And to answer your question, Mike, yes, merchandising is where it’s at. Didn’t you see Spaceballs? It’s particularly effective for “established” bands (read: bands whose primary demographic is in the 30-40-something set). I last saw The Church in 2006. I took an extra $80 with me, knowing very well I would be parted with all of that money by the end of the evening. If the band can establish that these items are “tour only” and not something you could get online, you’ll buy it. If they play again within 100 miles of me this year, I’ll do it all again. I’ve only been through this routine with them eight or nine times.

I don’t think we’ll sell many cd’s. But we’ll add t-shrts and bumper stickers, and they’ll move a little better.

It seems to be about bling at this point. Since they can find your music for free, you get them to buy stuff that’ll advertise your brand for you. You may have noticed that Ralph Lauren has perfected this model….

JB, do people really buy CDs much at the live shows? It’s been a while since I’ve been to a live show (9+ years, actually), but from what I remember, there didn’t seem to be a whole lot of activity whenever the artists mentioned the stuff they were selling.

I hear you, brother. We come from a time in the misty past when you played LOTS of live shows before you ever recorded. Now we’re having to record so we’ll have “product” to sell at our live shows and stuff to post on #$#@# MySpace so people will know the tunes and come to the shows to hear them.

It’s a brave new world for relics like us…

But we don’t have to play so many $#@# covers, so there’s that….

Yes, Slammy was indeed involved on this one again. I haven’t seen us live in ages, either. Our show next weekend (in Tampa) will be our first in almost five years. I need to move back to Denver as well. Perhaps we should have a (very slow) race?

It’s interesting how recordings have gone from being a side-effect of playing live to being the purpose of playing live … at least economically.

No one likes being tricked into seeing a film that isn’t as interesting as its trailer. Likewise, no music fan enjoys an album that doesn’t somewhat reflect the concert experience they had last night.

It’s a delicate balance. You have to explore the medium of the live show while remaining somewhat true to the recording. The cart is firmly before the horse. Maybe that’s why the industry is dead.

PG is pretty close in both, though – he has massive amounts of tech to make sure of it.

Today there are bands – not many, but a few – that are better live. The studio can’t capture the authenticity of the performance. Jason & the Scorchers were like that, and Graham Parker is damned sure like that.

It’s rarer and rarer, though. We’re using tech to perfect the reality out of the music, and that can’t help but have some effect over time, huh?