I want a community that understands how to present live music

Fishbone at Nutty’s North. This show would not have worked at any other venue besides a bar that allows dancing.

I will partially agree with this letter writer on some points, (like the fact the AL continues to recycle the same freaking story every six months. Of course this isn’t Bryann’s fault, she’s new, it’s the editors that should have seen that this story has been done to death and given her another assignment).

Argus Leader reporter Bryann Becker’s Dec. 13 article headlined, “Small clubs handcuff music scene,” was an incoherent rant of assumptions. What conclusions should readers reach when so much information was excluded to promote pandering propaganda?

Whoa, Whoa, Whoa. Yes, there was several assumptions made, but PROPAGANDA? Please. The liberal media elite at the Gargoyle Leader (still makes me giggle a little when I say that) wasn’t spreading bullshit, though they are good at that, Bryann is a lackluster writer at best and obviously a greehorn, she wouldn’t know propaganda if it hit her with a FREE Shopping News. She simply wrote down quotes from people she interviewed (think High School journalism class).

Becker failed to explain why the new Orpheum Theater is unacceptable to the people interviewed in her article when almost 700 seats are available there. Did the Sioux Falls taxpayers finance this facility just so local artists could whine about unsatisfactory venues in Sioux Falls? Allow me to point out that none of the artists or promoters ever have been able to fill the 700-seat Orpheum. These critics need proof to justify their claims that a 1,000-seat venue is warranted when they can’t even fill a 700-seat theater.

Here’s where the letter writer goes off on the crazy train. Most of the time I pull stuff out of my ass, but I will tell you from my experience of being around the local music scene helping to promote and my four year tenure at the Pavilion, though the Orpheum and Belbas are fantastic facilities, they are not setup for EVERY live music event. I have seen fantastic bands at these venues. Jazz pianist phenom Brad Melhdau at the Belbas and Richard Thompson at the Orpheum comes to mind. But some bands demand dancing and crowd interaction. Try dancing at these facilities and you get sent to the corner with no supper. Neither venue allows this. Also booking shows at these facilities can be difficult if not next to impossible (something I wish Bryann would have dug into a little more). There is predjudice towards certain kinds of music. I have often said these facilities ARE NOT being used to their fullest extent because of this ‘my shit don’t stink’ attitude and red tape shananigans. Historical windows = good. Rock & Roll = Bad.

This is why the private sector won’t fund a private club with 1,000 seats. The people who perform and promote don’t know what they’re talking about. The “thousands” of alleged rock and hip hop fans in Sioux Falls can pay for the construction of their own club.

She is right. There isn’t enough I-wegians in Sioux Falls to support a club like that anymore. The neo-cons chased them out of town.

I want a newspaper that reports legitimate stories.

I do to. Like why our mayor and half the city council continues to shit on its citizens and spend our money on crap we don’t need while my car has become a battering ram towards snow in our intersections. But when the Argus doesn’t have any competition it’s easy to become complacent.