This is the biggest thing I want to spend more hours on, after the sanctuary mic party is done. It's also hard because Houston's music scene is ass right now. We may be able to help. We don't sell tickets to worship service and we will always deal directly with musicians, so TicketMaster can't screw with us.
(VERY clear and strong boundaries need to be in place to make sure that stays true. We also don't sell band merch at church or plug upcoming performances in our announcements. Boundaries.)
The key is realizing that music is worship. You make music because you've got something to say. A band in a club might be saying the same things we're saying in a way we'd like, and we don't know about it.
I would like us to find local bands and musicians who share our values, who have music in their catalog expressing those values, and attempt collaborations. Here would be the parameters:
The group provides all the music and accompaniment for a service, including hymns. Some of the music is ours and some is theirs.
Music other than hymns (prelude, postlude, offertory, special music, whatever) can be from their catalog but our worship team has to choose it.
In return, the band gets:
A new audience. It's not huge right now but it's people they don't already know, who at the very least share their values.
Access to our choir, instruments, and players
High-quality recordings:
If we can get the boundaries right, possibly extra praise performances outside of Sunday services
It's likely that original songs will come out of this as well. It's clearly a lot of work, and the main reason I feel it's so important to have both a full-time music director, and that our section leaders be instrumentalists who sing.
(this is written badly)
It would be a substantial and ongoing search. We would need input from people who frequently go to shows and discover new bands from every church we're friends with.
(Keep an open mind about the definition of “band”.)
Erin of TXUUJM has a band; I've already floated the idea of hosting them. They are a good group to ask first since they're already a “yes” and they're going to give us whatever grace we need while we make this program work.
Other UU churches in the area all have choirs. We all have a little choir. We should look at the feasibility of combining choir resources some of the time.
I'm going to Westminster UMC (the Methodists next door) on Easter to check out their “contemporary” service which is at 9:00 AM. If Emerson finds that it has a taste for contemporary, maybe we can invite their praise band to our service since it's 2 hours later.
Sadly, I missed the music festival this year because I was preparing my own thing. Perhaps somebody who went could suggest some bands to contact when we're ready.
Sunday morning jam sessions (probably) aren't a “band” but they solve most of the same problems.