6The Daily Tar Heel Thursday, February 4, 1988
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Wanted: music fans
to back the Triangle's
up-and-coming bands
By JENNY LIVINGSTON
Assistant Omnibus Editor
This is a tale of three cities. It could
be called the best of times and the
worst of times for the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel
Hill live music scene.
The Triangle, host to three major
universities, a semi-major airport and
more Ph.D.s than anywhere else in
the world, seems to have more bands
than it knows what to do with.
It is the best of times because now,
more than ever, the three cities are
home to some of the best of the
newest new music bands around. The
Connells. The Accelerators. The
Pressure Boys and The Bad Checks
are all beginning to enjoy national
reputations. And among the lesser-
talent. It's the old catch-22: nobody The Pier in Raleigh, is closed, even
wants to book you if you don't have fewer of the big bands will be coming
experience, but you can't get expe- throuah the Triangle. Rumors of a
rience if nobody wants to book you
"Its hard to make those deci
sions." said Ruth Nix. booking agent
for Under the Street. "You want to
book these local bands after all,
they are our existence but on the
other hand, they don't always bring
in the crowds."
Indeed, the band could be as good
as the million-dollar bands seen every
day on MTV a somewhat less than
Herculean feat these days but if
nobody comes to see them, every
body loses. The club loses money, the
band gets minimal exposure and all
those would-be music fans miss out
known set are literally hundreds of on another great show.
good, solid music makers.
But even in the face of such a rich
supply, it is perhaps the worst of
times for area music clubs. Business
is falling off.
There's certainly no shortage of
clubs. Raleiqh has The Brewerv and
Some clubs are more willinq to
show less established bands. The Cave
and The Fallout Shelter often have
weekly lineups without a single big
name.
"The new bands need a place to
play." said Scott Zekanis. booking
The Fallout Shelter. Chapel Hill has agent for The Fallout Shelter. "They
Cat s Cradle and The Cave and
Durham has Under the Street. -Plus,
all three cities have a number of
smaller live music clubs. The only
problem is that there seems to be
more bands playing the clubs than
there are fans to fill them.
"There are plenty of venues." said
Ed Morgan of Black Park Enterprises,
booking agent for The Brewery.
"Where the support is lacking is' in
the audience."
These days every garage on the
block booms with the beat of ever
hopefuls practicing their own brand
of local rock 'n roll. Many won't make
it past the garage stage, but those
who do face a veritable obstacle
course in front of them on the road
to success.
The first obstacle that faces Tri-
can't just start out at The Cradle or
The Brewery there have to be the
smaller venues like us to start out
in. How do people expect the music
scene to keep going if they won't try
anything new? "
Unfortunately, it is these smaller
venues that tend to suffer the most
when the audiences stay home. The
bigger, established acts will always
draw a crowd. Somebody's always
going to go out to see Guadalcanal
Diary or Fishbone or C.O.C.. but what
about The Insurgence or Soul Train
or The Wallabouts? Maybe. Maybe
not.
Many of the clubs respond to the
trend by booking more of the big out-of-town
acts. According to Morgan.
The Brewery shows as many out-of-town
bands as local bands. But there
angle bands now, as always, is that are limits to the strategy.
elusive first gig. They face the task
of convincing a booking agent that
even though nobody's ever heard
their music, or maybe, never even
heard of them, they still deserve a
chance.
' : '. - . AV-A v ' ' v;v,-"ywTUYA A AVV V.V VAv Many Dookmgagents.arereluctant,wgf)t .bear it, out,v he, said.
The touring bands look at a club's
gross potential, said Morgan. But
since the club can only hold so many
people, he said, to make enough
money for the band would require a
high ticket price. "The market just
it : - :
outlet for :
new large-venue club abound, but so
far none has surfaced.
The Pier folded late last year due
to attendance that couldn't keep pace
with the astronomical overhead of its
Mission Valley location.
"The Pier brought in a lot of the
larger bands that usually wouldn't
route themselves this way." said
Debbie Cecil of Pro Motion Concerts,
former booking agent for The Pier.
"A lot of the bands used the Raleigh
shows to pay for gas money between
Atlanta and New York."
The effect of The Pier's failure is
hard to determine. On one hand, it
means Less competition for the
surviving; clubs. They have to worry
less about who's playing up the street
when calculating their risks. But on
the other hand. The Pier seemed to
stimulate the market when it was
around. After seeing a major act. the
enthusiasm of the audience would
often spill over into other aspects of
the local music scene. One good show
would spur people on to see more
bands in other clubs.
But why aren't people going to see
the bands now?
Plenty of clubs, plenty of good
music, but no takers. Why? Most club
owners agree that the change in the
drinking age a year and a half ago
had something to do with it. But
some clubs allow anyone over 18 in.
and some, like The Fallout Shelter,
are for all ages all the time, with
others offering the occasional all-ages
show. The catch is. the underage
people can't drink there, so they
might b less inclined to go out at
all.
But there has to be more to the
mystery of the disappearing scene.
Is this new healthy, trying-to-be-wealthy,
future yuppie generation
more interested in GPAs and resumes
than having a good time? Are they
afraid to see something new and
different? Is the local fringe conting
ent to be banished into oblivion,
swallowed up in a mire of sameness?
It would be a tragedy for more than
just the. bands our three cities
would w poorer for it.
The Daily Tar Hod Thursday. February 4, 1SC37
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