Discovery
How does a band gain traction? How do people discover new music? There are so many thousands upon tens of thousands of bands out there. This past week we played for about 1400 people at the Florida Music Festival opening for the headlining act Blue Man Group. In this case discovery was made accidentally. This can be good if you are paired up with a compatible act with its own fan base that would have a high probability of liking your music as well. Blue Man Group…not so compatible in normal circumstances but at a festival the crowd is more mixed so there were still loads of potential fans waiting to be won over with an engaging performance.
In contrast to that we played at the Tropical Heatwave Festival a couple days later. This is a festival that has been running for 27 years and is put on by the public radio station in Tampa. Unlike most other festivals there are no big name acts. Plenty of variety from blues and rock to punk and experimental. Roots music and New Orleans jazz. Something for everyone. We had nearly 400 people show up for our set. It was truly all ages from 12 year old boys pressed up to the stage and 50 somethings dancing in the back to 20 somethings and aging hippies singing along to “War Changes Everything”
Now they weren’t there to see the band after us. Most weren’t there to see us. They were there because they trusted the festival and the radio station with the selection of the bands that night. They came with the expectation of discovery.
Both shows were great fun, high energy and musically very tight. My own preference was for the crowd at Tropical Heatwave. There is a real joy in seeing people enjoying the discovery of new music and really getting into it.
