Thoughts on the Lancaster, Ohio Scene by JMcQ

Not sure if any of you readers thought about it much, but I want to go back to something that Shayne from The Bloody Irish Boys said in eir interview. Specifically, when Shayne says “but in some cities like Lancaster…there is so much negative energy”, ey is speaking the gospel. Let me relate something to you – this morning, when I was trying to finish up the pieces for this issue of the ‘zine I got an myspace e-mail back from someone. This someone is the friend or significant other of someone who I thought was going to save my bacon. To explain: we are having a show June 25th and a band had to drop because they weren’t all going to be in town. No big deal, a number of bands have this problem either with prior commitments or work, and I understand. This person e-mails me and says that eir friend’s band is looking for gigs and that I should get in touch.

I e-mail back that friend and tell eir to tell this band that we have a spot that was vacated and got this e-mail back this morning from the person in the band. Here’s the full-text: “dear james this is XXXX, you should have asked us to play in the first place ... we are not going to play just because you have a precious space open you are fucking gay, fuck you...” Nice thing to wake up to, right? This is the major issue with the Lancaster scene, that individuals are poisoned with the same hatred present in this city. There is little to no community here, and when there is some community (there’s a picture that shows a good 35 kids standing together from a few months ago), it is fleeting (the organizer of the picture was thrown in jail, bailed out and fled to Michigan).

People like Jamie Brown (The Nothings From Nowhere) continually get shit upon because the music ey plays is derisively called “emo” by a large segment of the town. A little over a year ago, ey had a show at the skate park and got harassed ten ways from Sunday just because ey tried to inject a little order into the show. I was not there personally but from everything that was discussed, from bands that played to the organizer eirself, showed this same type of poisonous attitude. Personally, I’ve tried to include more individuals into these shows – we’ve produced information about who, when, where to call and how much the venues cost but there is little initiative. I’ve had a few people try to start shows, but after I tell them that I’m not going to do the booking but help them do it, they all back out. It just worries that when I leave here in August for Kent State that there is not going to be anyone here that will be doing local shows. This is not to say that no one is talented enough; rather, there are a ton of talented kids in this town that could do a damn good show, but that maybe they are a little intimidated about what all a show entails or are even stifled because I’ve been doing shows here for three years.

Saying all of that, Lancaster has had a good music scene since I’ve started listening to music from here (at least back to 1998, and I’m sure it even goes back further than that). However, someone needs to follow through with shows or the much-talked about plan to purchase and start up a venue or step up to the plate with local shows before things die out any further. The formation of local bands has been helped in the past because of shows put on by local people; I started 1977 after seeing shows at St. Mary’s and the Campgrounds; Joe Hiles (Cruci-Fetus) still remembers a few years back when I gave eir a flier. To only play in your own hometown might be a drag for some bands, but each time that the younger kids (11-13) see something being done by local individuals, it gives them a germ of an idea that they can too can actually do something more than just sit around their house and be bored. The first record label in Lancaster, Fighting Chance, had a compilation out in 1998 or so called “A Lil’ Somethin’ For The Kids”. That’s what I try to give with the concerts that are done and the CDs that are given out – I don’t know why that is given a negative response, but hopefully in a few years it pans out to a bumper crop of new, local acts. Perhaps the poisoned attitude will subside and groups will actually work together a little more.