Regardless of how you feel about piracy, RIAA's idiotic tactics are going to make people want to stop supporting musicians entirely.
Which is too bad, since as you mentioned, shows are where the musicians really make money. I try to go to more shows by local bands at small, local venues; I sometimes go to shows by major-label artists but I'd rather spend $10 to hear $RANDOM_DEATH_METAL_BAND than $30 or more to hear bands that maybe everyone's heard of but their music is the same pablum that gets played on the radio every day.
But anyway, the reason I'm bother to reply is to ask these questions: Do you create original music? If so, is it available online? And (although this is off-topic for this discussion, but you don't have your e-mail shown to the public so I have to ask here) can I use it in my podcast? Feel free to e-mail me at my slashdot user name @yahoo.com to discuss further if you'd like.