Toronto

Attracting Bands - 10
Local Scene - 5
Indie Venues - 5
Crowd at Shows - 0. I've never been in a city where the audience is so completey indifferent to the band that's playing - my guess is they're worrying about their hair.

Overall - 5

Philadelphia. I'd give it an 8.

It's not a 10. That's NY.
9 would probably be Chicago.

We get pretty much everything I want to hear. We have a great hip-hop scene, a surprising amount of punk/hardcore bands, and a lot of drum and bass djs and producers.

I gave Portland a 7...

vibrant local scene with the unfortunate odd band that "makes it big"
great venues for intimate shows
hot relocation area for some bands
proximity to Seattle

Glasgow 9 out of 10.

Attracting Bands - 9 Pretty much every band that tours the UK comes here.
Local Scene - 10 You don't need me to list all the bands that come out of Glasgow.
Venues - 9 There's probably 10 - 12 small to medium sized 'indie' clubs, including some pretty cool places like King Tut's, Mono, Nice N Sleazys, 13th Note etc. Bigger venues are well cater for too and The Barrowlands (about 5,000 standing capacity) is generally accepted as being the best live venue in the UK)
Crowds - 7 Depends from venue to venue and which band is playing. There are definately some that are just-to-indie and act disinterested but then a Barrowland crowd fucking rocks.

My only concern is one by one the independant record shops are closing down one by one.

I gave Chicago a 9 because too many shows sell out too quickly and bands don't add additional shows like they do in NYC.

Oh and one other good reason why it's an 8, the crowds can vary here from being really enthusiastic to being the biggest bunch of hipster wanna-be pricks known to man.

I love shows where people just stand around and talk nonstop, during ACCOUSTIC shows nonetheless.

blech.

I gave portland a 9.

We have so many outstanding lesser known acts that have come out of here recently. Plus we were the home of Elliott Smith. Portland is very eclectic too. But I think it caters to the "indie" crowd as well as in city there is.

Chicago gets a 9 from me.

Just so's y'all knows, I ain't just playin. I think the variety and quality of acts that my fair city currently offers is ridiculously good. And behind each of these bands/nights/DJs, there are usually at least 2-3 related projects/bands. There is so much to keep me out of the house these days.

30 Reasons why being in Boston is pretty fucking alright right now, in order as it comes to me:
1. Night Rally
2. Clickers
3. Codetta
4. The Information
5. Emergency Music
6. UV Protection
7. The Beatings
8. Apollo Sunshine
9. The Helms
10. Donna Parker/related
11. Dynasty/Honeypump Prod. dance nights
12. The Pill
13. The Plan
14. Bon Savants
15. The Cignal
16. Mission of Burma
17. David Day
18. Lady of Spain
19. Read Yellow
20. Black Helicopter
21. Mittens
22. Keith Fullerton Whitman/Hrvatski
23. Converge
24. Cave-In
25. Jake Brennan
26. Choo Choo La Rouge
27. Tristan da Cuhna
28. Soul-Le-Lu-Jah at Zuzu's
29. Dresden Dolls
30. Ad Frank

And this isn't even counting the national/regional acts that are here on a weekly, even nightly basis.

So.

KPH

Who do you count among them? Do you like Les Mouches?

Also, I think Montreal now deserves an 8 considering how much smaller it is than a Boston or a New York, or Toronto even.

Shit. I read that as "Attractive Bands".

Drinky Crow, the local scene in Atlanta sucks ass, but you get the best National/World acts there are. Atlanta often gets the only Southern play for good bands. I give Atlanta a 6 only because the local scene is so terrible (with the exception of Dirty South rap).

Nashville..... country music rules this town. The underground produces some derivative "ok" stuff every once in a while. I have seen some really great shows this year, but usually have to travel to Louisville or Atlanta to see fringe bands that I like. National acts don't come through because NashVegas's crowds are unpredictable. We do have a stellar indie record store in town, Grimey's. I gave it a 5 because the scene is not extremely terrible and not that great either.

I rated Chicago a 9.

I lived in St. Louis for a few years, and I'd probably only give that city a 6.

Report for Phoenix

Local Scene; 8 The have been some bands to make it big from the Valley like Jimmy Eat World, Authority Zero ( they rawked the house last night at Edgefest) , bands on the cusp like the Format, Rueben's Accomplice and lots of great regional/ local bands too. The Edge 103.9 does a good job supporting the local bands, and there are some really good record shops like Zia's and Stinkweeds

Local Venue; 6 A year ago I would have given it a 7 or maybe even an eight. A club of big draws for national bands have closed. Mill Ave. in the heart of ASU, lost the legendary Long Wongs , and can't seem to support a live music venue.

Attracting Bands; 7 Most indie bands stop here in route to or coming out of LA . The ticket cost is still relatively low compare to LA The same Muse show that cost $ 33 last night is $17.50 in Tempe on Sunday Night

Overall Score = 7

Muse was $13 at The Rave in Milwaukee.

suppose i'm mostly with stu on the nashville... but i do think there's a lot of potential.

there are a good dozen non-country bands here i think are good to great, and there's sooo many good clubs. kids just don't seem to be incredibly supportive, myself included. i don't go out to as many shows as i used to.

far as national acts, i think we do ok. but yeah, you do seem to have to drive to atlanta for a lot of things.

i dunno. 6.

my former home of nyc i give a 2. i'd explain why, but it'd be mean.

I gave Portland an 8...there is a really good scene here with a lot of great local bands - especially in the indie/pop/rock vein. However - it is not really diverse and we miss some of the tours as they hit Seattle and SF only.

be mean.

-Phil

p.s. and you don't go to as many shows because you're OLD.

well, older. You playing drums for anyone? Being in a band gets you on more guest lists, it seems.

Houston is probably better than a lot of other cities but it still sucks.

5

San Jose - 2

Too bad there weren't lower choices. It's awful here.

San Jose - 2

Too bad there weren't lower choices. It's awful here.

It's true that Atlanta is the token stop in the South for major tours, but I don't see that as any reason to cut it's "music scene" any slack. Out of the 4 or 5 venues here that I actually like, only 2 ever have good shows more than once or maybe twice a year, if that. Of those 2, The Earl leaves you thoroughly permeated with smoke, and the Variety Playhouse is expensive (not to mention the fact that it mostly books the same acts perennially).

The other places that get good shows among the smaller venues - The Echo Lounge and The Drunken Unicorn - are just shitty places IMO. A lot of people may disagree with me about the Echo (it's really just the layout that annoys me), but I think the Unicorn is widely accepted as being crappy. It's nowhere near as cool as seeing bands on the MJQ main floor which apparently doesn't happen anymore.

I totally agree about the actual local music scene here. Even the Dirty South thing has gotten big enough to not really be any more accessible locally than it is anywhere else. Pretty much anybody who starts out in Atlanta leaves once they start to make it or get a fanbase outside the city. I think Of Montreal was originally from here, and now they won't even play here anymore. Prefuse 73 gives props to Atlanta/ Decatur, but he didn't stick around long after getting big.

Maybe a 4 is harsh. I dunno.

Chicago bands get an 8. Chicago venues get a 7. Chicago radio gets a 5 (yes, this includes college radio).

Austin -

Acts = 10. I mean, we are "the live music capital of the world", right? Everyone plays here, save bands booked by Marsha Vlasic. I'm told she hates Charles Attal - and he books just about everything in this town. So, no Muse, no Strokes, etc.

Local Bands = yo-yo from 7-9. There are too many venues and everyone in town is a musician who thinks they should play somewhere.

"Scene" = pretty healthy. I'd give it a 74. It is pretty catchy, but, you can't really dance to it.

I voted two. We get all the big names and the clubs are okay but if I want to see international acts (which pretty much sums up my taste) I'd have to go to either coast and that's not an option.