What's the state of the music scene in your area?

[adlo76]

our music scene is gold. just wish it wasn't always so confined. world class players with a 'down home' mentality has it's plus's and minus's.

[Jkater]

Not much unfortunately. I live in a small town surrounded by a bunch of even smaller villages with the nearest city almost one hour drive and Berlin 3 hours drive so it's not easy to get to a good show. A lot of small classical concerts and amateur week-end warriors playing around (nothing wrong with that, I hope... that's what my own band is). I get much of my entertainment/inspiration from youtube and this place.

[BrokenFighter]

And why has no one answered with: I AM THE MUSIC SCENE! That'd be awesome.

 

Dang... I was gonna say that! Seriously... I am the music scene in my town. I'm the only guitarist who doesn't play OLD country and Eagles covers... Unfortunately that's the only paying gigs here, so I don't get paid, but I'm kinda my towns guitar hero and whenever people need a guitarist they ask me.

[Wulver]

Rural Virginia. Anything outside of bluegrass and country/southern rock is somewhat rare. And it's entirely varying degrees of metal amongst the average teenager.

 

However, a few miles from my house, we've got this old general store that does an open mic thing, and we occasionally get some really fascinating people in there. It's a great communal atmosphere to the place. good food too. I think if more of my own generation were to get involved with it, we could really have something.

 

Link to our youtube page, if you'd like to see: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheBGSMusic#p/u

[benzem]

Fairly active. Competitive. Confused( nobody knows what to charge) But not taken over by DJ's.

 

Great blues scene in a few clubs.

 

Mostly confused tho.

 

And few go out anymore...the dui are tough and just not worth the risk. Ppl party at home.

[D Carroll]

Everything. After all, it is music city. We have country, and blues. The Nashville rock scene is huge. Jack White floats around, and gives lots of cool shows in the blue room, the black keys just moved here to play and record locally, and a bunch more cool {censored} goes down.

[Spike Li]

I dont understand anti-cover band snobbery - whats wrong with playing good music that people enjoy?

 

Some people need to get over themselves...

[kayd_mon]

I dont understand anti-cover band snobbery - whats wrong with playing good music that people enjoy? Some people need to get over themselves...

 

Probably because cover bands earn money much more easily, I'd guess. I like a good cover band. They're good entertainment while having a few beers with friends.

[FoonkySteve]

Dundee Scotland Uk.

 

Not as good as it was 3-4 years ago, with lots of venues and pubs (bars) shut down after the recession. Only 2 or 3 venues for cover bands to play at the weekends. maybe 2 venues for original bands. Again, about 3-5 years ago, dundee was the hotspot of scotland for original bands, after 1 of our own hitting the big time, and a few others came close. To be honest, it kinda ruined the scene for me, i would have embraced some power chord rawk chuggin, over the jangly indie pish we get here.

 

Any you guys across the pond heard of 'the view'?

[Spike Li]

Probably because cover bands earn money much more easily, I'd guess. I like a good cover band. They're good entertainment while having a few beers with friends.

 

Ah the old musicians inferiority complex.. i think i get it now!

[Rex Machete]

I dont understand anti-cover band snobbery - whats wrong with playing good music that people enjoy? Some people need to get over themselves...

 

There's nothing wrong with it, it's just a different scene. I imagine cover bands play at bars and public places where the music isn't the only draw. At other venues, the music is the whole event and it's expected that the bands will be playing their own material.

 

Personally, I'd much rather go out to hear new original music than the same classic rock that get played to death on the radio (dad rock).

[Will Chen]

Dallas, TX and surrounding...

 

The scene here is fantastic with nearly anything available on almost any night of the week as long as your willing to make the drive as things are spread out. We've got good options for jazz, blues, folk, country, rock, hardcore, reggae, hiphop, you name it. Nice mix of touring act venues and strictly local stuff, as well as music all over the place in non-traditional venues. A bunch of grocery stores have bands now. A bunch of restaurants and even outdoor shopping strips have live music. And that's not to mention all the spring through fall festivals we have here. Not the big pure music festivals, but family friendly events which feature nonstop bands all day and national headliners at night. Great seen here, nothing to complain about.

[Patuney]

Ballad of the Sad Cafe here.

[stormin1155]

Lot of great talent in Des Moines, but there are becoming fewer and fewer places to play. We used to have one of the best blues clubs in the country...live music 5 nites a week, and national acts every week, but that closed down last fall because they just weren't able to make it. The acoustic solo/duet seems to be gaining more popularity.

[Oldskool Texas]

 

Some people need to get over themselves.

 

 

Indeed.

[arrowhen]

Baton Rouge, LA. The music scene around here is so bad I'd *kill* for a chance to go see a dad-rock cover band. Or any live music for that matter.

[27Frets]

Upstate NY (Albany area) - seems to be a little bit of a resurrection here in the last few years- a lot of guys that were in bands back in the day are now picking it up again. It's cool- a lot of rock and old school metal as well as new metal and hardcore, and there are a lot of places to play.

[craigny]

In NYC..take your pic man, its all pretty much out there...just east of the city here on Long Island, there are definatley some Metal acts (us included) that are tryin' to take the scene back, alot of hard rock also....alot of cover bands and tribute bands too, my lead guitarist has an independent music website that showcases original unsigned bands www.playgroundz.net and he organizes alot of local showcases....good avenue for people to get their {censored} out there!!

[meandi]

KC Mo, pretty good music going on here...all genre.

I don't go to shows much any more...rather play than listen.

I'm in a house band situation for a local open mic night with some friends & developing some original material with my teacher in preparation for getting it recorded.

[Willyguitar]

In Leeds it is excellent - recently saw Imelda May at the O2, have seen loads of good new bands at the Cockpit, and was going to see Interpol too recently. Leeds and Manchester have quite a historic connection (as does Liverpool of course), with a vibrant music scene, and there is the of course the Leeds and Reading Festival. My bro lives down in Somerset and stewards for Glastonbury most years, so gets in cheap or free... so at some point, I will try to take advantage of that.

 

Harrogate, where our band is based (mostly), is less good, but has a really nice couple of blues bars and open mic places, which also cater to folk music and some less ambitious rock/pop. It also has a couple of larger venues for more serious rock bands.

[ToneChase]

Greensboro, NC here.

Music is doing great here. It seems to be split up, with the North side of town doing jazz, instrumental jam band stuff, and new folk like Mumford and Sons. The South side seems to have more metal, hardcore, and Christian hardcore bands. A 30 minute drive to Oakridge and you have your country scene, and downtown Greensboro there is a stage where local rap groups put on shows.

It's pretty easy to get a gig since if you live here you probably know someone who knows someone...

[profgalen]

I'm in South Florida also. My band backed up a singer/songwriter/guitar-strumer for two years playing all originals. his song were good. Kinda Neal Young/ Tom Petty/ Dylanish. Paying gigs were few. No one wants to pay for originals. We played a lot for free or gas money. He moved to Nashville so we reformed in to a Classic rock/blues cover trio. We're semi-pro all having day jobs. We play what we like and we have fun. We work most weekends. Most venues aren't paying much around here.

Saturday we play at a real class place called the "Beer Barn". It's located in beautiful down town Davie at the entrance to So. Florida's only Rodeo. It's the kind of place were it's mandatory for someone in the audience to yell "Freebird" every three min. even if your playing "Freebird". Most of the crowed has been drinking all day, either there or down the street at the Moose Club. The woman are friendly if full sets of teeth aren't that important to you and there is always some mobility impaired individual who feels it's his job to help you set up or tear down your equipment. But hey, tips are good.

Next Friday we return to the luxurious "Octopus's Garden" in Hollywood were someone grabbed our tip jar and ran out the door. They seem to like our more classic "punk" material so it's always fun. In all fairness there are better gigs around, we just don't apply ourselves. I have to agree with Kayd_Mon "It's not the best place in the world, but it certainly isn't the worst".

P.S. Kayd_Mon, PM me if you want to jam sometime.

[Special J]

I dont understand anti-cover band snobbery - whats wrong with playing good music that people enjoy? Some people need to get over themselves...

 

I can only assume this is in response to the comments on my own local scene. I didn't want for this to turn into a cover vs. original band thread. Just for the record, I play in both cover bands and original bands. I've never done this stuff for the money, but in 20 years of gigging, I've made more money and played much better gigs with some of the original bands I've been in, than I have with the cover bands. No jealousy or feelings of inferiority (or really superiority) here, so you can take that theory with you.

 

In case you didn't read my whole post, my issue was with BAD cover bands, which my scene is very ripe with. And yes, it is annoying when I want to hear some original music, and the row of bars in my town is filled with mediocre or worse cover acts, fresh out of the basement, playing for peanuts, and all of them playing pretty much the same damn set. Thanks for contributing!

[Special J]

 

Greensboro, NC here. Music is doing great here. It seems to be split up, with the North side of town doing jazz, instrumental jam band stuff, and new folk like Mumford and Sons. The South side seems to have more metal, hardcore, and Christian hardcore bands. A 30 minute drive to Oakridge and you have your country scene, and downtown Greensboro there is a stage where local rap groups put on shows. It's pretty easy to get a gig since if you live here you probably know someone who knows someone...

 

 

When I was touring in the mid-90's I always loved playing in NC, and we stopped in Greensboro quite a bit. I can't remember the name of the club there, but it was owned by an older hippie couple. Real sweet folk.

[erold]

Hardcore, hardcore and more hardcore. There is alot of it, unfortunately not much that is very good.