Pittsburgh's Music Identity (Taylor, Millvale, Athens: college, live, club)

[ForYourLungsOnly]

Without mentioning Donny Iris... how do you think Pittsburgh compares to other cities when it comes to its music scene? I'm talkin' the live local scene AND big name concerts that come through the city. It seems we are kind of lacking a music identity here. The local scene is mediocre at best. Mr. Smalls, Altar Bar, and Club Zoo are pretty much the only local venues I can occasionally catch a decent band. I've spent lots of time in NYC, Chicago, DC, and Phili going to shows, and Seattle, San Fran, Nashville, Memphis, NO, Detroit and even Houston are either big music cities or just have a solid scene of their own. Pittsburgh unfortunately can't compare, especially to the first 3. Are we lacking a music scene here because sports tends to overshadow everything in this city, or am I just missing something?

[Aqua Teen Carl]

Originally Posted by ForYourLungsOnly

The local scene is mediocre at best.

/thread

[BrianTH]

Well, first of all it isn't necessarily fair to compare Pittsburgh to much bigger cities.

But I think it is true that at least until recently, we didn't have a great collection of venues, and we also didn't have much in the way of an indigenous music scene. I don't think that has anything in particular to do with sports, though, and hopefully things are starting to change a bit for the better.

[raubre]

I think in order to get more bands to come to Pittsburgh for shows, promotion needs to be better. Not from the promoter's end, from the media end. The radio stations here are terrible. I know they aren't much better anywhere else, but our "alternative" station isn't alternative (The X) and we don't have an R+B station anymore. We have too many country and sports stations. How are people in Pittsburgh going to be exposed to touring bands when our stations aren't playing them? That's pretty much why bands skip Pittsburgh. Our promoters aren't willing to take a risk by booking a band that aren't known here.

Yet we always get Kenny Chesney, Taylor Swift, Nickelback, Skynyrd, Bret Michales, Kid Rock, blah, blah, blah.

Where is Arcade Fire????

[Aqua Teen Carl]

It depends on perspective really. Wiz Khalifa is the only Pittsburgh artist within the past decade to hit the mainstream (Christina broke it big in 1999, Rusted Root hit it big in the early 90's).

We do have some good talent who never hit that upper echelon of popularity like Anti Flag, Girl Talk, and Grand Buffet. Other than that it's mostly straight forward rock/alt rock bands and a very small hip hop scene. Also, every time I go to a show at a small venue it's almost never full.

[ForYourLungsOnly]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Well, first of all it isn't necessarily fair to compare Pittsburgh to much bigger cities.

But I think it is true that at least until recently, we didn't have a great collection of venues, and we also didn't have much in the way of an indigenous music scene. I don't think that has anything in particular to do with sports, though, and hopefully things are starting to change a bit for the better.

I agree for the most part. But I think size of your city shouldn't be TOO much of a factor. I forgot to mention Austin, which is by no means bigger than Pittsburgh, yet has a great music scene. New Orleans, Nashville, and Memphis are also very similar in size yet boast a great music scene. It may also be the age demographics. I agree that it will hopefully start to improve.

[ForYourLungsOnly]

Originally Posted by raubre

I think in order to get more bands to come to Pittsburgh for shows, promotion needs to be better. Not from the promoter's end, from the media end. The radio stations here are terrible. I know they aren't much better anywhere else, but our "alternative" station isn't alternative (The X) and we don't have an R+B station anymore. We have too many country and sports stations. How are people in Pittsburgh going to be exposed to touring bands when our stations aren't playing them? That's pretty much why bands skip Pittsburgh. Our promoters aren't willing to take a risk by booking a band that aren't known here.

Yet we always get Kenny Chesney, Taylor Swift, Nickelback, Skynyrd, Bret Michales, Kid Rock, blah, blah, blah.

Where is Arcade Fire????

i agree with this post 10,000,000%... terrible, terrible radio with wayyyy to much country (not that there is anything wrong with it.. but come on)

[ForYourLungsOnly]

Originally Posted by Aqua Teen Carl

It depends on perspective really. Wiz Khalifa is the only Pittsburgh artist within the past decade to hit the mainstream (Christina broke it big in 1999, Rusted Root hit it big in the early 90's).

We do have some good talent who never hit that upper echelon of popularity like Anti Flag, Girl Talk, and Grand Buffet. Other than that it's mostly straight forward rock/alt rock bands and a very small hip hop scene. Also, every time I go to a show at a small venue it's almost never full.

Agreed. Wiz is FROM Pittsburgh, but he got his career rolling in Brooklyn. Anti-flag and Punchline are two decent bands that came out of here and for the most part still play lots of local shows. Music just isn't sustainable in the burgh. It makes me sad when I go to a show in a small venue when a good band comes around and all I see is standing around and people who don't care too much about the music. There is probably a reason why a lot of bands just skip over Pittsburgh on their tour dates. Hopefully the new AE stage will attract some good mid-tier popularity bands. Our venues are either too big or too small. Bands like Social Distortion (and bands of that medium level of popularity) often skip Pgh because there is not a venue to suit them.

[raubre]

Just in: Guster is coming back to Pittsburgh to Stage AE on Apr 30.

I saw them at the Arts Festival last year. Pretty good.

[TelecasterBlues]

yyyyyyyyup...PIttsburgh's identity as ANY kind of musical city of note went down with the the Syria Mosque. That whole incident pretty much serves as the perfect metaphor for the city's stance on music. This city has never been very supportive of developing a music scene and has always been dominated by sports/bar culture. It seems like every venue is stuck out in some weird spot that doesn't make any sense...I mean, Mr. Smalls is great but who wants to go out to Millvale? Why we don't have ANYTHING located downtown is a total travesty. Club Zoo is horrendous with zero sight lines and nothing in the way of acoustics but at least it's in the Strip...Altar Bar is alright. I dunno, but Pittsburgh is absolutely nothing like Austin/Nashville/Philly/DC/Raleigh/Memphis/San Fran/Portland,etc....we're not even on par with Cinci/Baltimore/Columbus for that matter and smaller cities like Asheville and college towns like Athens and Tempe even put us to shame when it comes to music support. It's unfortunate for sure, but our music scene REALLY sucks. There's no real support or care by the average citizen, there's too few venues let alone quality venues, and there's no continuity or order to the few venues that we do have.....I'd say it's something of a lost cause. We finally got a medium sized venue built on the North Shore, but this isn't the type of place to attract credible acts or anything of worth in my oppinion...this is just going to be your typical "PNC Park" type of acts passing through and not the type of thing to really pull in quality touring artists and the kinds of performers who always skip us over.

We have local artists and performers who care and do their best...but the overall support and interest from the city as a whole just isn't there at all.