The local music scene

My boyfriend and I went to the Holobora music and art festival on Saturday. We probably would have gone anyway, but we had to go for my zine, The F.Y.I., since I did an entire issue dedicated to the festival and the bands participating in it. We got there early and set up a booth, then sat there to observe as the entire evening went by.

Together, we came up with a few conclusions about Kearney's music scene.

First of all, there was a great scene here about two years ago, but many of the best local bands took off to Portland, Oregon, where there is a much better scene. I have no idea how they're doing today, but I definitely miss them. Other bands simply broke up because people graduated from college and moved on.

It was pretty lame around here for awhile, but the void left room for other bands to come forward, and the music scene is finally growing again. Even better than before, there is a wide range of genres here, from rock-hip hop and indie to metal and industrial.

You'd think that would be a good thing, right? Well, instead of letting the scene grow into something amazing and diverse, there are a number of bands who either have members or a strong following of fans that apparently don't appreciate this diversity.

Conclusion #1: The scene is divided.

For example, I'm going to point out the worst offenders. Mortal Dezire. They're a very talented and popular metal band from Kearney. They were the last band to play for the night, kind of like a headline band, yet they didn't even bother to show up until about one hour before they had to play. When they did show up, a hip hop group was performing, and the guys simply put on their head phones and stood by the door, loudly proclaiming they wanted to "tune out this noise" (though in not-so-nice terms).

Another example, once again pointing out the worst offenders, were many of the fans of the industrial/experimental rock group Beta. They showed up only to see Beta, and they made it known. While other groups were performing, they sat in the back of the venue and complained that everyone else was taking too long, that it was Beta's turn, that they only cared about seeing Beta.

People. Seriously. What is the deal? Attitudes like these cause huge rifts in the local music scene. It was especially telling when Clozerock and Upset from the Ivyleague and Ryan O'Connor from Beat Continuum took a break from their hip hop performance to pump up the crowd for the bands coming up. When they yelled, "... and Mortal Dezire!" the venue went quiet. People were looking around. "Mortal Dezire? Are they here? ... Oh, nevermind, they're outside."

Outside in the freezing cold, because they would rather stand out there than have to integrate with us mere mortals. The fools!

That small part of the night really sucked, because the divide between Kearney music lovers only grew bigger at that point. Not only did the people watching hip hop not cheer for Mortal Dezire, but Mortal Dezire and their following weren't even inside to support the hip hop anyway. It's a lose-lose situation.

Observation #2: The scene is terribly unorganized.

While putting together the zine, I had almost nothing to go on besides the flier for the festival. I contacted every band on the flier, and about 75% got back to me with interview information, and about 10% actually got back to me with photos and other media to include.

This alone made the zine especially difficult and time consuming to put together. When I finally finished it and had it distributed, I had about five different bands/musicians ask me why they weren't in the issue, to which I had to reply, "No one told me you'd be here."

Also, the Holobora festival puts a good deal of emphasis on local artists, and they all wanted to know why they weren't in the issue, to which I had to reply again, "I had no idea you would be here, the organizers never gave me the list." And actually, the one artist they said would be there, wasn't.

Also, two bands who were included in the issue never showed up to play at the festival. And one band actually had the audacity to complain about the picture I had to pull off the internet since they didn't send me one. What the hell. Needless to say, it was frustrating.

Over all, I love doing the zine, and little set backs like this don't make me love it any less. Most people had a great response to the Holobora issue, and many of the bands that were included and who gave me their information thanked me generously for printing them. It feels good to have people appreciate the work, especially when I do it all by myself and pay for it out of my own pocket.

I don't want to complain, and I don't really want this blog to be seen as simply venting. I think the facts that the scene is so divided and unorganized really do hinder it and should seriously be considered worth fixing. I don't know who will step up to do the organization part, but the rest of us can start by supporting local music - all local music.