Bloomington maintains vitality in local music scene

Seattle was the holiest of the holy in the early '90s. This northwestern coffee-monger town singlehandedly gave birth to the flannel shirt and ripped blue jean-clad grunge seraphim.\n A seemingly bottomless well of the dark and screeching talent of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains is somewhat ignored by the national eye. Once home to the best of heavy rock and punk fusion for the lonelyhearted, the word "Seattle" still brings stars to my eyes. But why did one city explode with talent and then fade away?\n How could so much talent apparently instantaneously appear in one town that was previously off the charts? What drove these musicians to succeed after starting from a background much like aspiring musicians all around the country? How could Kurt Cobain go from pounding out tunes with a high school friend in a relative's house to becoming the martyr of grunge? Could it happen again?\n While elsewhere aspiring to be a musician is futile, Bloomington has a scene with locally well-established groups, more than one quality venue and some kids to go see the shows. The scene isn't in a position to disappear for quite awhile, as some do.\nThis is not the case for another Indiana town of nearly the same size with a university in the area. Lafayette is more conservative and home to fewer venues, but at one time it boasted a "burgeoning punk scene," says local musician and LafayetteMusic.net Webmaster Jesse Charles.\nCharles got into the scene about four years ago after arriving to study at Purdue. Aside from playing music, Charles started LafayetteMusic.net, an online haven for local musicians with a message board and show calendar. \nLafayette is not lacking in its share of big name locals. Shannon Hoon of Blind Melon fame, Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin of Guns N' Roses and Squirtgun all once called the area home. Now, though, there are few shows to catch on weekends and fewer solid bands to follow.\nWith such comparable stats, the scenes of Lafayette and Bloomington are worlds apart. So what makes a local scene work?\n"I'm going to say communication is key, especially in the form of networking," Charles says. "Bands don't want to do that anymore. It's a 'cooler than you' situation. In the past, bands of different genre and style were very open to working with bands of other styles. So I guess arrogance is the single biggest detractor to local music." Big heads equal small scenes.\nWith a limited amount of venues, money and fans, local scenes face an anti-Darwinesqe situation. To survive, musicians have to support one another instead of compete. To have a show to go to next weekend, it helps if musicians promote and attend the other group's set this weekend, letting venue owners know that original, local music is in demand.\nThis is what I see working in Bloomington. The musicians I talk to here know one another, play together and know when other shows are going on. \nAnother thing to keep the music flowing? "Activity," Charles says. Right on -- when no one else is playing shows, new musicians are subject to a largely uninspiring atmosphere to work in. \n"If nothing is going on, no one will see any point in doing anything. That's the problem here ... With a sharp drop in music-related activities in the area, no one was motivated to do anything about it.," Charles says. \nAlong with communication, motivation is largely working for Bloomington. Stuff is going on here, and people know it. There are people to play with and people to hear it.\nBloomington has not plateaued yet. There is room to grow. At the Live From Bloomington Vertigo show last week, the floor was virtually empty at first, expanding later but still leaving too much room. It turned out to be an amazing show. Some could say it was a good turnout, but for only $2-3 cover and a motivating cause, I was convinced there could be more. \nMany factors develop a scene, but one current runs underneath all of them. Maintaining a music scene takes work.