The camaraderie and community felt palpable as people sang and danced along to the covers and original songs performed by Unexplainable Cattle Mutilations and Evening Spirits at the Holland project on a recent Thursday night.
The all-ages Holland is a well-known venue in Reno, while house shows also take place, but these always risk being shut down due to neighbor complaints and police visits.
This showcases a need for more places for local musicians to perform and their fans to enjoy their music without feeling they might be short changed.
In a recent Our Town Reno podcast episode the bass player for the local band and Holland Project regulars Worm Shot Cierra said she performs at Holland and performs house shows, but faces abrupt endings with these. “My favorite show was with Mom Cars at my house, in my backyard. I love hosting shows, I think it’s so fun. I love having people make music in my backyard.” said Cierra “We actually got shut down last time I hosted a show– by the cops.”
Reno, going through a transition for the past several years, has lost some of its DIY music history. House shows were a big part of the punk and hardcore scenes in the past, and still continue today at different houses, but some of these vintage locations have been demolished to make space for new housing which don’t have that vintage appeal.
As Reno and the surrounding areas grow in population, though, so does the demand for live music. This lack of available spaces inhibits musicians trying to make a name for themselves.
The indie rock band Evening Spirits performing.
Currently most people agree that The Holland Project is the place for shows in Reno. Chloe, the bass player for a new Reno based band RIP EVERYTHING described The Holland Project as “super chill.” “It’s always welcoming, every type of music plays there,” Chloe explained. “They’ve got hardcore, they’ve got punk, they’ve got metal, they’ve got indie, indie funk, they’ve got jazz. They’ve got electronic and post-punk, they’ve got everything!”
One of the biggest reasons that The Holland Project is so popular, and well known is because it is all ages. The biggest problems that local bands, especially young ones, face is finding spaces to practice and perform.
Rashidul Kaber, or Rash, is a sound engineer, musician, and board member for the Reno Punk Rock Flea Market. “I think the biggest challenge is kind of finding a space to play. Especially for young bands with younger people in them. We really only have one all ages venue, and it’s the Holland Project,” Rash said.
“With some of the other venues it’s kind of hard to get into those spaces, as a lesser known local band. I feel like a lot of the venues are looking for bands that have bigger draws.”
A show poster for a recent Holland event.
RIP EVERYTHING’s solution to these problems is a boba tea shop. Num Num Boba is a local business with two locations, in North and South Reno. Num Num Boba had hosted music nights before with members of the jazz program at UNR. RIP EVERYTHING proposed having a different type of show there– with local bands.
They played their first show at Num Num in 2022. “They [the owners] are really into it too. It especially brings business around during the winter time when it gets slow at boba shops.” The band members said “We decided to play a show and then they invited us back a couple of times. I do really hope that it becomes a thing for other bands to go there too because I think it is a cool place to play.”
These kinds of unconventional venues are hopefully going to become a bigger part of Reno’s music scene moving forward. “I’ve been noticing a lot of spaces that don’t– that aren’t really conducive to live shows,” Rash said “but they’re still doing them, that’s really cool.” These kinds of partnerships with local businesses provide a freedom for new bands and can also draw in business for the hosts of these shows.
Although the way music is released and the way that musicians can grow an audience has changed with the rise of music streaming platforms, in Reno, playing live shows is still important to build an audience. RIP EVERYTHING explained, “to get local buzz you need live shows. Because if you just put it on Spotify or Apple Music you won’t reach a bigger audience, but word spreads faster person to person in the city. Especially in the city, because Reno’s not too big.”
Getting music onto streaming platforms can still be helpful for local artists to find an audience. Lila and Hailey, of the radio show “Milking It,” play a lot of local artists. “The main goal of “Milking It” was to get everyone out of their everyday music and just show them that there are bands that are just as good that they may not have been listening to before and we just love sharing local music on the radio” they explained, “It is hard when those band’s don’t have recordings and we can’t play them.”
A lot of the music that “Milking It” does play they discover through going to shows. They don’t just go to shows for research though. “I think a good local music scene is really important to the culture of a city, especially with Reno being such a big college town,” said Hailey “I think it’s nice to have something for people to do on the weekends. That’s what I do on the weekends. And especially for people who don’t like to go to parties, or like frats.”
A lot of local musicians do it as a hobby; they have full time jobs, or are students. Nick Eng, another local musician, plays gigs often around the Reno-Tahoe area. He had advice for artists looking to make money from their music. “Is music just something you enjoy doing, or is it your career? I’m a pop-rock guy, and I play a combo of originals and covers at all my shows- solo and full band- and that flexibility gets me and us into a lot of better paying venues,” Nick said. “Some people might not want to play covers, which is valid, but you’d be limiting yourself to income and a wider audience if you don’t.”
Nick Eng played his own songs and covers on a chilly night for the Reno Christmas tree lighting ceremony.
While there are many bars, casinos, and DIY venues that host live music like The Lodge, Black Rabbit Mead Co, Fort Ralston, The Z Bar and more, there is still a lack of venues dedicated to music and other local art.
Some people are trying to create new venues and spaces for musicians to play and connect. The Reno Punk Rock Flea Market currently holds events that feature live music and vendors. They also have a goal to “provide a permanent space for all of our community members to collaborate & create.”
A fashion brand Trippy Kitty Co. is organizing a big show with music and vendors scheduled initially this week and now pushed back to March at the Renaissance Hotel.
Finding an actual space is the first and hardest step in creating a new venue. “We, first of all, we obviously have to find a space that is suitable for us because we need kind of a big space to be able to host vendors and bands,” Rash explained “We’ve got to find a space that is suitable, we’ve got to get it to a point where we’re comfortable with having at least shows there which means getting all sorts of gear and all the equipment that goes with live shows.”
Musicians themselves, those helping to create more spaces for music, and people who support local artists are excited to see what the future of music in The Biggest Little City can become, with hopefully many more welcoming venues.