Vaudeville

Perhaps to understand the movement of the live entertainment scene today as well as the possible direction it is headed in, it may be helpful to examine how it was trending in the past. The merging of different art styles and live performance into the one night is not a new idea. In fact, variety entertainment first started to become popular around the 1850’s, so lets take a look at the past and rewind back to 19^th century show business.

It is 1880, post civil war in America and Vaudeville is the new big thing to hit the streets. With an influx of immigrants, the American population was rapidly growing and numerous Vaudeville theatres were opening up around the country.

Running for several hours at a time, each Vaudeville performance was made up of twelve or more unrelated acts. These included musicians, dancers, actors, comedians, singers, ventriloquists, acrobats, animal trainers and anyone else who could hold an audience’s interest for more than three minutes. Not only was Vaudeville the first entertainment of its kind to allow a mixed-gender audience, but was also the first exposure to different cultures that Americans had encountered.

Hosting more than 25 000 performers over its lifetime, Vaudeville was the most popular form of entertainment in America until the 1920’s. It catered for multiple economic classes with shows that ranged from small-town stages to New York’s Palace Theatre. Regardless of the size of the theatre, Vaudeville was an integral part of every American community. However, like all good things this form of variety entertainment was slowly fazed out as newer forms of entertainment began to appear. As cinema, radio and television began to dominate, many Vaudeville performers made the transition to these new forms of entertainment and with this the impressive era of Vaudeville was over.

Palace Theater New York at the time of Vaudeville

Jumping back to live entertainment today, different forms of performance and art styles tend to stick with their own kind, for example, a night out would mean either just seeing live bands, or just seeing an art exhibition. This can sometimes mean that certain art forms have a hard time surviving and attracting a crowd on their own, especially since there are so many new modes of entertainment constantly emerging. These art forms and live performance styles could perhaps benefit more, in terms of popularity, from a 21^st century Vaudeville style of entertaining.

/by N.E

Time to Hit the Field for Opinions!

The idea of incorporating various different art forms and live entertainment in the one night we feel is ideal for attracting a larger crowd to live music venues, increasing their popularity. This may prove to be particularly beneficial to those venues that are struggling to stay afloat. This idea has been theoretical up until now, however it would be great to find out the opinions of various Sydney live entertainment venue owners and see what their views on our cause are in regards to whether or not it would achieve its intended outcome.

We will be setting out to find the opinions of a broad range of venues including those that are successful as well as those venues that may be struggling financially. Here are some of the venues we wish to focus on and why:

Kensington Bowls: They have recently been hosting ‘Save Kenso Bowls’ fundraiser events and so their opinion on whether or not they think this cause could help their situation would be valuable.

The World Bar: Located at Kings Cross, which is a hub on its own. They have three rooms downstairs and one upstairs, each with a different vibe and so it would be suitable to host visual art in a separate location to a live music show and a dance show for example.

The Beresford: They have a large stage area that would be suitable for a variety of different acts as well as the quieter downstairs rooms.

The Mac: This venue already hosts a great range of jazz style bands, however has more space to include other types of art exhibits.

The Lansdowne: Not as large as some of the other venues however their opinion would still be valued.

Golden Sheaf: Huge space including a stage. This area would be extremely versatile.

Keep an eye out on our blog as in the next couple of weeks we will be keeping you posted on any opinions and feedback we may receive from these venues and more. As always we would love to hear your opinion so feel free to have your say by leaving us a comment in the section below.

/by N.E

Not a whinge about a struggling live music scene.

“And unfortunately, when we do step out into one of the few decent venues left around town, we’ll be assaulted by the Weekend Bashers or those that are All Gear and No Idea”

This comment from Symon Madry, however generalising it may be, does contain a very clear message concerning the current musical landscape in Sydney. As I mentioned in my last blog, the struggle to get a reasonable sized audience to come to a gig is a commonly heard complaint. The only gripe I hear more often is that the local scene sucks, and venues don’t support live music. What no one seems to talk about is why it’s hard to get people to come to shows and why there seems to be very little support from venues for local talent trying to make a name in a very competitive industry.

Before anyone accuses me of not caring about the scene or understanding how hard musicians work, I am a musician myself, I’ve played in a number of bands over the past few years and I’ve gigged fairly consistently for the past year. Live music is something I regularly enjoy going to and hope to make a career out of one day.

That said, I can count on one hand the amount of times I’ve been to a live music venue and haven’t either known the band playing or at least known what music was going to be played.

There’s a very simple reason for this. Unless a band puts on a hell of a live show, through stage presence or sheer skill, it’s just not that much fun if you don’t know the music. I know it’s supposed to be decorum when you play a live show to stick around for the following bands, but after our set at Manly Fishos a while back, most of my band and our mates left. I had intended to stay for the rest of the night, but after sitting there for half an hour listening to a bunch of dudes bashing away at not particularly inspiring songs, we got pretty bored. It was a shame because apparently the last band were really good.

People don’t go and see live music like they did in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s anymore because they don’t have to. Back then there was really nothing else to do on a Friday or Saturday night, so you’d go to the local and check out the band. These days there are all manner of different bars, clubs and the like, very few of which host proper live performances, and a whole array of different night-time activities that people go to. Oh, and there’s the internet. The reason live bands don’t draw the kind of crowds that these other places do is that people know what they’re going to get when they have a night in the Cross, or hit up a wine bar or two on Surry Hills. There are no surprises. When going to see an unfamiliar live band, there’s always that issue of “but what if they suck?”. If you’re planning a night out with some mates or a date, you don’t wanna be the one who made everyone trek out to a venue for a band that wasn’t even good.

This is even more the case considering the location of many Sydney venues, often either not being accessible by public transport and not being close to other bars or night time activities. A venue like the Annandale is convenient if you live inner west, but if you live east or south it’s two buses and a train away. And god help you if you want to get people to come to a gig at Valve bar in Tempe. The issue here is that if you do go to see a band and they end up being not very good or simply not your cup of tea, you’re stuck. Even if there’s another band you want to see later on, there’s nothing to do in the meantime.

In my next posts I’m going to discuss why the NightFusion concept is going to provide greater incentive for people to attend and how this in turn will encourage venues to step up their support for local artistic talent. Watch this space.

/by J.G