This is so true. Those venues, even some of the smaller ones aren’t as accommodating as they used to be. The days you could just shoot a little 3 song ep through email and get on are less. Sometimes you gotta go 3rd party to get in hole inna walls, especially in urban centers.
It's hard to be Maurice White in 2026 for numerous reasons but if you even had the personnel, just getting in a van and hitting some venues is EXPENSIVE.