FortWayneMusic.com

What I want to know is...
Mid City wins 'best blues venue' every year, and the only night that blues are there, other than sundays is the blues jam. Obviously the Taj Maholics have been there for 4 years, but the only other night is the jam.

I heard rumor that they are cancelling the jam because of lack of attendance, which is the bars fault because they moved the night to wednesday and alot of people don't realize that, and they fired the very good host of it about a year ago.

In all actuality, the A&0 Sweetshop should be the best blues venue.

quantum_driveshaft wrote:In all actuality, the A&0 Sweetshop should be the best blues venue.

The who? The What/

There is your problem with that... no one knows where/what the A&O is.

I've heard of the place but never been there.

The only way it's gonna get into the Whammy section is if they start running some ads in WhatzUp.

I've never even heard of the A&O Sweetshop.

And as a reader of Whatzup, I won't cast my "reader's" vote for a place I've never even heard of.

I first attended the A&O Sweetshop a couple weekends back.

Thing to keep in mind when it comes to Whammies is people often vote in categories which they don't know much and thus go for a familiar name. Being a 7 year resident myself, I'd not even heard of the A&O until right before we went there.

You've never been to the A&O? And sat in that one special front booth, and watched as the neon "Beer" sign gets projected through your glass like a camera lens, so a tiny, miniature "Beer" sign floats on your table?

And you call yourselves hipsters.

If attendance is poor at the MidCity Blues Jam, here's why:

Most "blues jammers" are middle-aged guys with really nice Strats and good amps and kilobuck pedal boards who sit at home working out every lick on "Cold Shot" or "Crossroads." There is no band for these guys, so they jam.

They also have lives. So a weeknight jam that starts at 10 PM is not going to be well attended.

Silencio wrote:They also have lives. So a weeknight jam that starts at 10 PM is not going to be well attended.

+1000

So really...where is this A&O??

1734 High Street, in the no-man's land bounded by Spring and Leesburg... you could probably spit from Deer Park and hit it.

I got dragged in there by a collaborator who was an aficionado of dives... back in those days, we used to joke that we should give a writing credit to Jack Daniels. A&O, Shady Nook, the Tower Tavern... if you could get bad tasting bourbon for a buck, we were there.

They also have lives. So a weeknight jam that starts at 10 PM is not going to be well attended.

thats funny cause when gmoney ran the thing the place was packed every single week

the point i was trying to make was, mid city has blues one night a week, its the same band been playing that night for 4 years, and just because they are mid city, they win.

hell, skips oughta win, too.
and if you ever go to the a&0 (which btw is around the corner and over the tracks from O's, its packed every friday.

quantum_driveshaft wrote:...and just because they are mid city, they win.

Did you not read any of the points people made... that's exactly what they're saying.

Name recognition... half the people voting for Whammy's don't know what half the sh*t it they're voting for.

But also as you can see... three people on this thread knew what the A&O is.

anderson wrote:three people on this thread knew what the A&O is.

Make that 4.

And I will be 6. I have not been there for some time. I will definately put this on my, places to visit, list.

user wrote:

anderson wrote:three people on this thread knew what the A&O is.

Make that 4.

of course.

i hear there can be a pretty tough crowd out at the a&o.

i know some dudes that go there a bit and theyre pretty rough dudes.

Silencio wrote: Most "blues jammers" are middle-aged guys with really nice Strats and good amps and kilobuck pedal boards who sit at home working out every lick on "Cold Shot" or "Crossroads." There is no band for these guys, so they jam.

They also have lives. So a weeknight jam that starts at 10 PM is not going to be well attended.

But there is an alternative for these types. Jam Crib has open jam sessions Sunday through Thursday starting at 7 p.m. and you can play all you want. Not the typical wait around, play 3 songs, then sit back down format.