RTP-area local music and culture

[James Hepler <jameshepler AT yahoo.com>]

I wonder what the expectations are among Durham bands
in terms of bringing people out to Durham to see
shows.  I find a fundamental fault with the notion
that more people should come to shows in Durham when
those very Durham bands are playing shows in, say
Durham, Chapel Hill, and Raleigh within weeks of each
other.  Seems more like a band that draws big but
seldom plays the Triangle would have to choose Durham
over Chapel Hill or Raleigh.  The question becomes,
how do you get THEM to choose Durham?

That's assuming one wants Durham to move beyond a
handful of venues that serve Durham almost
exclusively.


--- "betsyshane AT gmail.com" <betsyshane AT gmail.com>
wrote:

> Grady--
> 
> I guess beyond cheap housing (I've heard arguments
> that carrboro is
> cheap enough, or comperably cheap and I don't really
> know the orange
> county housing market) I wonder about the newer
> aspects of the "scene"
> developed...I don't really know who was here before
> this new wave of
> fairly young bands came in and commandeered the
> identity, but there
> seems to be a gung ho "attitude" of Durham, sort of
> invested in
> separationist politics, but more in the sense of
> there was no place
> for us so we've made a place for ourselves.  Whether
> or not that's
> true is debatable (and in my work has been widely
> debated).  When I
> moved here in 2003, I was going to CH weekly because
> there was
> "nothing to do" in Durham.  Whether or not that was
> true, there was
> nothing visible, barely any venues for music, and
> when I went out,
> people seemed pretty down on Durham (the favorite
> joke being about
> Welcome to Durham / getting shot / getting robbed) 
> The other thing
> I've  thought about in regards to politics is the
> fact that Durham is
> sort of the "poor" city....and the fact that people
> sort of bricolage
> the poverty and the lovable loser mentality of the
> town, making their
> own projects into the little engine that could...
> 
> Plus, Durham seems to have many more female movers
> and shakers, at
> least visibly-- Mel thomas owns 307 Knox and does
> Troika, Michelle
> Lee's Untidy Museum/Electric Blender are the real
> reason places like
> ooh la latte and 305 south came to be, 3 of the 6
> members of the board
> of BCHQ are ladies...going back there was
> ladyslipper and Mr. lady.
> Is this just coincidence?  Is Durham as a town just
> woman friendlier?
> I've made the argument that Durham is a "feminized"
> or "emasculated"
> space because it has been robbed of its agency, lost
> its earning power
> and is now basically being parceled off to the
> highest bidder.
> 
> I would argue, however, that the number of people
> willing to travel to
> Durham for events is not nearly as high as people
> likely to go out to
> Chapel Hill/Carrboro/Raleigh for events.  As much as
> rent prices play
> a role, you can't deny that Broad St cafe has gone
> under in many
> incarnations, Joe & Jo's (arguably the birthplace of
> this new wave of
> Durham collectives)  went down, and without an
> intervention by the
> DUU, The Coffeehouse would've folded too.  Are
> people really coming
> out to Durham?  I never intended to say it was a
> "hot scene" but
> people are trying to make something happen here and
> I wonder both how
> it looks from the outside to musicians and
> listeners.  I think the
> sort of same 100 people phenomena is in full blast
> here, because it's
> the same people at lots of the shows, with the
> exception maybe of Red
> Collar shows.
> 
> I guess I have been getting a lot of nebulous
> responses about the
> "spirit" of durham, like Ross's statement
> "Chapel Hill/Carrboro seems too evenly
> divided between rich people and college students;
> Raleigh feels more
> like Charlotte every day, sadly. People in Durham
> feel more like
> people. "
> I suppose that I am trying to put my finger on why
> it is that people
> in Durham feel more like people / the Durham "scene"
> is so much more
> supportive than others / it's "fresher" / it's
> really DIY / it's so
> weird/interesting for people now.
> 
> Thanks already for your responses, if you've got any
> reply to these
> (or the questions posed by Joel, thanks man!) that'd
> be great too.
> 
> 
> -- ch-scene: the list that mirrors
> alt.music.chapel-hill --
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ch-scene
> 



 
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