I’ve been recording house-shows, public venue debuts and other DIY music and art events for over a year now. I have been that guy at a performance or showing or festival, holding a digital sound recorder or babysitting a laptop with conspicuous headphones around my head or neck the whole evening. It’s not enough, apparently that I’m insinuating myself into a scene of friends and colleagues where I stand out by a significant socio-economic difference, or else hella-age-gap; I have to advertise my other-ness with obvious gear in tow.
It’s worth it to me for some highly examined reasons.
- I intend to compile my material into a cultural podcast.
- I want to document the worthy and unique offerings in my community.
- I get bored sometimes.
Someday this blog/podcast could help me remember the names of all these people I keep meeting. So far it’s only been a dream and a frustration for people who follow up on the website I say I’m building.
I really have no special qualifications to make any reports on DIY music and other arts. I have no proven experience in the field. Pretty mediocre, really, considering the effort and its duration.
I have been a drummer in a handful of bands of no note, written a little and drawn art for flyers seen by dozens of people.
That this lack of success doesn’t hinder my status in the community’s DIY scene is one encouraging factor to my feeling more at home among the house-show attendees. I like to tell my broadcasting colleagues that they, even they, would find themselves welcome at a show. ‘Especially if you bring smokes or booze,’ I add, and we laugh. But seriously, I sometimes wish more places could operate like some unofficial venues I’ve been a part of. There are some easy examples of more established and main-stream talents and facilities who belittle us nobodies in the media. Meanwhile, at a house-show one may feel safe in eschewing popular culture and celebrity talents.
It’s not all adversarial….
zineradio 