Kyle Austin
This past weekend in Sioux Falls, SD, the brand new Denny Sanford Premier Center opened its doors with a two day open house featuring local music. The local support had to submit an online application in August to be reviewed and possibly chosen to participate in this unique event. When I had received the call stating that my band, The Glyph, had been chosen, we were all excited for the good opportunity. The Glyph is a Sioux Falls based Rock Band, with songs and videos of us performing all over Facebook, YouTube, and other Internet sources. We arrived at the Sanford Center on Saturday afternoon, about an hour and a half early to our performance time. This event was promoted as an all ages family event to display the new Arena and its amenities. The act before us was a hip hop group that featured extremely explicit lyrics, booming bass, and a no f***s given mentality while groups of children under the age of ten watched and walked by. We set up our gear and prepared to bring our A-game, to show off our straight forward clean rock and roll. The Mayor of Sioux Falls, Mike Huether, personally introduced us expressing great interest in our brand of rock. Our first song went off great, but when it came time for our next song, the Mayor and Arena officials ran over and stated we needed to turn down. We adjusted our volumes accordingly and before we could get into our next track, we were instructed to turn down and cut the distortion or we were done. The Mayor himself went farther to add insult to injury by stating to us and I quote, “You need to play quieter, do you even know how to do that?” I turned my amp all the way down and went direct, Jeff barely played and sung, and Johnny went to a smooth simplistic drumming style. After a few songs we decided to call it, because we were no where near our actual performance level. We went home embarrassed, Humiliated, and defeated. We took the effort of moving gear, getting the time off work, planning and practicing, getting merch ready, etc. We were not paid like other acts were as well. So on behalf of Jeff and myself, we want to say we are appaled by the actions of The Denny Sanford Premier Center as well as the Mayor of Sioux Falls. I write this note to bring light to this matter, and hope that other local musicians, fans, citizens, and concert goers will feel our dissatisfaction and frustration with this. I ask you to share this note, so that people can see how the Denny Sanford Center and the City of Sioux Falls truly sees its local musicians, and the major amount of disrespect they have for us and what we do.
I actually talked to Kyle about this Saturday night, and hoped he would post something to FB about it. Can’t wait until the SlipKnot concert, I was actually thinking about going so I can watch the audience destroy the place.
On another NOTE about our mayor, the city’s chief bully is having a press conference about bullying. Would telling un-paid musicians to turn down their music qualify as bullying?
Why Aren’t We More Upset About This? Mayor Huether to Discuss September 14 Assault, Bullying, and Domestic Abuse
What: News conference to discuss Mayor Mike Huether’s views on bullying, domestic assault, prejudice, and how Sioux Falls residents can make a difference
When: Wednesday, September 24, 2014Â 1:30 p.m.
Where: City Hall Commission Room, 224 West Ninth Street
Who: Mayor Mike Huether
 Why: Recent headlines have focused on domestic violence and child abuse across the country. Also, a Sioux Falls man recently was assaulted outside of a local bar after asking another person to not use a derogatory term referring to homosexuals. Bullying, domestic assault, and prejudice are realities in Sioux Falls and across the nation. Mayor Mike Huether would like to let the victims know that help is available and that violence like this should not be tolerated.
Mike always talks about how he was bullied as a kid, because he was ‘small’, well, he learned from the best.