The virtue of the right venue?

I like that I live in a town where "I didn't catch alot of music this past weekend", means I only saw two shows.

I started out at 123 Pleasant St. on Saturday night for the Hackensaw Boys/Morgantown Rounders show. The Morgantown Rounders are really cooking right now. They played a short and sweet support set which was in contrast to their all-night St. Patty's Day throwdown I had seen the week prior. The energy at both shows tops anything I'd ever seen from them in their "home venue" of the Rosewood. The crowd was large, hooked up with the band, and ready to get down. The Hackensaw Boys delivered an hour and half set that gave all in the room exactly what they came for: a two hour dance party of sing-along heavy bluegrass.

Both crowds were here for the band. They came for the music first, and the party second which leads to attentiveness and activeness on the audience's part. I for one, feel a good show starts with the crowd feeling like they are participating rather than observing.

I found out that such was not the case in all situations.

At setbreak I headed up the street to catch part of Thred's set at Chic n' Bones. Now, I don't frequent Chic n' Bones and other bars of that ilk, something I'm pretty sure I share in common with most of the people who co-habitate in this corner of the web. For me, if it's not a place I see live music, I don't really go. Now, recently Chic n' Bones has added a huge new room that is very, very nice. It has a high stage, a big dancefloor and an elevated bar that stretches the length of the back wall. It's the kind of room that in a bigger city would book exclusively mid-range national acts. I'm not sure what the capacity is, but I'm sure it's pretty big. It strikes me as twice as big as the Rosewood, and much more polished.

So here's Thred, ripping away with their origional brand of funk on a nice stage, in a nice room, getting a nice guarentee, and playing to hundreds of people who are doing everything in their power to pay as little attention as posisble. Hell, with the bar positioned as it is half the room have their backs to the band.

Now, these people didn't come to listen to music. They're here to get wasted and laid. Band? Music? Who cares. In fact, there is now a new line inside the bar to get back into the "old room" which is more suited for simply sitting and drinking.

On one hand, the band is being paid nicely (though I beleive had to bring their own sound), it's a nice room, and there are alot of people there. To grow as a band you have to expand your audience past your friends, roommates and non-gender-specific significant others, but at what cost?

The question is: is this type of gig a good gig for a local band who plays origional music?