Alright then.
On this forum I see people talking about how bad the the music scene here in Canberra has gotten, or is, whatever.
But from my point of view Canberra's scene isn't as scummy as some people make it out to be.
I Moved here from the coast and down there if your an under-age (or even over age) band and you play original material, your lucky to get one or two gigs at a crummy battle of the bands or school talent night or something.
So when I moved here at the start of this year and met bands like Slovac, PTJY, the first incarnation of TMB and Astrochem, I was really psyched to find myself in the midst of, what I thought was a burgeoning (even if somewhat underground) music scene.
In comparison to the coast there were good all age gigs to be had nearly every weekend at supportive,professional, easy to access and above all cheap to hire venues.( like the various youth centres, The Green Room and the Basement.)
Also sound guys and equipment went hand in hand with this, with nearly everybody being able to get a half decent sound guy and PA for their gigs and still being able to cover the costs of promotion and the venue hire as well.( sometimes making a decent prophet as well)
And not just that but all the bands I saw had full sets of original material,something I was defiantly not accustomed to down in Moruya!
Every gig I saw this year managed to gather up good crowds, some even numbering in the hundreds.
I was even more blown away when I found out these bands I was seeing had extensive fan bases ( not including all their mates that came to show support every time)
All these guys didn't even think twice about acting this professional with this stuff it was just second nature for them to have the drive in them to want to progress by promoting, writing new material, rehearsing and giging.
Unlike where I came from where apart form select bands, most people were lazy as all hell and didn't do shit.
And that's just the tip of the ice burg!
That was just the high school bands!
Guys like Elephante and Paq Man, who were still only local legends took all this to another level (well maybe not so much elephante, don't get me wring great band who can rock a crowd better than any one , but they are quite lazy!
So when I see people ragging on the Canberra scene I knida wanna say "Man you have no idea what you have got available to you!"
Also, I see the Canberra scene at a crossroads at the moment.
The previous wave of young band s are starting to move past the AA scene and shoot higher drawing in +18’s crowds now and In some cases searching for greener pastures in other city’s.
So now is the time for the new wave of young bands to establish a scene all of their own.
Can’t you see the beginnings?
Guys like TMB, Astrochem and Slovac were completely unknown or non existant at the start of this year are now giging almost every weekend ,have established fan bases, won competitions against other more experienced and well known bands and have shared bills with big name local and interstate acts!
And further more to out my two cents into the hat of “Canberra sucks compared to Sydney and Melbourne” argument, Come on dudes we are not even a quarter of the size of those city’s!
So I think we are doing pretty well!
SO I hope that even if you don’t whole heartedly agree with me on this point, you can at least see that I’ve made a valiant point and that you can see the glass half full instead half empty when it comes to our music scene here in Canberra.
METALLICA RULES!
