So I think my band got screwed

[Joel S.]

Friday I played my first gig with a new original rock band I'm in, which happened to be a battle of the bands. Considering we only had 2 rehearsals before hand, it went pretty damn well and we even pulled off a brand new song we ironed out in about a day. Had a good time, played a solid set, got a good reception, and hung out with another of the bands after we were kicked out of the venue.

The BOB was setup to where there were 6 nights, it was advertised the winner of each night would move on to the semi finals at a local venue during a special event. The 2 top vote getters from that night open for Everclear when they come to town.

That's all well and good, so after the gig we were hoping they'd announce the winners. They didn't and said they'd post up the winners on the web page for the BOB. I get an email in response to another subject from the lead singer/guitarist saying that our night got lumped in with the BOB show the week prior and the top vote getter from that night won.

The catch, if you will, is the venue of the prior night is a much more established restaurant and bar with a very nice large outdoor weather protected patio (where the bands play), in a higher profile part of town. To top it off, it was held on a Saturday night. There could be a seal clubbing competition and the place would be packed just from people who go there to hang out. Going by sheer overall capacity of the places there's no way we would've been able to pull as many people.

To top it off, the website is still advertising 6 bands going to the next stage. Now, it's not a matter of me feeling only my band got screwed, the fact is the 5 bands who didn't advance got screwed, mine and the 2 others who played with us probably more so. IMO it's a shady thing to do and didn't give all the bands a fair shake at winning.

A friend of mine already sent an angry email to the guy running the show, I was kicking around letting the other bands know about the email, but I'm not sure.

In the grand scheme of things, it's not a big deal since all in all the gig went well and we had a good time. It's just the principal of the thing, and it kinda irks us. What do you guys think?

[ErebusBass]

"IMO it's a shady thing to do and didn't give all the bands a fair shake at winning."

This is not news... It's been going on for years. We live and we learn, don't play shows like that anymore.

[Joel S.]

Originally Posted by ErebusBass

"IMO it's a shady thing to do and didn't give all the bands a fair shake at winning."

This is not news... It's been going on for years. We live and we learn, don't play shows like that anymore.

The other guys in the band were talking about dealing with the production company before and how shady stuff has happened in the past.

As a DJ I've had more than a few run ins with immensely shady promoters, so this is nothing new. Like I said, in the grand scheme of things it's not really a big deal.

[sevenyearsdown]

It's pretty common knowledge where I'm from that BOTB contests are......let's just say not judged fairly. I think everybody does at least one of these (I know I did), so take it as experience. It was just another way to gig.

[scottbass]

The only fair battle of the bands is one that happens in one venue on one day only and is judged by popular vote of the audience - one vote per person. I have never seen a battle of the bands run like that - hence there are no "fair" battles of bands. Anywhere. Ever.

EDUCATIONAL MOMENT: Very few things in life are "fair".

When my kids were little and would complain "that's not fair" I would tell them that what they were really saying was "I didn't get what I wanted."

One very wise person defined "fair" as an event where grown men hurl hardened buffalo chips for distance.

[TheDarkReaver]

I don't really know what you were saying in that post. However, a lot of BotB are rigged, or organised to favour a particular band. It's just what happens. Either that or you get an audience vote where the people that win are the people with the most personal friends.

We had to pull out of a BotB because our singer got ill. We are aquainted with the promoters and know they like our band. Turned out afterwards that if we played we would have won, because they were gonna rig it for us (not that we would have known).

[John Wentzien]

It's that damn "American Idol" mentality of everything having to be a contest.
It is ruining live music!
A lot of these so-called battles are just a cheap way for venues to get live entertainment for free.
For every "legit" contest There are at least 10 more shadey rip-offs...
You will always lose to a cute little kid or a chick with big hooters no matter what anyway..

[Joel S.]

Originally Posted by TheDarkReaver

I don't really know what you were saying in that post.

I wasn't really saying anything, I was just venting.

I'm certainly old enough to know A) life's not fair, B) people are shady, and C) you live and learn.

It's certainly not the first shady dealing I've dealt with, it's just frustrating. But like I said at the bottom of the OP, when it comes down to it, it really doesn't matter.

Speaking of, I remember seeing another BOTB and the winning band actually really sucked. Music was a really cheap knock off of Limp Bizcut or HedP.E., that was pretty crap musically. They ended up winning.

[Joel S.]

Originally Posted by John Wentzien

You will always lose to a cute little kid or a chick with big hooters no matter what anyway..

You know... on a related note (sorta), I was at a bar meeting up with friends after a gig on saturday. Apparently the place was shutting down so they were dishing out free beers of a specific brand. I sat at the bar for maybe 10-15 minutes waiting for service, basically waiving a $20 around... nothing. The bartenders spent most of their time flirting with the two chicks sitting next to me.

I get up and start heading to my car only to run into my friends (two girls, one is a short cute asian chick who's relatively well endowed and wearing a revealing tank top) in the parking lot. Turn around and go back in the bar. Before we even get to the bar someone hands her a fresh beer.

[Kyon`]

Reminds me of high school where a certain band swept all four years given their parents were the organizers >,>;....But hey I thought they did rightfully win their last year, there was only them XD.

[brem]

Reminds me of a show we did when I was in high school. Between each performance of the bands or skits (it wasn'T exclusively bands), an amateur stand-up comedian would come for a few minutes. We ended up finishing 2nd, behind the stand-up comedian, who wasn't even in the contest in the first place... oh well...

[Nick Kay]

Your band was screwed the minute it signed up for a battle of the bands. Don't do pay to play, don't play free shows except charity benefits, and don't play shows that turn music into a competition.

Sorry if that was harsh, but I was in a similar situation two years ago and have been much better off since I decided to have some dignity in the gigs that I took.

[BillyRay]

BTOB are pretty much all scams unless you organize them yourself. Then they become scams to make you win.

[NKUSigEp]

Originally Posted by Joel S.

Friday I played my first gig with a new original rock band I'm in, which happened to be a battle of the bands. Considering we only had 2 rehearsals before hand, it went pretty damn well and we even pulled off a brand new song we ironed out in about a day. Had a good time, played a solid set, got a good reception, and hung out with another of the bands after we were kicked out of the venue.

The BOB was setup to where there were 6 nights, it was advertised the winner of each night would move on to the semi finals at a local venue during a special event. The 2 top vote getters from that night open for Everclear when they come to town.

That's all well and good, so after the gig we were hoping they'd announce the winners. They didn't and said they'd post up the winners on the web page for the BOB. I get an email in response to another subject from the lead singer/guitarist saying that our night got lumped in with the BOB show the week prior and the top vote getter from that night won.

The catch, if you will, is the venue of the prior night is a much more established restaurant and bar with a very nice large outdoor weather protected patio (where the bands play), in a higher profile part of town. To top it off, it was held on a Saturday night. There could be a seal clubbing competition and the place would be packed just from people who go there to hang out. Going by sheer overall capacity of the places there's no way we would've been able to pull as many people.

To top it off, the website is still advertising 6 bands going to the next stage. Now, it's not a matter of me feeling only my band got screwed, the fact is the 5 bands who didn't advance got screwed, mine and the 2 others who played with us probably more so. IMO it's a shady thing to do and didn't give all the bands a fair shake at winning.

A friend of mine already sent an angry email to the guy running the show, I was kicking around letting the other bands know about the email, but I'm not sure.

In the grand scheme of things, it's not a big deal since all in all the gig went well and we had a good time. It's just the principal of the thing, and it kinda irks us. What do you guys think?

Congratulations. You've just learned your first lesson about the business-side of things, where only money matters and everything else can take a dive.

[The_Juke]

Club Wars?

[Time Consumer]

Originally Posted by scottbass

The only fair battle of the bands is one that happens in one venue on one day only and is judged by popular vote of the audience - one vote per person. I have never seen a battle of the bands run like that - hence there are no "fair" battles of bands. Anywhere. Ever.

EDUCATIONAL MOMENT: Very few things in life are "fair".

When my kids were little and would complain "that's not fair" I would tell them that what they were really saying was "I didn't get what I wanted."

One very wise person defined "fair" as an event where grown men hurl hardened buffalo chips for distance.

+1, Ive only been to 2 bob's, the first time my band got screwed by the area we were in cuz we happened to be the only metal band in a contest full of dashboard confessional wannabe's. The second time we got screwed over cuz the contest was judged by round of applause, which was stupit cuz by the time the bands were all done playing(which was 12am on a sunday/school night), the only people there were there for the last couple bands, so anyone who played earlier than 9 or 10 got screwed. Bob's are no better than a regular show really, unless ur the "lucky" band that wins(emphasis on lucky).

[Massenburg]

A quote I live by:

"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side."
-Hunter Thompson

[Disco_Gee]

Originally Posted by Joel S.

Friday I played my first gig with a new original rock band I'm in, which happened to be a battle of the bands. Considering we only had 2 rehearsals before hand, it went pretty damn well and we even pulled off a brand new song we ironed out in about a day. Had a good time, played a solid set, got a good reception, and hung out with another of the bands after we were kicked out of the venue.

The BOB was setup to where there were 6 nights, it was advertised the winner of each night would move on to the semi finals at a local venue during a special event. The 2 top vote getters from that night open for Everclear when they come to town.

That's all well and good, so after the gig we were hoping they'd announce the winners. They didn't and said they'd post up the winners on the web page for the BOB. I get an email in response to another subject from the lead singer/guitarist saying that our night got lumped in with the BOB show the week prior and the top vote getter from that night won.

The catch, if you will, is the venue of the prior night is a much more established restaurant and bar with a very nice large outdoor weather protected patio (where the bands play), in a higher profile part of town. To top it off, it was held on a Saturday night. There could be a seal clubbing competition and the place would be packed just from people who go there to hang out. Going by sheer overall capacity of the places there's no way we would've been able to pull as many people.

To top it off, the website is still advertising 6 bands going to the next stage. Now, it's not a matter of me feeling only my band got screwed, the fact is the 5 bands who didn't advance got screwed, mine and the 2 others who played with us probably more so. IMO it's a shady thing to do and didn't give all the bands a fair shake at winning.

A friend of mine already sent an angry email to the guy running the show, I was kicking around letting the other bands know about the email, but I'm not sure.

In the grand scheme of things, it's not a big deal since all in all the gig went well and we had a good time. It's just the principal of the thing, and it kinda irks us. What do you guys think?

Welcome to the world of BOTB. If you are serious about winning, you probably shouldn't bother with events like this. Rarely does a deserving band win, and even more rarely do the other bands agree with the outcome.

[Obe]

Heh, heh heh, I was in a battle of the bands where we were playing last. After the third band finished, as we were setting up, they announced the winner...

Also, more recently at a large venue known for making a good chunk of change off of pay to play, a "promoter" asked us to play a BOTB. It was a Sunday early evening, all ages, and there were 10 bands scheduled, so I figured it wasn't pay to play, which the promoter said it wasn't, but we were required to buy 15 tickets at $10 each. After a while of her insisting that it wasn't pay to play and me countering her explanation with simple logic, she finally agreed it was pay to play, so I said we would not be participating. That was a scam, 15 tickets, $10 each, 10 bands = $1,500, and the kicker was that there were no prizes until the third round. Not surprisingly, the battle never materialized.

[NKUSigEp]

They should have a REAL battle of the bands...with swords and spears and axes. I think my band could win that one.