June 21st, the world music day

Hi everyone!

Today's post could be an opportunity to chat !

Today, we're saturday, the day I update this blog, but it's also the first day of summer, the birthday of my brother in law, and it's also today that in France, we celebrate music.

I'm against that day for years. I only played a few times for that occasion, and never in Paris. This year I was contacted for two events.

Cabor asked me to play in front of a pub, in Châtelet (Paris). I remind you that I'm playing the keyboards, so I always have to take my car to go to gigs.
Saturday + Paris + music day = No way ! However, the concert was paid, a very rare thing on that day.

I was asked to play with Sandrine Gameiro in Reims, an paid show too, and I was ok, but the people who asked us finally prefered a cover band...

And here's why I don't like that day:

- First, this day has nothing to do with music, it's a really good day for bar tenders, venues, which earn a lot of money that day. The nicest of them pay the bands, others just offer them some electric plug so that the band can play in front of the bar.

- The playing conditions are often bad. There could be some stages, usually with bad gear, and bad sound engineer, but very often, the only gear available is the one the band brings with him. There is also a lot of noise, as the audience isn't really here to listen to the band which is playing in front of them.

- And here is what bothers me the most: the public. On that day, every band will play in front of a lot of people. That's nice, but people who are in front are here just because someone decided that today is the day to go an listen music. In al these people, how many are really interested about what they listen to ? How many of them will follow the band after that gig ? Probably none of them, because the other days are not the music day...

I played 4 times this month. There was a maximum of 30 people who came to hear us, either because they knew the band, either because they wanted to see a concert. These people decided to pay a ticket to hear music, not because someone told them to do it, but because these people really wanted to hear music !

However, I understand that this music day is a really good opportunity for small bands rehearsing the whole year in a garage, to find a gig. It's the best day to find a gig, because it's the best day to find a venue to play live. And it's surely the best day to play in front of a lot of people too.
Even if the reasons are bad, from my point of view, artists,as well as the people who will listen to them, have fun together.

So why are there so much concerts with so few people on the other days ??