When talking about Auburn as a college town, many descriptions come to mind.
A small-town feel, lovely campus, welcoming people and an outstanding atmosphere on fall weekends are compliments uttered often.
For the most part, everyone leaves Auburn with only nice things to say about the town.
But this does not mean the experience cannot be improved, especially when it comes to downtown entertainment.
One glaring issue, to me, is the lack of consistently good, live music in Auburn.
It has not been an ignored subject though. The University Program Council has increased its efforts in booking headliners at Auburn Arena, such as B.o.B and The Avett Brothers.
But they are not involved in the downtown music scene, which has not shown the same improvement, and has left many people wondering how it can be enhanced.
Some say the proximity to Atlanta and Birmingham keep the big artists away.
Tuscaloosa is closer to Birmingham, and Athens is not much further than Atlanta.
To me, the lack of an attractive venue downtown is the main obstacle.
In the next two months, the Tuscaloosa Amphitheatre has booked Peter Frampton, Umphrey's McGee and Darius Rucker.
In Athens, the Georgia Theatre is one of many top-notch venues near the University of Georgia. In recent years, artists such as R.E.M., Dave Matthews Band, Ludacris and Willie Nelson have played at the venue.
The Lyric in Oxford, Mississippi has not had any problem booking headliners either. In the near future, T-Pain, Corey Smith, Jason Isbell, and Citizen Cope are scheduled to perform.
All of these towns are similar to Auburn. The main attraction in each city is the local university, and thousands of music-loving students flock to these cities every fall and spring.
Yet they have thriving music scenes, while Auburn's is far from it.
There is no excuse for the inferior music scene here in Auburn, but until some more venue options become available and popular, we have some catching up to do.
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