1) Janet Jackson
2) Jennifer Lopez
3) Backstreet Boys
4) N*SUCK
5) Britney Spears
6) U2
That was it!
Great selection, huh?
I even have to drive 200 miles round trip to see the NFU on Friday, because no one in Buffalo wants to book them. There is a killer club that holds about 500 and it is where I have seen people like Stanley Jordan and Pierre Bensusan, among others, and the guy that owns the place told me personally that he likes David's music, but he doesn't want to get killed by having only 10 people show up to see the performance.
I was going to book David myself, but I do not have any way of promoting the show, so my wife would not go along. She did however, take off two days from work, so we could go hang out in Rochester to see the show there.
This is the attitude we are dealing with these days in the music industry, and overall, it just ain't conducive to having a good time.
Peace and Prayers,
Kent Daniel Bentkowski
Buffalo, New York UFSA
