do you all have a local music scene in your town?

[Dafne]

i'm curious to know if you live in a big town with lots of important gigs or if you live in a very small town when the most important band to see is the one with your neighbour playing guitar (unless yr neighbour is Jesper Stromblad of course ...who knows maybe for a couple of you may be so... ).
and in both cases,do you support the local scene?

me,i live in a small town in a big isle in the mediterranean sea,so you can imagine...
but anyway i support a lot the local scene even if we're just the same ppl playing in all the bands...

 

[Dark_Silence]

no there is abslutely nothing where i live... only 1 bar and its always full with all the same old drunk people. never any concerts exept once a year when its the annual party of the village (and it always sucks really bad so i never go!).
Exept for my brother no one likes metal, and im the only one to like DT in this damned village!
at least i will move to brussels this month, for university

 

[Siren]

The city where i live is not exactly a small village, but in metal-concert terms it very much is one. The local scene consists of a few uni students who never go to uni and are unable to mentally grow up. From what i know they give a gig once a year. As it's obvious by now, i don't support them cause i think they suck.
Very rarely we might get some bigger band to perform in one of the local bars.

 

[xXBraveMurderDay]

Yes , we have a HUGE music scene. But its a VERY SHITTY one. Its full of Crappy Metalcore bands. Everyone here wears skintight pants and listens to Bands like As I Lay Dying.. God, the new hardcore scene sucks balls.. Well , I wasn't around to experience the old one.. But still...

 

[Hitori]

I can't complain, and neither can anyone from my city, really. Most of the big metal bands make it our way and we have an annual metalfest, which is still small, but getting bigger and better (as the rest of our scene). Prices are still a bit high but hopefully that'll change.
As for local bands, the petty inter-band fights and jealousies and spite have decreased, and even if most bands still aren't great, they're at least working hard at it and improving. We do have some wonderful stuff though, some is recognised internationally (Elfonia's vocalist participated with Ayreon and other Lucassen projects) and some will be, some day soon.
And bars- we have one big one that attracts all the people. I don't like it much, to be honest, but at least there's a place for everyone to hang out.
I still think the fans in the scene are the biggest problem- nothing satisfies them, they want things to be just like in Europe and they look down on our own attempts to improve things. I'm also a bit annoyed at the fan(boy/girl)ism and the "metalhead" elitist/ignorant you're not tr00 enough attitude, but bah.

so my diagnosis is, the local scene looks very promising, it's growing and definitely has future

 

[Dark idea]

Actually, i'm pretty lucky. I live in a little town called Boucherville ( just beside of Montreal/Quebec) The metal scene is pretty big, we are a lot of bands ( im in one ) and we all help and know each other ( makes me think a bit of gothenborg ). The sound of quebec metal is very brutal so we can say that quebec is really develloping its own sound ( problem is that me and my band do a very melodic swedish kinda death metal hehe so we dont really fit with them! )

 

[Angelbreeze]

As for local bands, the petty inter-band fights and jealousies and spite have decreased, and even if most bands still aren't great, they're at least working hard at it and improving. We do have some wonderful stuff though, some is recognised internationally (Elfonia's vocalist participated with Ayreon and other Lucassen projects) and some will be, some day soon.

As someone who has been in both sides (inside and outside of local bands scene) I have to say that it's quite different the way I see the local scene.

The local bands are quite lame. They use to waste their time acting like rockstars and pretending to be as great as any european band although they are just failure fakers musicians (If we could call "musicians" to all of them). Nowadays, there's not a single promising band around here.

so my diagnosis is, the local scene looks very promising, it's growing and definitely has future

I don't think so.

 

[Arch]

Yes , we have a HUGE music scene. But its a VERY SHITTY one. Its full of Crappy Metalcore bands. Everyone here wears skintight pants and listens to Bands like As I Lay Dying.. God, the new hardcore scene sucks balls.. Well , I wasn't around to experience the old one.. But still...

You guys still have the thrash scene there, right?

 

[Nt3N]

here where i live (mestre, venice, italy) the metal scene isn't so wide.. we have a few good bands, mainly power-metal and death-metal..but nothing so extraordinary.. by contrast, we have a very very rich ska/punk/combat ska-punk/punk-rock scene here.. don't like it, but I appreciate their commitment in what they do

 

[marduk1507]

I live in a town with about 60000 souls, so pretty far from big, but we have a nice (mainly) death metal family here, consisting of more or less 200 people who visit local gigs regularly. However, the situation with gigs wasnt a good one, only in last 2 months things have begun moving, when the guys from Depresy, which is quite known from what Ive heard in other forums, decided that its time to stir the soup a bit here. Now we have Mortal Decay, Beheaded and Sanatorium here and other gigs are on the way. We are also friends with other such families in other towns here in Slovakia, so its quite nice. The only thing which sucks is that theres no club here which would allow metal gigs on regular basis, so its always somewhre else.

 

[DragonLady1]

Innsbruck isnt the biggest city ever but we have a few metalgigs here, as well as a metalbar (Abyss bar) with cool aftershowparties and quite a few bands enjoy to spend their day off here since its a beautiful city in the mountains, so we had for example Morgana Lefay or To/Die/For or Kataklysm and Into Eternity and soon Nevermore will come for a day off here. The thing is that u have to pass through Innsbruck on the way from Italy to Germany, kind of transit route, what makes it also a quite oke place for gigs.
As for local bands we have Darkwell, Dornenreich, a few of the Graveworm guys live here as well (and their singer also works as DJ at the Abyss Bar), the drummer Moritz Neuner who played in quite a few bands and actually is active in Leaves Eyes and Atrocity, we had Dreams Of Sanity, a fantastic band with great female vocals, one of my best friends here writes for Rockhard Magazine... so well I guess its not that bad here of course Vienna is bigger, but well... for a small city its oke here

 

[Dafne]

VERY SHITTY one. Its full of Crappy Metalcore bands. Everyone here wears skintight pants and listens to Bands like As I Lay Dying.. God, the new hardcore scene sucks balls.. Well , I wasn't around to experience the old one.. But still...

i totally agree with you!!!!!!!!
but to me it's just that (listening to DT and In Flames since ages) these new bands sound just like clones with less impact.and -what i hate most!- they don't sing (like Mik and Anders do) but just yell.of course there are some bands which write some good songs too (i love smth from Still Remains) but mainly it's just the same old story
i know in US that genre is very popular and The Haunted -which i love - are getting involved quite alot!

 

[Dafne]

we have a nice (mainly) death metal family here, consisting of more or less 200 people who visit local gigs regularly.

WOW! and do you try to relate to each other?or just do you all ignore the others? (like it often happens... )

 

[Dafne]

few of the Graveworm guys live here as well

i think the rest lives in italy...

 

[Dafne]

sorry for all those replies instead of a big one...i didn't notice...ok i'm really tired...a very intense week and just finish to work since a couple of hourse ..

 

[Hitori]

@Angelbreeze

But if I remember correctly, you've said you were kicked out of your band, so maybe the rockstar attitude and lack of talent is just your own experience with your band.

I strongly disagree when you say that there's not a single promising band out there, perhaps you're just prejudiced. And it's exactly your kind of attitude that I was complaining about in my post- people whine about how much our local scene sucks, yet they do nothing to change things, in the typical mexican way.

And if you'd only be a little objective, you'd realize that whereas local opening bands used to be boo-ed off the stage by the local audience, people now listen respectfully and actually ask for longer sets. This could of course just mean that the audience has become less demanding, but either way, bands now have some support, and support is vital for them to work harder on what they do and improve. Playing for an apathetic audience is not very motivating. And whereas there used to be only like 3 bands opening for every international band, there are now dozens to choose from, so the competition is fiercer which results on bands trying harder.

 

[Malaclypse]

in cologne, germany there's supposed to be a big metal scene, but i didn't see much of it. ok, we have 1-2 big venues with regular live concerts, including well-known bands, but if you are looking for something just a bit more underground, you'd have to visit one of the many smaller gigs in villages outside cologne. these local scenes are very elitist though, these guys know the few others from their town, and the rest is largely ignored.
besides, you seldomly meet people you know in cologne's locations.
i'd say bonn is a much more promising place for small pubs, clubs and "the scene" in general, because it's not like anyone within the range of 100km gets there (as it's the case with cologne), and there are only a few, selected locations, but they offer quality over quantity.

 

[Dafne]

I still think the fans in the scene are the biggest problem- nothing satisfies them, they want things to be just like in Europe and they look down on our own attempts to improve things.

"to improve" like doing what?

I'm also a bit annoyed at the fan(boy/girl)ism and the "metalhead" elitist/ignorant you're not tr00 enough attitude, but bah.

you know ppl need to "have an attitude" when they are not so confident in theirselves...or if they're very young.
as far as i'm concerned,i love music too much to waste it with "having an attitude" in the scene,and this always allowed me to be in different scenes (even if in what they call extreme music) and know lots of ppl,and grow a lot as a musician.

 

[Dafne]

these local scenes are very elitist though, these guys know the few others from their town, and the rest is largely ignored.

i think it's very common everywhere,and it's really sad,at least for me who i love always getting in touch with ppl.and as i'm planning to go and live abroad it scares me a lot!
i'm afraid i'll have problems to join a band or go and see gigs...
especially i'm afraid that ppl over 30 don't wanna play anymore,unless they are Jesper Stromblad or make money from music...

here in the very little metal scene we have there is plenty of local bands who rehearse alot but don't play in gigs cos they ignore each other,while in the HC scene it's always the same persons,really A FEW but playing alot and everyone from "outside" is more than welcome...

 

[Hitori]

"to improve" like doing what?

everything, really.
we have a metal bar- it's not "pretty" enough
we have local bands- they're not good enough
we had a metal tv show- it wasn't good enough
we have zines- they're not good enough
we have concerts- they're too expensive

people always find something to complain about, yet they still go to the metal bar, they still listen to the local bands, they still watched the tv show, they still read the zines, and they still go to the concerts- whining in a childish fashion the whole time. which, of course, they're entitled to, just as I'm entitled to whine about their whining

you know ppl need to "have an attitude" when they are not so confident in theirselves...or if they're very young.

yeah... so? heh, I'm not wondering why it happens, I just said that it annoys me. Not that it's an exclusively local problem.