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First off, a big thanks to everyone that came out to Dingbatz yesterday for our debut performance. We had a blast and hope you did, too. Thanks, also, to Jay Sick for putting it all together, Sarge for the sound, and the bartenders for pouring beer and not looking overly bored while we were on stage.

I’d like to get something off my chest, though. Jay, who booked the venue and got the bands, talked a lot about building up a metal scene in New Jersey. It seems he’s been at this a little while, doing a show or two a week with local death, thrash and hardcore bands, which is awesome and very much appreciated. What I saw at yesterday’s show, however, seemed like the opposite of a “scene”. Now I know that Balance is a new band, but I’ve played in bands before and I’ve gone to more shows than I can count, and what I saw at Dingbatz yesterday really surprised me.

Here’s what happened: Six bands were booked to play, but only five made it. Apparently one of the members of A Balance Between got food poisoning or something. It happens and I don’t hold this against them in any way. If anything, it helped us avoid the confusion of playing with another band with a similar name. So now there are five bands, us and four others. Each of the other four bands appeared before their time slot to set up, played their set, and loaded out. And left. The first band didn’t stick around to watch the second band. The second band wasn’t there to see the first band, nor did they stay to watch the third. The band after us didn’t come in until we were packing up. This seems really strange to me. If you’re trying to build a “scene”, and you talk about “supporting the scene”, as some of the other bands did, shouldn’t you support the scene by showing up for the other bands on the bill? I’ve never seen this kind of behavior at this level before. I mean, these are all local bands trying to build a following. How can you build a following if nobody is there to hear your music? And why would anyone stay to hear you if you won’t stay to hear them? Not only is it disrespectful, but it hurts the scene.  Randy and I were there the whole day, from the first band’s load-in to the last band’s encore.  That’s how you support a scene.  By being there.

On top of that, it seems that everyone took their friends home with them. The first band brought out maybe 15 or so kids, none of whom stayed to see the next band. Same with the second band. Now I’m not going to hold the fans to the same standard to which I hold the bands. But if we bring 15 or 20 people out to a show to see us, and we stick around for the other bands, there’s a good chance that some of our friends/fans will stick around. If we leave, we’re basically telling the crowd that the other bands aren’t worth seeing, thus hurting the scene.

I’m really irritated by this and could talk all day about it, but I’ll let it go for now. It could have been a fluke. Maybe it’s just these bands, or just this venue, or just that one day.  I just have a feeling it isn’t.  Whatever the case is, if you see us at a show come over and say hi.  We’re friendly guys and we’ll be there all night.

The next post will be more positive and will include some photos from the show.  I promise.

Brian

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