Resolving to see more live music in the
new year, I've been looking into better ways to find shows happening
around town. The way I see it, there's two broad ways most people
might look for live music – time based (I want to see a show on
Saturday!) or band based (it would be great to know if Basia
Bulat plays in town). Let's take a look at what works best for
each path.
Time Based
For me, this is the most common. I'm making plans for the weekend, and I want to know what my options are. If you've been around DC for a while, you start to get familiar with the main options. Most straightforward is to go to the venue websites. They usually give you the richest information about each of the bands – photos, links to the band websites, videos and sound files. Going to each site individually is a pain, though.
For me, this is the most common. I'm making plans for the weekend, and I want to know what my options are. If you've been around DC for a while, you start to get familiar with the main options. Most straightforward is to go to the venue websites. They usually give you the richest information about each of the bands – photos, links to the band websites, videos and sound files. Going to each site individually is a pain, though.
Next up are sites
that list shows from multiple venues. The best known local options
are probably City
Paper and the Washington
Post. Of the two, City Paper is a lot cleaner and nicer, and
appears a little more comprehensive. Then there's loads of national
and international aggregators with very level of show lists. The
problem is, you can start with one of them and find a decent list of
shows, but plenty are inevitably missing. You visit another one to
try to fill in the gaps, but mostly you have to sift through the same
show list. What we need is a comprehensive list.
From all my
searching, for live music listings in the DC area, Show
List DC is definitely the most comprehensive. The format is super
basic – simple text listings by date – but, on closer inspection
despite having a fancier interface doesn't actually offer more
information.
Recommendation:
Show List DC
Band Based
When you want to
know when a specific band – or, more likely, a lot of specific
bands you like – are playing, a different approach is needed. Big
bands sell out early, and its easy to miss shows if you don't read
each listing.
In comes Song
Kick. There are a bunch of show listing aggregators out there, but from those I've looked at they're one of the best. They aggregate listings from 100's of sources, mostly
things like the online ticket vendors. This gives them a pretty
comprehensive list of shows – not quite as good as Show
List DC since they lack the local connection (they're based in
the UK), but rivaling City
Paper, if not better. The best feature, though, is that their
main feature is tracking artists. You can set up alerts for any bands
you like so that you get an email whenever they book shows near you.
Integration with your Spotify, Facebook, and iTunes lets you
pre-populate that list of tracked bands as well. If you like a
cleaner interface for time based searching, they can be a better
starting point than Show List as well. Good stuff.
Recommendation:
Song Kick
Hope
these sources are useful to you – feel free to comment below if
you've used either of these and like/dislike them or have
recommendations for any better sources for finding live music.
-Neal
