Don't hate me, please! Ratatat actually visited Houston twice in the past two years. They played once at Walters on Washington and then they played a free show at Rice University. Alot of the bands I've listed do visit Houston, but not all of them.
What really used to get me, was that alot of these bands would visit Austin and Dallas and just skip by Houston. I know alot of bands have originated from Denton/Dallas area recently, but I didn't think the Dallas indie scene was that much bigger than it is in Houston. I don't really visit Dallas, so I'm not too sure. But Houston scene is really lacking. I saw a Caribou/Born Ruffians concert at Engine Room last year which maybe 50 people attended. These shows elsewhere would have had about 400 people and sold out. I went to a Midlake concert last year at Numbers, and the lead singer got upset at folks who kept on talking throughout the set. Then he angrily stated that the band would never visit Houston again. This is despite two of the band members being from Houston originally and many of their families were in the crowd that day. At shows here in NYC the crowds are so respectful. You can literally hear a pin drop during the quiet portions of sets. I guess in Houston alot of folks show up to concerts as just to hang out and chill, instead of actually showing up to listen to the music.
I have a harder time finding out about shows than I used to, also. I used to be able to find out about shows on basically a site or two, and now I end up looking at multiple sites just to find out if anyone is coming. And yeah, most bands seem to go to Austin/Dallas. Of course, I don't actively look for shows there because the only times I'd be able to go are on the weekends, and even then, it'd be a pain in the butt.
