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Usually I try to walk on the sunny side of the street,
but for this look at the Springfield arts and entertainment scene I’m
crawling in the shadows. A few music clubs closed their doors in the last
couple of months and even more disappeared at the end of the year. Other
places remained open, but decreased dramatically or ceased entirely their
live music bookings. True, a few bars managed to increase music shows, but
these were mostly in cost-cutting solo or duo formats or with karaoke or
DJs. It’s easy enough to blame the loss on the infamous smoking ban,
but it’s also hard to believe that a majority of live-music listeners
refuse to support something as important and meaningful as artistic
entertainment because they are not allowed to blow smoke indoors. But
whatever the cause of the closings, the overall loss of audiences, revenue,
and venues is devastating to the good health of our local music scene. It may just be the end of an era: Hanging out in bars
and listening to bands appears as outmoded as the rotary-dial telephone or
a friendly all-night diner. As the smoking ban supporters tell us, we are
becoming a healthier society, and, honestly, there isn’t much
healthful about hanging out in bars, smoking cigarettes, drinking booze,
and watching bands until the wee hours of the morning. Things move and migrate, and perhaps live music is
coming out of the bars and going, going, going . . . somewhere else. Where
could that be? Outdoor festivals, such as the Taste of Downtown and
International Route 66 Mother Road Festival, have flourished, but
they’re annual events. Theater-seating concerts in the Hoogland
Center for the Arts have increased, but they take place only sporadically.
The only consistent live-music venues are nightclubs — and things
just ain’t what they used to be for them. Under these conditions, I
think, street singing could make a powerful comeback. While we’re dabbling in the darkness, what about
asking the powers that be for an expanded awards ceremony celebrating the
local arts scene? We have the Mayor’s Awards for the Arts, which His
Honor has graciously allowed to happen every year now instead of a measly
every other. Thanks go to the angels at the Springfield Area Arts Council
for presenting and preserving it, but would the entire arts community grow
and prosper if the awards ceremony were expanded? I think so. It could
— and should — include more area artists by stretching the
existing categories or creating new ones to include more of the arts
community in Springfield. Besides, just having a great big cool, fun,
all-inclusive awards ceremony each year could be a blast. I’ll be back, in the light, next week —
promise.
Contact Tom Irwin at tirwin@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Jan 4-10, 2007.
