Live music also means different things to different people…

A night at the opera or one at the little bar with someone regurgitating popular songs from the last fifty years or a cosy booth at the jazz bar or even the busker outside the local shops, it is all musicians decorating time and organising sounds in ways that we humans find interesting and have some emotional response to.

A live music venue, such as Dissent, is pretty much a place for musicians and artists to practise their craft, in real time and hopefully with an audience. Someone human, sharing something with others.

This simple premise disguises the challenges and difficulties of operating a small business that exists to support a cultural activity. Yes there is associated hospitality trade but that income has significant costs and is itself highly variable.

The “music industry” often bemoans the dearth of live music venues and recent high profile closures. Governments are keen to be seen as supporting the arts through grand schemes to build large venues or host significant public festivals, yet the role of small venues in maintaining the grass roots of the live music environment is given at best, passing mention.

Seemingly, the burden of sustaining the small but regular live music happenings falls to dedicated groups and individuals. From self organised house shows and backyard events, community activations and adhoc microfestivals, people gather for the connections and shared experiences that are part of what live music gives to us culturally.

In a time when money, power and politics would rather see everyone tethered to their own small screens, divided and alone, attending a live music event and being with others is almost a revolutionary act.

Dissent is a live music venue in its infancy. With your help, it may yet achieve adolescence and continue existing as somewhere for music to be created and shared.