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devinholiday78 t1_j6dwq1t wrote

Local musician in a very active punk band. I’ve only lived here 5 years and in that time we have lost some great smaller dive bar type venues. Covid caused a lot of bands to quit rehearsing and they didn’t have the desire to begin again after so they just broke up.
It is definitely not Austin here. I’ve played there many times.
I honestly am kind of in the middle on pittsburghs scene. I stay pretty busy woth my own band so I’m certain I am missing a great deal of what’s going on with others. And I do fall on the rock side so I can’t speak for other genres. There could be amazing things happening and me just not in the know I do want to mention…it seemed someone was ragging on the cromags in a church basement.
It is out of the way. But!!!! It has been turned into a record store/venue/ etc. the owner is apparently straight edge. No booze at all not even byob. That aligns fairly well with cromags so it makes sense.

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thecrowfly t1_j6evz1s wrote

I gotta say, having the "Cro-Mags" playing in the basement of Preserving Underground is cool and all, but it really shows where the local music scene has been heading in the last few years (especially when it comes to this genre of music.)

A year or two before the pandemic, Harley Flanagan came here with his solo band - which is pretty much the same as the Cro-Mags these days. Anyway, they played the second floor of the smiling moose down on the south side and it was PACKED and a ton of fun and a ton of energy. What you would expect from a show of that calibre.

Now, Harley finally has the Cro-Mags name again, and he's playing the basement of Preserving Hardcore. A 20 minute drive outside of town. No way that venue can hold as many people, and it's not really that big. Not complaining, but a LOT of the good venues have shut down of the last few years. I appreciate Preserving Underground doing what they can to step up, but I hope we see some others popping up soon. Honestly surprised this show is not at Cattivo - or even Sprit, where Jon Joseph's version of the Cro Mags played once with eyehategod.

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devinholiday78 t1_j6f529b wrote

The fans of that music are getting older. And are moving away from the center of the city. Parking is also an issue and rock n roll in general is pulling smaller and smaller crowds.
Many bands I used to see at The Rex now play the Crafthouse.

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