The sudden closing of another Saint John club that featured live music is raising concerns over the viability of the city's music scene.

With Saint John designated as a Canadian cultural capital for 2010, local musicians and promoters are wondering if the lack of venues will allow the city to live up to the title.

Akhord delivered another blow to Saint John's live music scene when it unexpectedly shut its doors last week.

Musicians are scrambling to find new places to play.

Jud Crandall's band the Wooden Wives has a show on the University of New Brunswick's Saint John campus next week but after that gig is over, he doesn't know where they will play next.

"I'm not sure where we'll play now. I don't know where we can book ourselves," Crandall said.

"I don't know who to talk to to book at these places. It's like a whole new landscape now that that one core bar has disappeared."

Fans spread out

Akhord joins a long list of venues that haven't been able to survive in the city's uptown.

Greg Billiere operated Elwood's, a venue that hosted live music until it also shut down last year.

Billiere said a big problem facing many bars that want to promote local music is that fans are spread out across southern New Brunswick, making it difficult for clubs to survive financially.

"You don't have that core group of people that are going to feed off your place or that you can feed off or that you can ever cater to," he said.

Gordie Tufts, owner of Backstreet Records, said the local music community needs to band together and create reliability if a venue is going to make it over the long term.

"If we could get one solid venue running, have one venue known and solid, it think it would work," Tufts said.