Music scene needs teen-friendly venue

Music is considered one of those things you just can’t go through your day without coming across. Music is on the radio in the morning, your co-worker hums a song, or it plays as background noise as you’re passing through the grocery store. Whether you mean to or not, you’re going to encounter it. This day-to-day music is pretty commercial. Local music, around here at least, is harder to find.

A music scene does exist in the Mat-Su Valley, however, typically appearing in bars and catering more toward a 21-plus crowd. The music scene available for teenagers that was created by teenagers is something of a ghost. Shows are scheduled when the one or two festivals are happening, or if the daytime café is gracious enough to lend space for a night, taking on the responsibilities of noise violations and crowd management. Lack of a music scene isn’t by fault of the fact that it’s particularly driven by youth, it’s the lack of a base to work with and launch from. Venues as spaces to play allow for a beehive or hub for this scene to flourish. Without one, the scene is alive only by those who have the means available to extend their base in Anchorage, a hard thing to do when just starting out.

I consider myself a fan and supporter of the local scene. In four or five years of being involved in attending shows, buying merchandise and supporting local bands, I can count quite a few who have dropped off the map due to the inability to grow a fan base in the Valley. Some move outside to Washington or Oregon, and some call it quits altogether. The bands that continue to work through the road block still recognize the struggle.

“It’s hard to get kids from the Valley to come to shows anymore because there’s really no venue out there,” said Kyle Scott, guitarist and vocalist for Palmer-based band Thrown Away Thoughts, at a recent show in Anchorage to support national visiting band Dance Gavin Dance. Having a venue in the Valley “would be a huge help. That’s really the main issue right now.”

When I was lucky enough to sit down with two members, Matt Mingus and Will Swan, drummer and guitarist respectively, of Dance Gavin Dance — a band from Sacramento, Calif. that has toured the country rigorously and through its music and fan base hold a big part in the development and life of the music scene across the states — they made clear the importance of a venue in order for a local scene to thrive.

“It’s pretty important,” Swan claimed. “There would be no music scene without venues for music scenes.”

When asked if there were any venues in Sacramento that reached out and helped them to form a strong fan base and promote themselves to really get their name out, both Mingus and Swan could list many and credited those venues with facilitating their success.

“They were venues where you didn’t have to pay to play. The promoters were really cool about giving local bands chances to play on bigger shows when bigger bands would roll through, letting us get that opening slot. And that really helped us out,” Swan said, while Mingus nodded enthusiastic agreement.

Venues work in a much more different way than their conceptualization would suggest. The venue is really just a building with good acoustics. Behind that, there’s a production team involved in the organization of bringing bands in; getting a feel for their popularity in the venue’s area, working with the band’s touring schedule and making available funds to make the show possible. Part of making available funds for most venues around the country is asking the opening — usually local — bands to pay for their tickets in and give up a percentage of merchandise sales, making the opportunity as a small band to open for a popular, big-name band bittersweet. You’re getting recognition, but in a way paying for it, too.

A music venue in Wasilla has been tried before by the pioneers at local music and arts magazine Make-A-Scene!, converting an old Quonset hut just outside of town into a venue. While it was open, it was great; shows were happening pretty regularly, kids were happy with something to look forward to and the musicians could really feel like they were getting somewhere in the scene. This ended, though, when various issues left the group with the choice to shut down. Venues sometimes raise traffic complaints and regular noise issues with the city, causing problems to its ability to operate. If the city was a part of the construction, regulation and scheduling of the venue, wouldn’t the likelihood of success increase? And if this venue was local-band friendly, it would save the bands from having to pay to play, as well as gas money, which would leave more funds for promotional efforts such as T-shirts and studio time for producing an album.

Not only does a music venue play a big part in supporting a music scene, it keeps kids from getting into trouble elsewhere.

Writer Zaz Hollander for a local Palmer news blog, The Palmer Post, broke the news last Thursday that teens have been asked to stay out of the town’s popular A-Moose-Ment Park by way of a sign posted near the entrance that warns the equipment is designed for children’s use only. The realization that this is a regular hangout for teens raised the question, now where will they go? The city’s Parks, Trails, and Recreational Fields Master Plan as developed by Palmer’s Community Development team has held an ongoing discussion of what to develop for teens to play on. More trails, a basketball court, or more soccer or football fields have been suggested.

But what about an actual building? One to serve as a community teen center, a regular place to hang out that could also function as a music venue with regular scheduling of bands?

With physical record sales declining and digital sales being cut in so many different directions, playing concerts is the best way for a band to make money and be supported. Though teens today can often easily find a song played live via a YouTube video taken on someone’s phone at a show, the quality can never compare to the rush, excitement and communal feeling of attending a show. Plus, the experience is always well-remembered. Don’t some of your favorite memories begin with something along the lines of “when I saw Tom Petty at the Roseland Ballroom in 1974 …”

The talent and determination of the musicians around us needs to be supported by the community. A town can be successful and great by itself as a collection of buildings, parks, roads and homes, but isn’t a strong community what makes it all the better? Let’s help improve Wasilla and Palmer and strengthen the community by strengthening our artists by supporting them.

Dylan Gette-King is a senior in high school. You can find the full interviews with bands Thrown Away Thoughts and Dance Gavin Dance at radiofreepalmer.org.