from MySanAntonio.com:
by Jim Beal:
The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is dominating every part of the news from the front page to the entertainment section, and that will continue.
On the local music scene there are mad scrambles to organize everything from benefits to entertainment for hurricane survivors who now call various shelters in the Alamo City home. So far, people from venue owners and operators to musicians and fans are working together. That's essential.
Friday's edition of the Weekender will spotlight hurricane relief benefits. When it comes to staging benefits, almost everyone involved has a heart that's in the right place; however, there are things that must be kept in mind.
We, and that means the entire nation, are going to have to be in this relief effort for the long haul. There are bands and fans in this town still reeling from the deaths of Taco Land's Ram Ayala and Gypsy Doug Morgan. While they'll step up, they're not superhuman.
There are local and area relief organizations that help the poor, homeless and disadvantaged on a daily basis. Their work will go on despite the very real possibility of donations being diverted to hurricane relief causes. They must not be overlooked.
The most effective benefits are the ones that are smart and compact, the ones that feature a handful of acts doing their best work in a time frame that won't tax players or patrons. While there's a temptation to stage marathon concerts, the reality is few people on the planet will show up at 10 in the morning and hold out until 2 the next morning. Three or four successful benefits stretched out over a few weeks will do some good. A massive gathering that flops won't.
Musicians are among the first to jump in to offer their talents to help worthy causes, but musicians also can suffer compassion fatigue and burnout. Musicians have families to feed and bills to pay and need to juggle benefits and paying gigs without feeling guilty.
The more venues that get involved the better. The worst part about playing for free is not playing for free — that's generally a blessing, even if the cause is daunting. The worst part of playing for free is hauling gear and wrangling sound systems. If venues step up and take care of procuring sound systems and stage gear, then artists will likely be more willing to play for the cause. It also never hurts to know that venue owners are kicking in on the monetary and publicity fronts.
Those working to find ways to entertain the evacuees could do worse than to view the shelter situations as they'd view wedding receptions. The happiness and joy factors are certainly different, the demographics aren't. There are a lot of different kinds of people, a wide range of age groups, living together under massive roofs. New Orleans is the birthplace of jazz as well as the home of rappers, so having bands and DJ's team to swap sets can cover a lot of entertainment ground quickly.
If mobile stages, with sound systems and stage gear, can be set up at shelters, getting bands, singers, rappers and DJ's to work those stages will be no difficult task.
As guitarist Steve James said years ago prior to a benefit, "The gigs you do for free are the ones you should do the best."
Covering San Antonio's music scene since 2005