So how is the music scene in the town/city that you live in??

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ENS Audio

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Oct 23, 2007
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Just curious to know if there is even anything going on at all, as for example (if this is still the case) Montreal has a great Jazz scene even there has been somewhat decent Metal bands to hail from there as well.

That's not the case down here in Sunny S.FL where you would expect something with the number of people that live down here and if there is some "half-baked" effort to put on a weekly event at some restaurant or venue, nobody shows up. Also as far as major touring acts go, we will get Madonna or Bad Company, whereas Orlando is the furthest south any other tour will go  :(





Off topic... It's also frustrating that there aren't any guitarists/songwriters out there that aspire to do anything but play in some shitty cover band or to write some generic pop/rock/punk nonsense.

Then again I am a drummer/audiophile that plays/listens mainly to Jazz/Fusion, Metal (The technical/wanking type  ;) ) and Classical Music.
 
Bolton NW England

capacity approx 240,000

regular gigs at 2 venues (pubs with 130 cap)

at least monthly at 2 more (pubs with 130 cap)

regular biweekly average at the big venue (450 cap)


just finalising organising a weekend 'festival' to advertise this facility to the general public

all 4 of the pubs will put on simultaneous gigs on a friday night

then an 'all ages' gig on the saturday with 4 of the local signed bands (little labels) and 3 school age bands, we have a thing called rock school to try and get kids interested.

cost - free

personally I think my town is pretty poor, but a couple of us are trying to change that
 
lofi said:
Bolton NW England

capacity approx 240,000

regular gigs at 2 venues (pubs with 130 cap)

at least monthly at 2 more (pubs with 130 cap)

regular biweekly average at the big venue (450 cap)


just finalising organising a weekend 'festival' to advertise this facility to the general public

all 4 of the pubs will put on simultaneous gigs on a friday night

then an 'all ages' gig on the saturday with 4 of the local signed bands (little labels) and 3 school age bands, we have a thing called rock school to try and get kids interested.

cost - free

personally I think my town is pretty poor, but a couple of us are trying to change that
Click to expand...

Well I totally respect you for the effort of putting your event together, we need more people out there like you....dedicated and extremely motivated to get the job done, there are way too many slackers and shit-talkers that are an absolute waste of time to deal with.
 
we are surrounded by egotistical tw*ts, the 'look at me' brigade who blend into the woodwork when things go wrong :mad:

Andy (the fool I dragged in on this idea) and myself are both of the 'Sorry, we fucked up' persuasion. Just dont do the same mistake twice. If theres a finger to be pointed, we are happy to stand in the line of sight.

the local music scene is fairly poor, and its getting harder to get people in. but you get no where sat on your arse moaning or looking for somebody to blame

Iain
 
Good work Iain, I take my hat off to you :)

Got the complete opposite problem in London - TOO many venues and way too many other things to do on
a friday/sat/sun
So much so that to get any decent new band on their way is almost impossible .... no one turns up and you run
out of "mates" to support you fairly rapidly !!

hey ho ....

MM.
 
Newly formed London bands have always had the problem of competing with bands from further away from around the country who can pull in a crowd & hire coaches to bring fans to see them, attracted by a trip to the big city. It's very hard for a London band to build up a following from scratch & learn the art of gigging when you're up against bands that already have reputation & following from playing in their original regions

Venues used to charge local bands to play FFS, with the cost of rehearsal studios ect; it's not cheap to be in a London band, even the smaller venues are booked by gigging agencies who only want established bands & it's the same in most types of music.

Most bands that I've known or been involved in have had to get gigs on the edge of town far out or even play in the new towns, places like Basildon, Harlow or Southend when the want to start gigging. Unless they are friendly with the local pub landlord ;D Recent noise legislation & music licences has hurt the pubs who want to have a band to play at the weekend, as they now need a expensive permit which costs thousands.

There's never really been much support nor facilties from community organisations or local bodies for bands either. Especially given the vast amounts given to other art forms. London has a vibrant music scene but it fails it's local bands & gives them little encouragment nor support. ::)



 
I'm in Hollywood.
In the last week I've seen some excellent live music.  One particular artist (Carina Round) just released a self financed EP.  The EP is good but, live, she's even better.  The best live performer I've seen since Peter Gabriel.

Might go and see a new young band tonight.  Their debut album (also self financed and not on a label) was produced by a friend (Paul Stacey - Black Crowes, Oasis etc.) It's a good 'un.
The main singer, writer, guitar player is 21 and was taught to play guitar by Jeff Beck.  That can't hurt.

Back when I lived in Manchester (UK), the scene for local bands was pretty crap.  Last time I visited, I did see a couple of bands playing in my old local though which was a pleasant surprise. 

Good luck in Bolton Iain  :)
 
Im surprised at the S florida thing. most shows go down to at least west palm from what I can tell from live nation emails i get incessantly. here in orlando there isnt a great scene but it has been expanding lately. not national act stuff but theres a lot of shows. and sarasota has some great music all the time. or at least every time I go. I rarely go out to a show, but have been to some great stuff lately. (one show did have Horrible local acts, but austin's shotgun party ,who we met  in sarasota and they are amazing. patsy cline meets earl shruggs.) as for orlando, Im very glad the rave scene has turned into any live music scene.
 
Small town in the mountains around Flagstaff...population 3000...we have at least 3 live acts a night, mostly...well always..cowboys...because we are the main access to the Grand Canyon and have the only running train into the canyon we get close to 3 million tourist a year...so the main bars all have outdoor stages...

There's also a live gunfight all summer and we also have an award winning Civil War re-enactment band as well as a really good High Mountain Bagpipe team.

One of my close friends sits first chair cello for the Flagstaff Chamber Orchestra and he plays here every couple of weeks...

Pretty much drives me nuts all summer...I hate cowboy music.
 
amorris@home said:
Im surprised at the S florida thing. most shows go down to at least west palm from what I can tell from live nation emails i get incessantly. here in orlando there isnt a great scene but it has been expanding lately. not national act stuff but theres a lot of shows. and sarasota has some great music all the time. or at least every time I go. I rarely go out to a show, but have been to some great stuff lately. (one show did have Horrible local acts, but austin's shotgun party ,who we met  in sarasota and they are amazing. patsy cline meets earl shruggs.) as for orlando, Im very glad the rave scene has turned into any live music scene.
Click to expand...

I'll assume you've lived in that part of FL for quite sometime now and so from personal experience knowing what "that part" of the state is like, I can proudly say that living in the Ft Laud/Miami area is GREAT!! in comparison that is ;) Esp some of those towns surrounding lake O. (i.e. Pahokee) ... :-X
 
lofi said:
personally I think my town is pretty poor, but a couple of us are trying to change that
Click to expand...

Similar situation here; i live in Ljubljana, capital of Slovenia with about 400-500.000 habitants. I think the biggest problem is lack of government support, good places, lazy young generation (everyone wants to be a DJ) and maybe also tradition.
I don't see many commercial concerts, but scene seem to be very weak and we don't even have one  very good rock, pop or jazz band. Well, one known Slovenian band is Laibach, they play industrial/rock/electronica or whatever this genre is. People from other country say it is very good band, but we hear it every day, so it's nothing special for us. Another known artist from here is DJ Umek, he is one of world's top techno DJ-s.

Concert scene is lacking hall/club for around 1000 visitors, so we mostly have (alternative) concerts for 200-300 visitors or very commercial stuff for 4000 persons or more. I think this is the reason why this scene here isn't as vivid as it could be.
Except for Ljubljana Jazz Festival and Metal camp (good metal festival) we don't have other known festivals.


Another interesting thing beside Laibach, Metal Camp and Jazz Festival is Metelkova City, autonomous culture zone. This place were military barracks (used by Yugoslavian army) which were occupied by artists in 1991. Now there are several small underground clubs (beside ateliers for artists, library, hostel, recording studio etc.) with sometimes very very good concerts.
Check this link about Metelkova:
http://www.ljubljana-life.com/ljubljana/metelkova
I been to few clubs and concerts in western Europe, but i never had as good time as in clubs at Metelkova (i like underground). I think people here still have "feeling for the others" if you know what i mean. Even bands who come here very often feel and say this. I don't know why is this so, maybe because we are not so infected by capitalism. Yet. Unfortunately situation changing very fast, people are getting crazy, differences between them are bigger, there are no jobs as they used to be, young people can't afford buying apartments and don't have kids etc.

Slovenia in general have very big potential for festivals because of really beautiful nature and landscape. Nature is quite untouched for now, while landscape have some extremely bad architecture belonging to decisions of post 2WW politicians.

Miha
 
I live in L.A. the music scene here is full of bands that are all trying and often fall short. They either break up, are not nearly as good as they claim, or just in general are not interesting. There are a lot of venues that want to take advantage of hard working bands. They will do things like bands must pre sell X number of tickets in order to play said venue. Then the Venue will pick the time and date for you... The venue will be shit or at one point in time was a famous place, the sound guy will suck, and you will be stuck paying for parking. Not to mention alot of bands will just buy the tickets themselves just to go play there. They won't even give a band free parking to load in and load out. Plus, I get the impression that most places are non band friendly but they will have bands playing every night. But that is in places like Hollywood. You can see a good band in Hollywood although it is rare. To catch some good acts at band friendly places you have to go outside of hollywood. Places that are near the beach will actually pay bands to play and do things like free food, free drink and free parking.

My band has made it a point to not play places that screw over bands, which is most of hollywood, and play beach areas. As long as musicians are going to put up with it, Clubs will do it.
 
pucho812 said:
As long as musicians are going to put up with it, Clubs will do it.
Click to expand...

Never a truer word said!

copy of our press release, now to find a web guru

Musicsnotdead.com Festival

Hello

Musicsnotdead.com are setting up to run a weekend of gigs for local original bands. The gigs will be held on Friday 11 September and Saturday 12 September. These gigs will be free to enter. These will be privately funded / sponsored events.

On the Friday Musicsnotdead.com are aiming to have 4/5 pubs putting 4/5 bands simultaneously in the town center and on Saturday an all ages gig at the Soundhouse.

Musicsnotdead.com have secured bookings at the following venues for the 11th September 2009;-

The Alma
The Blue Boar
The Dog and Partridge
The York

Soundhouse is booked for the 12th September 2009

If Any other venue would like to be included then please contact us:- [email protected] The more the merrier!!

Synopsis

Each of the gigs will be eclectic in its line up rather than sticking with 'one pub, one style'. The running orders for the Friday gigs will be arranged so that if somebody only wants to listen to Heavy or say experimental music then they can have a mini pub crawl around the venues catching each of the bands that represent that. First on in pub 1, second in Pub 2 etc

Saturday Musicsnotdead.com want to incorporate school age bands as well as the Pub going bands so need an all ages venue to make it happen.

Although still in the planning stage, Musicsnotdead.com have secured a 10000 leaflet drop for the Bolton area with negotiation for at least a further 10000. There will also be a Website advertising not only these gigs but other gigs from participating venues. A Myspace, Facebook and Twitter presence are also organised.

If Musicsnotdead.com can fill each of the venues on the Friday and the Soundhouse on the Saturday with new faces then Musicsnotdead.com can class it a success. This is about advertising live original music and where it can be heard in the town center to complete strangers.

Musicsnotdead.com are looking for bands from or who play within Bolton. If your band would like to be considered for one of the gigs please send an email to:

[email protected]

please place your Band name in the subject line and your Contact name in the body of the email, an application form will be automatically returned. Although you may bump into one of the organisers on a personal level by using email Musicsnotdead.com will have actual details to work with. These gigs are free to enter and everybody involved in the festival is working for free. Unfortunately this means there is no budget and as such Musicsnotdead.com cannot pay bands for performing.

Musicsnotdead.com will also need event co-ordinators, sound engineers, and general helpers. Those who are in shape and fit would be a massive help with leaflet distribution as Musicsnotdead.com are looking at a potential drop of 20,000+ at the present time. This is a free to enter set of gigs, all help will be voluntary i.e. there’s no pay but the spiritual reward will be astronomical. If you feel you can assist in any way then please send an email to:

[email protected]

Again place Volunteer in the subject line and your name as the body, an application form will be automatically returned. Again you may see one of Musicsnotdead.com on a personal level but email doesn’t forget or loose bits of paper.
Musicsnotdead.com cannot begin to express how much your help will be appreciated if you even consider offering your services.

Why are we doing this?

As we all know the pub trade is not the best at the moment with around four closing everyday across the UK. Also the Live music scene for original music in Bolton brings out the same faces week in week out. This is not a bad thing because every scene needs its core but we are sure that there are people in Bolton who haven’t got the first clue that this type of thing is happening on their doorstep.

Thanks for your time,


Musicsnotdead.com
Click to expand...
 
pucho812 said:
I live in L.A. the music scene here is full of bands that are all trying and often fall short. They either break up, are not nearly as good as they claim, or just in general are not interesting. There are a lot of venues that want to take advantage of hard working bands. They will do things like bands must pre sell X number of tickets in order to play said venue. Then the Venue will pick the time and date for you... The venue will be shit or at one point in time was a famous place, the sound guy will suck, and you will be stuck paying for parking. Not to mention alot of bands will just buy the tickets themselves just to go play there. They won't even give a band free parking to load in and load out. Plus, I get the impression that most places are non band friendly but they will have bands playing every night. But that is in places like Hollywood. You can see a good band in Hollywood although it is rare. To catch some good acts at band friendly places you have to go outside of hollywood. Places that are near the beach will actually pay bands to play and do things like free food, free drink and free parking.

My band has made it a point to not play places that screw over bands, which is most of hollywood, and play beach areas. As long as musicians are going to put up with it, Clubs will do it.
Click to expand...

Pucho it's the same in London, any decent venue wants "pre-sale" tickets or a promise of YOU bringing a minimum number of "fans/punters" with you !!
WTF is up with that ?
I thought that promoters would get people to come see good new acts at "their" venue

It's a scam and it's "pay to play" they just want you to bring "beer buying public" along and it's got nothing to do with music and talent.

Pisses me off big time  :mad:

MM
 
Links:

As I mentioned, last Wednesday at Hotel Cafe in Hollywood, I saw my friend, the lovely Carina Round.  
http://www.carinaround.com

YouTube video of one song with a few more friends making cameo's:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrZLaxSmY44&feature=channel

By herself:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IfepMQ8EDI&feature=channel_page

This is cute:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eJzRV7Evdo&feature=channel


Last night at 'The Mint' I saw Purple Melon. 1st album produced by friend Paul Stacey:

http://www.myspace.com/purplemelonspace


Both great shows.
 
I'm going to play at the Brothers Motorcycle Club's clubhouse next week with a rockabilly band. Should be a gas. I like those unconventional venues to break up the routine of playing clubs.

Chicago's got tons of opportunities to play out. Lots of good clubs that are good to the bands. Right now Quenchers is my favorite. My friend's band is playing the Hideout tonight, which is great little club. Lots of good Open Mics to play, as well.

It is true, though, that a certain apathy develops if a local band plays often, and that can choke out the band's enthusiasm for it. I've watched friends go from playing for several hundred people to, well, several people.
 
Around 300K people in the immediate region, another 300K 30 miles away.  Only really one rock/pop club to speak of these days, capacity of 105, seldom full.  Owner I and are both on an Arts Council task force charged with attempting to improve local music, and attractiveness of area to outside music related industries and professionals.  He reckons there are only about 100 people in the area who regularly go out with music in mind.  Pretty piss-poor.  There used to be 5-6 regular venues. 
 
Winston O'Boogie said:
Links:

As I mentioned, last Wednesday at Hotel Cafe in Hollywood, I saw my friend, the lovely Carina Round. 
http://www.carinaround.com
Click to expand...

Wow, she is something.

Perhaps on a similar tip (and especially if you are a Brooklyn-ite), check out my friend Shara: http://www.mybrightestdiamond.com/

The little featured video on the righthand of the page has the cutest little playing mistake followed by "I do that better!"  ;D
 

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