Compared to LA, it's sleepy, backwards and rural. The Californian equivalent would be Sacramento, only with snowcapped peaks. Oh, and NORAD. You can rest easy at night knowing that you are in the shadow of the world's most expensive Santa-tracker, now that there's no USSR.
There are, however, some really talented musicians that call Colorado home (and I'm talking about real ones, not just metal noodlers like me), but the scene is really horrific. People here don't care about original music in the slightest, or at least not enough to make it financially viable. The independent music movement starved itself out in this part of the country, and as a result you're lucky to have 100 people at any venue unless you're a national act. Speaking of that, John Mayer came to town a few years ago, before he hit it really big and there were about 20 people in the place. That was Ft. Fun though, not the Springs.
Corporate musicians do well, as there are any number of Silicon-Valley-type companies that have really stellar parties and pay well. Otherwise, you're looking at a day job and only weekend gigs in "intimate settings" for live music.
It's really not as bleak as it looks upon first read, though. Denver's an hour north at most, and they have some great jazz and blues clubs, as well as a pretty cool world-music subculture. Bela Fleck and Vic Wooten and Hal Ketchum and Nickel Creek and any number of other roots/bluegrass-influenced people play here a bunch, too. There are also scads of "fests" at the ski towns for any musical palate. You just have to be willing to drive around to find the stuff you want to listen to/play, and don't expect the size of the crowd to reflect the coolness of the music.
More plusses: people are getting jobs around here again, we're about to come out of the drought (weather-type) that's been plaguing us for 5 years, and if there's a prettier place in the world, I don't know what it is.
Oh, and bring guns. Shall-issue concealed carry state
