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| Olga Bell performs tonight at BAMcafé Live |
As BAM kicks off the 14th formal season of BAMcafé Live, the entire landscape of music in Brooklyn has radically altered. Music goes to the consumer, not the other way around—“scenes” are now online communities, bloggers are tastemakers, and there are more venues within immediate walking distance. Brooklyn music is in its “show me” moment, when the scene has to prove itself as more than hype for a zip code—artists and venues need to deliver “the goods.”
The mandate for talent stewards like myself is not simply to deliver “the goods,” but to engage music lovers in a new relationship and create a community between venue, artist, and patron. For my part, BAMcafé Live will be aggressively seeking new ways of inviting our supporters, old and new, to connect with familiar and fresh talent and take part in a new, heightened live musical experience. Our community will be akin to a house party where good friends take turns as DJs, becoming enraptured with great new music while exchanging conversations and relishing the company—in other words, music as the communal experience it was always meant to be.
