"Is there anybody here?"

Jesus Fuck.

Years ago, the wandering Mr. Ochs was playing gigs in obscure places, and you could hear on the bootleg tapes a smattering of applause in a near-empty room. How fucking depressing. One of his songs was "Is There Anybody Here?"

Hearing him sing those lines in a near empty club is pretty damn ironic. The song had nothing to do with loneliness or apathy, it was challenging anyone in the crowd to do something stupid, like join the Army with an early grave as the reward. So many big-shot patriots were cheering the Vietnam War but thankful they had flat feet or a high draft number.

Anyway...if Phil was around now, he might be suffering THIS.

Does it get much emptier than this?

I won't name names here. I'll only say this guy was on several major labels. Granted, for a few years he was just a "Critic's Darling" who maybe grazed the Top 100 a few times. But he DID have some of his songs covered, and DID have several years where his records were reviewed and he toured the better places. Even over the next 20 years, he had indie labels eager to put out one of his albums. He didn't resort to self-pressing.

But JESUS. This is eerie.

I think this was his only gig ALL SUMMER. I don't recall him mentioning "come to my gig..." in six months.

It wasn't even that close to his home. He probably drove two or three fucking hours to get there, and I mean DROVE, because as much as we all hate the train and the bus, that wasn't even an option here! I checked and the venue's "how to get to us" instructions were a complex mess of "take a left, take a right, go down this highway to that highway to this road to that road..." It would've been one hell of an expensive cab ride for the guy.

Sometimes if I'm not sure where the fuck the show is, and it's a small town in a nearby state, I check the transportion. Is it possible to get there within an hour? Or two? If I go and support the artist can I even get back home, or does the last train depart while it's still daylight?? Usually it's the transportation problem that kills it.

Holy shit.

Yes, he drove in with both a guitar AND a keyboard.

He (and the other person who SHARED THE BILL) didn't have to pay to play, but I can't imagine he had much gratification from a shitty turnout in the middle of nowhere.

Yeah, it's better than staying home. Barely.