The Great Divide: Concerts on and off campus

Strange things have been going on in the Bloomington live music scene, and by strange I mean upsetting, or possibly disturbing. There seems to be a dichotomy of some degree between University/Union Board concerts and off-campus concerts. Granted, there are many people who do not know or even care about what concerts are where in Bloomington. I know this because I've been to several where I thought that attendance was surprisingly lacking. Or maybe it's just me? Or maybe it's because advertising is limited to flyers on cluttered kiosks and on the jumbled bulletin boards of local record stores. \nAt any rate, I found out about last week's stellar Umphrey's McGee concert at the Buskirk-Chumley only because I'm a music geek and I spend too much time on the Internet searching for the next good show to come around. I would wager that half of the student body at IU if not more has no clue where the Buskirk-Chumley theater is, but I'm sure they could tell you where to find the SRSC and a detailed explanation of its policies and hours of operation.\nOn one side of the dichotomy is the on-campus concert situation. Bleak is the most sugar-coated expression I can come up with to describe the last year or so in that department. Counting Crows at the IU Auditorium was supposed to be the big show of the season, but that was merely a make-up for last year's cancellation. Have we resorted to squeezing concerts in based on past obligations to attract national acts on this campus? Last year's Little 500 concert was Guster, and frankly I was shocked that they were still a band. By all accounts, attendance for that event fell short of the hopes of Union Board. Then this fall there was Mellencamp, which was a small step in the right direction. Though I'm not a huge fan of his down-home, midwestern, rock and roll...er, whatever, at least IU attracted an artist worthy of filling an arena. \nWhat acts are the competitors reeling in these days? Purdue had Oysterhead last year, which probably had about as many Hoosiers as Boilermakers in the crowd. A band like that, a juggernaut comprised of Phish's Trey Anastasio, Les Claypool of Primus and Frog Brigade fame, and The Police's Stewart Copeland, is well suited to the IU live music scene. People would drool all over that concert if it were held here. This spring Purdue will bring in Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds on their acoustic tour. Will it ever stop? As if our embarrassing loss to their basketball team wasn't enough, they have to rub it in our face with a tour that many thought would never happen again. And our answer? The Indigo Girls! And what about the University of Illinois, which just last December hosted the Dave Matthews Band with Karl Denson's Tiny Universe opening up? What's next, The Grateful Dead featuring a freshly cloned and resurrected Jerry Garcia at Ball State? \nI simply don't understand the ineptitude of the people involved with bringing big names acts to IU. We are Time magazine's No. 1 school among research universities. We are the Princeton Review's No. 1 party school. We are also centrally located, making a stop on any tour feasible. That sounds like a lot of clout to me.\nYet, somehow venues outside the university, with their limited resources and small sizes, manage to put on some great shows. I've seen many excellent and memorable concerts at the Bluebird, the Buskirk and Axis. They charge far less than any Auditorium event, so in essence the artists are making less when they play at these places. That fact alone adds to mystery of the on-campus situation. I ask, what is the cause of the great divide? Before I came to this institution, I heard about such things as a surprise free John Mellencamp concert in Dunn Meadow. I heard about Widespread Panic coming to campus. Are those days gone with the wind?