Local gigs
 

Right. So there was a thread recently in which Mr & Bowels commented on how he goes to fuck all gigs, and how he was surprised at how y'all go to fuck all gigs. So here's a thread. And the question of this thread is - why don't you support your local scene? Is it because you're a prick?

I go to, roughly, one or two shows a week. And I feel like a cunt for not seeing more. Because, as I live in a city, there's something on constantly. So, basically, either I want to hear a shit-hot excuse, or I want to hear you say 'I am a person and I realise that there is no such thing as 'hot spots', I realise that the success of Seattle/ Bristol/ Madchester [etc] has nothing to do with the area and everything to do with weird zeitgeistness'

Go.

you wanna get a drink?

i hear you.

my new year resolution is to go to as much gigs as possible. by new year, i meant two days ago.

i have the fucked tendency of bailing at going to a gig at the last minute, but this weekend it starts:

friday: shadows fall (hopefully)
saturday: winters in osaka with I/C/O/C and amniosis
sunday: despised icon plus ten thousand local death metal outfits
monday: cat power (if miracles exist).

i probably go to about 30 gigs a year, i would go to more if i had more money, to the best of my knowledge the only stuff that's local that i'm really interested in seeing is grime and almost none of my friends have any love for grime, i've been to two grime shows one was awful beyond compare (roll deep) and the other was amazing (tinchy strider & jme). actually i'm talking out of my arse, london has an excellent improv scene, and i check that out reasonably often, one of the best things i saw last year was mark wastell & evan parker playing in a quartet with max eastley & some other dude (ben drew? matt davis?), anyway, it was fantastic. on the other hand there is some appaling improv going on in london too.

I think 'local' means less in London. When I lived there I had the excess problem. There was so much going on I saw none of it, with a few exceptions. Now, I know when a decent gig rolls through town, and I know where to go to see something alright every night of the week. The excessively reduced tickets to the local classical venue helps massively, but yeah... all about the local scene yo.

i go to local shows, i mean, theyre usually cheap, 5 bucks at most. theres just very few good bands here in tucson.

when im home in mass however, i go to tons of local shows (boston and providence) because theres shit loads of good bands.

I go to a ton of local gigs; our area is in the midst of a creative explosion in the area of interesting musicks right now, so local gigs are pretty rewarding at this time. The early and mid 90s weren't anywhere nearly as interesting to me (with exceptions here and there, of course) as today.
I'm also helping to put on a three-day festival in a couple of weeks.

yeah, having nobody to talk to inbetween bands is a bore

So what are local gigs exactly?

Gigs of local artists or DIY-gigs organised in your locality?
Last year I went to about 50-60 gigs and in 2008 I must be at around 20-25 already after just 4 months, but maybe about 1-2 of those were actual "local" bands. So in the first definition that would make me a prick.

But if you mean the second definition and want to know if I'm one of those 15-20 people that bothers to go to some cold and windy squat/basement every time to check out some poorly attended show set up by some local dudes in their free time... then yes, that's me.

Holland is too small for local scenes anyway I have the idea. Rotterdam, Den Haag, Amsterdam, Utrecht and Tilburg are all between 20 and 60 kilometers (fuck off with your imperial units) away from each other and that means 95% of interesting stuff is all within reach if you're living in that area and are dedicated enough. The only place I just really can't go to that sometimes has cool stuff happening is Groningen.

i go to a lot of gigs, i used to go to more but i am more selective in who i see now. it used to be at least two a week for years and that was not just crappy covers bands either but after a while it became increasingly boring as it was the same bands week after week playing the same sets and i got disheartened with the whole thing. there are still a lot of bands playing that i want to see and in berlin there are as well. some weekends you get amazing lineups.

i wish i could go to more gigs.
the only thing that frustrastes me is that sometimes there's nothing much interesting to see for a long period of time and then suddenly there's a flood of good shows and i always miss a couple of things i would like to see.

the problem in mexico city with local bands is that theres thousands of them, literally and thousands of those bands suck.

most bands only try to copy bands from abroad or popular bands from mexico, watching a worthwhile band tends to be difficult because of this. plus, bands tend to be very separatist and talk shit about other bands so there's no "scenes", just a bunch of scattered bands (unlike guadalajara, with most bands being original and united and supportive of one another). plus, bars and clubs tend to exist for a couple of months and get shut down.

that's why i don't really see bands from here.

I go to 1-5 shows per week with an average close to about 2.8, and I once went to 20 in 18 nights. Most of them ranged from pretty good to downright epic. Not too many of them sucked because my friend John and I are selective about what we book. In order to go to this many shows, it used to be necessary to drive to San Francisco and Oakland a lot, but for most of the last eight years or so, we've worked pretty hard to keep things interesting here in Sacramento and Davis.

I don't go to local shows anymore. The venue they used to play in burned down on halloween, and now they all play in the ghetto and in pubs.

Well, my next-door-neighbour is a field, so I have to travel some distance to see bands, so once again the question is 'what's local?'. Admittedly, if I see bands I consider as local bands, i.e. unsigned acts playing small near-ish venues, I do tend to know the band or do artwork for them - so it doesn't really count I guess. But seeing as I'm moving to London-town next year, I imagine there'll be a few local 'scenes' to infiltrate. I might even start reading gig flyers I get. Maybe not.

thats were the best gigs are!

I don't go into the ghetto very often, and i never go into pubs.

Why should I HAVE to support my local scene? Shouldn't I WANT to support it? And if I don't, why does that make me a prick? Where's the obligation coming from? Is supporting your scene important? Why?

Can't be as bad as the Surrey ghetto. Mean, mean streets...

If there was a "local" scene in the mudhole I live in, I'd definitely be a big fan. But, unfortunately, there is none. It's all just wind and bad air.