So a lot of us like to talk about how terrible the Albany Capital District music scene is. How can we make it better even though I know you all won’t follow it? I have some ideas here. I’ll list ’em. Feel free to add some suggestions in the comments below.

Ways to make the music scene better…

• More venues to play – Seriously, bands & acoustic acts don’t have to be stuck playing crap hole bar rooms all the time. If you have a business degree, I’d like to see some people open up more venues with a stage for local bands.
• Make the booking less difficult – I think it’s idiotic and stupid that a lot of venues want you to play one of their open mics first before booking you. That’s how a lot of venues seem to be booking here lately. The better way venues should book bands is, if they like your music, they should book you, no matter if you have a big following or not. This is just local music, all acts deserve a chance to gig.
• Leave your egos & bad attitudes out the door – I don’t want any of this, “Lets make fun of this guy because he’s funny looking”, “Your music is crap and you need to quit playing”, etc. You get the deal. No bashing other musicians & bands and no acting like you’re better than others. A positive attitude would make a good music scene. Just shut up and play the music, simple?
• Act like a total professional – Being polite, courteous and respectful to everyone at all times but nope, we don’t get any of that. I sometimes see facebook drama with other musicians and in craigslist, it’s pathetic really.
• Concentrate on the music only – There are too many so called musicians around here that concentrate on other people and other things when they should be worrying about their music alone.
• Respect all talent and their music, even if you don’t like it – Keep your negative opinions to yourself. I actually respect all music and what you play. If you want this to be a good music scene, you must respect all musicians. There are too many people who are critical of other talent and I just wish people would shut up and let us do our thing.
• Promote yourself more and get people out to your shows – I love how bands complain and whine they only play in front of a few people at a gig. Wanna know why that is? It’s probably because they aren’t promoting themselves hard enough. Bands don’t do any promoting around here. Maybe facebook but that’s about it, you must do more than that. Having more people at your gigs would make a great music scene.
• Just enjoy and have fun!!! – If you’re not having fun, then why bother doing this?

That’s it, enjoy.

Kev