Here's the obligatory San Diego update:
So we're slowing down a bit since I last checked in -- the main three are still me, (Mike) Bleeds, and Hyperwave, but Hyperwave has been pretty busy at school and he hasn't been able to play many shows or write stuff.
We've been playing a bunch of shows but it's kind of plateau-ing, I think. San Diego's a tough nut to crack for pretty unique reasons! One of which is the fact that you have to drive everywhere.
Here's the thing -- our public transportation is not robust enough to get everyone to the big venues around San Diego, so cars are basically required if you want to go see music. The problem is, when you get someone into a car, you basically have to PROMISE them a good time; otherwise they won't go. It's different than in the bigger, more dense cities like NY, where if a band is shitty you can just walk to a bar nearby and hang out.
Second -- even if you manage to get to a venue, they probably won't be playing music from the independent scene. Most of the big venues are concentrated in the downtown area, and the downtown area mostly plays music from outside of SD, or electronic dance music. This means that even if we managed to get known around the other San Diego neighborhoods, we'd still have to compete with huge acts from outside, which is REALLY tough. And then you have to deal with the fact that half the people in the downtown area aren't even there to hear bands or anything like that; they're there to go to clubs, get wasted, and fuck.
So these two features create this feedback loop where people won't go out unless they're PROMISED a good time, and the only way to promise them a good time is to say "fuck the local scene" and give them a really big act from out of town, which gives them even less of a reason to go out and explore the local scene. Consequently, the rest of the indie scene just wants to get out of SD so they can play in a local scene where it's actually rewarding to NOT leave
I guess the solution is just to play more shows and get more people involved...it's just difficult with a fickle area like this! I want to hear some of the other California musicians chime in on this because I want to know if it's like this in other areas!