The gig drought

Ever since Liverpool Sound City there's been a gig drought. Although a lot of bands are concentrating on festival appearances in these summery months, Liverpool's venues have not exactly been bustling.
On Saturday, Black Kids play to a sold out crowd at the Barfly, but I'll be out of town. Beyond that, there's not much filling up my calendar. I might be tempted by Glasvegas at the Barfly next week, and possibly Ben Folds at the Academy, but his piano-bashing, Americana geek rock has never really done it for me. Korova have east Londoners The Brute Chorus in a couple of weeks, but their MySpace doesn't convince me.
The still fairly new Echo Arena seems to host crowd-pleasing concerts every night, including Westlife, Meat Loaf, Crowded House and a Sugababes/Bjorn Again double whammy. Even The Wombats are playing there in November. I know it's a home-town gig for them and they're popular with the young folks, but isn't 10,000 tickets asking a bit much?
What is going on with the live music moratorium? Maybe this is because of the Echo Arena, and Liverpool is now only allowed a strict quota of gigs in some sort of karmic balance.