Been to lots of places with "great live music scenes" and realized that it was mostly a lot of very mediocre bands playing to really drunk people who thought it was great.
Dax nailed it. If a band is worth a damn:
A) you've probably heard them on the radio
B) they are not playing at a college bar
Austin is alright, (not a college town, IMO) traffic sux...lots of hype. I lived in Dallas liked it waaay better than Austin. Just my opinion. 
You couldn't be more wrong, honestly. First of all, every band has to start somewhere. Do you think the Rolling Stones started out playing in packed 30,000 seat concert halls? Second, most of the music on mainstream radio is total garbage.

It's 2011 Ben. Internet, MP3's, IPOD's, home studios, CD Burners, Mobile Media, YouTube, Facebook etc. etc.
1965 . . .

a record label found you,

a label will even listen to your demo,

you could find enough money to get some studio time and enough money to have them even press your record,

you could find a DJamer who wasn't a complete bad person who would play your record on the air . . .
Really . . . Really?