Lauren Jost
ljost1@gmu.edu
Students Crave Local Music

Junior Sam Klemz has driven to Baltimore, Maryland three times in the past two months just to see his favorite bands; as if to prove how far he will travel for music.

The grueling two hour drive to the Inner Harbor, where musical venue Sonar is, leaves him frustrated from the congested traffic on major highway 495. The headaches only continue when attempting to park in a shoddy lot where homeless people unofficially direct parking.

However, Baltimore is not the farthest that Klemz has traveled to see musical acts. In 2006 alone, he visited Philadelphia, Pa. and Austin, Texas for large music festivals that are not available in the D.C. metro neighborhood.

Klemz went to Sonar to see the Bouncing Souls; a band that is very familiar with the Washington, D.C. area.
The Bouncing Souls are a regular headlining band at musical venues such as the Ottobar in Baltimore as well as the 9:30 Club in Northwest, D.C. But for this tour they were booked at Sonar -- much to their disappointment.

Lead singer of the Bouncing Souls Greg Attonito said to the audience, “It doesn’t feel like home here, just imagine we’re at 9:30.”

Klemz is a regular at music shows in the immediate area surrounding Mason but has rarely attended on-campus concerts.

“I don’t go to many on-campus events. We don’t really have much of a music scene here [at Mason] because of budget cuts. I prefer to go to shows at the 9:30 Club because they book bands that I want to see.”

As far as on-campus events and shows go the Program Board here at Mason who is responsible for booking and planning various music shows has found difficulty in booking the appropriate bands.

The Program Board’s Chair of the weekly concert event called “Every Freakin’ Friday” (aka EFF) Brittany Patonetz said, “Money is definitely a major difficulty in booking bands to play at Mason. There are always great ideas for what bands we can book for our events, but our small budgets are usually the reason an idea can’t be followed through on.”

In addition to major budget cuts that have gone into effect this year, diversity of music is a major issue.

“We want to find bands whose music will appeal to a majority of students at Mason. Considering the level of diversity here, it’s our goal to bring entertainment to campus that everyone will enjoy, rather
than catering to interests of certain groups of people,” said Concert Committee chair Megan Nasir.

Attendance has been a topic of concern as well, since students are either not well-informed of shows or are just plainly not interested.

“Tuesday Jams and EFF live band nights do not have the ideal attendance numbers. It is hard to get students to come out to the shows of bands [that] they have never heard of,” said Patonetz.

Despite the Program Board’s struggles with booking bands and keeping the student body interested, there are student bands that are looking for exposure.

“Considering we have 30,000 students here, we hear about a lot of student bands who are interesting in performing to get their names out and even offer to play an event for free,” said Nasir.

Since the music scene on campus is somewhat lackluster, students are turning to the D.C. and downtown Fairfax areas for bigger name bands.

A local venue that is restaurant by day and music scene by night has dealt with similar financial difficulties as the Program Board. T.T. Reynolds is located in the heart of Fairfax City a mere few minutes from campus.

Lara Fahey, booking manager at T.T. Reynolds, says, “The biggest issue is money. All bands are paid on what money comes through the door. If the attendance at a show is low, so is the paycheck.”
The venue recently switched to 21 and over age limit at night effectively reducing the attendance at shows.

“The change to 21 and over in the last few months has affected the attendance at shows, but not drastically. In reality, a bar is not a place for someone under 21 to be late at night,” says Fahey.
Fahey made the point that surrounding areas each possess their own type of music that satisfies different tastes.

“Each venue really has its own niche. Arlington venues tend to cater to the acoustic rock bands while a lot of D.C. venues cater to indie crowds. In areas near Mason’s campus, T.T Reynolds and Auld Shebeen feature local talents; but venues such as Jammin’ Java had a lot of national touring bands scattered on their calendars,” said Fahey.

All in all, D.C. music venues such as 9:30 Club, the Black Cat, and DAR Constitution Hall make up for the lack of suitable intimate music spots that show nationally touring acts in the Northern Virginia area. There are a handful of large-scale venues that host the contemporary superstars such as John Mayer or Fall Out Boy.

“Venues like Mason’s own Patriot Center, the Nissan Pavillion, or the Verizon Center accommodate larger crowds for a higher price but [still] offer great concerts with more well-known artists,” said Nasir.

The Program Board’s major goal for this year is to improve show quality as well as show attendance in hopes to spark an interest for a more campus-centered music scene.