Our RGV Original Music Scene in Transition

Admin Posts : 14 Join date : 2012-12-18

In the early 2000s our music scene had transitioned over from the 90s music scene where a handful of active original rock, punk and metal bands existed and turned into a number closer to fifty bands, give or take, that would rotate playing live music venues throughout the RGV . This in turn was supported by a number of promoters supporting the local scene to include but not limited to, “The Union”, “Valley Texas Hard Core”, “Dead Gift Productions”, “South Texas Metal Productions”, “Red Barn Productions” and “Lunatic Productions”. During this time, it was not uncommon for the Valley to have least one or two shows every weekend. Venues that come to mind were Trenton Point, Onyx, Bar Rock, Metropolis, Hooligans, Cypress, Graham Central Station, Smileys Ballroom and the VFW. Some of these places still exist while many are now a distant memory.

Our RGV Original Music Scene in Transition 8200510

From a personal perspective, I believe our music scene was at its peak from the years of 2003 to 2009. Thereafter, everything seemed to slow down drastically. People weren’t coming out as much and bands members began to face the reality that you must make a living outside of doing what you love. This was accompanied by the fact that live music venues were becoming harder and harder to come by, especially for live original music. Many promoters disappeared while others changed with the times. Some went on to become a bigger entity by encompassing the many different genres of music and hosting bigger shows for the masses; Don’t Go Emo / Geo’s, comes to mind although the latter was short-lived.
If we were to name a few dead end years for the music scene, I would dare say 2010 and 2011 would be those years. As we near the end of 2012 we look forward to 2013 with a sense of feeling that we are beginning to see a change once more. Live music venues are now on the rise. More and more bars are demanding live bands because people once again are coming out and supporting live local music. Although a lot of these live bands are cover bands, they are still doing their part of getting the RGV people interested in music once again. In fact, some of these people that were playing in original bands are now part of these covers bands. I’m not mentioning any names but I'm sure you guys know who is who.

FROM ORIGINALS TO COVERS

And so we entered 2012 and we began to see a shift from what the previous years had been for the local music scene. In as little as two years, bars are now demanding live music and live rock music at that. TEJANO is dead and Country bands have fewer venues to play at. From Myspace to now FACEBOOK, people began to post their shows, mp3 links, etc on these websites where mere spectators started to become fans/supporters. Suddenly FACEBOOK groups spawned off out of nowhere and we begin to see more people involved in supporting of live music then before.

Our RGV Original Music Scene in Transition Facebo11

Our RGV Original Music Scene in Transition Facebo11

We begin to get a sense of what a busy music scene maybe like - San Antonio, Austin, Houston and Dallas TX come to mind. If you go to downtown Austin, you will see a number of live music venues however not all cater to the original music scene. So in a given weekend, you will caught cover bands, djs/vjs and original bands performing at side to side bars. I think thats pretty cool and I believe it could work here locally as well. If you were to ask me where my heart lies, its in original metal music however I do enjoy going out and enjoying a few beers while checking out a cover band of various genres as well. Its just that I'm more likely to be impressed by the performance of a hard hitting original band then a hard hitting cover band cause the energy is their own music. Stilll, I truly believe that cover bands and orginal music go hand in hand because it gets people interested in music. Isn't that what its all about? Sharing our love of music? I see no reason why we all can't support each other. LONG LIVE THE SOUTH TEXAS MUSIC SCENE AND LONG LIVE THE SOUTH TEXAS UNDERGROUND!