A little late to the party...

So a friend of mine pitches to me an honestly interesting idea. "I'm starting a blog," he says (or rather, writes, as it was an email, and honestly I probably shouldn't be using quotation marks, seeing as I am paraphrasing what he said...). I'm starting a blog, he says, and he explained that he and a few friends would contribute. He invited me to contribute, and I was honestly all about it.

That was in February...

Okay, so better late than never. I could use the fact that I'm a new parent, with a freshly-minted one year-old almost toddling, but that's just part of the reason I'm just showing up now. Now, I could make this entry all about me and my wild tales of procrastination, but there are more pressing subjects to explore - such as what the hell seems to be the problem with music audiences in the town in which I live?

I went out to a show last night, the headliner of which was a guy named Robbie Fulks. He was playing at a small but respectable music establishment in a community on the right bank of my fair city. For those of you who have not yet discovered the glory that is a Robbie Fulks song, allow me to break it down for you. The guy has a sense of humor so quick as to shame Robin Williams circa 1983, and so twisted that Warren Zevon, were he still with us, would have this guy opening for him. I first discovered Fulks while channel surfing in the mid-90's. I came across an episode of Austin City Limits on PBS, and there was this guy singing a country song called "She Took A Lot of Pills and Died." I was instantly hooked. Upon researching Fulks' catalog, I was delighted to find more twisted twangy tunes, my favorite of which was about his time living in Nashville as a contracted songwriter. The song, simply called "F--- This Town" (fill in the blanks, kiddies!), and it left no doubt as to how Fulks felt about the Tennessee town.
So when I heard that he was coming to town, I knew I'd be going to the show. However, when the night in question arrived, I completely zoned out and only missed it. I happened to pick up a local paper and read an interview with Fulks that a friend of mine had written, and I jumped into my car and raced across town, hoping I would be able to still get in. I imagined a packed venue (the place only holds a couple hundred, if that), but as it turns out I needn't have worried. I, along with my friend who interviewed Fulks, were part of the whopping ten people who showed up to see Fulks play. There were actually more folks in the venue, but they sat at the bar or played pool during the entire show, talking loudly over the music that, had they actually stopped to listen, would probably have blown them away. It was Fulks and another fellow whose name I didn't catch, playing acoustic guitars and cracking jokes between songs. They played "Pills," and a mess of other great songs, picked on (in a good natured way) some poor guy from Princeton who stood near the stage, and made up a hilarious song about the venue on the spot. It was a great show, and yet I was embarrassed that only a handful of people bothered to show up. That seems to be one of two MO's here in my town. Either a great artist gets no audience, or a well-attended show inevitably gets attended by people who only seem to want to be there to be seen. I personally hate it when some idiot pushes up front at a club show, then turns with his or her back to the stage and talks (usually loudly) to his or her friend throughout the performance. I will never understand that.
So anyway, Fulks rocked the house, and all ten of us will always have that.