Quote:

Is that the general status quo for the rest of the US? Canada? Or mainly in the major cities?



I can speak about Cleveland Ohio in some depth. Here we are in the home or the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame. The music scene in the 80s was lively. There were more places to play than good bands to play them. That was great until about 1984 or so when the state drinking age was changed from 18 to 21. When that happened, half the bars closed down. That meant there were suddenly more good bands than places to play. Bands, just to play, started cutting each other's throats to where a band that used to get $1500 or more per night would play for $500.

All these years later, those rock club places are LONG since gone. Now bands play in restaurant type places that have music at night. Factor in the pariah known as "jam night" when all the wannabe players who aren't good enough to be in bands come out of the woodwork to go to places and play the 2-3 songs they know well enough to stumble through FOR FREE, and good bands don't have any chance to play at any decent venue until summer when there are outdoor venues, festivals, etc.... My band plays once a year at a reunon show that has reached "place to be" status and we sell out a very nice 450 seat venue every year. We get paid well for it and they make a ton of money so everybody walks away happy.

The scene here is awful. Open mic nights typically have 2 good performers and 7 bad ones. A lot of "I am singing with..." and "I am backing up...." from people who don't really play but want to delude themselves into thinking they are relevant by being at all the right places. Really bad bands get gigs because they work really cheap and the bar doesn't car as long as there is SOME band. Your typical musician here plays in 3 or 4 bands, none of which rehearse, and they show up and wing 40 songs, get their $65-70 each, and move on to tomorrow. All the scab bands play pretty much the same 30 songs and maybe 10 outside of the cliche list.

As I tell them, when you play at city park summer fairs to people who never hear a band, it's easy to sound good to them.