Difficult economy and changing habits are making it challenging for performers and venues to find success on a regular basis

By Tim Nekritz  |  nekritz@gmail.com

It’s a Thursday evening in one of the most well-respected music venues in Oswego County, a traditionally busy night even in winter. One of the best and most-beloved performers in the county is playing a typically great set.

It’s around 8 p.m. and I look around and I’m one of only four customers. It’s not the fault of anybody here — performer or venue — and this type of experience is no longer atypical.

The times, as Bob Dylan famously said, they are a-changing, for local music venues.

I recall the 1990s as a boom time where music was a main attraction in many bars. Oswego’s Water Street was in its heyday — you could catch a hot rock band in Ferris Wheel and almost any genre across the street in Old City Hall. Even the modest-sized Gaslight Pub, down a flight of stairs, might have a small act. The bar once known as Players, later Toucans, later Hurricanes, next to the Ferris Wheel, might have somebody upstairs. By 2002, you could add King Arthur’s Steakhouse around the corner — now the Children’s Museum of Oswego — to that small square of geography.

You could find good music clubs across neighborhoods (not that the neighbors were always thrilled), such as the departed Shacki Patch at the corner of Liberty and West Schuyler, a top draw especially in summers. It felt like you couldn’t walk a few blocks without hearing live music pouring out of a door on a warm day in the Port City. And you often could say the same thing of Fulton or other towns and villages around Oswego County.

Yet there are just as many, maybe more, musicians looking for audiences or even to make a few bucks as in any time in the area’s history. But it’s getting harder and harder to find an opportunity.

One musician I know said four or five places they normally play stopped booking live entertainment altogether in the past few months. Another said they keep losing venues and opportunities as fewer places are willing to invest.

Some great live venues have gone out of business — La Parrilla in December, for example — some stopped regular bookings and others have scaled way back, especially during colder months.

(Out of respect for musicians who are friends and venues who are partners, I’m keeping it general here, but rest assured, many are impacted.)

The challenge in a difficult economy is always the bottom line.

When you pay an act $300 for a three-hour set, you might ask whether you’re getting $100 per hour in return. If you serve food, it’s a somewhat better bet, but you’re also paying for more staff and perishable inventory. If you’re just serving drinks, you need a good-sized new audience or people getting your most expensive items, to even recoup the investment.

Some places don’t worry about meeting dollar-for-dollar because they consider live music an investment in atmosphere, cultivating a vibrant scene and long-term return. Which is laudable, downright wonderful. But not every place can afford what some might consider a luxury.

As a person who plays in and books two bands and enjoys a lot of live music, it’s something I see firsthand. As do a lot of other musicians. We are grateful for the opportunities and put our all into entertaining audiences.

But when you do play, you might see less engaged audiences. As one friend who has performed for decades says, the smartphone presents a huge challenge to getting attention among customers. I’ve seen performers much better than me end a great song in front of a decent-sized crowd to not a single bit of applause as people are too busy scrolling or talking to friends about what they’re seeing while scrolling.

Beyond that, technology presents many options other than catching live entertainment as well. When you have several streaming services at your fingertips with most songs and almost every movie ever made, boatloads of YouTube channels, armies of TikTok creators and much more, any musician playing in a bar — and the people booking live shows — have a lot of competition.

Yet the scene survives

But I’m not forecasting the death of live local entertainment either. The scene is alive, thriving in some places, but changing.

Oswego County (and places nearby) has a lot of open mics with regular performers, so a large number of people are playing (albeit not for pay) and audiences are paying attention. The audiences sometimes are mainly other performers, but this at least gets people in the door and helps build a sense of community.

You can still find a variety of options.

The reopening of the renovated Old City Hall, long a beloved music venue, bears watching; the Ferris Wheel is starting to step up their booking game as well. Lakeview Lanes in Fulton powers through winter with an outdoor heated venue, The Yard. While it’s rare to see a cover charge these days, Oswego’s Ancient Order of Hibernians recently sold out a ticketed show with local rockers Cold Front.

New–newer–evolving establishments from the Touchdown Sports Bar and Grill in Fulton to the Martin Inn and Pub in Sandy Creek to the venerable Kallet Theatre in Pulaski all seem committed to making live music a part of their presentation. And plenty of other places never stopped booking, promoting and supporting live music, for which we are thankful.

A continuing challenge for the many newer acts on the scene is breaking into a rotation. I can see the sides of the equation: On the one hand, venues stick with a known commodity. On the other, not everybody will see the same act for the 11th or 101st time — and at some point they took a chance to see them the first time.

One of my musical mentors asks about how often my bands — The Condescenders (a four-piece) or Whiskey Spirits (a duo) — are playing. On a good run, we’re playing multiple nights a week, but even then we sometimes worry if we’re competing against ourselves as we build a fanbase in what is still a crowded market for live entertainment.

But where the rubber ultimately meets the road is in people choosing to support live music … or not.

I know folks who pay well over a thousand dollars to fly to Europe to see Taylor Swift (because it’s somehow cheaper than the prices to see her in the U.S.) who won’t walk a few blocks to see a musician play their heart out in a free show.

Without audiences, our music venues don’t exist. My advice to readers is to check out local performers — and they may well be your friends and neighbors — wherever they are. It might be mainly bars and restaurants in winter, but in summer they could be in a park, at a block party, anywhere and everywhere.

It’s not an easy time for musicians or the venues that book them. That I know. But I also know that I happily rang in New Year’s Eve playing a gig with The Condescenders in Mexico’s Eis House bar that was packed with people having a good time. Music is magic. Music is connections. Music is fulfilling.

The times change, but music will always be part of the local scene.

Here’s to anybody and everybody who can support keeping it that way in finding ways to keep the music playing.