Northeast Wisconsin Music

Church + musicians = good?

2006-11-19T21:03:00.000-08:00

My fiance' and I just became official members of a local congegration, and within about five minutes I had talked to a few of the musicians there (some professional, most not) & may even join a small Irish/ Renaissance music group on guitar. Or banjo, if they prefer. But they probably won't...

My rock band is looking for a place to lay down some tracks for an awesome sounding demo--something we've been sorely lacking, and if we want to play at the decent bars in the area, we need to get our promo materials (especially the demo) down or they won't even look at us. The more time I spend not gigging with them leads me to both want to join other groups to gig more, and to start up my own venue for a variety of styles of music. The latter, in Green Bay anyway, would probably end up just losing me a lot of money. Here's to pessimism and faith in this blue collar town's lack of support for good entertainment other than football!

Support for my band...

2006-10-15T19:41:00.000-07:00

My band just had our first full-night show last night at Major Tom's in downtown GB, and while we got good support from our friends, but not too many extra people wandered in the door, even with our front page snapshot. I'm not expecting everybody to show up to see a band they don't know, but I can guarantee that very few other bands playing out that night had too many people stopping in.

I was talking to one of the few people who none of the band knew, and we were discussing how even as close as 7-8 years ago, Green Bay was hopping with a decent number of local bands, and even more regional/ low level national acts stopping in. Maybe someday that'll pick up some more...

The Entertainer

2006-10-11T19:32:00.000-07:00

So I just discovered that not only is "The Entertainer," our local music/ bar ad/ naked wemmin shakin' thangs publication, putting my band's picture on their front page for our show this week, but they also don't have a website. At all. Don't people want to know about these things?

Hello, virtual world!

2006-10-10T20:30:00.000-07:00

Greetings, you web-based pop-culture music-obsessed journalism whores. I am a local musician in Green Bay, Wisconsin, who is trying to make sense of the local music scene, because as I see it there isn't much. Of a music scene, that is. I hope that this will be the beginning of a long, slow, painful, sometimes sexy road to change, but hope springs eternal only in the Acme Industrial Spring factory.

You are all welcome to come with me on this voyage, and learn the ups and downs of being both a music performer as well as consumer, and how one might maximize either one. I do not claim to have all the answers, nor do I know as much as many other people about this subject, but I'm willing to learn. I'd like to be the one with all the answers, and if some help isn't given to this floundering group of musicians, learning the answers will only take me a few months. I hope to hear from you all soon!