| THERE'S AN IDEA: Show Times
Providence serves up a friendly website listing concerts by up-and-coming musicians. Now that's music to our ears. THE IDEA If a band performs at a club but nobody shows up to listen, does it still make a sound? Getting the word out about concerts, especially at dive bars and other small venues, can be tough -- and both musicians and concert-goers lose out when shows aren't well-publicized. This problem has been solved in Providence, where www.lotsofnoise.com lets bands post a notice of their upcoming shows free of charge and allows music lovers to scan a concert calendar. Providence music fanatics Chris Saraullo and Ryan Lesser began the website three years ago after commiserating about missing a show they would have gone to if they had only known it was happening. "A great thing about Providence is that everyone here is so supportive and open to different kinds of music," says Saraullo. "I don't know if Lots of Noise could exist in other cities, but I think they should give it a try." WHY BOSTON NEEDS IT A lot of the noise is coming from some great bands based right here, but there is no easy place to find out about it all. This kind of website would help create a more vibrant music scene for Boston. At least one music publication in Boston, The Noise, does have a message board, but concert listings are jumbled together with unrelated rants. PROBABILITY We've almost finished the Big Dig, right? All Boston needs is one person -- a computer-savvy, music-loving, entrepreneur-minded soul -- something that shouldn't be too hard to find in a town that's home to MIT and Berklee. Jeff Breeze, the editor of Northeast Performer magazine, values the Rhode Island concert information he gets from lotsofnoise.com and would love to see an online concert calendar here. "There's got to be a place," he says, "where high art and punk rock basements meet." - Patrick Gerard HealyBack |
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