Carter “Clubs and bands”

«
»

Dempsey reunites Friday night to play the Iron Horse Pub

“Clubs and Bands”

Richard Carter

Earlier this week, I was preparing to be interviewed about the state of popular music in the area, and a notion hit me about how the actual places to play in a town influences the bands that manage to form and to play consistently.

Not that the venues around this area literally spawn the bands who play at them, but the clubs do influence the formation of bands and what those bands will try to write, practice and play as also how successful they will be.

Forming a band and developing it without a sense of where one will play, what the sound will be and who will be in the crowd is simply not realistic. At some point, bands leave their garages to play in front of people. There are only so many high school stages that people can get built-in crowds to play high school assemblies and talent shows.

In Dallas or Denton or Fort Worth there are a ton of clubs, and there’s at least one club that will suitable for any band who manages to play their music well. Smaller cities like Wichita Falls don’t have the masses of people or the number of clubs to specialize in music to the degree that clubs in the Metroplex do.

So choosing cover songs and writing music and arranging music must be done by bands with some real idea of where those tunes will be performed. How loud and energetically a band practices also depends on the club and its patrons. For example, shows at the old 169 were perfect for all-out loud noisy garage practices, because the sets were mostly going to be deafening on a cramped stage with not always the best sound. Larger all-ages venues like the Hangar allowed the sound to breathe a little more, despite the stage still being crowded and not always the best sound. The bottom line for bands that played that music was that they could write, practice and play loud and extreme, and if their music was “bad” enough, it would appeal to crowds who regularly assembled there.

Knowing your crowd is important and the type of people who regularly attend the different area clubs. For example, while bands will always bring their own audience to see them–up to a certain point, club regulars will also be in attendance and club owners generally have a pretty firm idea of what kind of club they want. I’ve heard extreme metal bands play at established clubs in the area and even if they were really good, they were still out of place (for the most part) and they didn’t get regularly booked.

The bottom line is that when the 169 was open, there were tons of metal bands forming on a regular basis and playing there on a regular basis. There are still area metal bands that are headstrong enough to stay together and practice regularly and play from time to time in various venues–such as Bully’s who recently hosted the Derby Dames Benefit. But those are the same bands that end up practicing here but mostly playing other cities. Lycergus, and members of Coffin Crusher, are holdovers from the 169 days who play out of town more often than not–if they want to play in front of people who are actually there to hear them.

The bands that do regularly play at area clubs are the ones who play classic rock or standard ‘80s and ‘90s FM music: the type of music that appeals to the masses of club goers in the area. There are exceptions like funk bands or (large or small) jazz bands that occasionally play clubs but mostly do private parties.

If you are going to form a band here, know your audience, your clubs and the regional outlets. The same is true if you enjoy certain forms of music and want to hear it live.

Share
This entry was posted on and is filed under Richard Carter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Comments are closed.

Search