It’s 10:30 p.m. on a Friday night in downtown Shreveport.
The bar is occupied with a reasonable amount of patrons. Some long-haired, dirty hippie musicians are lounging in comfy chairs or perched on barstools making contact with a bottle. Over an hour ago, they were spitting “check!” into microphones and riffing on guitars while roadies pushed knobs and twisted dials.
12:15 a.m. arrives and these out-of-towners saunter onto the stage and lazily pick up their instruments. The first chord reverberates off the low ceilings and a crowd gathers near the stage, swaying in expectation. I am startled awake, as I have been sitting in the same spot for over three hours waiting for the show which was supposed to start at who even cares anymore?
This scene is not uncommon for SBC. Frustrating as it may be, what is there to be done about these instances? Rocking out fashionably late is so last never. The absurdity is that we spend $5-$10 on a cover charge for a show that starts hours after we arrive.
Hey, bars! Do not book bands that don’t start on time. Emergencies happen, but when the band is sitting on their ass getting drunk for free, you are losing money from alcohol sales and revenue from passersby who hear some great sounds and come in to see the commotion. Be respectful of your patrons; most of us don’t want to stay out until six in the morning every weekend.
Hey, bands! Waiting until a bar fills up to start your set is a load of B.S. Bring people into the bar with your music and make them dance their butts off!
And dear citizens, I demand that you walk around Texas Street or the Red River District and follow your ears the same way you follow your nose to the burrito stand at 2 a.m. These bars are small and it’s hot outside, so the doors are open and spilling those lovely notes onto the streets.
On the flip-side, as the kids say, some of the best music shows I have been to in SBC were absolutely free and started on time. This validates the idea that when a band takes the stage and plays their heart out, it is not about charging ten bucks at the door and developing a following. It’s about sharing their music with people who want to listen, dance, or suck on a beer and stare at their phone. We are blessed with naturally talented locals and a creative music scene, but we also attract stupidly awesome bands from all over that rock our faces!