The Steel Guitar Forum

I played the line dance scene about 10 years ago. I'm all into having a gig but it was really depressing. Made me wonder what humans were doing at the top of the food chain.

If I never hear the phrase "FIVE-SIX-SEVEN-EIGHT!" again, it will be too soon.

Awhile back a band I was in was booked in a fairly large club in Tallahassee.[we were an alt country show band]when we were setting up that eve.I knew we were in trouble by what the DJ was playing.We played to an empty dance floor.At break time the DJ would fire up this line dance stuff.About 75 or 100 of these little cuties with their straw cowgirl hats on would hit the floor,one of them was a blond gal at least six feet,six inches tall always in the middle of the herd.It looked like a GIRAFFE IN A HERD OF GAZELLES.The bad part was we had to stay there THREE DAYS.DYKBC.

The best analogy is can think of is FIRE ANTS!

Some years ago we played as a side attraction (being a rockabilly band) in a line dance show. In fact we were the only real band!
So between our sets, we witnessed dozens of Buffalo Bills, cartoon dressed cowgirls as well as some Sitting Bulls playing Cowboys and Indians while the P.A shouted country hit after country hit.
In the reconstitued outdoor "saloon", a menacing but somewhat ridiculous guy disguised as a superb cowboy propped his boots over the table and reclined in his chair. Unfortunately for him both his shining colts dropped on the floor. I let you imagine our reaction: gibes, hooting et so on.
We found this mascarade so depressing that we've never played for such an event anymore.

A positive point nevertheless: a lot of french steel players and country bands earns their bread in playing in those shows.

Bo, "entertaining the herd" is a beautiful way to describe playing for line dancers. "Sheeple" is another good one. These are the people who will mindlessly follow whoever puts themselves up as a leader.

From a line dancer's perspective a musician/band is a necessary evil---although only just barely. If they had their way the band would be replaced with a jukebox or karaoke machine....something that didn't actually play anything that actually lived & breathed.
From a musician/band's perspective a line dancer is a totally unnecessary evil. They don't likely taste as good as the cattle/sheep they emulate and they are less entertaining to watch. Unfortunately they are likely to learn how to reproduce sooner or later.

Brint Hannay wrote:If I never hear the phrase "FIVE-SIX-SEVEN-EIGHT!" again, it will be too soon.

Brint...do you know why they count it out that way?

...cuz they can't lisp "one, two, three, four"

I suffered through rafts of them over ten years in France.
Both on an off stage.
Do a search in the old forum,
some great line dancer rants in there.

My favorite was the giant biker
who carried the wide linedance leader
away from her fold because she decided
to move his Harley without asking.. OOPS!

She was so obnoxious that he got applause
from the audience and band for removing her.

delete

Actually it's not the line dancing itself that bugs me.
It's the demanding, rude, non-appreciative attitude towards the band that ALOT of the line dancers impose on the business establishments where they chose to order their water and not tip the waitress.

Used to play at a great venue out in the sticks south of Ravenna, Ohio. Bronco's Steak House. Great food, good drinks, room for 1,000 people. Huge dancefloor. The line dance craze started, and they started showing up in the hundreds! Totally hogged the dancefloor. You'd walk by their tables, no food, no drinks, no nothin'! Bronco's has been gone for some time now. We used to pull in so many people that the fire marshall would stand at the door and limit entries! Bronco's had a seemingly unlimited supply of customers. But if you're not making enough money on your food and drinks, you can't stay in business.

Swing dancers can be just as bad, businesswise. My Western Swing band got a gig a few years ago at a club big enough for dancing. The hardcore swingdancers started coming and BRINGING THEIR OWN BOTTLED WATER to a club with no cover charge. Management started offering a "swing dance package": a litre of Poland Spring and a towel for five bucks with a clearly stated policy that the money was going to the band. Presto-no more dancers. The people who "love" music the most are the ones with the least respect for those who make it.

I'm really suspicious of those who drink bottled water. They're something like the ones who ask for "sea salt" and fresh-ground pepper in a restaurant.

In other words, they're generally pain-in-the-asterior snobs.

(Don't even get me started on the Starbucks crowd! )

I read an article in Saturday's paper about regulating line dancing in France. It was from the London Times....
here it is:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/w ... 036375.ece

-John

Great, now if they would just impose the death penalty for it!

I've been playing country music,in NYC and on Long Island, since the late 70's through the middle 90's. My opinion is, that, the line dancers were a big part of the demise of all the local clubs. Most of them never drank any alcohol, they got pissed for paying $5.00 for a coke or bottle of water and usually left around 11 PM. The club owners couldn't run a business like that, so, most of them, if not all, folded. Then, there were the rules and regulations they were imposing on other dancers. That situation drove away the regulars. Notwithstanding, the music "THEY" wanted to hear. These idiots could only dance to the tunes that they were insructed to do. God forbid you played a classic with the same beats as the "dance tune". They were completely lost and confused. We tried to work with some of the instructors, but, we refused to change our whole repetoire just to accomodate them. Many other local bands had the same problems with them. The line dance mentality wouldn't bend at all. So, in a nutshell, we lost out and so did they, because the clubs dried up. It was an irritating era to play through. I don't miss them a bit, but, I do miss playing a lot.

Garrison Keillor had a wonderful line describing a country music venue during the height of the "AchyBreakyBootScootin" era; "It was like line dance night in Nuremburg". It's all about fear, gang-the fear that one might do something, anything, different from what the mindless sheeple are doing. Twostep your way to freedom!!!

Quote from the article: "line dancing, which enables them to swing but avoid all human contact."


This is what it's all about-how do you swing with no human contact???

Donny Hinson wrote:I'm really suspicious of those who drink bottled water. They're something like the ones who ask for "sea salt" and fresh-ground pepper in a restaurant.

In other words, they're generally pain-in-the-asterior snobs.

Or they know their food...

Sea salt is not adulterated by idodine;
like putting Betadine on your dinner.
If you AB try generic Mortons and a good sea salt,
it becomes clear to taste.

Fresh ground pepper hasn't had the air get to the
pepper kernel and it has more 'snap / bite' to it.

Maybe generic sam and pete please's most palates.
but why must it be deemed the only proper choice,
like the others are elitist and somehow suspect?.

I am a chef from time to time
and appreciate the difference.

Food is either something
to get you through the day,
or something to enjoy and savory during your day.
Your choice; but then you are what you eat.


Some I am sure do it just because it is 'IN'.
Some no doubt do the same with bottled water.
But bottled water is a hold over from the time
when europe had very poor local drinking water,
and it was MUCH healthier to drink spring water
from the mountains, and not containing your neighborhood's effluent too.

In much of the USA it is now a well marketed trend.
But still some places just have bad tasting water...

On the other hand you are not going to get a
San Pelagrino from ANY water tap in most places.

French line dancers will have generally have
good taste in food, and terrible taste in entertainment.

Right on, David-I use sea salt and fresh ground pepper when I cook for the same reason I hate line dancing. I like my food to have real flavor and my music/dancing to have real swing. I drink NYC tap water out of a Poland Spring bottle, too! And Starbucks is a parody of coffee.

David L. Donald wrote:Or they know their food...

Sea salt is not adulterated by idodine;
like putting Betadine on your dinner.
If you AB try generic Mortons and a good sea salt,
it becomes clear.

Izzat sooooo?

Once again, we need some "enlightenment". What is sold as "sea salt" is actually far less pure than ordinary table salt. When people say they like it better, they're either responding to snobbery and advertising hoopla, or they enjoy the taste caused by a host of impurities it contains that imparts a different flavor. Ordinary table salt is about 99.9% pure. Higher-priced "sea salt" is lucky to reach 98% purity, and usually contains iron, nickel, manganese, mercury, calcium, aluminum, phosphorous, and many other minerals, metals, or chemicals. In case you're interested that amounts to 20 times more "impurities" in the sea salt.

You're a smart guy David, but you've been completely mislead by pinhead epicureans and chefs. Don't take my word for it though, look it up!

Topic moved to Music, where it will die an untimely death due to disinterest. Prolly cuz you guys started talkin' 'bout salt!

I never said it had ONLY pure salt.

Besides I was saying AB for taste...
which I added above since that wasn't clear.

I did say it wasn't artificially inseminated
with iodine. With the exception of the
aluminum and mercury the rest is things
that we eat in most foods. Sadly much of
what we eat is contaminated these days.
You eat seafood at all and you get mercury.

One group says eat more fish, another says
you're building up mercury, a third says
not enough to matter; but the Omega oils
are more needed.

There are trace minerals in most foods.

People have been eating sea salt for since
the dawn of history. Why stop just because
Mortons told you to.

And I don't cook with something just because
somebody is touting it for profit.
A few people here can attest I know my cooking.

let's get'em line dancin' to "salty dawg"