19 Feb 2025
It was at college when I encountered that finding my place sometimes wasn't always about fitting into an existing one, but rather making one together with my friends. But before we could build something new, we would have to lose something old first. It would be the things we didn't have that would remind us of the things we could. Before applying to college, my dad would share with me that Western Massachusetts had a great music scene. I had just moved into his house in Concord after spending most of my life bouncing all around Texas and I was in need of a change of place. I had been relying on previous visits to the area to try and gain a good understanding of what life would be like. I didn't yet know that I would soon be accepted as a full-time student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
The truth is when I arrived here, the music scene my dad had once mentioned wasn't really a music scene at all. There weren't any local venues, and there sure weren't really any bands. COVID had dried and sucked it all up. I had known that the area used to have all sorts of live music, so what happened? Well, for starters a school club called SALT that used to bring local acts to the area had been effectively cancelled by the president due to COVID. Although things had begun to open back up again, they were just not interested in starting things again themselves. The chances of anything happening there were slim. That was until I found out how to do it myself.
It wasn't until about a month into my first semester that I started meeting people I felt I could really connect with. We all shared an equal understanding of the difficulties of finding music events to attend in the area and wanted it to change. So much community had been built in the past, but now it just seemed difficult to find. We realized we had to start this stuff ourselves. We managed to plan a house show, and things started to pick up. More and more people began expressing a common interest either in making music or attending shows. Some people outside of our circle even began to put together basement shows and the momentum here was building. That was until a floor caved in at a house show because the organizers weren't considering how many people they were letting in. Suddenly overnight, nobody wanted to offer their house to host a show in fear that their property would be damaged. No one wanted their place to become the next casualty of a growing scene.
My friends and I had no idea where to turn. Inspired by punk ethos, we started crawling up and down Amherst just to see what we could find. Any public place that was once unconsidered had now become a glowing opportunity. We tried the Bangs Community Center downtown, but they reacted as if nobody under the age of 60 had stepped foot in there for over 20 years. We eventually found that the Jones Library had a large basement room that they were just opening up again for public events after COVID. $200 dollars and all the space you could need. We started booking shows there.
It was around this time that I started to record as many shows in the area that I could. I would go to the library digital media lab, rent a camera for a day, and take it to a show to record. I really loved the idea of archiving music. I was an avid fan of live music after all, so it just seemed like the natural progression of things. I'd help my friends organize a show, we'd plan which bands would play, and then I'd show up with my camera, film it, and publish it to YouTube and free for download online. I didn't recognize it at the time, but I was actively helping build a real community here. Before I knew it, there was a show every weekend. After a month or two, there were suddenly two, even three shows a weekend instead of the odd one-off. Days even became double booked instead of empty and everything was thriving.
With an increased interest in archiving, I found a job listing for a Student Archivist position at the Special Collections and University Archives and applied. It was through this position that I met my boss Jeremy who also had been participating in helping live music in the area since the 90s. Jeremy ran a non-profit show booking, artist collective organization called Flywheel in Northampton. I also made a friend, Issley, who plays in a band called Film and Gender, and who coincidentally worked at Northampton Open Media and advised me that I should consider checking out some of their equipment instead. With longer rental times, and better gear, I was getting even better at recording and editing and found more freedom to film as I desired.
Filming has allowed me to do a lot of travelling and experience things I feel I would not have otherwise been able to do. I was recently asked to go to New York City with friends a bit ago to film one of their shows. We were invited to stay with this guy Siggy who's friends had squatters rights on an apartment building in the middle of downtown Manhattan. We were able to go up onto the roof and see the whole city from the inside. In addition to this, I've been able to take routine trips with friends to Connecticut, Vermont and all over Massachusetts.
From this experience, I realized that you don't need to sit and wait for things to happen, but in an area as rich as Amherst, you're likely to find and meet many people who share similar ideas or goals and you can work together towards a common interest. Not only have I been able to continue my personal professional development and education, but I've also been able to help build a community, which is still continuing strong today. I may not go to as many shows as I once did, or record as often in the area as I would like, but now I know many other people who are doing just that. It makes me happy to know that in order to solve a personal problem I once had, I have potentially inspired other people to recognize the fact that they too can really do whatever they set their mind to, whether that be recording, organizing, or even just attending a couple of shows.