What's the Problem Houston?

"I do support the scene here," she said. "It's just that I see things in other towns that I think we could do better here."

The Rocbar manager, whose name was Chris, has this pet peeve. Bands approach him to play shows. He asks them what they think of his venue. They say they have never been. They don't get to play. "If you can't get out there and support the other bands and support my bar, then why should I give you my money?" he ­wondered.

The A-listers of this gathering were some members of this scene's most prominent band — LoneStar PornStar. I am not a fan of this style of rock, but I will say this: LSPS is very good at what they do. Their shows are events, they are musically tight, they work hard to pack the house when they play. Whatever success they have is richly earned.

At the meeting, LSPS singer Gregg Stegman said that the decline was a long time in coming. He was sad that more people did not come to the meeting, as some had inaccurately perceived this gathering as being all about the smoking ban. (The smoking ban was by and large vindicated — most believed that it had caused a little hiccup and then people had learned to deal with it.) He also echoed the club people's complaints — bands didn't do enough to promote their own shows. Bands didn't do enough to create relationships with their fans. He said rockers should learn from rappers in these respects.

The meeting was slated to go on for another couple of hours after this, but I took my leave about then. The minutes to the meeting are posted at www.hbclive.com/showthread.php?t=5575&page=12, as is a mammoth 12-page discussion thread about the woes of Houston's skuzz-rock scene.

There, early in the comments, Fen­der Phil, one of Stegman's LSPS bandmates, got even closer to the mark when he posted this: "I don't think it's the smoking ban that is keeping ppl out of the bars. It's Guitar Hero.That and a total lack of A+++++ quality bands out there. (Yeah, I said it...) It seems like anyone that has a guitar is starting bands.... Regardless of talent, or ambition... I have found most musicians get gear because they want to sound like band X...For instance, look at a musician search online... most ads influences include metal, death, speed, and beer usually. I guess people are just too willing to settle with mediocre musicians, and they put it out there, and this is the result we get. Lack of audience at shows. Who the hell wants to hear the same riffs over and over again? I don't, that's for sure."

I'll cosign with that part of his post wholeheartedly. Guitar Hero is a factor. And it is just too easy these days. You and your buds start a band. You slap together some derivative crap and throw it on MySpace, and your friends and families tell you that you rock. (Hell, so does Guitar Hero, over and over again.) You can't but believe them and are deluded into thinking you're ready to play publicly, and maybe some booker sees all the hits on your MySpace and takes the bait. You get a show, and you're mediocre at best. Not even your friends come to your next show. Repeat ten thousand times all across America.

But then Fender Phil had to go and add this: "Whatever happened to all the skinheads from the '90s? They must be 40-ish by now... Are they our doctors? Lawyers? Could your chiropractor have a swastika tattooed on their back? Could your dentist be a member of the Aryan Youth?

"Unfortunately, the skins made up a HUGE fanbase back in the day. ...as mean as those bastards were, they were organized to support the local scene. (Even if they DID try to burn down the clubs, at least they were all on the same page...lol)."

Yeah, lol.

Not!

Those days sucked. And if people are pining for them now, even jokingly, maybe it's better if that scene continued to wither.

john.lomax@houstonpress.com