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There is a free show on the SLU campus tonight.
The Billiken Club at Saint Louis University
8:00
FREE

So Many Dynamos
Maps and Atlases
Say Panther

It should be a sweet show. If anyone is in the area, you should stop by. We can geek out about music and maybe I'll float you a dollar for a beer. But probably not.

Anyway, are there many people from the St. Louis area on this forum? If so, what do you guys think about the current scene?

[Chad K.]

Anyway, are there many people from the St. Louis area on this forum? If so, what do you guys think about the current scene?

I played in the St. Louis scene about five years ago.  I moved to Phoenix after school, but I still keep up a little.  There are some great bands there- So Many Dynamos is definitely one.  I also really dig Riddle of Steel, Ring,Cicada, and Fragile Porcelain Mice when they get out to play a show.  There's a ton of others that are quite good.

I found it to be a great place to catch shows, but a lot of the old venues are dead and dying these days.  There's also quite a bit of infighting that makes no sense to me.  In the late 90's and early '00s when everybody thought they were going to get signed along with Gravity Kills, the Urge, and later The Living End, and Story of the Year, bands were pretty supportive of one another.  You'd see really heavy bands share bills with indie bands, and rap acts, etc. under the thinking that the more diverse the bands' fan bases are, the greater chance for sharing audiences and getting a larger turnout.  Toward the mid-00's bands got cliquesh and indie rock bands only played with other indie rock bands at indie rock clubs, and metal bands only played with metal bands at metal clubs, etc.  As a result, the bands are fighting for each others' fans within the same genre, and tend to be less apt to help each other get shows because the venues are less.  It's lead to a lot of "pay to play" shows, promoter exploitation, and good venues like the Rocket Bar, the Hi-Pointe and the Galaxy closing down.   

All in all, some of the most creative musicians I've seen come from there; but there is little support among performers and venues.

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You are so totally right. I've been playing this scene for a year now. The only venues that my band (metal) can seem to get booked at are Just Bill's and the Creepy Crawl. The Creepy Crawl used to be awesome, but now they've changed locations and it's basically a dirty hole-in-the-wall of a poorly designed bar. Either way, if you don't sell tickets, you don't play. If you don't sell enough tickets, you can't make any money.

The beauty of the system is that when you're trying to sell tickets to a show with your band and a bunch of nobodies, you can generally only find support from your friends. Then when you get to the gig, you've got five bands who have all brought their friends. One by one, after bands finish, the crowd thins out. If you're playing last, you only play to your friends. Seriously, you would save money by just inviting friends over and playing in your yard.

The only exception to this rule that I've found lately is The Bluebird. I actually caught the most varied show I've seen in a while last month. It was Target Market (indie rock), Lye by Mistake (stoner metal), Bring Back the Guns (indie rock) and So Many Dynamos (indie dance pop?). Amazing show at an awesome venue.

Between sets, they were frying up batches of home fries for the audience. I sat on a couch, listened to the Weakerthans' Reconstruction Site over the P.A., drank beer, ate fries and waited for the next awesome set.