By
Adam Pugh
Arizona Summer Wildcat
Poor support for local acts keeps big names away
Tucson is a hotbed - but not for much more than snowbirds and a severe case of melanoma.
Here in the southern part of Arizona, the music scene is struggling from the lack of a coherent and supportive music community, forcing promoters to take their big-name acts to nearby Phoenix. This leaves local venues with little more than lounge acts to draw people into their bars on Saturday nights.
The problem in convincing nationally-known acts to play Tucson venues, says Nick Celi, president of Skrappy's Inc., 201 E. Broadway Blvd., is that promoters view Arizona as a single locale, rather than home to two diverse music communities.
"It's hard to get promoters to understand that there is a difference between Phoenix and Tucson," Celi said. "Promoters assume that people from Tucson will automatically make the trip to Phoenix for their shows."
And this is exactly what many concert-goers do, only worsening the problem for the potential music market in Tucson, as promoters pay close attention to audience numbers and their own bottom lines.
"There is a bigger market in Phoenix and promoters feel there will be a lower overall attendance if they put on shows in both locations," Celi said. "The proximity to Phoenix and the size of Tucson - which most people think is too small - scare promoters and bands from coming here."
Yet the trend is changing. As promoters are slowly becoming more aware that Tucson is a separate entity from Phoenix, more big-name acts such as the Deftones and Ice-T have come to town in recent months.
Still, the problem with getting bigger names in Tucson, Celi explained, is that promoters see a hit-and-miss market in Tucson's music scene, with audience attendance fluctuating in an unpredictable manner. Some local and even nationally-known bands sell out while others play to less than 100 people on a given night, sending mixed messages to promoters whose bottom lines are ultimately the deciding factor on choosing Tucson as a location for their acts to perform.
"The kids in Tucson do a good job to support the national acts that come here but fail to support the local bands," Celi said. "We need more volunteers and support for local shows. Otherwise, promoters will keep overlooking us as a place where their bands can play."
Some local bands are able to survive after they get a base following but it can sometimes take months to get there, said G-reg, lead singer of local band Mighty Idaho. By having no support when venues and local acts need it most only seems to be hurting the quality of music that does make its way to Tucson he added.
"I think any place is a good place to start a band, but if there is no one to support you when you play, then what's the point?" G-reg said.
Some local bands are feeling the hurt from an incoherent music community where everyone has different ideas about how things should be, resulting in a mess that leaves most venue owners and promoters looking elsewhere for good music. Without a collective music conscience, Tucson has not and will not fare well with national bands and that of struggling local groups.
"If we had the support that Phoenix does, then there would be no problem," said Jason Plummer, a Zia Record Exchange employee. "The local scene is not too bad, but it would be nice if more bands started here. I think there would be a better sense of community if that was the case."
