Ryan Sweeney Slack Times w/Gross Motor playing 9 p.m. Saturday, Nov.
23, at Betty’s In the early 1990s, regional rock bands like Nirvana started exploding in popularity. Eager to capitalize, the mainstream music biz siphoned up indie acts like so much wet spaghetti and threw them at a wall of major labels to see which would stick and which would slide down into obscurity. “Budget rock,” an idea crystallized in the Bay Area underground centered on high-energy acts like The Mummies and The Rip-Offs, gained traction as an antithesis: Make the benchmark of success artistic expression and stupid fun, and ignore chart positions, musical proficiency and even recording fidelity.
The budget-rock ethos has long been a guiding principle for Ryan Sweeney, who’s been part of Nashville-area scenes for nearly a quarter-century as a drummer and live-music promoter, and later the head of indie label Sweet Time Records. Circa 2017, Sweeney started channeling his skills and resources into a small but mighty promotion enterprise called Sweet Time Booking , which has been responsible for a wealth of great rock shows in our area and beyond, including a pair of phenomenal festivals called Sweet by Sweet Time . But being a parent and active musician with lots of demands on his time, Sweeney is putting Sweet Time Booking to rest after one final show, set for Saturday, Nov.
23, at Betty’s Grill. Slack Times , a jangly Birmingham trio that takes cues from New Zealand’s 1980s Flying Nun scen.