My band, orange is in, is playing at the Sidecar Pub on Huffmeister Road (northwest Houston) on Thursday night. If you care to join us, please do. We start late - around 11pm. We'll be off until probably mid-April working on new material and preparing to go back into the studio in mid-May to record a full-length CD, so this will be the last gig for a while for me.
I don't live too far from Huffmeister. Unfortunately, 11 PM on Thursday is past my bedtime Jeff. Good luck though!
Is that the only type of places they want to play? Is that they don't want to play outside their "scene"? Is it the pay? It seems like a band would just want to make fans wherever they can. I don't understand why they go to crappy college towns but then they wont go outside Montrose in Houston. It seems like plenty of places in the main burbs etc., could handle a Rudyard's-like set up. There has to be some.
Wish I could. Maybe if you make it back out to the NW side in the summer when I'm back in Houston a while.
Actually, there aren't. The VAST majority of clubs in the suburbs feature cover bands or heavy metal (i.e. 19th Hole). The only places I know where original bands go to play way outside of town are Sidecar, Wunche Bros. (for country and folk), Cardi's (for heavy metal) and Java Jazz (for alt.rock, hard rock, etc). There is a decent jazz club in Kemah, but almost every other club won't book original music. They want cover bands. I have friends in cover bands that play out in the burbs all the time, but none of those clubs will book original material. It has nothing to do with the bands not wanting to play out there. There are plenty of bands that live out on the outskirts of town and don't have any interest in driving all the way inside the loop, but every really decent original music venue other than the one's I mentioned is inside the loop.
for real....when I worked with a hard rock all original band...we couldnt get a place to let us play unless we did at least 50% covers. It wasnt that the band sucked...they were actually very good....it is that the club owners arent interested in you unless you did covers. It is a sad state of affairs indeed...
that sucks man! one of the best perks about living in a college town (or next to Austin ) is the variety of good live music available to you year-round. that is definitely a sh!tty thing about houston nightlife.
In regards to the suburbs and clubs, it seems that several things are working against original bands. Suburban Life People aren't living in cities like Sugar Land for the adventure........more for the concept of predicatability in: 1) schools 2) housing restrictions - zoning 3) other residents similar to them If families have children in school........11 pm is quite late when the sidewalks are rolled up in some suburbs at 9 pm. Diversity of nightlife isn't a high priority and cover bands are probably safer bookings for clubs in outlying areas. More of the Same If a Sugar Land area club plans on drawing guests from surrounding areas, the prospects are somewhat dim. 1) North -- Alief 2) Northwest -- land being developed and the greater Katy area 3) West & Southwest -- Richmond, Rosenberg & Needville 4) South -- not much 5) Southeast -- Alvin, Angleton and greater Pearland area 6) East -- Missouri City & Stafford Those areas tend to have suburban type residents and the lower population densities also make it harder to find a large enough audience for orginal music. Pulling from the Northeast (Houston) gives an audience that is more diverse and has a greater population density than the suburban areas. Depending on Houston residents to be the main support - audience for a suburban club (original music) seems risky. Location During the evening Rush Hours.....the Houston freeways aren't the place to be but seem to be fairly fast after traffic clears. The Katy Freeway is the freeway that might be difficult for longer timeframes. A club inside the 610 Loop benefits from the freeway systems to pull guests from throughout the Houston Metro area while a club in Sugar Land seems distant for somebody in Humble. Being able to pull guests from a larger population group gives clubs inside the Loop an advantage over suburban clubs.
I MIGHT check it out: close to KATY... how about KATY Represent? http://www.sidecarpub.com/page6.html
I guess, technically, it isn't all that far from Katy. Mango: I think you basically nailed everything. The biggest thing is that inside the loop has the largest population of singles and young couples. The closer you live to town, the more likely you are to go out on the weekends and see bands. It is just the demographic of most cities and, in Houston, that is even more true now than ever with the changes to downtown.
Wow. I finally have a reason to go to the Sidecar, after all these years of living and working right by it (at Coco's Ace Hardware across the street).... And now I live in Austin. Great Jeff. Thanks. It's all your fault!
What? You can't make the drive down on a Thursday night? Wuss! By the way, if anyone shows up tonight, tell them you are there to see orange is in. It helps us.
Yeah, he was there last night. And the band that is playing Friday night (The Ruse) is a band from New York that includes good friends of someone I know who works for the Rockets. In fact, she sent out emails to everyone this week telling them about it. Small world.
That's funny. We're gonna be @ the Sidecar Pub next week. I pretty much agree with what you guys already said about bands not really playing outside of Houston proper. Houston's a difficult city to figure out as far as the music scene. Everything's so damned spread out. It seems people are either gonna go to a place BECAUSE of the band(s) on the bill or because the venue has a reputation for bringing in good music. Much different than a place like Austin where people hop from bar to bar on 6th street enjoying the sights & sounds of a whole buncha different venues. In Houston, unless you're downtown or in the Rice Village area where there are multiple bars in walking distance of eachother, people pretty much hunker down in one spot. And if that one spot is in po-dunkville, then ... good luck? Sidecar looks like a classy joint, though. Nice set up. Hope you guys rock the house!
