Guitar Gear Forum

It's been discussed often about how local music scenes aren't what they used to be. Here around the Philly area, things were pretty active when I was old enough to enjoy the scene during the late 80s. Some made it big, some were on the verge, and some - not so much.

Cinderella was pretty big. Britny Fox had their moment. Heaven's Edge were on the verge when the whole thing came crashing down. Many of us thought they'd be the next big thing in that style of music, but it didn't happen. Here's Reggie Wu of Heaven's Edge. Good guy and still around and active in the Philly area.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iowA3DqwIs4[/video]

I don't know much about about my local scene anymore. How about you guys? Who was (or is) going to be the next big thing in your area?

I don't think anyone in my area is going to be "big" anytime soon.

Last thing we produced was Mudvayne who pretty much sum up that awesome players don't necessarily make awesome music.

The local scene actually isn't bad for such a small area really. We've got a variety of styles going on and from the little I can see, people are fairly supportive even across genres (I'm sure there are some elitist bastards).

My hope is to find a drummer and get into things so I maybe could comment more then.

austin is flooded. good if you want to catch a show, not good if you want to stand out.

SLC, for such a quiet place on the national map, manages to sneak out a few big acts, at least in underground genres of music.

- The Used came up in the same scene I did, and I've shared dozens of stages with them.
- Rancid's drummer Branden Steineckert is an old friend of mine.
- Neon Trees are from Utah, no matter what they claim. Their current drummer used to be in a band with me.
- Chelsea Grin is one of the bigger names in deathcore, for what that's worth.
- Half of the Descendents (Steve and Karl) came from Salt Lake City, and were in a hardcore band here called Massacre Guys.


By comparison, I used to live in Houston, a city five times the size of Salt Lake, and unless you were into country or hip-hop, Blue October was about it for recent local talent to hit it big.

As far as original material, theres nothing here but punk, cookie monster, hipster weirdo shit, 3 chord coffe house artsy fartsy accoustic, or wannabe rockabilly (which falls into the hipster weirdo shit realm). Local scene=suckage.

There are some talented players. They just play shit music.

Never been much of a music scene around here. Boring.

I don't follow melodic technical death grind scream core anymore, so I have no idea what the hell is going on locally. Shit, I don't think I have scene a local band in concert since probably 2008.

as far as "bar bands" there used to be a couple decent ones, but I quit going in bars 5 years or so ago.

Yarbicus wrote:Never been much of a music scene around here. Boring.

Well if they'd all quit doing heroin and dying you might have a scene!

And Rampage, I'm not really into the local level stuff of those genres much anymore, but I try to get out to a local show at least every other month to support the bands, but more importantly support the few bars still giving punk/metal/anything but cover bands a place to play.

Currently there's not much as far as I'm aware... Fuck The Facts seem to do alright in the death/grind scene. Monobrow has a certain level of popularity within the stoner/heavy psych scene.

Historically, Annihilator is probably the biggest metal band to come out of Ottawa. On the other side of the coin, Alanis Morissette is likely the biggest name overall that we've produced.

benjamin801 wrote:By comparison, I used to live in Houston, a city five times the size of Salt Lake, and unless you were into country or hip-hop, Blue October was about it for recent local talent to hit it big.

so blue october isnt from austin? thank god.

I really dig some Heavens Edge stuff. Granted I'm not from philly, but its cool to see regiie is playing still.

100 watt wrote:As far as original material, theres nothing here but punk, cookie monster, hipster weirdo shit, 3 chord coffe house artsy fartsy accoustic. Local scene=suckage.

This is exactly how it is here.

Yeah we get mostly mediocre metal bands and dubstep around here. Sometimes you'll get old legends play like Tom Hingley's band etc.

Atlanta has never had much of a non-hip-hop scene in the 10 years I have been here. Cover bands do not count. I do luck out though in that ProgPower USA is held here every year, so I get an opportunity to see a bunch of bands I like that otherwise don't even play in this country for the most part.

I've found our local scene here in Chicago to be pretty damn amazing.
Lots of talent and ambition to go around honestly.

I go to at least 3 or 4 local shows a month and am always pleasantly surprised.
Lots of kickass small venues and many different scenes all worth checking out, I love it.

Anyone breaking out and getting big? I have no idea. I don't even know what that really means anymore.
Chicago I feel like gets all the benefits of being a major market while still having that smaller market friendliness in the scene and I love it.

there's been a few decent rock bands out of Trinidad, none made it anywhere other than a few tours, Orange Sky opened for Malmsteen for a few US tours, then my friend's band Jointpop has done a few self funded tours of the UK, sadly other than Nicki Minaj we haven't really added much to mainstream music in a loooooong time... and I apologise for Nicki Minaj seriously... I'm reallllly sorry...

This is Orange Sky just before they went on Tour with Malmsteen
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtgQMFCanjk[/video]

This is one of Jointpop's videos, basically stitched together footage from a UK Tour...
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_sao-ILga0[/video]

Marc G wrote:This is Orange Sky just before they went on Tour with Malmsteen
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtgQMFCanjk[/video]

I saw them on the Malmsteen tour. They were awesome.

Orange Sky is fucking awesome!! Saw them open for King's X a few years ago; what a great show!

I went in not knowing who the fuck Orange Sky was and left a fan.


As far as LA locals, my band opened up for Crowbar in 2011, which was fucking awesome.

There's a local band called Broken By the Burden whom I've very good friends with; those guys have some serious potential.

Mostly bum all around here.

benjamin801 wrote:

Marc G wrote:This is Orange Sky just before they went on Tour with Malmsteen
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtgQMFCanjk[/video]

I saw them on the Malmsteen tour. They were awesome.

Devin wrote:Orange Sky is fucking awesome!! Saw them open for King's X a few years ago; what a great show!

I went in not knowing who the fuck Orange Sky was and left a fan.

Yeah.. they can kick some serious ass, the band has gone through lots of changes since those two tours though, pretty much the only Members left are Nigel and Nick Rojas, the Singer/Guitarist and Bassist who are brothers. Nigel is a stupid talented song writer and guitarist, he just has an amazing ear, Nick is actually a better guitarist than he is a bassist.... they've had a really strange evolution since they started as a reggae/roots/rock style band then went metal for a few years and now it seems like they can't make up their mind..lol

This is something they released a few years ago, real reggae vibes
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QDlA_BG1Vk[/video]

Then they recently recorded this with their new line up, which has a kinda funky new wave/metal vibe
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muhDrO9QRS4[/video]

and now this is their latest release... pure reggae
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfG8jERvxIY[/video]

As far as metal is concerned, Dallas/Ft Worth is all over the place. Of course, being that it's Pantera country, there's a whole slew of Southern metal bands who have a vocalist and a guitarist that think they're Phil and Dime. There's this one club in Ft. Worth called The Rail, where the running joke is every night there is a Dimebag Lookalike Contest.

Oh, another great local southern metal/stoner type band is White Light Cemetery.

First time I saw them, they were nothing special, but last time I saw them, the second guitarist was gone, and the vocalist began playing guitar + singing and the dude is a pretty badass player

This guy has been around the local scene for years in several different bands and as a solo act. I usually enjoy most of what he does. This lil ditty was in that new Tarantino flick.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLCNx8Ny7ZE[/video]

Then there's Dax Riggs. I'm not really a fan, but people around here eat dem chits up. Dude on lead guitar is a friend of mine who's also been in a coupla different bands that have been pretty cool.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JMe5QWbBAU[/video]

Both of these bands are from my area, I dig 'em.

https://www.facebook.com/Callforfireband?fref=ts

https://www.facebook.com/thepiecycles?ref=ts&fref=ts