Old fart band + old fart music = young audience - why?

No. You are introducing these young people to music they've never heard before. Think about it, radio doesn't really exist anymore, anything a kid will have on his iPod, he either bought or lifted from one of his friends, there's probably very little 'active listening' going on like in our day. So I would think that's where the excitement factor is coming in: you play well songs they don't know and really, there has to be some age to play songs well, I still think its a rare exception when I see an entire group of 20-somethings play every song in a four-hour set-list really good.

Or, the girls may like the whole father-figure vibe ;)

I think Bo's point about the loss of the radio is probably the best I've heard so far. When's the last time any of us really sat down and listened to the radio. I do everyday, but it doesn't really count because I subscribe to XM so for the most part I listen to only certain stations that play specific songs I want to hear. I find that I'm rarely up on new music because I just don't listen to the current stuff anymore.

So while I find it shameful that when we went to the Paul McCartney concert last year and my 30 year old co-worker leaned over during Live and Let Die and said "he did that? I thought that was Guns and Roses" , he may look back at me with disgust when they discuss someone like Pit-Bull or Flo-rida and other than having heard the names I tell them I couldn't name one song (nor do I care to).

One other thought I had...live music played well is just infectious, no matter the genre. I'm not a real fan of bluegrass music and would never buy a CD and just listen to it for fun but I remember growing up in Tennessee and my dad loved such music. A couple of times a year he would drag me with him to Bluegrass festivals and we would listen to a bunch of live bluegrass bands. I may not have known the songs or anything about the bands but to hear it live always brought something to it that made it enjoyable for me. There may be some of this happening for you as well.
 
Here ya go... but I'm sure you've heard them...

Here I go again, Cozy Powell :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSlSaGcc0QM

Rosalie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mt2tw3MdAlg

Now, I didn't know Rosaline, cool song...

Sorry for the hijack Andy, but I guess you'll enjoy the clips :)
Yes, enjoying the clips very much Henri :)

Here's our "Rosalie" version http://youtu.be/gsVHRZV93qo?hd=1 Love how the snare's popping :)

& here's our ending to "Here I go Again" http://youtu.be/tZVMWr5YxXg?hd=1&t=1m28s

Both quite different feels to the originals as posted by Henri.

BTW Grea, I love that Cold Chisel track. Real quality stuff, & a superb recording for the era :)

Bo, yes, a Bob Seger song, but the Lizzy version is widely regarded as better, at least in rocking vibe terms. Here's Bob's original http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3uaxZBThj8
 
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Henri, I didn't realise how much Whitesnake influenced Cold Chisel. Never knew much about them - that's David Coverdale on vocal, isn't it? Huge production. I can imagine Andy on drums there! Here's my favourite Chisel song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q70gkYEHZ3I their first album had some killer tracks.

Mary, agree about the effect of live music. If the players are at least pretty good then it's an experience and Andy's band has a whole lot going on.

Andy, the other thing I meant to say is you're covering strongly melodic songs. People love that, especially women. I'm hoping to at some point find people to try some experimental stuff ... not too many chances to gig weird music, but the audiences are heavily male-oriented :)
 
Very true, but what it has got to do with the OP question?


Good music attracts the young, the middle aged and the older ones, so why Andy's band and performance is attracting a young audience

You answered your own question. :)

I don't think he asked why his band ONLY attracted young crowds.
 
As much as it is a music thing, it's a cultural thing as well.

Back in the day, regardless of personal backgroung, social/economic situation, location, etc..many share the common experience of rolling the seeds and stems into the spine of "Physical Graffiti" while listening to Zeppelin, Floyd, Jimi, Carlos, Sabbath, The Dead, The Beatles, The Stones, Tull, Steely Dan, Bad Co., The Who...You know the bands, you know the songs. And even if not always the deepest cuts, much of the good stuff was played on the radio...coast to coast and around the world. A cultural identity so strong that despite being decades old (an epoch for pop culture), it still influences today.

Today, I belive that cultural experiences are more fractured. There is little shared experiences. Radio is dead. Music, regardless of taste, does not have the girth it once did. There are no more album covers...Hell, there aren't even any more seeds and stems.

Music today is downloaded, often after being turned onto by a friend, or streamed from an endless number of sources and listened to by individuals or a small group of the like minded and not by the masses on radio. That common cultural experience and influence ends at that circle of friends and sub-sub-culture.

A group of "seasoned" musicians can get together, someone can shout out a song ("Black Magic Woman" anyone?), guitarists will make sure they have the chord changes down, bass players and drummers will fake it until they're grooving, and just that quickly, they're all jamming on a GREAT song that has stood the test of time. I just don't think that there is enough common experience amongst younger musicians with contemporary music for this to happen.

My point is that the long shadow (and getting longer) of the deeper experience that many of us shared yesterday has a stronger influence than the shallower experience that nobody shares today.
 
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