Indie Bands Skipping Houston

Dear Name Withheld By Request:

Your letter was clever but you defeat your own argument when you cite Daniel Johnston and Jandek. Neither was the beneficiary of any "scene" in Houston.

Jandek is the obvious example since his only real connection to Houston was secretly recording here and maintaining a P.O. Box inside the city limits. He didn't even play his first live show until a couple years ago and, when he did, it was overseas. I fully admit to being out of touch but if he's played locally since then it was once or twice and it didn't exactly make a splash.

And Daniel's not from Houston at all. Daniel recorded his early stuff in his home state of West Virginia and lived here only very briefly -- recording one or two albums but never playing out -- before striking out on the road and winding up in Austin where he played his first live show as an opener for Glass Eye. His first live appearances in this town happened well after he lived here. And there has never been a scene in Houston that supported his music or his shows. Today he bypasses Houston regularly because he draws better crowds in virtually every other town, in and out of this country.

I talked to his brother (and manager) recently about doing a gig here and he said it just didn't make sense to make the trip -- only 90 minutes from his home in Waller -- as he draws great crowds everywhere else and tiny ones here.

Though I briefly booked bands here nearly 15 years ago I don't have a dog in this race. And I don't pretend to understand the current music scene or the problems that may or may not exist with it. But the D. Johnston/Jandek examples were exceptionally poor ones.

Any town can serve as a home address to a notable artist or two, regardless of local audience or venue support. Those two guys are proof of that, but otherwise they could not be more irrelevant to your argument.

Keep punching Joe,

Jason Nodler
The Catastrophic Theatre