"There was a definite scene there that we don’t have anymore."

While Dublin Square Irish Pub and Crunchy’s host semi-regular music, and several other bars occasionally host performances, there is no regular spot in downtown East Lansing equivalent to what Rick’s and The Small Planet were 20 years ago. Yet despite the lack of regular live music venues near MSU's campus, many students are still interested in hearing artists perform in person.

“I talk to a lot of people that want to go out on a weekend and they want to hear a musician express themselves,” music senior and The Record Lounge employee Ryan McMahon said. “Whether good or bad, there’s a process that’s addicting. There’s a process that people want to see, whether or not they like the music.”

Crunchy’s features live music on most Wednesday and Sunday nights. Crunchy’s owner and general manager Michael Krueger said he has a commitment to support live music in Lansing, “for better or for worse" despite the royalties that venues have to pay to music licensing companies for performances of any copyrighted material.

“It’s expensive, but if you’re a business that wants to do it, then you’re going to do it,” Krueger said. “That’s just one of those things you bite the bullet for.”

2016 MSU graduate Duncan Tarr said Lansing proper has a few options for MSU students looking for regular live music, notably including The Loft, The Avenue, and Mac’s Bar.

“I would encourage students that live in East Lansing to get on a bus and go to Lansing,” Tarr said. “There’s no Mac’s Bar in East Lansing, technically, but it’s pretty, pretty close. There’s music really often on the east side of Lansing, and it’d be awesome to see a lot more students coming out, rather than, Lansing people.”

MSU-based musicians often travel to Lansing for opportunities to perform. Lansing doesn’t have a jazz club, but Shoup, a 2014 graduate of MSU’s jazz studies master’s degree program, provides an opportunity for local jazz artists with his Jazz Tuesdays shows at Moriarty’s Pub in Lansing.

“I saw Wynton Marsalis speak here at MSU, and it was kind of a forum where people could ask him questions and stuff, and someone asked him about that,” Shoup said. “If you want to be successful in music today, you need to go to New York, right? That’s the only way to do it.’ And Wynton basically said, ‘make a scene wherever you’re at.’ And that always kind of stuck with me. And I guess that’s what I’m trying to do.”

Shoup said he includes performers from all over the state, as well as MSU students and Lansing musicians, in his shows. He said the crowd for his shows is mostly middle-aged or older, but that he is encouraged by the jazz studies community at MSU and has seen young people at his shows.

“Doing the weekly gig that I do, we have a definite crowd, people that I see all the time, our regulars,” Shoup said. “But every couple of weeks, I’ll see somebody that just happened to walk in there and the look on people’s faces when they’re like, ‘wow, there’s people that can really play instruments’ — it’s cool.”

For MSU students who don’t want to travel to Lansing, but are still looking to see live artists, there are a few options for live, original music beyond the weekly Crunchy’s shows and occasional performances at other bars and houses. The Record Lounge hosts live nighttime shows inside the store. McMahon said artists contact Record Lounge owner Heather Frarey with a concert idea, she helps supply a venue and some audio equipment and the artist sets up the rest of the show.

Ultimately, Shoup said he feels the lack of live music in East Lansing is reflective of a larger cultural trend favoring at-home entertainment over going out. However, he has hope that this trend will reverse itself in the future.

“These things are cyclical, too,” Shoup said. “I know there are 18-year-old kids out there that are buying banjos and stuff. I think things will come around, and people will get interested in real music again. And there is definitely an audience for it. But, I don’t know, everything’s changed. It’s all festivals now.”