It can be hard to keep up with Gainesville’s ever-changing music scene. Each year, bands form and disband, and venues open and close.
And, as documented on GainesvilleShows.com, even bands like The Beach Boys and Lynyrd Skynyrd have played in The Swamp.
Created in 2021, the site offers a resource for finding information on shows happening throughout the week and those from the past. The site’s poster archive goes back decades.
Although the current version of the site was made in 2021, a more basic version existed from 2014 to 2020. The new site allows bands and fans to upload performances and includes archival posters rather than exclusively upcoming events.
The site was created by PJ Fancher, a 46-year-old web developer born and raised in Gainesville. The site is Fancher’s way of staying involved in the Gainesville music scene after his old band, Grabass Charlestons, disbanded.
The punk outfit released music from 2002 to 2012 under No Idea Records, disbanding when Fancher and another band member had kids. The band traveled as far as Europe while touring.
“This [website] is kind of getting me back — now that my kids are older and everything — in touch with band stuff that I used to do,” Fancher said. “It's been nice to revisit it all.”
The site connects the past and present of Gainesville music, making it easy to access posters and data sets about bands. It uses data scraped from sources like Facebook, Instagram and past websites like Gainesvillebands.com, which had a similar function.
Scrolling through years of posters, it's clear despite the changes that Gainesville’s strong music culture has lasted generations.
“Everyone's still kind of trying to do the same thing, which is have a good show, try not to get the cops to come, you know,” Fancher said.
Since the site relies on outside submissions, Fancher is always looking for volunteers to help keep up with upcoming shows and scan and research archival flyers and events.
Andrew Chadwick, a 52-year-old musician and DJ, has provided numerous posters and videos to the site over the years, including over 8,000 videos from shows around town, most of which were shot on his camcorder.
While playing and attending shows in town, Chadwick has seen venues change names and owners countless times. George’s Meet & Produce became the Civic Media Center, and Display became Frenchmen Street Food. The site helps track all these changes.
“It's great because you have the addresses, and you can see what used to happen in different buildings as they went through different evolutions over time and came into different people's hands,” Chadwick said.
Even long-closed venues have left their impact on the current music scene and make an impact in their own way.
Pat Lavery, a 47-year-old concert promoter and owner of Glory Days Present!, started his career in the music industry while studying at UF, pasting flyers around town for Covered Dish, a popular live music venue.
“I always tell people I got my education in underground music there,” Lavery said, “which I applied [when] I first toured with bands.”
Following its closure in 2000, Covered Dish reopened as Common Grounds. Lavery would later run his own venue, High Dive, in the same building until 2024, when the space went under new ownership.
The three venues have spots on the GainesvilleShows website, and each hosted hundreds — if not thousands — of shows during their existence.
The site gives students and other newer community members a look into Gainesville’s history and how many local and traveling bands have brought their music to the city.
In a place where everything feels transitory, it can be easy to forget how layered Gainesville’s history and culture really are.
Matt Walker, the 47-year-old author and professor of “Gainesville Punk: a History of Bands and Music” at UF — and Fancher’s old roommate — said that in its prime during the ‘90s, Gainesville had a national impact on the punk scene. Popular bands like Against Me! and Less Than Jake, as well as record label No Idea, all call Gainesville home.
“It had all these components that came together that made this little ecosystem that has for the most part been sustained for 40-something years,” Walker said.
GainesvilleShows.com also opens the doors for the future, listing shows happening every day across popular venues and DIY spots.
New bands pop up every day in Gainesville, with fresh faces and music around the corner, especially in the alternative and punk scenes.
“It's a place where you can experiment, create art, perform it at venues,” Walker said. “And that's all it has to be.”
Contact Brandy Sumner at bsumner@alligator.org.
Brandy Sumner is an anthropology and English junior at UF and the music and reporter for Fall 2026. This is their second semester on The Avenue. Brandy enjoys reading, going to shows with friends, and writing in their free time.
