Syracuse Ska Forum

I might get bitched at for this but the too short notice show on march 26 was a great show and i defiantly thought the syracuse ska scene was coming back . But since then i think ive noticed that it might eb slowing down again? any comments

if only ska was as big as the hardcore scene....

the too short notice show was AMAZING, there was at least 150 people in there whether they paid or not! but maybe if we had one big show a month (preferably all ska bands!) because although i liked mike park and hobo slobo, many of my friends (paying customers/fans) did not find them entertaining. They come to dance, not sit and sing around a camp fire.

-thats my advice/critism/words of wisdom.

does anyone feel the same way?

Mike Park is an effin' legend. I would have killed to go to that show, but college life doesn't always cooperate.

I agree.

Mike Park came to Rochester and I didn't end up going because f*ck AP US History exam was the next day.

I missed the Aquabats last year because I had a physics regents. God I'm glad I'm out of high school.

Perhaps your friends and you could stay open minded. We only have 3 or 4 local ska bands so we need to have some bands of other genres to mix it up. Mike Park has a huge history that someone will probably tell you about so I won't bothter. As for Hobo Slobo they brought a different crowd of kids and I think most people thought they were at least entertaining.

And I disagree totally about anything slowing down. There have been at least two shows every month with more than 100 people at all of them for the last six months. We don't need any more than that and we couldn't handle more without overdoing it.

I'm not yelling at you I'm just explaining this to you. This is why we had a meeting awhile back to explain how the scene in Syracuse works with all the local bands. But I suppose some people outside of bands need to have this stuff explained to them as well.

Thanks Johanna. We're really gonna miss you when you run off to Buff State this fall.

Yeah, the Too Short Notice show was crazy. But we were majorly hassled about exceeding the 100 person limit (which includes band members, btw) by the Westcott staff. Its right on the contract they make you sign. They can turn away kid #101 or they can shut the show down and keep your $100 security deposit. We simply MUST hold bigger shows somewhere else, like Tundra, for example.

Plus, let's be honest ... the Too Short Notice show blew up in part because we hadn't had a "bigger" ska show in awhile. Like Johanna noted, we've been running more shows lately, each with 100+ kids each, which is awesome (even if the Westcott staff keeps threatening to count heads again). And we keep accidentally doing them very close together (thats just how scheduling works sometimes, sigh).

As for mixing up the non-ska and ska in the same show, we'll never make everyone happy on that account. But again, as Johanna noted, we don't have enough local ska bands right now to keep from endlessly repeating the same exact lineups every month. We fell into that trap a few years back ("Straighter Than Pete, Section 8 and Cletus Doesn't Care AGAIN!?!? This is getting boring!!"). When we get a few more bands together, we can either do some all-ska local shows with different lineups each month, like they do in Connecticut or Chicago or LA, for example, or simply put on more shows with mixed lineups. Or some combination thereof.

Its no secret I'm dying for The Benefits to get playing shows again, and for some more local ska bands to form, albeit playing more varied styles than we already have. And I'm hoping to start a college ska monthly series this fall with The Benefits and RazSum. And maybe even a 21+ monthly series down the road. There are far more ska fans locally than most realize, but many aren't too interested in what we already have, which is mostly high school shows.

There's a definite need for the high school shows, but we need shows for an older audience too, like the people who suddenly appear whenever The Toasters or The Slackers or The Pietasters are in town. They're legit ska fans too. But they feel goofy (as they've often informed me), when they attend a high school ska show, the same as some high school kids felt when they crashed the college ska show at the Westcott awhile back with The Benefits/PartyInYourPants/MrsSkanotto. 100 college kids with what, like maybe 12 high school kids that night? It really does make a difference.

I miss Happy Endings, where we actually mixed up all the ages and styles in one place and in the same show. We really need a place like that again.

I'm biased, no question, but I think our little ska scene in Syracuse is doing pretty well at the moment. It's still growing, but its growing in good ways.

Don't forget about the Rochester Ska bands............we're not that far away!

We don't have too many bands in the Rochester area. Three are High School bands (The Hoboz (High School band out of Avon), The LeVar BurTones and Just For Kix(who don't play shows often)), The Glow sporadically play shows when they can get the whole band together which basically leaves Mrs Skanotto to take up the slack. You guys are the only quality, experienced band in the area.

i dotn think its slowing down and if you do wait for the summer hopefully everything will pick up!

First I've heard of The Hoboz. Is there a website for them or anything??

That is basically because they just got a myspace like last week.

Hah.

Maybe I'm just a jerk, but I don't think anything out of ROCHESTER should be named "The Hoboz".

Hahaha. Is it bad that I think I like Johnny Hero more than Mike Park? Hehehe, I love that I always know what's going on with Mike and Asian Man Records these days because Johnny works with Mike and I talk to Johnny all the time.

Honestly, though, the show at the Westcott that night wasn't even that great. BRE was terrible, MG was only half decent, it was like the 2nd show for The Verbs so they still were defined as a band. I think my favorite set that night was Mike Park, but then when I had the chance to talk to him after, and when we were all out at Denny's later that night, he seemed a bit too stand-off-ish for my taste. Maybe he just felt uncomfortable because I'm young, but he just became less of a legend, and more of a jerk, really. I was sad. And then what he wrote about my house the next day when he was going to Buffalo just plain pissed me off.

Anyway, yeah. The Syracuse Ska Scene has been AMAZING lately. I mean, granted, I am one of the local additions to it. I've only really gotten into ska music the past year and half or so, though I've casually listened to it for a while now. And then I've only in the past few monthes become involved with the local Ska Scene.

I'm really glad we have these high school bands, even if Magic Goat will be gone when all their members go to college. I think we've begun to generate enough interest that people are actually starting to hear about us and pay attention. It's good. I like it.

I'm glad to finally be involved. I'm sad that I've gotten into it so late, but then again I'm only just about to turn 17, so I guess it can't really be considered that late since I've still got so much living to do.