The is the flip side (well sort of) to the recent thread
Where have the musicians sessions gone?

This afternoon we drove to a nice coffeehouse in West Seattle
with a half ton (seemed like) of sound gear
to do a 2 hour gig (3 x 40-min sets with 3 groups of musicians).
It was a nice space - converted house, nice stage, comfortable seats.

When my wife and I began our 40-min set -
myself on fiddle and voice, my wife on hammered dulcimer,
and a backup guitarist - there were 3 other people in the audience
in addition to 3 other musicians. Those 3 other people were
working on their laptop computers, two actually listening,
the third plugged into his own music. We had a nice set,
played well, no mistakes, and good sound (we also recorded the music).

By the middle of the second 40-min set about a half dozen people
had wandered in, and the laptop people had left. And that was
the audience for the last 40 min set.

We then broke down the sound system, lugged it back to the car
and drove home, stopping for some pizza on the way. It was a
good experience, the music was good and we all played well,
but it would have been nice to have had a larger audience.
That is the norm for most of these "coffeehouse" gigs here.

Several weeks earlier I performed three days (a 45-min set each day)
at the Tall Ships Festival in Tacoma.
Beautiful stage, professional sound crew,
one of my best performances (I thought), and paid $100 per day.
But seated audiences of only 2 to 5 people in addition
to passersby and people off to one side waiting in line to board ships.
Admittedly, they came to see the tall ships, not to hear us.
But an audience would have been nice.

And the pub gigs ('musician showcases')
where musicians play only to a few other musicians
in noisy bars with crappy sound systems -
the other patrons couldn't care less about the music,
they are playing pool, watching TV or playing video games,
talking and drinking, with the occasional drunk wandering around.

Then, I produce a concert series in a nice hall that seats 150 people.
If we get 25-30 people, that's the norm - sometime a few more or less.
And these concerts are by some of our best local musicians.

So, where have all the audiences gone?
What are your experiences in other places?

I play to more people when I busk,
not all passersby, but many sitting and eating lunch,
and I don't have to lug all that sound gear around.

Not really complaining, just some observations.

Cheers, S. in Seattle