It’s funny how things can sometimes look so different depending on where you stand.



Take the music scenes in Olympia and Tacoma, for example. The history of Olympia’s music scene is legendary — so much so that I really don’t even need to go into detail. It’s well known that both the K and Kill Rock Stars record labels started in the capital city, and that iconic bands like Beat Happening, Sleater Kinney, Bikini Kill and many others emerged from the liberal bastion. There have been movies, books, blogs, and even numerous articles here in the Weekly Volcano about how diverse, artistic, influential and just plain kick-ass Olympia’s music scene is and was.



Tacoma’s music scene, on the other hand, isn’t exactly as celebrated. Over the course of the almost 10 years I’ve been covering Grit City music — since before there was anyone here clean enough to market the Grit — I don’t believe I’ve ever heard the kind of praise about T-town that Olympia receives. Sure, plenty of good bands have come from Tacoma — Seaweed, Girl Trouble, the Sonics, the Wailers, the list goes on — but T-town has never been hip. When it comes to perceptions about Tacoma’s music scene, this is a fact that Tacoma will likely be fighting forever.



Or maybe not. Perhaps perceptions are changing. Maybe Tacoma is on the verge of hipness. Maybe our moment is right around the corner.



When perceptions change, often times it starts with the youth. If guitarist Trav Criscola of Olympia’s pop punk darlings Avenue Rose is any indication, perceptions may be about to swing in Tacoma’s favor. Criscola and his Avenue Rose bandmates, all in their early 20s or younger, will make a stop at Bob’s Java Jive this Saturday, May 31, and then play Tacoma Community College Friday, June 6. For what it’s worth, they seem to think Tacoma is the cat’s meow.



“When we first started, our bass player, Eddie was really involved in the music scene in Olympia. We had an immediate connection getting shows and meeting touring bands that had been passing through. It was a great start for networking,” says Criscola. 



“The music scene has changed drastically (in Olympia) since then. I guess that’s how a lot of smaller towns are. It comes and goes every few years it seems. We’re pretty disconnected from the music scene here now. A lot of the music venues have been closed down and the local bands we were once connected with have all died.”



“It is a little frustrating that playing a successful show in our home town isn’t easy, but we’ve been pretty busy playing a lot in areas outside of Olympia,” continues Criscola. “When we met Dillan (Avenue Rose’s new drummer), it opened a lot up for us in the Tacoma area. He’s been active in that music scene for a long time and had played in a few bands up there. Tacoma definitely has an amazing music scene. We’ve all been big fans of bands like The Freakouts and Durango 95. It seems there are so many talented people doing some pretty cool things here. We love playing Tacoma and hope the scene here lasts a long time!”



As strange as all that might sound to someone who hasn’t been paying attention to the strides Tacoma’s music scene has made in the last few years, there’s truth to it. Olympia’s music scene has struggled some lately, especially to maintain an all-ages music venue, and those struggles may come at the benefit of Tacoma. While something tells me whatever lull Avenue Rose has encountered in Olympia will soon be replaced by good times and plenty of exciting bands, if musicians are being forced to rethink their preconceptions of what Tacoma has to offer to bands and artists, it can only be a good thing for those of us in the 253.



That benefit is blatantly obvious when a band like Avenue Rose makes their way to Tacoma twice in two weeks. Led by the vocal power of Jason Mendoza, and plenty of catchy guitar licks, Avenue Rose is raw enough to be relevant and glam enough to twinkle with potential. The band’s Clash-like sound was the perfect putty for Steve E Nix (of the Briefs and Cute Lepers Fame), and the rocker turned producer recently helped mold the Avenue Rose sound, working with the band to lay down and record Electric, a 7-inch released on Slab-O-Wax in March. Electric has been putting Avenue Rose on plenty of rock and roll radars ever since.

“Working with Steve is great! He’s really talented in a lot of different areas. We did the Electric recordings with him, as well as some new tracks that we just finished up for a couple other releases due out this summer. He’s always got really good ideas and works really hard,” says Criscola of working with Nix.



“We were all huge Briefs fans so we had seen him at a lot of shows around the Northwest. After a show one night he told us he had heard some of our demo tracks we recorded. He said he had been getting into recording and producing music, and that he thinks he could make them sound better if we had him do it. So a couple weeks later we were in his basement recording the EP.”



Avenue Rose will play Bob’s Java Jive this Saturday, May 31 and TCC Friday, June 6. Both shows are well worth your attention. While no one is suggesting Tacoma is the next big thing and Olympia is old news, the scenes in both places — as with all music scenes — are constantly changing. If Tacoma’s got some momentum at the moment, we might as well all enjoy it. Momentum never lasts forever.



[Bob’s Java Jive, The Neat, Avenue Rose, As Far As Foxes Go and Darrren Selector, Saturday, May 31, 8 p.m., $5, 2102 S. Tacoma Way, Tacoma, 253.475.9843]