There's a little hole in the wall place near me called the Double Door Inn that I like to go to.  Every night they have some kind of live music, and I've become one of their regulars.  The place is kind of a shit-hole, and from the outside it looks like an old abandoned house.  Except for the glowing blue neon sign in the window that says "Live Blues" you wouldn't think it was even occupied.  The stage is small, but it affords musicians just starting out and a few old has-beens the opportunity to do what they love:  Getting up in front of a crowd and sharing their passion.

The story people still talk about there, the old farts that have been going there since the place opened forever ago, is the time Eric Clapton randomly showed up with his guitar in hand, completely by suprise, and asked if he could play a few songs.  He ended up staying the whole night.  It's a place for people who love cheap booze and good live music.

I fear live music is going the way of the dinosaur.  There's something about the comradery of sharing a live performance with other music lovers, and that feeling of energy when a band or artist connects with it's audience.  You just can't experience that with DVD, CDs, and mp3 players. 

Too many people treat music as something that you "listen" to while you're doing other shit.  When you work out, when you drive, when you shop for groceries, as background noise in a movie, while you do office work.  How many people actually listen to music for the sake of listening to music?  J.S. Bach, the Baroque composer, once walked over 500 miles just to hear Buxtehude play the pipe organ.  While today, most bands starting out are lucky to get a few dozen people to show up and hear them.

Next time you see a flier on a telephone pole or the tiny print in your local free newspaper about a gig somewhere, go check it out.  You might be suprised how much you enjoy it.  What else do you have to do, sit at home all night and read blogs on EBW?  You'll be helping an industry that is dying a slow death.  Support new music, or soon the only live music we will have left is stadiums packed with idiots screaming for American Idol winners.

Yuck.

I am JohnnyBax, and the show starts at 9.