In 2014 the city of Umeå was initiated as European capital of culture (ECoC). In applications to get the title the municipality of Umeå had used the cities great number of musicians. However, these local musicians were strangely absent in the year long program. Also, in combination with the lack of representation, a couple of beloved local venues used for live music were either moved away from central Umeå or closed down, which led to dissent among local musicians.The aim of this study was to analyse how local musicians in interviews described the conditions of playing live music in Umeå. I was also interested in how they talked about the city as a renowned music town, post-ECoC.Through my interviews I found out that many of my informants missed a specific local venue that was shut down during, but not because of, the ECoC year of 2014. This sense of place and the loss of it were of major importance for my interviewees, as it had a great effect on how they felt about ECoC 2014. I also performed an observation of a liveshow to see how place mattered to the audience and musicians.