For years the Central Valley seemed destined to remain an eternal dead spot for local music. But in the summer of 2012, we turned it around.
One big reason that the scene is flourishing is a great guy known as Thee Ricardo Friaz. 
Friaz has a little blog called Also Frightened (don’t mind my shameless promotion), which each of you should be checking. He hasn’t been in the Turlock music scene for very long, but he has done some amazing things this summer. He created an acoustic concert series called “Songs at Sunset.” The summer series ran on Wednesday nights at The Grizzly Rock Café in Turlock. And the great thing about these events was…people actually showed up. 
While on the subject, Grizzly Rock should get a bit of praise for their role in reviving the scene. I’ll be honest with you, sometimes I get burnt out on Grizzly Rock shows. But that’s what happens when a venue does something as great as allowing nearly any band to play a show, on nearly any night of the week, for free. Also, there’s not many places you can enjoy a really good beer and see some live music, so let’s give Frank a round of applause. 
You can have a beer at the Off the Air (OTA) shows at Deva Cafe in Modesto. But unless you plan on wearing a polo, some desert boots and discussing how great that out of state band used synecdoche in that one song (probably a hip Kleenex reference), that might not be your crowd. Don’t get me wrong, OTA is great; it’s just not for everyone. I’ll still be there whenever local icons not an Airplane plays.
This piece didn’t really go where I thought it would. I didn’t talk about the great bands in the area, or how important it was that people showed up to shows this summer, but I’ll write about these parts another time. Overall, I guess my message is this: there are shows out there, usually at least once a week, so go out and support your local music. Also, free shows mean that you have money for food or beer.