So the weekend finally arrives, you and your pals or gals or whatever decide to hit the town for a couple 2, 3, or 12 drinks… whatever you’re into.

If you’re a woman, you’ve probably dressed yourself up in some ridiculous outfit that makes you look like a porn star or a prostitute – if you’re a man, you probably look like a cross between an Abercrombie model and a used car salesman.

Off you head to one of the really “in” (popular) clubs where all the cool kids go to shake it up like a bunch of sluts and whores in a drunken stupor… pawing all over themselves dancing the night away to the worst music anyone with taste has ever heard. Shallow, meaningless music with an electronic drum machine blasting away fills the room as the drone of sexist, violent, terribly written lyrics float over them like turds on a shit river.

You stand at the bar forever trying to get served (unless you have huge tits or tons of cash) while ass-hole “Night at the Roxbury” frat guys scour the room for someone to punch out or a girl to take home and fuck…

This is the nightlife – and I hate it. It makes me want to throw up in my mouth. The whole thing is so fake… the people, the music, the orgasms - everything about it… FAKE.

As I read those last paragraphs, I think to myself, “this must be what old people said about the early days of Rock & Roll.” I’d question myself, “Am I really that old?” but I know too well that I’ve felt like this since I was very young - even before I played guitar and wrote my own songs. I guess I don’t like it because I’m so out of my element. My comfort zone is raped within about .04 seconds so like many of you the only thing I can do to overcome my uptight whiteness is to drink till I dance. (Frank the Tank? That’s me at weddings…)

Maybe I’m too harsh on society. Sorry to pre-judge. Maybe the club scene is not your bag at all…

So instead you’ve gone to some townie bar to do vaguely all the same kinds of things, only instead of techno, rap, and terrible modern rock music you’re in the presence of a cheesy cover band that plays terrible modern rock and top 40 music… or they’re playing the same old songs every cover band in the world plays all the time. “Sweet Home Alabama?!” Dude… it’s Rochester, NY. Aren’t you sick of hearing that yet?

Ok… ok… so I admit it… I’ve played Skynyrd in cover bands before too… but that was before I matured… before I had integrity. Ok… and that one other time, but I swear I was only in it for the money.

… oh and I used to wail on Freebird…

Sigh… I’m so, so sorry.

My point here is that all around you there are talented musicians. Real people who write their own music. Real songs… some are better than others… some aren’t really even all that great – but a bunch of them, even in Rochester, NY are fucking great!

My old man likes to say, “there’s an ass for every seat,” and dammit, he’s right. Only the asses that might actually dig bands who write their own songs… the ones who could help turn this anemic music business around… sit at home. Or worse they actually come out and then they leave early, or stay the whole night out in the other room trying to ignore the band.

Don’t get me wrong… I’m lame. I love to stay home most of the time. I don’t want to stay out till 2am, I’m too cheap to pay a cover charge and buy $5 beers all night. I hate that bands don’t start playing till 10 (and that’s just the openers… if you headline you go on at 12:30 or 1am!)

And loud… Jesus it’s loud these days. Live bands are loud as hell, and my band is, on occasion, probably one of the loudest trios in the city. (Take that metal heads!) Seriously… dare us, we will make everyone bleed. I don’t like it that loud, but I do agree that rock and roll does require a certain volume. No matter what, it’s going to be at least as loud as the drum kit – and since I usually stand about 5 feet away from a crash if we’re lucky enough to be on one of the city’s larger stages, I know it’s fucking loud!

But it’s just as loud in dance clubs sometimes. It’s just as loud at the cover band’s shows.

I also know from experience, that even if the setting is 100% acoustic and volume isn’t an issue nobody comes. If the show starts at 8pm there won’t be anyone there either. If we hang up flyers, make phone calls, get all over the Internet, have a radio interview that morning… nothing makes any difference. It seems to be impossible to get the average, everyday people out. Populist music for a population unwilling…

So maybe I don’t make it out as much as I’d like, but I still manage to make it out – needless to say I’m playing my own gigs practically every week! It gets hard to make it out to see other people too.

Society is fucked. Real music is lying on the sidewalk bleeding out while the masses step over it – obliviously jamming out to their I-pods and text messaging their friends.

Sounds alarmist since people have been raising a flag about the death of “real music” since back in the Woody Guthrie days.

As it appears to me – if you aren’t part of a scene – if you aren’t a retro 60’s garage rock band, a hardcore or emo band, a bunch of throw back jam band hippies, a metal band, or you’re not serving a duel role as main drug dealer to the audience nobody will come to your shows.

If you don’t kiss the balls of the local news media nobody will write about you or talk about you on the radio (except DFE – cause this site is cool… shameless plug) and thus, nobody will be at your show. And lastly, if you get to busy to hang out at the open mics and fall out of favor with the coffee house folk music clique, nobody will come to your shows.

This all bothers me constantly as it applies to me and my musical aspirations… being unknown sucks, but playing to empty rooms is even worse. Playing to full rooms and watching people get up and walk out… well now that makes you want to sell your gear or eat a bullet. It begs the question, “why?” I’m a very modest person – I’m not really the second coming of Hendrix or John Lennon… but I certainly don’t suck.

The sad thing is though, as much as this is a rant about me and my music getting little to no respect with Rochester’s nightlife, I’m not alone. It happens to so many other people it’s heartbreaking.

But you know what? We’re all still doing it anyway. All I’m asking is for a little respect from the public for me and my fellow local musicians.

If all us unknowns quit and nobody wrote new songs anymore, not even bullshit pop acts that the public keeps buying would have songs to lip sync to. Rappers wouldn’t have anything to sample. Bar sluts would have nothing to dance to… 12 year old young impressionable boys wouldn’t have Tom Petty songs to grab a broom and pretend they were playing a real guitar too….

Face it kids… the world would suck.

Now get your asses out to see a live band and give us poor local musicians a chance!

And hey bar / club owners and Rochester press, would it kill you to put a small add out about some gigs once in a while – let alone the “what’s happenings” that often look like nothing is actually happening.

It’s bullshit and I’ve had enough. No matter how hard you try to kill it or no matter how much you ignore it, “real music” no matter what the genre will be around as long as beings with emotion and audio capability exist. How about putting a little more faith in the listening public? They’d actually like good music if that’s what the got to hear more often. By default it would become cooler and then everything would get better.

Sunday - late morning. You wake up in a strange room, your shoes are on the wrong feet… and wait, those aren’t even your shoes. Your head is pounding and all you remember is what must be a dream about seeing some really great band last night…