JB Cheers GB
With the imminent closing of First Avenue on everyone’s mind (laughter) I was interested to see this piece in this morning’s Strib about local rocker GB Leighton.
It seems the man actually makes a living playing music, and pays his band members a salary. It’s his only job--in other words, he doesn’t have to work at Java The Hut or something just to live in a crash pad on East Lake street.
Why do I mention this? Because he seems to have figured out how to successfully play the bars while still getting his original material heard.
Most local bands spend their entire existence in obscurity. They play their precious original music to a small, insular group of like-minded folk and seem to think that credibility (whatever the hell that is) is more important than actually winning an audience and entertaining them.
In other words, the exact type of bands that First Avenue and the Entry book. Should it be any wonder that they can’t make any money doing this?
I’ve never seen GB, but I might have to just for this one quote that tells me he understands the big picture of what the point of having bands in a bar is:
“Our job is to entertain people who are out to drink, have a good time and maybe meet someone.”
Entertainment. Not art.
There still might be time.
Are you listening First Avenue?
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