The Decline of Venues In New Delhi - What Happened?

A SCENE THAT WAS

At one point of time, Delhi had solid gigs back to back every week. The Independent Music Scene seemed to be at a very interesting point and the outcome of the future looked hopeful. More and more venues were coming up, giving Delhi people a unique exposure to bands from around the city. The Metal Scene also boomed. Bands like Undying INC., Bhayanak Maut, Demonic Ressurection, Scribe, October, Collosal Figures, Guillotine and so on were regulars in the city. Places like The Mezz and Café Morrison became the prime venues for this movement. Soon after, the Hard Rock Café arrived and gave another gleaming light into the already booming scene.  Soon after, the mighty Blue Frog followed. But by 2013-14, all the places known to the city for their independent music charm faded away. Blue Frog, Café Morrison and The Mezz shut down completely. Hard Rock Café started being boycotted because of long-standing non-payment to it’s performers. Anti-Social became the new hope for music enthusiasts in the city, but that too started being in and out of operation. What happened? How did the plethora of venues around the city fade away to the situation now where the same select venues host all possible shows? [caption id="attachment_4905" align="aligncenter" width="604"] Undying Inc performing at The Mezz in 2007[/caption]  

The Behind The Scenes of running a Venue (Blue Frog)

When Blue Frog came to New Delhi, all indie music fans were incredibly happy! The venue was gigantic! It could easily accommodate around 400-500 people on a good day. The sound and light system was incredible, and they were more than ready to get bands started! They had weekly/monthly Metal Nights with lineups that absolutely killed! The first version of The Gig Week in Delhi also hosted some incredible gigs at the venue! Various International Acts started coming to Delhi because now there was a big venue they could play at. But after a point of time, it became quite a problem keeping up with the costs of the place. The manager of that time told us that sales were slowly going down as the number of people started dropping and in-house sales started doing poorly. The final nail in the coffin was the Nirbhaya Rape in the capital. In that short period of time before things normalised, people stopped going out, period. Add some security issues and you've got a big problem. The manager said that this eventually drowned the business, eventually leading to the venue being shut down. Whilst many people were sad that we lost such a wonderful space for live music, the support for this venue was sadly only seen in the earlier stages and like any other venue, the interest in Blue Frog too, fizzled out.

The Culture of Music as a ‘Night Out’

What I observed in other cities and countries in the West was that going to a gig was more than just going to listen to a band live. It was sort of a night out on its own. First you go get food, drink a few beverages and then go attend the show. A comparison in India would be say going for a Movie at the Cinema. Going for gigs and concerts was indeed a weekly feature. There were quite a lot of venues and a lot of people attending all these gigs. In this case, it becomes an interesting mix of basic economics with cultural behaviors. You can say that there is certainly no “gig attending culture” in Delhi and a lot of these venues can only sustain if there is constant attendance of people. Not just that, the biggest things venues count on is the customers coming and buying food and drinks. This is what let’s them put in money to host a few bands. It’s a working relationship between the bands and the venues. That doesn’t just go one way. A music scene will thrive in a situation where people would attend gigs, pay for the bands and go in and have food and beverages from the venue along with it. Firstly, the attendance rate for local shows in Delhi has declined drastically. At one point of time, most gigs were filled with people in these popular venues. Once the fans went away, the bands couldn’t hold as many gigs as often and the venues shut down due to insane losses. It’s like a domino effect. The survival of one directly impacts the survival of another.

The Importance of Diversification

Whilst places like Anti-Social have been struggling to host more and more shows, places like Auro, SummerHouse Café and Raasta have been thriving through the storm. Eventually, the underground Indie gigs have moved to these venues. Why is that? It’s because these venues aren’t catering just to crowds who just want to attend Indie gigs. They have Karaoke Nights, DJ Club Nights, events like Boxout Wednesdays (Summerhouse) and so on. Although it might be an idea that makes ‘true fanbois’ unhappy, diversification is something that has proved itself as a good working model. Because these venue scan get in a larger pool of people in regularly through different events and thus make money, they can spend time and money into promoting the Indie/Underground gig they have at the end of the week. It might be a boon or a bane for Delhi, but new and even existing venues thinking of opening their door to bands and artists should seriously consider how they want to make that model work, given the big issues of funding and staying afloat in the past that have killed big venues and brand names who were trying to do the same.

The Responsibility of being a Fan

Let’s face it. If you want to see your favorite band live and keep seeing them live again and again, you can’t do it by expecting free entry or by not buying any merchandise and not paying a single penny at a venue. The bands you love have to work in a system and an industry and the same goes for the venues that host bands. This goes back to their co-dependence mentioned earlier in the article. But you, the fan can essentially decide if this issue is an issue at all. If you turn up to your favorite bands’ gigs and keep supporting them and the venue, you will definitely see a change in how things are moving. Nothing is going to happen overnight, but things will indeed get better slowly. That’s basic economics. If you think that just writing statuses on Social media over and over again of how there’s no longer any venues in the city or no longer quality gigs, maybe you’re the cause of that situation. So start supporting! What are you waiting for?