Dinners With Dan #15

Daniel Balcombe
Feb 11, 2018
4 min read

Hey, so this week I thought I would have a bit of a look into MUSIC – HOW ORIGINAL RIGHT? But not just music, in particular LIVE MUSIC - what it all means and why it is really the driving force behind our local scene.

I’ll start this firstly by saying, I don’t get out to as many gigs as I would like/should (I missed PUZZLES last show and I’m cut about that). I don’t want to make excuses but I have a young child which takes 80% of my time – ‘What about the other 20% of your time’ you ask? That’s dedicated to my own band and writing for BTS. So I don’t want to get on anyone’s bad side, although I don’t really care cause I’m OK with being on the bad side of people, my opinions usually get me there anyway so who cares right? I also don’t want to preach to you (no one should be preached at), so I will do my best not to. Cause really who gives a shit what I have to say right? Don’t blame me, blame Byron for allowing me to write! But live music is really the be all and end all for our local scene.

Anyway.

This thing called music. Ah what a thing. I love it more than most things in life, many people feel the same way. It’s an incredibly challenging thing though. It has the ability to lift you up and then slam you down and drain every last ounce of energy and emotion out of you. It can bring back memories that make you want to live and some that make you want to die (not really, don’t consider dying, that ain’t cool man). Music really is the only thing that you can connect with 100% and not have to say a word to anyone about it, maybe there is something else but it escapes my tired brain at this moment. Music IS life. It’s plain and simple. Most people enjoy some type of music, be in Rock, Punk, Hip Hop, Metal, Reggae, Pop etc: you enjoy it and you connect with it.

Writing music is a great escape for myself. It helps me deal with shit I don’t want to deal with. It’s also incredibly frustrating and infuriating sometimes – like right now I’m having some serious writers block, I have ideas but they turn to shit when I pick up my guitar.

But enough about me, let’s get down to the business of LIVE MUSIC. Supporting your local scene is really the only way to KEEP your local scene a thing. It’s all well and good streaming a bands song on Spotify or YouTube, liking/sharing their page on Facebook or dropping a review on unearthed. But realistically what Bands really want, is for you to turn up to their shows and spend the small amount of money it is to get in and watch them and the other bands on the bill play.

This music game is a big pit of ‘SPEND SO MUCH MONEY AND GET NOTHING IN RETURN’. It sucks every cent of money you have and then some. It’s expensive. The only way bands can recoup anything is by having people come out to there shows and support them. Pay that 10-20 bucks and watch the bands play. Don’t just watch the one band that are your mates, watch all the bands – cause to be honest if they are on the same bill as your mates bands they are probably equal or better than them so stick around and watch some music.

Watching live music is awesome. There’s nothing better than seeing a group of people, playing music they love and wrote and having a good time playing it. Support bands. Even if you don’t know them give them the support they deserve for being so brave to lay what they are in front of you. Sometimes bands are shit. Sometimes the bands don’t fit what you are looking for, that’s fair enough. But if you are at the show support them because without our support, this scene will fade into nothing and then we will be standing around scratching our assess saying ‘I Remember when the Scene Was Good’ – Don’t let it die on our watch.

Playing live is a great feeling, it’s even better when you can see people actually paying attention to what you are playing. When I tackle live music I play like I’m playing to a stadium full of people screaming my name – now that’ll never happen but it doesn’t stop me. But it does take a toll when you are standing in a group of people, watching a band play then you get up and play and that group of people have fucked off to do something different. Stick around. See bands. You never know, you could actually really dig the band and plus if nothing else, you’ll make the band feel pretty good about themselves and after all, making others feel good about themselves is something we should all strive for.

But I don’t want to preach… so who cares what I have to say, right?

Dans nostalgic track of the week: Rise Against // Like The Angel