Return to Sender: How Not to Make Musicians Sad

Dear Philly-Area Music Lovers:

As I briefly mentioned in my review a few days ago, after taking in Friday night’s poorly-attended show at Johnny Brenda’s, my boyfriend and I spent a little while talking to Ross Flournoy (thanks, Daytrotter, for telling me his last name and supplying some awesome MP3s, to boot!), The Broken West’s frontman. While we were talking to Ross, he actually apologized to us, as did a few other band members whom he introduced us to. “I'm sorry we weren't very good tonight. We play better when we have a bigger crowd. It was a little discouraging.” His statement made me sad and even a little embarrassed. Artists shouldn't have to apologize to their audience when the audience isn't big enough.

I know that Johnny Brenda's is a little out of the way for many folks in the city, but this isn't a problem that Phillyist hasn't run into before, at slightly more convenient venues (see my most recent experience at the World Cafe Live and Spencer's nearly private performance at the Tin Angel, for instance). All I can say or do is encourage you to go check out live shows for small artists at small venues. They need to start somewhere before they get the big stadium shows, and some of these bands are way, way too good for their record labels to let them fizzle from lack of audience support, but that's what can eventually happen.

“But Jill,” you might be asking yourselves, “how do we find out about said shows so that we can support up-and-coming artists?” Well, I have a few suggestions:

• Check out the bands in the previews we write, or the previews that go up on other sites – Philly bloggers love them some live music! If something sounds remotely interesting to you, check it out, even if you’ve never heard of the act(s) playing.
• Along those lines, go to see bands you've never heard of, just for the hell of it. Got a free evening? See what's going on at Johnny Brenda's or The Fire or Millcreek Tavern or Tritone or any of the other, smaller local venues we've got here.
• Listen to your friends, or at least to your friends whose musical tastes you’re more-or-less aligned with. They may have heard some great music that you haven’t. If they tell you that they love a band that’s going to be in town, accompany them to the show. And, what the hell, bring some friends of your own, too!
• Check out MySpace to see bands that are from or touring through the area. Almost every band these days seems to have a MySpace page. And almost every one of these MySpace pages has a selection of songs for you to listen to. If you like their recordings, you might find that you’ll like them live, too. What have you got to lose, other than a few bucks?

In the end, nobody can make you give up your cherished stadium shows with famous bands in favor of small club shows with artists few people have heard of, and I’m not suggesting that you do. But variety, as they say, is the spice of life, so why not add some shows at Tritone or Johnny Brenda’s in between your concerts at the Tweeter or the Spectrum? If nothing else, the tickets are a helluva lot cheaper. And you may just get to make friends with the frontman of the headlining band.

Photo of The Broken West at Johnny Brenda's by author.