MEET TO THE BEAT: More than anything else, Chicago’s music scene seems balkanized–Wax Trax technostomp in one corner, Touch & Go grungemeisters in another: there’s no there here. A lot of this has to do with the almost nonexistent press support (it’s as nonexistent in this paper as it is anywhere else), but it’s also true that besides Souled American, Ministry, and some of the acts on Pravda, there’s not too much homegrown stuff that you’d drag a friend in from out of town to see. Then, of course, there’s radio. “A music scene is only as strong as the radio support it gets,” says Jeff Kwatinetz, whose Q Productions (which he runs with partner David Bernstein) sponsors the Chicago Pride concerts. “In Boston there are three or four local stations that play local music, and they’ve got ten bands like Dick Holliday that can charge $10 for a ticket and fill a place. Here, besides XRT–which really supported the Chicago Pride album–there’s nothing. If Z95 or the Loop started playing local stuff it would be incredible.”
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Kwatinetz’s contribution to the local scene is the Midwest Music Conference, to be held at North Pier this weekend. Optimistically designed along the lines of the megaschmooze New Music Seminar in New York and smaller, hipper affairs like Austin’s South by Southwest conference (SXSW), the midwest version hasn’t exactly set Chicago on fire–Kwatinetz says that out-of-town registration is bigger than in-town. “The scene just isn’t cohesive here,” he says. “People are really skeptical.” When we spoke, Kwatinetz, Bernstein, and their partner in this conference–Riviera booker (and Dick Holliday manager) Pete Katsis–were looking at registration of about 300, though that was a full week before things got started, and Kwatinetz was hoping for a lot of walk-ups. Both SXSW and the New Music Seminar started small.
Two years on, the group has a new tape out, Corner of the Sky, and a couple of local dates this month. Live, Luck of Eden Hall makes a weird appearance: turns out they’re a bunch of hippies, but unlike most they believe in letting their drummer go to town. They may be a band to watch.
