This is an old tumblr post from Mike Doughty, former frontman for Soul Coughing, but I was reminded of it by a friend when we were talking about a show I went to this weekend.

A show where I was standing on a concrete floor for four hours, dodging a mosh pit, had Inevitable Drunk Person™ spill her drink all over me one song into the headliner’s set, where I spent more time listening to the opening bands than I did the band I came to see, and where white dudebros were constantly planting themselves two inches from face to take over my halfway decent view of the stage.

If shows were at 7:30 pm sharp, adults might go.

If everybody got chairs, adults might go.

If drunk talkers got shut up, and the story wasn’t “I went to see _____, but some asshole was jabbering away, ruined the music, why go back?”, adults might go._

The talking people in the bar are 5 out of 50. Bars, there’s more money in the 50 than the 5. Do you want those 50 to come back to your bar?

…

Seriously, who out there is trying to crack this nut? Nobody wants this money?

I realized that most of the live music industry is predicated on a lifestyle in which I am simply unable to participate any more.

http://mkdo.co/post/36073438268/forget-piracy-the-music-industrys-biggest