[atlantaprog] Re: Where was everybody???

>who is willing to play Augusta????  Athens???? maybe even Columbia, 
>SC????  Let me know...I knew of a few venues...I'll check them out!

Z-Axis will be ready and willing after August 1 (busy as heck until then!)

Since I started this thread, I wanted to chime in with my own 
situation, and my observations about the nature of the local prog 
audience... many of you have heard some of this from me at ARIA 
meetings, so I apologize for being redundant.

First off, at the risk of sounding hypocritical, it IS rare that I, 
myself, get out to clubs to see bands. With my family obligations, 
and my hectic work and creative schedule, I usually can only make it 
out when I am able to piggyback it onto something else, as was the 
case this past weekend. The plain fact is - I HATE clubs! I hate 
secondhand smoke, I hate sets that don't start til after 11, I hate 
pushy parking attendants and obnoxious drunks. And I suspect this is 
true for lots of people of my generation - thus the poor turnouts. In 
spite of all of this, I LOVE good music (BTW what I heard of both 
Mindworm and LO sounded great!) and I want to support our local 
artists - so whenever possible, I will endeavor to get out and see 
all of you guys, if only for a few songs.

As I have said at ARIA meetings, I am really big on trying to find 
alternative venues for live music. Z-Axis made our live debut playing 
at the Candler Park festival several years ago, and I subsequently 
managed to get myself in charge of booking bands for the fest with 
the sole intent of giving my own band a good performance slot! As a 
fringe benefit, I was able to use my position to get bookings for 
other local acts of all genres. Hopefully, they'll let me do some 
booking again this year - we'll see.

Z-Axis has also played at gallery spaces - including the long lost 
Awarehouse, where we played several times and picked up a number of 
fans and friends. We also play in theater spaces. The relationship I 
have with 7 Stages has enabled me to use their various spaces over 
the years for a number of projects. We've played at Dragoncon three 
years running, both on the mainstage and in the Concourse (don't know 
yet if we'll be back this year). We've played at the Atlanta 
Contemporary Art Center's "Art Party". We got lucky once and were 
invited to play at the Variety Playhouse. We've done all-improv shows 
at the tiny If Coffeehouse. In fact, we've only ever played at one 
"club" - the Somber Reptile - in support of Louisville's French TV 
who passed through last fall (BTW - GREAT BAND!) (We hoped we might 
draw some of our regular audience out on a Wednesday night, but nope. 
Didn't happen).

Well, actually, we played the eXtreem once too - if you can call that 
place a "club"!

Our audience simply doesn't like the BS that goes with clubs, so we 
endeavor to give them alternatives. Progressive rock and its various 
permutations are all about pushing boundaries and trying new things. 
Maybe we need to apply this philosophy to all aspects of our careers. 
What Wade and Matthew are doing with the Rogue Fest exemplifies the 
sort of approach I'm talking about. If the opportunities you are 
looking for aren't appearing, you go out and make them happen.

See ya'll at the shows...

AWG

PS... After my anti-club tirade, I must admit the we are thinking of 
doing a few club shows in the future - for the sake of getting 
tighter. Like Veronika said, it's a great dress rehearsal! And - 
hopefully - maybe we'll connect with a new audience (but we're not 
holding our breath!)

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