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Best City For Gigging?
- Thread starter lefty
- Start date
Not Charlotte. Bad gigging town. Many breweries, little applause.
Define best. Number of venues? Quality of those venues? Pay? Appreciative audiences? Diversity of genres supported?
Calebmundy
Supporting Member
- Apr 5, 2007
- 1,134
- 817
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- Endorsing Artist: DNA Amplifiers, Lākland Basses
The most giggable city has got to be Nashville. Lower Broadway has to have about 65 stages. All of them run 1-2, 4 hour, full band shifts a day 7 days a week, a lot of them run 4 full band shifts a day (and a bunch of acoustic duos and trios), year round. Take home money runs from $100-$1,000 per person (base pay + tips), and probably averages about $200-250. There is a fair amount of gigs outside of Broadway too. Not to mention the studio and road gigs, which I’m not sure count as “city gigging.”
Vegas is much bigger as a party/entertainment center, but I don’t think anywhere in the world pays the bills for as many full time musicians than Nashville.
Vegas is much bigger as a party/entertainment center, but I don’t think anywhere in the world pays the bills for as many full time musicians than Nashville.
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No Paris. Too many bands, not enough venues. The balance of power is not in the musicians' favor. Difficult for cover bands, almost impossible if you play your own songs.
Second on Nashville & Vegas in the US. Other than that, generally the bigger the city, the better the scene. Notable exceptions that punch above what might be otherwise expected include tourist destinations (e.g., Branson, Atlantic City) and towns famous for their contributions to music history (e.g., Chicago, Seattle).
Kingston, NH has the Saddle Up Saloon, where the ladies appreciate classic rock and like to dance. So Kingston, NH is best.
Hard to qualify/quantify but the live music scene, especially live improvised music is very hot in NYC right now. Lots of venues, stages, restaurants. Cover/tribute acts/bar bands are much less prevalent. Between busking opportunities and paid gigs, it’s possible to bring in $100 or more per day. Which is not enough to live on in this city! But there are plenty of gigging opportunities.
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Austin= Live music capital of the world.
Known as the live music capital of the world, Austin is a must-see for melody lovers and also foodies. Austin is home to hundreds of live music venues and some world-class music festivals, such as 'South by Southwest' and 'Austin City Limits.
Known as the live music capital of the world, Austin is a must-see for melody lovers and also foodies. Austin is home to hundreds of live music venues and some world-class music festivals, such as 'South by Southwest' and 'Austin City Limits.
I haven’t been to Austin in quite a few years, but when I was there were indeed lots of gigs. But unless you were at the pointy end of the music scene, you weren’t going to make much money. Lots of staggeringly talented players working for the door or playing for free. Austin, at least then, a great town to hear live music. But a pretty mediocre place to play it. Hope that’s improved…
Austin’s live music scene has been dying with all the tech industry and younger people moving in. A lot of older venues have closed down.. the pay is horrible and younger people only care about national acts coming through and not local small acts playing small venues.
I moved here in 2015 (moved from Philly) and was debating getting back into playing again.. I would see this one upright bassist all around town for two year straight.. when i finally went up him to ask some questions (he was playing a small outdoor coffee shop with a Texas swing trio).. I asked how much he was getting paid for the gig his reply was “whatever’s in the tip jar”
I learned from talking to others around town that this is normal for these 1-4 hour sets here.. so I’ve been focusing on finding a good group of players to start something original here.
Nashville, New Orleans, Vegas, Chicago house of blues and Montreal would be my top 5.
Never went to L.A. though.
Never went to L.A. though.
Boston for original music, which has changed somewhat because the Rent Is Too High, but there used to be a perfect balance of young folks who stayed after graduation from whatever local college they went too, Venues at different levels (dive bars to halls to show biz), music schools, rehearsal spaces, recording studios and college radio that played your music, recorded or live. (both MIT and Tufts had live local in house performance shows). Touring was also afordable. These days for professionals and students that can afford the rent, there are Porch Fests (like open studios for visual artists) and for street band players, HONK in Davis Square Somerville, and that's a world wide draw. (my favorite street band is Rude Mechanicals from NYC, but Boston has Second Line and Emperor Norton's Stationary Marching Band)
I used to see Athens GA in a similar category, and NYC (although different lifestyle), in the 90s, Seatle of course.
You might consider that all to be developmental scene because a living isn't being made until you have a commercial hit. (Like the Mighty Bosstones, Dresden Dolls, Morphene, Pixies, or Amie Mann) There were no coverband venues at all, nada. I haven't seen a cover band since highschool in the 70s... But jobs in the field your degree is in are plentiful. Jobs in classical music and music education are also possible if you are in the top 2%.
I used to see Athens GA in a similar category, and NYC (although different lifestyle), in the 90s, Seatle of course.
You might consider that all to be developmental scene because a living isn't being made until you have a commercial hit. (Like the Mighty Bosstones, Dresden Dolls, Morphene, Pixies, or Amie Mann) There were no coverband venues at all, nada. I haven't seen a cover band since highschool in the 70s... But jobs in the field your degree is in are plentiful. Jobs in classical music and music education are also possible if you are in the top 2%.
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I was told that in the 70's, many, perhaps even most of the casinos in Vegas had live bands 24/7. By the time I was gigging there in the 90's none had been 24/7 for at least a decade but there was still a lot of live music. A former bandmate (keys) moved there 20 years ago (on my recommendation) and made a pretty good living for the first several years but tells me that these days the gigs have thinned out to nearly nothing. Nashville has always had a lot of live music and from what I've seen there's still a ton of it. Of course, in any city the difference can be huge depending on whether or not one is speaking of established musicians or newcomers. I was looking at Nashville around 25 years ago and a guitarist acquaintance living there at the time told me: "Yeah, there are a lot of gigs here but also a lot of established players who are already covering them, including a lot of touring pros who are in town because they're between tours."
The catch is that what club gigs pay as always lags behind inflation. The cost of living here in Nashville (and Austin as well) is soaring, so while there are lots of gigs, you're going to need them as basic rents here are well past a grand and climbing constantly.
On the other hand, the Nashville economy is soaring, and I could get a wooden statue a job. We're also a big industry town, so we have outposts of the tour contractors, lights, buses, repair, legal, publishing, songwriting, instrument and amp repair, etc., that could be related music jobs.
I would far prefer, if I were still gigging to be somewhere else where I could be a bigger fish in a smaller pond, and clubs still paid well. I made WAY more money gigging in East TX and North Florida than I ever did here.
On the other hand, the Nashville economy is soaring, and I could get a wooden statue a job. We're also a big industry town, so we have outposts of the tour contractors, lights, buses, repair, legal, publishing, songwriting, instrument and amp repair, etc., that could be related music jobs.
I would far prefer, if I were still gigging to be somewhere else where I could be a bigger fish in a smaller pond, and clubs still paid well. I made WAY more money gigging in East TX and North Florida than I ever did here.
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JazznFunk
Supporting Member
The real question is - what is the best city to live in where can you make a living playing just gigs, and will you be cool with playing a ton of music you might not be passionate about just to pay the bills?
JazznFunk
Supporting Member
Reminds me of those ads you saw in old magazines about how you too could earn 'several dollars' and impress your friends by learning to play the guitar!
I do not know where the best city is for gigging, however I can tell you it is not in the state of Utah. Source: have been trying to find an act to play with for about 2 years now, population really just isn't up to support a scene anywhere.
