your music community
Out of context: Reply #9
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- mg330
With Chicago being the third largest city in the US, you'd think there would be clubs galore with tons of bands playing constantly that are worth seeing.
However, there are really only about 6-8 venues that bands really shoot for playing at, ones where you feel like it's a show, and not just you having a place to play in a bar. Good bands can be found anywhere, but you typically know certain venues and they types of bands they usually have.
In the building my band practices in, you hear tons of nu-metal, disgusting stuff IMO and I constantly wonder where they even get shows. My bandmates have said on the South Side of Chicago, there are tons of bars that cater to that kind of crowd. But you won't dare find it on the north side of town where venues I mentioned above are located.
What's cool, though, is that in a city of around 3 million people, going to shows is one of the things that make the city not seem so big. Sometimes you feel like you see the same people at different venues all across town. Maybe people just have a certain look about them.
Music-wise, the indie thing is and has always been alive and kicking here. There are also quite a bit of open-mic acoustic type things here, which is how I got my start and met friends and people I play music with. In fact now I'm trying to steer myself back to doing solo acoustic stuff when I have the time because I'm really missing it.
I've also not really sought out good jazz in the city, but have heard there's lots of good stuff to find in various bars.