Live Audience Attendance: Up or Down in your city?

[Rick Walker <looppool@cruzio.com>]

 Per said,  "The live scene is reported as increasing too, as I hear 
from most countries."

Not sure how it is in Sweden, Per,  but this is NOT the case in the US, 
or at least in Northern California.
  There has been a rise in the number of live shows compared to how 
horrible it was here 5 years ago,
but audience numbers are minuscule compared to what they were in , say 
the early 80's in Santa Cruz.
In those days,  there were several local bands that could sell out the 
Catalyst (809 capacity) with
regularity.

In 1993,  my band Worlds Collide played the Catalyst once and drew close 
to 700 customers.
We weren't asked back because our customers didn't drink enough.   700 
people
is a hell of a lot of people.

Nowadays, you are lucky if you get 50 people to come see a show.   Most 
shows have 20-30 people
attending and most people balk at every spending more than $3-$5 USD for 
a show.

I have a show this coming Saturday night at the Catalyst with Noise 
Clinic and I"m afraid of what the
attendance will be.

Attendance, I've read, nationally, is down even in the 'big bin' 
shows.   Many groups that used to be able to
sell out the 'big bin' shows are now doubling and even trebling up on 
their billings to be able to
make enough draw to justify playing such huge places.

Tony Levin,  Terry Bozio,  Alan Holdsworth and Pat Mastelleto just played
a 200 seat club in Santa Cruz....................The last time Tony came 
(with a lineup not nearly
as famous)  he played a 700 seater.

But Santa Cruz is an anomalous place sociologically speaking, so I don't 
know if it is representative.
We have vastly more live entertainment per capita than any place I've 
ever toured in and we just aren't a very
big city (60,000 plus another 40,000 in our environs)

What's it like in your city and/or country.  Attendance up or attendance 
down at shows?   Indie shows?
Experimental shows?   Up or down?   I"m curious.