Last night we played a show here in town, it was one of those Myspace deals where I responded to a bulletin ("hey bands, wanna play at this club?")and got a crummy spot on a bad night. No big deal, these are the breaks. We're trying to get this thing (Ramifications) going and basically, we're willing to play anywhere, anytime.
So we were last on a Monday night, playing with three bands who were pretty new to the whole thing, one group were actually teenagers there with their parents! Of course everyone split before we played - but then about 15 of our friends showed up and paid to get in. of course the 'promoter' backed out on his guarantee to pay us despite our small, paying crowd.
Like i was saying, these are the breaks.
But what put me off was the fact that this guy really isn't interested in helping any of these bands get off the ground-his modus operandi is to get a batch of new bands who've never really played out anywhere, and cash in on charging their underage friends to get in. He had no interest in developing any of these bands past this one night.
And every one of these guys spouts the same mantra "You don't want to over-expose yourself by playing too much" BULLSHIT I say.
Almost every one of these booking agents in town will chime in with this, but really, they're wrong. Up to a certain point, a new band cannot play out too much. Once you can expect a certain size crowd...THEN you drop it down to one local gig a month.
I was telling this guy that we would like to do a regular weekly spot for a couple of months. Honestly, my reasons for this are not up-front: We're not as concerned with building a crowd-we just want a place to practice for free!
So after having this guy 'explain' the music business to me ("I've been playing in this town for FOUR YEARS he tells me, I know all the ins and outs") I couldn't resist, I just hadda tell him...my first gig in Austin was in 1983, at the Continental Club (one of the city's best rooms) I gave him the whole rap- how I've been in the band three weeks and we've already been doing out-of-towners, etc.
So then he's kinda dumbfounded. He's been playing around town for four years, and his 'in' to this club is that he actually works there. His band has built up to an early spot on Friday nights (which is good)but he can't get into anywhere else in town (or out of town-it always amazes me when bands are so short-sighted and haven't even tried to get out of town gigs) Now he's asking ME to help him get gigs elsewhere! I just said..."tell your boss we want a weekly spot, Thursday night, in the front room here"
So we'll see how this pans out.
