The Chippewa Valley is a fertile music scene that consistently produces WAY above average bands in most every genre. But we somehow have a local populace (especially you college kids) that don’t leave their houses, TVs, or computers to go out to experience music live and in the purest sense possible. For a college population of 10,000+ students, trying to get 200 to show up to a decent night of music seems to be something of the past. Last homecoming, I attended a Drunk Drivers show at the House of Rock (one of EC's better bands). The bar was maybe half full. Yet, across the street, dozens upon dozens of college kids stood outside of Shenanigans waiting to get in an already overflowing club. That picture is just wrong. I don't want to pull any of that “back in the day” bullshit, but... back in the day (early to mid 90s... and into the later 90s from what I'm told), if a band was playing, that was the default cool thing to do. Even if it wasn’t your “favorite” local band, most would go anyway because that’s where their friends were.

Did you used to go to shows and now don’t? Why not? If you never really went out to local shows ... why not? MySpace, Facebook, texting, inter-connected-viral-up-to-the-second-ness virtual living should bring everyone together, spread the word, and hopefully, culminate in the ultimate musical expression and experience and support the scene while allowing it to grow and evolve. You can't use that “too much smoke” excuse anymore, so help me out, why is this the reality of the current Chippewa Valley music scene? See you at the show...