I was driving around today listening to an old Grateful Dead show and they made mention of Billy Graham and it took me a second to let me remember who they were talking about.
Most americans think of the televison friendly evangelist, but Jerry Garcia was talking about this guy. Graham changed the face of modern music promotion and he paved the way for smaller bands to be able to tour and have venues accross the country. He had bi-coastal major venues and made sure that people got to hear music that they loved.
I bring this up for two reason. The first is to give ackowledgement to a guy that lived with little fanfare outside of the industry. The other is the fact that we dont have a dedicated music venue in town and I think it's high time for it to be changed.
The venues around here are poor places to hold shows because everything would have to be retrofitted to provide a venue. The Shaft is having Blue Oyster Culture Club and Dolewite playing this weekend on a stage on top of a dance floor; hardly a good setup for a show. The closest dedicated music venues are located in Kansas City, most notably the El Torean which has hosted and promoted a local and national scene for over 20 years.
Since the Bone closed last winter, the scene is strugging to fill a void. It takes dedicated people to organize and promote shows. I played in a band for a long time and we did our own booking and promoting, which was like another job on top of the one I had already.
Billy Graham (aka Wolfgang Grajonca) I salute you and I wish we had someone with an iota of your talent here. We could use some live music.
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