Professor's wife here, so we've been living in college towns since leaving D.C.
Ann Arbor doesn't have a
ton of local music, but the performance venues and festivals kind of make up for it. There are venues for every musical style, and lots and lots of free outdoor music day and night during the summer.
I'm in Columbia, MO now, and there's a thriving music scene here. We have a lot of local bands of every style from blues to metal, performance venues from small and intimate like Cafe Berlin to 9:30 Club-esque, like the Blue Note. We also have an awesome festival in late September every year called Roots Blues & BBQ, which pulls big-name acts (Avery Bros headlined last year, along with acts like Ben Folds, Grace Potter; this year, we're getting singers like Emmylou Harris), and smaller southern bands.