Making Baltimore a Place for Bands Beyond the Beehive

April 22, 2:25 PMBaltimore Band ExaminerJeff Schad

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An apt description of the Baltimore music scene?

In an article published in Paper Mag in June, 2008, writer Alexandria Symonds states that "Baltimore has earned a reputation as a great place to be from, but not necessarily a great place to be." While she does go on to say that given the number of indie bands that have risen from the Baltimore scene, Charm City is "coming into its own."

There isn't really a point in refuting any of the article's statements, because Symonds is right. A city unto its own, Baltimore is a great environment for bands to cut their chops and develop their live acts. There are plenty of clubs and venues of all sizes for local acts to make the rounds and gain invaluable experience playing in front of audiences.

But there is a gap. A great band breeding ground does not make for an established, credible scene. Baltimore, for bands, may best be described as a beehive: lots of activity, everybody gets work, but its a self-contained system. As the Paper Mag article points out, there have been plenty of bands from Baltimore to earn varying amounts of success beyond the unofficial boundaries of the MD/DC/NOVA area. Without enough media exposure, publicity and connections in Baltimore to support bands solidifying bona fide careers, talent is forced to go elsewhere to achieve their visions and dreams.

This is not something endemic to Baltimore only; there are hundreds of cities across the USA that boast strong local talent, but can't support any kind of sustained growth for a band within that distinct microcosm of the music world.

So what is it that makes certain cities or markets conducive to raising bands up to that national level? For starters it takes great venues. Baltimore has good venues, but none that truly stand out as a "destination" of sorts, like CBGB in New York, Whiskey A Go Go in LA, or even 9:30 in DC. This list doesn't disclude smaller cities or towns either. Take The Catalyst in Sant Cruz, for example. It's a top-line venue in a small city that is a destination for a lot of national acts. In these places, when a locally-based band can make a great venue their home club and play it regularly, the coupling is much more powerful and talked about by the public at large.

Media coverage is also essential. For anyone who watched The Wire and remembers the episode where Baltimore Sun staff lament the shrinking national coverage their stories get, that scene is grounded in truth. Baltimore isn't a city in the national spotlight, and although readers are consuming more information online, this lack of focus does carry over to Internet media to a great extent.

Festivals (or better yet one HUGE festival) are another great way that cities can blossom into a nationally recognized music epicenter. SXSW in Austin and Coachella in the California Desert Valley are two examples of festivals drawing major attention to a small region. Coachella also shows that a festival need not be in the heart of a city to be associated with it, since it is associated with Southern California in general.

The last element is one great band; the one that stays true to their hometown and gets involved. Sacramento, CA became a place known for up and coming bands due in large part to Deftones. The Ramones were New York. Chicago (the band) became...well, you get the point. One band  that is synonymous with a city and committed to helping out up and coming acts can be an immeasurable force in establishing the scene.