I was sitting on my ass, looking out at the sunset west of town last night and I was thinking about hating. Yea, hating. I’m guilty of it - maybe too often - and a lot of times it is well deserved because lets face it there are a lot of things in this town to hate on. I mean there’s that abomination of terrible sound eminating from Coupe de Villes every weekend night during the school year and that terrible band that… OK .. breathing deeply…
There are also a lot of things about the music and arts scene here that I love. I’m really a lover at heart, and not a fighter. The heart of squidtank is only partially black and opaque, even though all of me loves the Cure.
1) I love that I can go to a bar pretty much any night of the week and if I pick right I may hear some music that will blow me away. I forget this from time to time, and I’m reminded on those rare nights when I’ll stop into somewhere on a whim and leave with 2CDs and a shirt under my arm. We complain because we can - and even having the option to complain is pretty amazing.
2) I love that some people are so interested in trying different things musically that you see different bands spring up with the same people in them. Any of Adam Smith’s bands for example… How many bands is that dude in? Truman Sparks, the invisible hand, … I can’t even remember them all. And it’s that kind of thing I love. That people are trying different things outside of what the traditional media (or even ‘new’ media) promote.
3) I love that I feel like you can know a good half of the music scene in town by just going to a few shows. Hell, go see Matt Horn a few times (wherever it is that he plays - everywhere?) and you’ll already recognize a lot of the same people. Granted it’s not totally my scene but my point is it is relatively close knit within the various genres. I wish there was more crossover but I don’t see Matthew Willner playing with Worn in Red anytime soon. I would welcome being proved wrong. I might not want to hear it, but I’ll take it!
4) I love the girls that come out to shows. Seriously. You dress amazing, and even though your boyfriend is probably in the band - you’re always really into it. You’ll really be honest why you did or didn’t like it. You don’t have any lipservice to pay anyone cause you don’t want to offend some guys in a terrible yet locally influential band. You’re there for the music and the beer and to that I raise my glass high. Come find me when your boyfriend is onstage and I’ll buy you a beer.
So those are a few of my favorite things. Well, aside from doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles of course. Who doesn’t love THAT?
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Tagged as: adam smith, bands, love, matt horn, matthew willner, music scene, Worn in Red
nice squid.
there are a couple things that i’ve been hating on:
–for what has to be the 14th or 15th time…all the excessive talkers during sit down shows at Gravity.
-and that one guy at just about every Pavilion show I’ve seen who goes charging through the crowd and manages to hit my elbow everytime I’m taking a drink of my beer. I hate you crowd charging, elbow hitting while I’m drinking my beer guy!
But I’m with you on loving the fact that I can go out just about every night and see something of quality in the way of local live music!
I love it when my friends from out of town call and are envious of all the great music around Charlottesville. I usually just politely laugh and then rub it in even more by running down the next month or so of live music events.
And I have to say that just about everyone I’ve come in contact with that’s involved in the local music scene have been super nice and super cool. I love that.
And I love watermelon. (and I don’t spit out the seeds)
shaun, as my father used to say when i sat and ate a bucket of rice(no one else in mu family ever liked rice)…those are seeds-you swallow the seeds, and there’s gonna be a plant growing out of your belly. it’s gonna come right out right out your mouth…then what ya gonna do with a plant growing out of your mouth?!
Yes. NICU makes and excellent point. what ya gonna do?
I hate on the high prices of shows at the pavillion. Innsbrook in Richmond gets the same shows for half the ticket price. wussupwidat? However, I’m always impressed with the number of quality acts that roll through here.
Also, I agree, this is a good lookin’ town, as far as the ladies go. Yew!
@2 Harvest em and head to the City Market….locally grown baby!
24 let us know when you’ll be there. why limit it to the City Market? you could start a very mobile sort of deal. and very local.
Shaun, I have to agree on the pavillion show drunks. Last year I got tackled clear to the ground by some weaving almost passed out drunk.
oh, and okra, can’t go near the stuff.
Can I name names? Band names, anyway.
I love listening to Sarah White.
squidtank…good to see you out last night…there were definitely some #4s out last night.
@8 I’m with you on that one.
@9 Boy you’re not kidding. I even saw the guitarist from the second band hitting on the girlfriend of the singer from the first band while they played! Awesome. I have some good pics and will be posting a little writeup later today. Probably the best light show I’ve seen at the Outback Lodge - maybe ever?
@5. It may take awhile for them to grow but I’m hoping for a big harvest…look for me in late summer!!!
@10 - agreed on the light show. and, well….i think your other comment…that was to be expected
@9 squid…when you finish your writeup, pop it up in the features section.
the #4s at Mono Loco last night blew my mind
And I am paying for it today…
@3- Innsbrook has sponsorships up the wazoo that allows them the ability to sell tickets for less. Our venue, the Budweiser Pavilion, sponsored by Charlottesville, i mean um, Charlottesville pavilion, sponsored by Budweiser, isn’t at that level yet.
@16: That’s not entirely true, FYI. The shows are run by a non-profit (or not-for-profit) foundation, The Innsbrook Foundation. PLUS they have all that sponsorship and they sold the naming rights. It’s actually called (how sucky is this?) The Snagajob.com Pavillion at Innsbrook. The naming rights alone bring in a ton of cash, and as mentioned, they run it not for profit, which means they don’t have to build a profit into the ticket price.
Our Charlottesville Pavillion has sponsorship, but not as much Innsbrook, as you mentioned, but Capshaw hasn’t sold the naming rights, and it’s run as a for profit enterprise. That’s they the ticket prices are so different between the two venues.
Well, it’s crap, either way. Capshaw can bite me. He’s got enough of our money. Why not give something back tot he music fans that helped build his empire by reducing the ticket price to “reasonable”.
He does have enough of our money. Lots of enterprises/companies have a lot of my money. Where should I start? Hmmm, here’s a list.
9:30 Club: I used to go the old club back in the day and have been to hundreds of shows over the years. I really helped Seth build IMP Productions by being a good customer. He should let me into the Virgin Festival for free, no?
Apple: I was an early adopter of the Mac, have bought a gazillion Macs over the years and I recommend Macs to everyone. Jobs should have given me a free iPod when they were invented.
What else?
Oh, ESPN: I watched it when it was fledgling! A tiny baby cable network showing Australian Rules Football. I’ve supported them all these years. Maybe I can get a free hat or something?
Look, I get your point. Capshaw is rich. And we’ve “helped” him over the years. But it’s no different than any other business and I don’t see other businesses reducing their prices. Would I like him to reduce prices? Absolutely. Do I think he will or that it makes good business sense? No. Stuff costs money, I’m fine with that and I don’t thinkthe prices at the Pavillion are that unreasonable.
Capitalism: can’t live it, can’t seem to become a bazillionaire like some of them.
Also, how’s about the bands reducing the guarantees they demand? I’ve bought plenty of Black Crowes CDs and tickets over the years, think Chris Robinson (who has plenty of money) would ever say: let’s play a free show, or make tickets only half price?
Gas prices aren’t helping matters either. And while it affects the bottom line for every band, it’s really going to start to pinch the smaller, touring acts that play smaller venues which generally offer more affordable prices to see shows. Don’t be surprised to see the prices of these shows becoming less affordable too. In some cases, it may mean that you see your favorite band from places far removed from Cville less and less.
@17. The Snagajob.com Pavilion is just about as sucky as venue names go in my opinion. That’s horrible!
@18. Interestingly enough, I actually scanned through the five most recent upcoming Black Crowes shows with General Admission tickets available thru Ticketmaster and I couldn’t find one (when fees are added) that was cheaper than the Pavilion. The cheapest I found was $38. Which is only three dollars less than reserved seats at the Pavilion. Factor in that you don’t have to drive more than a couple miles at best and in some ways we’re actually on the winning end. I’m not trying to take sides on this one, to be honest, I was surprised by what I found.
although i did find seats in columbus, OH for $25. + 7.25 service charge = 32.75
pavilion general admission = 31.50