This last weekend, I went with a couple of my kids to see some local bands play at the House of Blues. My kids knew some of the guys in one of the bands, so we went to support them.
It was a local band night, so expectations were not too lofty. It turns out, that was overly optimistic.
The first band up was pretty awful. The drummer couldn't keep time and played in a very timid fashion. He tried to play a couple of breaks and I felt embarrassed for him. The lead guitarist kept losing his guitar cord. That was probably for the best. He was constantly picking up his cord and slamming it back into his guitar. The bass player was not bad, at first. The rhythm guitarist was badly out of tune. Then they played their second song and things went downhill fast. The bassist decided that he could sing. He was wrong. It was amazing how he could screech wordless syllables without ever, even accidentally, stumbling into the correct key. I thought that was bad, but then the rhythm guitarist tried to sing back up. His vocals were out of tune with the band, his own guitar, and the lead vocalist. I had never before heard a band sing and play in four different keys at once. The high point of their show came when, for no rational reason, the bassist threw (yes, threw) his bass down on the stage, clutched the mic stand for support, and bellowed. When the band foolishly announced that they were about to play their last song, everyone cheered madly. After their set, the band walked through the crowd, trying to force people to take their demo CDs. Most people declined or threw them away.
The second artist was a solo guitarist/singer who was not bad. He played well and his vocals were decent. Unfortunately, the mix was poor enough that even without a band to clutter his sound, I couldn't understand anything he sang. He also re-tuned his guitar between every single song. (Yes, every one.)
Finally, the band we came to see
(The Waves. No, not Katrina & The Waves. No, not The Waves from the UK. Okay, there are probably a lot of bands by that name. This one was from a local high school.) got on stage. They had a great time, engaged the crowd, and played a great set. They looked and sounded professional. They were a lot of fun. The band members were very friendly and spent time just hanging out in the crowd before and after their set. The lead singer made it a point to go up to groups of people and thank them for coming to the show.
Seeing that the next band was a group named, Loud Loud, we decided to end on a high point and leave before they could ruin things. As we left, almost the entire crowd went with us. Sadly, I knew just how Loud Loud would feel, playing to a nearly empty room.
Afterwards, we had a good time laughing about the human circus that is live local music. I hope it always continues to survive. Rock on, guys...