The current issue of Rolling Stone magazine rates Madison as the number five “Campus Scene That Rocks,” but local musicians say Madison’s music venues haven’t actually lived up to their potential.

Alcohol License and Review Committee member Stephanie Rearick runs a music venue and is also a musician in the Coma Savants, a band she describes as “cabaretish, circus rock.”

Rearick said that although Madison’s venues have taken more seriously their support of local music, she doesn’t agree with the high rating in Rolling Stone.

“I think Madison has a lot of potential, but the main thing that is not going for Madison is that we don’t have very many venues, and a lot of venues stay within a certain genre,” Rearick said.

Rearick also it’s difficult for promoters to get people to try something new.

“I think it’s hard to get people out for new and original music that is not as established in a certain genre,” Rearick said. “In terms of the clubs that seem to take a lot of chances, they seem to exist about one at a time.”

Rearick said she joined the ALRC because she wanted to voice the perspective of working musicians and also of someone who runs a music venue.

Rearick also says that a city like Madison should be able to sustain several venues that have different types of music and that experiment more.

“Madison needs to have venues that act as though they value having people play there,” Rearick said. “Towns that are really good music towns end up that way because people who run the venues and the people who go out and see music realize it has a value in the culture and are willing to support it financially and with respect in general.”

University of Wisconsin junior Seth Lochen, who plays drums for the rock band Lockwood, said bars really have their choice of whom to book, and while bands often have a difficult time starting out, they can gain exposure through playing at open-mic nights or opening for bigger bands.

“Unless they know that we can bring in enough people so that they can make money off of it, they are not going to hire us,” Lochen said. “They want reviews that say this is a good band that can bring in a good crowd or they want other bars to contact before they hire you.”

Natasha Kassulke, music advisor for the Wisconsin Union Directorate, says bands that want to perform at the Union are looking for mid-level, 200-1,000 capacity venues that are hard to find in Madison. The Union offers music venues such as the Memorial Union Theater, Club 770 at Union South and Memorial Union’s Rathskellar, which all have capacities in that range.

Kassulke says she agrees bands complain that there are not enough venues, and the Union has extended its weekend hours until 2 a.m. to accommodate all the acts that want to play.

“One of our most popular events is open-mic night on Thursday and those are local artists looking for an outlet and a venue to be seen in,” Kassulke said. “We’ve extended those hours until 1 a.m. so we can get more acts in because every night we have people who can’t play because we run out of time.”

However, General Manager of Luther’s Blues Benjamin Schubring says that Luther’s actually has trouble finding bands to play Tuesday and Wednesday nights when the club hosts local bands. Schubring also said local bands that draw a good crowd have been able to perform on weekend nights, when bands that are touring regionally and nationally usually play.

“We can tell what bands work really hard, it’s the bands that have really pursued it and do a lot of their own promotions,” Schubring said. “The bands that don’t wait around to get discovered are the ones that make it onto the scene.”