I've been going to house shows for most of my life and the idea of an app scares me. In a lot of places this is illegal and you can catch a ton of heat from the police regarding it. Putting the information out there where it is publicly accessible is a big no-no for a lot of DIY house/basement show promoters. If I ran a house/did shows in a semi-legal space like this I'd cancel any show that somehow got put into an app.

When I visit my dad over in Maui, every Tuesday night there is a hippy jam. Have went several times over the years. It used to be this cool thing that you didn't really need an invite for, it was open to all. However unless you knew someone you'd never have known about it. The last couple times I've been over there, ever since smartphones/facebook/twitter got so popular it kind of ruined the whole vibe. Now all the sudden there are all these kids from paia showing up because someone posted online about it.

For sure.. But then again, artists like Kimya Dawson (prior to Juno fame) have organized entire cross-country tours based on word of mouth. It's hard work to be sure, but there's a huge amount of embedded bi-directional vetting that goes on, which is critical - for quality control, logistics, safety. Isn't the whole sphere-of-trust thing still a technical challenge?

The app is Facebook. A lot of shows are listed there. Obviously, the location is obscured in some way. For punk shows, it's the name of a House, to find out where that is, ask a punk. For folk, it sometimes is just a phone number listed, call for details.

The original article lists three community-driven apps which have already been built: Fanswell, Sofar, and Concerts In Your Home.

The sites were built by people with deep connections in the scene(s), and already drive a lot of this activity.