To get some input as to what people think of the local music scene here, in Buffalo, I decided to talk to a few local record store employees. The first I chose to interview was Donny Shaft, a member or the music press at large, who works at Home of the Hits. The second guy was Dan Ball, who has ties with the music press here, in Buffalo, and who also works at World Wide.

Generation: Donny, what are your thoughts and insights on the local music scene?

Donny: Well, the local scene—it’s happening. It’s not as thriving as it was in the mid ‘90’s, when there was a lot of bands, and people were really excited about going out to see bands. But these days, it’s gotten a lot smaller and it has broken apart more. The local music scene has gotten more compartmentalized, where you’ll see certain people go see certain bands. As a whole scene, it’s broken apart. But still, it is a good time to be in a band. Buffalo does have a lot of cool bands, like Girlpope, the Irving Klaws, Baseball Furies, and the Tyrades, who are another great punk rock band. There is a huge undercurrent of pop punk and emo with bands like say, Tugboat Annie, for example.

G: You mention the emo scene. Well, Tugboat Annie was a great band out of that genre, but they moved away from Buffalo, out to Boston. Is there any specific reason for that?

DS: Well, in Tugboat Annie’s case, the guitar player, Jay, is one of my best friends. The reason they moved out of town was because at that time, there wasn’t the opportunity to make it as a band. Boston was the place to be. But in Jay’s case, he moved back to Buffalo. Buffalo isn’t necessarily the easiest place to make it as a band. But Buffalo does kind of nurture their bands.

G: Is there any specific genre of local music here, in Buffalo, that thrives more than others?

DS: The sad thing is, probably the best way to make money in Buffalo is if you are in a cover band. Bands that are out playing shitty little bars with jingles of really bad versions of Pearl Jam songs and Dave Matthews...ah Dave Matthews. Like the most successful bands in Buffalo play Dave Matthews tributes. They play like five gigs a week, and these are guys who are making a really super good living playing acoustic, with fucking bad covers of songs like “American Pie”—doing shit like that. So its kind of a sad statement, but that tells you what people want to hear. People aren’t as ready to go out and hear a band that they have never heard on the radio or on the mainstream level. But there’s always going to be a small contingent of people who want to hear bands that write and play their own songs.

Generation: Dan, what are your thoughts on the local music scene here in Buffalo?

Dan Ball: The local music scene here in Buffalo is about the same as it has been for the last five years or so, maybe longer. I think it’s a struggle to be in a live band here. Clubs are booking more acts, which helps a great deal, but I still think it’s a struggle to get support when your band does a local act. A lot of bands tend to leave Buffalo to go elsewhere and try to attract a larger following, rather than stay. There are only a very few number of bands that have made national success, and I don’t think Buffalo is a place to find it. Like I said, it’s always a struggle here, because Buffalo tends to be a fucking bar band...cover band city. Like 90 % of the city is like that. But thank God for places like Mohawk Place and Nietzsche’s, and even Broadway Joes, who does the Baby Steps hip-hop thing, which seems really cool. There are some encouraging signs in music scenes, such as the local pop/punk scene. For the most part, most of the bands I know of follow that pop/punk line, but there’s always going to be a strong scene somewhere. Folk singers tend to do well in Buffalo also. I mean, there are always girls and guitars in the city, which is great. That’s basically my take on the local music scene.