It's not too bad here in the Houston, TX area. I live south of there near Galveston. Galveston's Strand area has a few nice little places to play but once you get on the mainland it dries up a bit, other than a few small bars and ice houses. There is a bar near my house that hosts open mic blues jams on Sunday afternoons and I like going there to play. Doing so over the past few years has gotten me several fill in gigs with other bands. Due to my work schedule, I cant really commit to anything full time.

I'd really love to find a small jazz group to start playing with but I'm afraid there's not a whole lot of demand for that down here.

Highest demand is for country, classic rock and blues in the Galveston area. Once you get up towards Houston (clear lake area) there's more of the younger locations... demand there is more modern stuff; alternative rock, new country, etc.

Once in Houston, TX there are several live music venues that feature local bands writing their own music. In my younger days I played at Fitzgerald's alot.. that's been well over 10 years ago.

Not so good in the Akron area, but I work swing shift. That contributes a lot to my negativity!

Gary

I live in the Sacramento, CA, area, and we play mostly Classic Country. We stay out of the late night bar scene, but play lots of VFW, ELKS, etc. I have friends that play classic rock/top 40. The gigs can be scarce and most don't pay much.

Pretty good here in Melbourne, particularly for a place of it's size. Got a really great rock scene as well as strong showings in soul, folk/country/bluegrass, electronic, punk/metal and just about everything in between. Biggest issue we're having at the moment is with noise complaints and developers but they're trying to change the regulations in regards to some of that to preserve the scene here. Plenty of bars/clubs that are institutions and book gigs of some description most nights of the week, if not every night. Cherry Bar (on AC/DC lane), Yah Yahs, Public Bar, Old Bar, The Tote, The Gasometer, Bendigo Hotel, The Evelyn, Grace Darling, Boney, Revolver, Nothcote Social Club, Corner Hotel, Max Watt's, Alia Arthouse, Bar Open, Worker's Club, Howler, Spotted Mallard, The Retreat, Espy, Prince, Palais, Flying Saucer Club, Billboard, Ding Dong, The Toff... that's some of the 'smaller' (100 - 1400 capacity) 'inner' venues (less than 8km or so of the center of the CBD) off the top of my head, definitely missed a heap too.

Do the club owners expect your bands to bring in people? We are a good band, but it's difficult to get a following playing cover music, especially when our friends that may come see us are mostly over forty.

Half and half. We have a strong core of followers that come to many of the places we play, but there are always new people showing up, too. Some of the places we play are "members only" so we can't bring in our followers there.