They read the alt-weeklies so you don't have to

September 21, 2006 1:30 AM

SonicLiving is a website which tracks live events (mostly shows) in your home town, and can read in tracks from your last.fm or pandora account to notify you of interesting shows coming up in your area, as long as your area is one of the currently-limited areas they cover. (vide intra)
posted by whir (13 comments total)

SonicLiving apparently gets its show information from ticket sellers such as TicketMaster and Virtuous, which makes its listing fairly comprehensive for my area (the SF Bay Area) at least.

Personally, I've found the calendar-day listings to be next to useless since they include a good deal of weekly DJ events which don't interest me (worse, they're presented in an annoying images-in-a-scrolling-box format). But scrolling through the venue listings seems like a great way to track upcoming shows, and the events they email me about have all been based on my playing the artists' mp3's on my computer. via (NSFW), via.
posted by whir at 1:31 AM on September 21, 2006

There is also Podbop which podcasts music of local shows. Not so effective in my neck of the woods but no doubt better mileage is available in US of A.
posted by srboisvert at 1:52 AM on September 21, 2006

I heart sonicliving. Emails tell you about things you don't want to miss; Just Set It and Forget It!
posted by wemayfreeze at 2:28 AM on September 21, 2006

SonicLiving is a website which tracks live events (mostly shows) in your home town

So I'm guessing nothing big comes through the South. Sigh.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:35 AM on September 21, 2006

The London version is being made useless by someone/something that is adding musicals, plays, opera, ballet and football matches to the listings. I'm not likely to add the play "Stones in his Pockets" as a favourite, and even if I did I wouldn't want it appearing on my calendar every day until 3rd March next year.

SonicLiving is not helped by a bad search engine that believes if I like Wire I will want to know about performances by Gregory Isaacs with the Bollywood & Live Wire Band.

Still, better than nothing.
posted by Hogshead at 5:48 AM on September 21, 2006

Yeah, it does have that betalicious feel to it. Great idea though. I'll check back in a couple of months.
posted by danb at 6:18 AM on September 21, 2006

I've been using Tourfilter in Boston and Portland and loving it. Ultra simple, no frills, and clearly done by human beings and not robots, so the listings are great.

Hogshead, Tourfilter covers London. Definitely no musicals or ballet there. Check it out.

Tourfilter covers a lot of cities already, and not just in the US.
posted by tracy_the_astonishing at 7:45 AM on September 21, 2006

I think it's pretty cool. And I like the addition of plaid to the beta-sphere.
posted by thekilgore at 7:45 AM on September 21, 2006

Yet another system which doesn't allow + in e-mail addresses -- even though it's an entirely valid character. *sigh*

(...and they don't accept feedback unless you're a member...and you can't become a member if there's a + in your e-mail address.)
posted by jdfalk at 8:49 AM on September 21, 2006

beyond that, though, this thing is really impressive.
posted by jdfalk at 8:58 AM on September 21, 2006

I just uploaded my iTunes Artist list, and now it seems to have picked out the bands I hate from the list, all of whom are playing NYC soon. Fucking Wolfmother. The bands I do like, and who I know are playing, curiously don't make the calendar. Earthride, for instance.

It would be neat if it used Pandora or Last.fm's algorithms to recommend shows to check out, but there are other problems to fix first, such as needing to know about more than the big events at the major venues.

Plus what Hogshead said. I am not interested in *every* event with "Sleep" in the title.
posted by nowonmai at 9:02 AM on September 21, 2006

Yay, they have Las Vegas.
posted by krix at 1:12 PM on September 21, 2006

Also: tourb.us
posted by pfafflin at 1:12 PM on September 21, 2006