music IS art

It's rant-o-clock... So I submitted to this music festival when I first moved here a couple of months ago called Music is Art, which is in its 9th year here in Buffalo... I'm in my first quarter year here so I didn't expect much, given that my name and notoriety hasn't yet followed me to the great white North... 

That being said, when you submit to a festival with the kind of resume that I've got, I figured SOMETHING would come of it... but alas, it was not to be.

So before heading to the fest with the girls on Saturday I read this piece in a local paper about how many musicians were grumbling that they felt screwed out of playing the festival. I'm pretty sure everyone felt deserving, and from the bands I've seen here, they probably were... 

So in going to the festival with a mini-chip on my shoulder and armed with this knowledge that other musicians were a little pissy about it too, I was fully aware that I wasn't going to be as 'into it' as I should be. But, being a grown-ass man, I was willing to put it aside and try to enjoy what music Buffalo had to offer. 2 DJ stages, an Americana Stage next to where the kids zone was, and 3 other stages down a steep embankment set sidebysidebyside with each other... so the Americana peeps get drowned out by DJ thudding all day, the other 3 stages are hosting high schoolers, rappers,  and what I'll dub here as the "Presented by Depends Adult Diapers"crews... not ONE band of merit in the entire fucking setup. I saw some people (the MAIN singer / songwriter) playing in multiple bands, and stages/sound organized by entire circles of friends and their friends bands etc.

Since I'm now a local musician here, I will join the grumblers and call this fest BULLSHIT. //end rant.