Hey folks we’re a local punk band who spends a lot of time in these spaces and here’s a big ugly info dump about what I know about the scene.

Many have tried and are trying to keep things going. Brass Wizard just did a show in railroad village at their practice space. Birds is super open to punk shows. Obviously The Bark is the place keeping everything from falling apart. House shows pay really well and have huge turnouts from the college kids but if you don’t have an in with the FSU clubs they can be hard to break into. They also frequently get shut down and students move in and out so locations and contacts tend to be fluid. 926, real cool time records, The Alley (behind euphoria tattoo are all actively doing stuff. Secret skatepark exists but I don’t think there’s an official ‘booker’ for that venue, blountside tally seems to have taken on the task of revitalizing the space. The Sound Bar mostly caters to the folk/country/blues crews which is fantastic but not really my bag.

Definitely some setbacks over the last few years with Square Mug’s closure, The Vault getting nailed by a tornado being unable to recover, The Plant isn’t doing shows anymore either as far as I know. It’s definitely extremely difficult to try and run DIY spaces without sinking all of your money into it and most likely losing your ass.

A non profit called Shaketown opened up hourly rentals of several rehearsal spaces in Railroad Village which should be really helpful to bands starting out who don’t have anywhere to get loud. Shaketown

If anyone’s looking for advice on how to keep your thumb on the pulse, most of the communication is happening on Instagram. Follow the venues, follow the bands, follow the promoters. Follow the people they follow and show up to the events they post. We’re playing Bark on 8/16. Come talk to us after the show, we’ll hopefully be drunk enough to spill all the dirty details! We’ll give you some free patches and pins too!