_{Words and Photos By Madeline Harris}

The 5th monthly Provo Music Scene Town Hall meeting occurred on Tuesday, December 2 at 7 PM. Like always, members of the music community congregated at 3hive on Center Street. This meeting was fairly small but nonetheless its attendees broadly represented many of the branches of the music network’s tree.

Bly Wallentine of The Toaster Oven ignited the meeting by asking everyone to introduce themselves, why they were attending, and any news, updates, or ideas they have for the scene. After introductions, a pair of confused 3hive shoppers looked upon the gathering of music junkies and appropriately asked if the shop was open. The response was: “Yes. We’re just in a Musicians Anonymous meeting back here—we’re all trying to quit.”

Jokes aside, a few key themes emerged continuously during the meeting. Some of the most relevant discussions were related to:

• Dance. The need for more dance-friendly environments for concert-goers was expressed by several parties. Something in the slowness of the winter sparks the need to move and groove, have a good time, and get involved with the community. Present at the meeting were many electronic musicians, who voiced the desire for spaces that offer these artists exposure. Fern Mckenzie of Velour noted the need to foster an environment that invites attendees to support and dance to EDM-adjacent local musicians. Additionally, Nick from FINDlab mentioned his ongoing vision to host regularly scheduled, donation-based community events – karaoke, dance parties, live jazz, etc. – in FINDlab’s space. The people want to gather, and the people want to dance! In the near future, ABG’s may be hosting monthly dance parties.
• Jazz. The Rise on Center Street recently started its weekly Open Mic/Jam nights on Wednesdays, and on December 3, the jam was hosted by The Lost River Quintet. At these events, a host band starts off the night before opening up the stage to anyone interested in jamming. Eli Kerr of B-Side HiFi discussed possibly opening up his listening lounge (upstairs from 3hive) for late night jazz jams. Though the idea is up in the air, these would likely be held late on weeknights as to not compete with other weekend events, and would give creative night owls a space to play once the rest of Provo goes to sleep.

• Community connectivity and support. Darcie Roy brought up provomusicscene.com, the hub for music community engagement, scheduling, and booking. As she puts it, there are so many exciting micro communities and sectors of the music scene, and the website serves to “corral” them all together and get them organized. Community calendars help artists support artists, further forging tight-knit bonds within the scene. Soren Oyler and Caitlin Raines, representing Beautiful Cryptid Art Collective, encouraged attendees to communicate with local politicians about continuing to support and fund the arts.

The meeting concluded with plenty of time left for mingling and networking. Like last month, Kerr brought us up to B-side to check out the space. In this sonic wonderland, we listened to Led Zeppelin, Vampire Weekend, and Daft Punk, and none of these bands have sounded the same to me since. So, if you’re willing to indulge in HiFi, be prepared to be haunted by an astronomically high and hard-to-match sound quality standard.

The first Music Scene Town Hall of 2026 is set to occur on Tuesday, January 6 at 7 PM. If you’re hoping to get involved or share ideas, look no further. We hope to see you there!