Musician's paradise... not so much

In the past few years I've slowly found out that this city isn't quite the musician's paradise it seems to be. On the surface, it looks like Bloomington would be one of the biggest breeding grounds for great bands. Half of the town's population is under the age of 30. There are plenty of bars, clubs and fraternities. \nStill, there are a few problems with the local music scene. Half of the people at this school aren't old enough to legally get into most of the local venues to hear their favorite bands. Therefore, almost half of your prospective audience is already alienated from your music. \nMany clubs are closing because they can't afford to stay in business. Come on people, this is college. Get out there and hear something new! Or is it just more convenient to sit in front of your computer downloading songs pumped out by the industry that you constantly criticize, instead of risking $3 to hear music the way it started: played live by uncompromising musicians who are still hungry for success?\nThe city isn't doing much to help the situation either. I recall being woken up by the police two hours after one of my band's practices had ended. They were pissed that we had been too loud, but failed to see the irony in banging on my door to wake me up so they could issue a warning for the noise violation. The city's laws seem so excessive that house parties are usually out of the question and finding a place to practice can be just as hard. \nThe frat party scene could use a little improvement too. Believe it or not, you can actually dance to rock music. Seriously! It happened all the time in the '60s and '70s. Tell you what, hire my band instead of a DJ and we'll try our best to learn "Back That Ass Up." \nThe other obvious problem is competition. It's not easy trying to stand out as a musician in a city full of people who come from all over the world trying to do the same. And really, this just means that as musicians we have to work even harder and be even more creative. But this should be a benefit of living in Bloomington. You can hear virtually every style of music played just about as well or sometimes better than in any other city in the country, if you know where to look. Unfortunately, most of the local venues aren't willing to take on an act that can't cover enough songs to guarantee the profits. So even if your band has good original music, it's more difficult to build a fan base because the clubs don't want you unless you already have a pretty strong following, which is hard to get without the support from the clubs when starting off -- unless you have a lot of friends. \nSo next time you're sitting at home watching TRL and thinking about how much it sucks and wondering if Carson Daly is indeed the Antichrist, just think about how cool it would be to see the guy from down the hall in your dorm tearing it up on stage. Hey, he could be famous in a few years, so you might as well see him in the bar at a few dollars cover charge. One day you might have to pay $30 just to be within 500 feet of him at Assembly Hall where the acoustics aren't as good. After all it's a scientific fact that good, live music makes beer even better.