I've been told that I know "everybody" in the Dallas music scene. The truth is, I don't. I know a lot of people who play music, but not everyone. I quipped on Twitter last week that my old editor Pete knows everyone in the scene, and he wrote back, "I wish. Actually, maybe I don't."
There are plenty of reasons why a scene is a "small world" sort of situation. Take the number of people who live in an area, divide that number by 65 percent (to factor those who play music), then divide by 15 percent (to factor those who play non-mainstream music) and you have what people call a scene.
A big factor in the dividing comes from musical taste. You can find one Converge fan in a crowd of ten Dave Matthews Band fans. This makes people stand out, and if that person is a good, reliable person, then you remember the person and look forward to running in him or her in the future.
The degrees of separation whittle down when you know people who know a ton of other people. Last week's edition of My First Show came from this. I knew Somebody's Darling was headlining Dada, so I hit up my friend Beau (who DJs, plays music, and has a lot of friends) to see if he knew any member of the band. Turns out, he did and I contacted their guitarist. That led to contacting their singer. Keeping tabs and in touch via Facebook and Twitter, the scene gets smaller.
Of course, there is plenty of flow with people coming into the scene and those who check out. Some move out of town, others move in. Some give up playing for a while to raise a family, and some return a few years later.
So, yes, there are many people I know through going to shows, reviewing shows, hanging out, and interviewing people. I don't have a goal of knowing everyone, but I don't usually turn down a chance to meet new people.
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