[zedman]

It never seems funny to me, except maybe how much some people pay for many concerts these days.

[Ben Toast]

Originally Posted by thesteve

Towards the end of my band's existence I was looking into doing some expansion into the Greater Los Angeles area and contacted a couple dedicated venues up there. They expected us to sell something like 20 or 30 tickets at $10 a piece. I told him that we wouldn't be able to do it because we didn't have a fan base up there. He would call me back once a month for like six months trying to see if we had a fan base up there yet...sheesh.

A lot of the issues that I had as a musician trying to play shows went into the conceptualization stage of the church-owned venue that I help with. One of the issues was that the people who booked the shows were often clueless (or so I felt) when it came to putting good shows together. Because their bottom line was ticket sales they'd just put a bunch of "rock" bands together on a bill. Never mind that we were an alt/punk band and a lot of the local acts were playing metalcore. Our solution for the venue was that, whenever possible, the bands would put together their own bills. This way, the genres are usually pretty similar, and even when they aren't, the bands all know each other and are usually pretty cool with each other.

The other thing we did (the blessing of being church owned) is made every show a free show. We never charge a cover or do a "suggested donation" at the door. When we get bands doing regional and national tours, we usually try to pass a bucket around to help with gas. Of course, when you're talking about an act like Manafest, you're not just paying gas. He's signed to a major label and in turn is going to get paid like one. I'm actually surprised $500 was enough to cover his fees.

Yeah, as a local band, it's hard to expand your fan base, unless you score some gigs with bigger bands, like we did with Manafest. End of December's played with a few big bands too, like Lightswitch and Remedy Drive (even though their style is nothing similar, lol) and it's really helped expand their recognition. Being in Wisconsin, there's really no way of gathering a "statewide" fanbase, as 90% of the state is open farmland or small town (when I say small, I mean less than 1000 people). There's not that many towns over 1000 people. Eau Claire (where I live) is one of like, maybe 6-8 cities in the state with populations over 50,000. As such, being able to just drive around playing shows, isn't very easy to do. Most of the time you're going to be going down by Madison, Milwaukee, or going over to Green Bay, Wausau, Appleton, etc. Or, you're going to be heading west to Minneapolis/St. Paul in Minnesota, and those venues want you to sell tickets. We had the same issue, 25 tickets at $15 each. Oddly enough, we could have possibly done it, but then we had to sell MORE on top of that to make any money, and the amount we would have had to sell to just pay for gas was too much for us to sell. Not many people are going to drive over an hour to see a band they're only sparsely heard of, especially if they're paying for it.

The first show we played was a bit of a train wreck in terms of styles clashing. You had us, an alt/rock band, opening for a punk/worship group, followed by a hard rock/post hardcore group, followed by a metalcore group. Yeahhhhhh haha.... Of course, in that place, you were playing straight amps, and the only thing that was mic'd into a system was the kick drum and vocals. But, it's fun nonetheless to go out and play shows with friends and people you get along with. I'm a bit of a Facebook addict, so I talk to people from different bands on a regular basis, and already have a few groups saying, "Well, if your band gets back together and gets some material going again, we'll be happy to play some shows with you."

Oddly, we did just get back together, which is pretty cool. A local high-schooler named Hannah Buckman is putting together a youth rally again this fall called "Rally In The Valley." Last year, Lightswitch was the headlining band. This year, she told me, (shhh) she might be getting Jeremy Camp to come out and play. If that's the case, it would be awesome. I told her my band got back together, and she said, "GREAT! Get some stuff going and play at RITV!"
Opportunity to play with a large group? YES! Opportunity to play in front of what's expected to be around 600 people? Even bigger yes!

Churches make great venues. They're big, open, and have a lot of room for people. However, finding a church with a good sound system that can handle a high output, is going to be difficult to do. There's only a couple churches in my area that could handle that high of output that I can think of off the top of my head. My church being one, and another church a few miles up the road from where I live. Otherwise, you're playing through amps, and in a large open room, that can be an issue. Even with two 2x12 120W amps, getting enough sound out to span an entire room without sounding horrible would be very difficult to do. I've been trying to convince my pastor to let some bands come in and play for the youth for AGES now, because we're one of the few churches in the area with a sound system that could handle that much output, and with enough seating that we could actually fit 600 youth if they decided to come. But, he doesn't want it. -sigh-

[Rainer.]

Man. Making shows your bread and butter seems rough. Real rough. My band does a ton of bar gigs to raise capital, and it seems to me like that is where it's at as far as cash goes. Maybe mostly because I am in a relatively big metro area, but getting a place to pay you a flat fee with no fuss about selling tickets and such is why my band only plays a ticketed show every few months at most.

[thesteve]

Originally Posted by Rainer.

Man. Making shows your bread and butter seems rough. Real rough. My band does a ton of bar gigs to raise capital, and it seems to me like that is where it's at as far as cash goes. Maybe mostly because I am in a relatively big metro area, but getting a place to pay you a flat fee with no fuss about selling tickets and such is why my band only plays a ticketed show every few months at most.

I don't know how the scene is in Seattle, but from what I've heard, the "we're the house band" type of regular gigs are really hard to come by down in San Diego. Granted, most of the bands I've worked with are alt/rock, folk or some offshoot of punk/metal so that certainly narrows the choices.

[Rainer.]

Yeah, who needs a folk or punk house band. Haha. At least as far as the soul and singer/songwriter scene goes here, it's almost like we all rotate around the same places every few weeks. It's what pays...