I have seen a REAL music scene.

[ToonaRockGuy]

DISCLAIMER: The views are my own and do NOT represent my band.

Just got back to Altoona from Gettysburg. Naildriver had the honor of playing the first annual "Gettysburg Rocks" Festival, raising money for Penn State Mont Alto's "Four Diamonds" Fund for their THON efforts.

2 days of shows from 1PM to 3AM. Yep. 14 hours of live music a day.

15 different bars.

Around 130 bands.

Top-notch production.

PACKED houses everywhere.

And all the bands played for FREE.

Think about that for a second. Being able to head to the "bar district" and having live music EVERYWHERE. Having music fans EVERYWHERE. All different genres. Rock. Hip-hop. Soul. Funk. Alt. Country. Indie. Emo. Acoustic. For God's sake, the METAL show was at the MOOSE LODGE and was frickin' PACKED.

That is a scene.

People working together for the common good, quick changeovers, bands helping each other out with gear and moving in and out, networking between bands, soundpeople, promoters, bar owners, the list goes on.

Why the FUCK can't the local scene here even come CLOSE to this?

People like Keith Reynolds and Chris Peters are trying in their own ways to help revitalize what's happening, but they can't do it on their own. There are too many people with sticks up their asses looking for "safe" bands for their publicized and publicly accepted benefits, and the rest of the local bands can do show after show to help people out, and get absolutely no credit with the mainstream because they are "edgy" or "controversial" or don't play the same damn Beatles or Skynyrd or Elvis covers as the "safe" bands do.

I am in NO WAY demeaning any of the local musicians for doing what they do. They are all to be commended for having the balls to get up on stage and perform in the first place.

What I am demeaning is the absolute apathy of the local community for not understanding a simple undeniable fact:

Local musicians raise more money every year for charities and families in need than any business or nonprofit. PERIOD. We are the first responders. We take care of our own, and our community. Yet we can't get anyone outside of Jim Price, God Bless him, to take notice and write anything positive about it.

And nobody is making any noise about it. I'm tired of losing room after room to damn DJs and even worse, karaoke. I'm tired of bar owners having to ask bands to take a cut because the band doesn't draw. I'm tired of the damn blame game that goes back and forth about promotion and who's responsibility it is. I'm tired of everyone pointing fingers and pissing and moaning and nobody doing anything to try to better it.

WAKE UP. Our scene here SUCKS, and we are the only ones that can change it. But it has to be ALL of us, not just musicians. It has to be the media, the bar owners, the promoters, and most of all, the FANS. We have to get them back.

I have seen a real scene. And this sure as hell ain't it.

[rockstar]

THEN LEAVE!!!!!!!!! lol OR MAKE IT BETTER!!!!!!

[onegunguitar]

Yea ToonaRockGuy,leave or make it better you chump...hahahahahaha!!!!

[UNEARTHA7XMatt]

Nice post Toona! You're absolutely right. This weekend was just amazing all around! All the bands worked together. This scene could be rebuilt. Its just thrashed. rockstar, i dont know who you are nor do I care but I sure hope that post was sarcasm! If not, eat a dick!

[rockstar]

UNEARTHA7XMatt is your name sheldon?????? lmfao

[UNEARTHA7XMatt]

No and Fuck You!

[Medic4292]

[MistValkyrie]

That's a very cool idea. Does Gettysburg have an actual bar district or was it just bars around the city choosing to participate? And were they all in Gettysburg or was it like a few communities participating? Either way, it's an awesome idea and I'm glad they pulled it off. It sounds like a lot of community-wide involvement went into making it a great weekend. You're right, that is something that our local scene should be working towards...and we absolutely could.

[onegunguitar]

BAZINGA!!!!!!

[Craven Sound]

That entire area (Lancaster, Dauphin, Cumberland counties) is the state's most successful economic area outside of Philly and Burgh. If we had that sort of fortune here, I'm sure our area would have a better scene as well.

[PanzerFaust]

Hey Kevin,

why not block people on Facebook who are trying to help the local scene??

That sounds like an intelligent way to improve it !!!!!

*What a Tool*