Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

ch-scene - Re: On Durham and identity

ch-scene AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: RTP-area local music and culture

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: bendy <bendy AT blackstrap.org>
  • To: RTP-area local music and culture <ch-scene AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: On Durham and identity
  • Date: Thu, 05 Apr 2007 10:51:39 -0400

I came for the housing costs, stayed for the city itself. Tho' I definitely feel more at home here than I did in my ~3 years in CH. I grew up outside Nashua, NH, Dad worked in Worcester MA, then I lived in Pittsburgh, and my wife is from a Kentucky steel mill town. So burnt-out brick downtowns surrounded by mini-malls are probably my natural habitat.

Once a downtown enters the nothing-but-wig-shops-and-law-offices state it's pretty hard to crawl out of it, no matter how many galleries open. Jo & Joe's, in retrospect, seems like it was the inevitable catalyst to making the music scene gel in Durham- viable both as a lunch business and a night spot, and it lasted long enough to have a "feel" as a music spot. Not exactly sure what I mean by that. But I never got that from the Basement or Ringside's stints as live venues.

Musically, I think drawing distinctions between the three points of the Triangle is always a strain. Maybe outsiders will eventually focus on Durham as the center of music from our region, but it's more similar to the way NYC bands are from *Brooklyn* these days. It's not like a bunch of native Brooklynites suddenly decided they really liked the Gang of Four. We always identified Blackstrap a Durham band, but there was never a time when all the members were living there.

- bendy


grady wrote:
Umm, I think so many groups are self-identifying as Durham bands because their members live in Durham. Root cause: for some folks, it's the most affordable place to live, and for a lot of folks, it's the most desireable place to live. I stopped counting a long time ago the number of my friends who'd moved to Durham from the other points in the Triangle.





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page