Why not come to Kansas City?

We've got great venues, a diverse and supportive local music scene full of informed fans, and money to spend on cheap beer and records.

I'm not talking about Lawrence, not talking about Columbia, Des Moines, etc.

Kansas City.

I've been wanting to set this blog up for a long time, so here it is.

If you DO want to come to Kansas City, and are interested in playing an Infoshop for a split of the door, let me know. Or maybe I can help you set something else up.

Otherwise, from here on in, it's tours that aren't coming to Kansas City. I'm taking most of these tour dates off of other people's sites or agency sites, and I'm generally not going to be bothered with re-formatting or removing little symbols denoting who the opening band is or whatever.

Obviously, there'll be some that just aren't going to be coming here - for instance, European tours. Others are not going to be coming here and it's for the best because I think the band/act sucks and I want them to stay the hell out of town.

There will also be acts that actually ARE coming to Kansas City. Some of these acts will be well worth covering and I'll do so here (when I get around to it). Most acts coming here, however, are crap and aren't worth mentioning, so I won't.

There's going to be others, let's say like dubstep producer/dj/all-around cool guy Kode9, which just aren't obviously even going to consider coming here because this is the Wild West and admittedly, this is a city overwhelmingly comprised of musical bumpkins. But I'm still going to be pissed off about it and make a comment.

There will also be several coming to Lawrence. It's easy to do, it's a huge college town and just about everyone out there's still living off Mom and Dad back in Leawood so they've got money to burn. Lawrence gets a pass for the most part - it's only 45 minutes over there, compared to well over an hour to Columbia one-way. However, it's the 45 minutes BACK from Lawrence that make shows over there pretty much pointless to even try to attend. Anyone who's driven K-10 at 2am after a few will know why.

Oh, and lastly, I fully well know this is rarely if ever the decision of the band. Once they've gotten past a certain point (coughrelevance?) they've got managers and agents to deal with all of this crap. Let's also not forget the venue's role - or lack thereof - in all of this. No open night, not enough capacity, etc.

Enough excuses though . . . if you're a band, and you want to come here, you either book it yourself, or you throw a rockstar tantrum and make it happen. Otherwise . . . on with the (no)show.