10 Ideas for the Louisville Music Scene

[peanut butter puddin surprise]

Warning:  Manifesto length post here....

After living here for almost 17 years, I think I have an honest opinion about what could be done to improve the music scene in Louisville.  This city is the proverbial fertile valley for growing a following for some pretty kick ass bands over the years.  I propose the following to make it better, to cultivate it into an even more awesome scene:  (this means you, club owners, city leaders, rag newspaper reporters, investors, etc.)

1.  START THE MUSIC EARLY!!  I can't stress this point enough, it's the biggest reason why you see half empty clubs and concert halls.  There just isn't any logical reason for waiting until 12:30 a.m. on a Wednesday to start playing.  Guess what, local entrepreneurs??  LOUISVILLIANS go to work in the morning!  There just isn't enough unemployed youngsters who don't have anywhere to go at 7 a.m. on a weekday to support the ol fashioned "doors open at 8...show starts whenever we feel like you've spent enough money on beer/drinks to justify turning on the music".  Here's a clue:  start shows around 7 p.m.  everyone out by 11.  what's the difference between those 4 hours and the 4 hours between 10 and 2?  I still can't get over this.  

2.  BUILT IT AND THEY WILL COME.  Currently, IMHO, the best venue to see a show in this town is at the Brown Theater.  The Palace sucks (too big, sound issues with PA system) and doesn't have small, club sized shows.  Headliner's ceased to be a cool venue to me a few years ago when they stopped drawing anything remotely indie at all, plus they just don't care about fire code issues (Great White is just waiting to happen there) and who has the stamina to stay awake till 3 on a weeknight? (see point 1)  
If we build a mid sized auditorium with a basement for club shows, start shows early, and freaking draw some names to this town, it will pay for itself in no time.  And don't put it around houses, for God's sake.  There's already enough drunks breaking windows and pissing in yards already...

3.  Listen up, Clear Channel/Viacom:  support the local acts on your god-awful radio stations on some other time than 10 pm. on Sunday.  I just love the fact that there's two stations in town that play Pearl Jam all fucking day, but fail to mention who's opening for them on their next tour.  MMJ is!  A local act!  Not one person has mentioned this on the radio.  It's like they either don't know or don't care.  The public station does a fairly decent job, but it's just too peppered in between long blocks of Allison Krauss for the 16 millionth time for anyone to notice.  Of course, you can't say anything bad about them as they are their best soapbox, but I just wish they'd spend about 1 hour a day more supporting the local scene they say they love so much.  

4.  The local TV stations do little or nothing to expose the viewing public to the wealth of talent here.  Fox 41 does the best job, IMHO...in fact, Dick Irby from that station is responsible for a lot of people in this town ever hearing about MMJ in the first place (due to his landmark Bunbury taping back in the day).  Here's a clue:  if you expose the public to the arts in this town (other than the latest Orchestra financial meltdown) people might patronize local talent.

5.  The local papers (I'm looking at you, Velocity...LEO) do a pretty good job of exposing the public, but the articles are either too short, aren't written well, or parlay in gossip.  Here's a thought:  what the hell is the music about or like?  What can you compare/contrast it too?  Isn't there enough talent here to write about them?  Their motivations...inspirations, etc.?  Maybe it's just me...

6.  Develop Louisville as a national destination to see shows.  We're not Chicago, or Nashville...but why does Asheville, NC seem to have waaaaaaaaaaaaay cooler shows than Louisville on a more regular basis?  And how about Indy?  They are bigger, but why can't Louisville draw people from the 4 metro areas close to us for national name shows?  I can't tell you how many times I've gone to shows in Indy, Cincy...where are those folks for shows here?  This is up to the city leaders to do some PR work.

7.  Build a studio for recording.  A big one...one that would attract local and national talent for recording.  How cool would it be to know a local band is recording in the same space as someone like (insert your favorite national act here).

8.  More festivals.  Like a MUSIC one, fer chrissakes.  We've got this beautiful waterfront ampitheater that I see as unused.  Have a dozen bands play over two days.  And not in August when it's 1000 degrees outside..how about May?  September?  Hell, anytime it isn't pea soup thick with pollution and humidity would be fab.  Lebowskifest is awesome.  You all know anytime when they put up a beer tent/bratwurst tent and have a few bands, it's going to be fun and everyone will make money.

9.  Work with the local schools (who already have teenagers playing in bands) to develop talent.  all it takes is a little encouragement.  You should see some of the kids I've seen over the years jamming out-only to go on to be working at UPS instead of following their music.  (not that that is a totally bad thing, but you know)

10.  This town is sorely lacking a college scene.  How many students at U of L?  And no venue close to the campus for shows?  The Red Barn has been long gone, but there's like NOTHING close to campus that's remotely like a club.  

These are just my ideas and opinions on this subject.  I'd love to see my town become a national powerhouse for building and exposing talent.  There just isn't any reason why it cannot.  How many jobs would this support?  Plenty!

[ratsprayer]

well ummm i cant speak for a lot of that since ive only been to louisville a few times, but it seems you have some good ideas.  i agree that indy gets many more super duper headlining acts, but i swear it must be the worst city of population 1 million plus to gather indie acts.  its fucking horrible.  i do think cincy and louisville could work together to "share" bands and spread out the listening area.  its a three hour drive, give or take, based on traffic.  cincy still has a kickass mucic scene, even though its much much much less than it was 15 years ago.  i think a lot of the cincy bands would do very well in louisville, and i wouldnt mind seeing more variety of bands from the general area come this way.

[SiOuxTribe]

Thought I'm not from Louisville or even been to it, those are some great ideas which can be used at many struggling music scenes.  I would definately like to these ideas put forth near my hometown as well.  The only places we have here in the outer D.C. area seem to be Jaxx (which is restricted to mostly metal type bands) and Nissan Pavilion (which is only national acts).
The 9:30 club as well supports more local and indie acts but its hard as shit to get a gig there.  I would love to just have a decent venue for people who just want to see local acts for cheap, but still have a respectable stage and soundsystem, as well as brining in some more sub-famous bands.

[wellfleet]

Con man... you should get this printed as an op-ed or letter to the editor in the newspaper. what better way to get your points across, which, btw, could be of help in many cities, including mine.

[maisie]

thats a great idea.  someone should send this in to the leo, velocity and courier journal.  its all true.... i would have to agree.  i have no idea why promoters want us bands to wait till 1030 to start playing.  it is lame!