I'm on board as well. When i 1st moved to chicago, my friends from college started a promotions company hell bent on reviving Funk. My initial 4 years here we spent 3 or 4 nights a week at live shows in small intimate venues around the City.
Moreover, since the 'movement' was small, when these bands came to town they'd sleep at our places. Nothing quite like a guy waking you up at 9 am with a trumpet blaring in your L/R (Carlos Washington). then his drummer wakes up, with sticks already in hand... by then the bong was loaded & we're up and ready for round II.
check out
www.silverwrapper.com for some cool stuff. lots of music in the archives, incredible musicians typically if you're into the funky stuff.
Honestly, this scene tanked after 9/11. folks here stopped partyin for 6 months and that's all it took for many small bands (mainly w. coast) to hang up their touring busses and stay local...sucks so bad.
Now i'm lucky to go out once a week for decent live music...
What kinda stinks for me is SO many of the live shows i like are on CD and i mainly spin wax.
www.archive.org is a great resource for legal downloads...
But, that's what ipod is for!
The most recent Tone mag has an interview with Charlie Hunter. he was and still is at the forefront of much of the NOLA scene that we crave, and probably one of the better musicians in the scene. Watching that guy rip at Tipitina's in NOLA at 7 am with a head full of 'gosh-knows-what' will get you hooked on the virtures of seeing musicans perform live. Throw in a weird-ass sax player named Skerik, and you'll wanna quit your day job...
oh, classical shows are loads of fun too. Just went to the Symphony here not long ago, i almost forgot how the other half groove!!!
