Jax, vs. Tampa, vs. Gainseville, Vs. Orlando, vs. Tampa,BEST LIVE MUSIC SCENE/ area for MUSICIANS/ROCK BAND?? (best city)

[167878]

ive posted this in another FL thread, but wanna narrow downt the biggest cities...(not miami)thanks

so, i currently live in S.FL , I'd like to knowwhere the best city/area is to make living playing in a rock band...That is very diverse, heavy/electric blues, rock, psychedelic, think of, Beatles,Floyd,Hendrix,Doors,Cream,Zeppelin,Sabbath ,Mozart,Beethoven, 20's-60'sblues n' Jazz ,(we branch out in more, but these are the main influences to give you an idea)..influence....a band that can actually PLAY anything, but this is what we like (all original, but know plenty of covers )..NO disco,rap,pop,dance,screamo,death metal,techno,*ahum* 'modern day' country (well johnny cash and old old country-yea some-) or any other various forms of non-melodic noise today considered as music(sorry if that offends you,its my OPINION)..

so lets say we have our sh*t down, have an album, a website,a studio, some capital,(and maybe-(big maybe) and RV) -everything to get up and running, just open minded places to play that PAY, and that you can work your way up from bottom (average bar venues ~few hundred audience on weekends..$400-500low end a night{100$ea is the min. around here}-$1000higher end bars)-and private parties of course)) to Top (biggest venue/fest you can get into without needing a Major Label) say crowds of thousands of audience per weekend/event..pay,, free basically for exposure.

btw, i dont expect to get in paying venues immediately, i know what its like toget started, and itsa lotta free playin around for likea year.Some where that it doesnt take a great deal of struggle to get in and get KNOWN, but somewhere big enough where being known actually matters., and the resources are there to break into atleast statewide touring, but really nationwide tour/exposure/agents/etc.

ive considered LA, but sems like a rat race, same as NY, but not much of a Rock scene..(i m not intereested in heavy metal scenes)? (which im sure lots and lots of places are...metal and rap...), Austin, seemingly too small from what i hear? over hyped-i heard alot of people say its great? Orlando/ maybe Tampa too (or lakeland inbetween both), not enough venues??Anywhere in FL ideas?(just not not miami)-seemingly not big enough cities? Eugene/Portland Oregon i hear is a nice friendly town/area tht may be good for my type of music/ROCK? New Orleans?katrina made that place a mess from what i hear, and its more geared toward jazz/swing blues...i just dont really know, i v never bee any of these places,...i'd realllllly prefer to stay in the SOUTH, i like the people and weather. so any ideas would be much appreciated....we're in our 20's and ready to get going-and not spend a couple years trying to fight off competition to get our foot in the door bc we were in the wrong location(tho of courseyou have to be better than the comp to make it).location location.

as a side note..any info on how to get on a good going circuit (say around state, or even nation wide?) w/o booking aggents and managers?=i assume just draw alot of attention and est. a following, and im looking for aplace where we can do that from nothing...(i like the idea of tamp/orlando since its pretty close, just dont know if thats optimal).


thanks a whole lot...any out of state areas are appreciated, im doing this for most of the states...thanks.

[Angler]

St. pete/ Tampa has an active local scene with plenty of dive bars and hispter joints to play at.

[TB Fla]

I agree with Tampa being a good choice. I had a friend who was in a couple of bands. From my expirence going to some of his shows, Tampa has a pretty large local music scene. Very diverse too.