Arthur Magazine has just posted this interview from 2006 on their blog:
Arthur: One of the weird things, from what I can tell about the performance environment in America, is that one of the few places where people of all ages can see quality music in a live setting now is the record store.
Yeah. “Quality music.” One thing that I had started to think about before we started on this topic was… like, how old are you?
Arthur: 35.
I’m 36, and my sense is that, if you won’t take offense, is that we are out of touch. There are quality shows going on six out of seven nights a week that are all-ages shows, in people’s houses, in public places, and we just don’t know those bands. Because I’ve seen some this year—I’ve seen some every year. And it’s like, Whoa, where’d these kids come from? And these kids came from the same places we came from, and they’re making great music that we don’t have access to, because… It’s the same way that bands that I went to see play 20 years ago, people who were 22, to 36, to 50, they would be saying ‘There’s just no music going on these days. There’s no shows like I remember.’ And meanwhile, I was having the fucking time of my life!
I think about this every time I see some blogger or columnist lament that there is no alternative culture any more. It’s almost always someone over 30 – often over 40.
ALSO:
Portland’s all age venue The Parlour, run by a buncha swell guys, needs support to carry-on. They’re accepting donations by Paypal at the e-mail address drpfenderson@pinkonbrown.org
(I play at this venue often, and they sell my wife’s crafts, so it would be a big help to us if they survived!)