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Today I’m here to tell you that Tel Aviv has one kick ass music scene. It’s unique, avant-garde and even quite affordable. This is a great addition to the already lively nightlife that characterizes the city and includes great pubs, dance bars and night clubs. The growing music scene completes the picture and gives the Tlv night owl all it could ask for.

To give you a historic look at things, I must mention the mythological rock club Roxanne. I was only about ten years old when this club was at its peak, but everyone knows that in the early 90s, if you wanted to see a real rock show and to hang with the hard core crowd, you had to be there. For a very long time Roxanne was the only rock show venue and most of the known bands grew up at Roxanne such as Balagan (which means “Mess”), Eifo Hayeled (which means “Where is the kid”) and Nikmat Hatractor (which means “Revenge of the Tractor”).

Today the TLV music map has gone through quite a revolution. The city is filled with numerous rock clubs and venues, each with its own style and audience. Basically at any given night, if you’re walking around TLV, you can probably have your pick between two or three really good shows.

Take the Levontine 7 club. It’s a small and simple place - the upstairs has a regular bar atmosphere, and downstairs is where the bands play. Seven nights a week there at least two shows going on here. Some bands play in front of 40 teenagers, and others play before 150 serious fans, some of the bands are regulars and others are given one shot to give it all they’ve got. This combination creates a location where you can drop in without checking who’s playing, and chances are you’ll be satisfied (The only minus is the sound system which definitely needs an upgrade).

Another very cool spot with really good music and not one bit of pretension is the Bialik Café, named after the famous jewish poet, Hayyim Nahman Bialik. By day a neighborhood coffee joint and by night a great music venue. Some of the cooler young line-ups play here. The stage is tiny the back ground talking gets in the way, but the complete experience is so fun fun fun.

For example, one of the raising soft-rock stars in TLV today is Boaz Banai. Boaz is part of the famous Banai family - If you’re a Banai, it almost automatically means you have some kind of talent, you’re either a brilliant singer-song writer, a killer comedian or a top rate actor.

Boaz started he’s career at the Bialik before about a dozen people, and kept performing here about once a month and the crowd kept growing and growing. Now Boaz has released his first album, and he’s performing at some of the bigger venues and festivals, but he still makes a point of playing at Bialik every now and then.

Boaz’s first big show was at the Goldstar Zappa, which along with the Barby club, make up two of the cities most mainstream and important music clubs. It’s here where you can catch small stars like Boaz or big stars like Berry Saharof in a clubby yet intimate atmosphere. Once in a while an international artist like Regina Spektor or Blonde Redhead will also make an appearance in front of a packed house.

Friends I talk to are very enthusiastic about the growing phenomenon, and they say catching a show in town has become their favorite outing, since it’s much more exciting then going out to a movie or a bar and it’s not more expensive. More importantly, watching listening to some really good live music just fills people with creative and energetic vibes and everyone wants to become a star and be on stage! All of a sudden it seems possible!

This is what happened to one of my childhood friends, he’s been secretly writing and composing his own songs for years and one day decided to put on a show. He found one of these tiny underground clubs called the Joshua and convinced them he can fill up the room and then he just did it! He gave one hell of a performance and made his dream come true!

This week you can catch some really cool shows all over town, I plan on seeing the Dag Nachash (the fish-snake), in a special Friday afternoon (18.4.08, 14:00) performance at the Goldstar Zappa (http://www.zappa-club.co.il/). They are a great Hip Hop band that successfully blends western pop music and ethnic music to create a unique sound tapestry, somewhere between funk and world music. You can be sure you’ll get you money’s worth…

I also might drop by the Barby club (http://www.barby.co.il/) to see a Raash Saket (quiet noise) a very cool rock ensemble of six young musicians, that have been playing together for the last few years and are releasing their first album in the very near future. The group plays some unique rock sound with an Israeli style and killer honest lyrics.

From my point of view this is exactly what the live music scene should look like and I’m excited to see where it will go next…