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Comment by legerdemain | Hacker News Reader

Name two mid-sized music venues on the Peninsula or in South Bay.

Not stadiums or sports arenas that host Top 40s mega-acts like Britney Spears and Lady Gaga, but also not the local coffee shop that has a guy play some guitar covers on Friday nights.

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I live in SF. I go to shows in SF and Oakland. I agree that the music scene of the burbs is bad. That's the way it is everywhere though.

Venues that I'm happy to go to: Bottom of the Hill, The Chapel, Hotel Utah, The Rickshaw Stop, The Independent, August Hall, Swedish American Hall, Great American Music Hall, The Fillmore, Bimbo's 365, Warfield, The Fox, The Masonic.

Note that South Bay includes San Jose, which is a substantially larger city than San Francisco.

I'm sorry that San Jose is lame.

OP here. I loved most of those, I'd add DNA Lounge (though it seems based on the selection you're not into electronic music :) ). All of those are fond memories of some nice shows. Still was hard to justify a 1h (one way!) drive. :( An to me, the essential part is the local scene/culture. I didn't see too much of it in SF, maybe I didn't stick for long enough (my brutal commute to MTV took away my will to live and I had to move).

> I'd add DNA Lounge (though it seems based on the selection you're not into electronic music :)

You got me. DNA Lounge does have a special place in my heart though. JWZ was such a slashdot folk hero, its sad that so many people in SF don't know who he is anymore.

I also can't think of anywhere else in SF that is keeping the dream of the 90s alive the way DNA lounge does.

I do think that the bay area has pushed local artists out to more affordable cities. John Vanderslice/Tiny Telephone has done more than anyone else I can think of to keep the local music scene alive. He seems to be connected with just about every other local musician I know of.

Mountain Winery, Bing Concert Hall, Frost Amphitheater, San Jose Center for the Performing Arts, Spieker Center for the Performing Arts

And I hear there's an opera house in San Jose as well! A perfect spot to pop in for some tunes when I'm winding down for the night.

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