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Booking woes

#42
invader3k said:
Yup. That's why we absolutely refuse to do any free gigs anymore. Our very first gig with this band was a free show for a local festival. We partly did it because our guitarist's employer was a major sponsor. They liked our show and said they would bring us back the following year, with pay. The following year, they called us up to be the opener again, but wanted to pay us in free beer and food again. We balked. It was particularly galling because we knew the headlining band was going to get well over two grand, but they couldn't throw even a couple hundred bucks our way.
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That is just plain creepy.

I wish you would have intererupted them before they started talking and said;

"Thanks for asking us back, we will send you our contract tomorrow."

Blue
 
#46
invader3k said:
I didn't handle that one, our guitarist did (since his company is this event's major sponsor) . Either way, how they handled things was completely tacky.
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It's a perfect example of how these people take advantage of and exploit young artists.

It would be great when young folks start taking a stance in this type of situation and start saying "NO!"

blue
 
#48
I've played out regulary 2-3 weekends per month (some Fri or Sat only and some both) in my area for the past decade with three different bands, each a different genre. Musicians who can play are important, but fer crying out loud they need to be able to play with and off of each other. No wanking or showing off individually- play for the song. Virtuosity is worthless, groove is king. The other thing is VOCALS. You need to have awesome vocal talent to play out regularly, this is incredibly important. The more good looking people that you have in your band the better. I'm not being vain, I just pay attention. Don't look like a homeless person- dress up a bit, lose some weight, SMILE and let it be apparent that your having a good time. Connect with the people that you are playing for and all of the other important efforts that are mentioned in this thread will have more of a payoff.
 
#50
Jeb said:
I've played out regulary 2-3 weekends per month (some Fri or Sat only and some both) in my area for the past decade with three different bands, each a different genre. Musicians who can play are important, but fer crying out loud they need to be able to play with and off of each other. No wanking or showing off individually- play for the song. Virtuosity is worthless, groove is king. The other thing is VOCALS. You need to have awesome vocal talent to play out regularly, this is incredibly important. The more good looking people that you have in your band the better. I'm not being vain, I just pay attention. Don't look like a homeless person- dress up a bit, lose some weight, SMILE and let it be apparent that your having a good time. Connect with the people that you are playing for and all of the other important efforts that are mentioned in this thread will have more of a payoff.
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I feel like we do all those things. At the end of the day, we're three average looking white guys. We do try to play to the crowd (actually, our crowd banter has gotten pretty good, I think). There isn't and probably never will be some hot chick to be the eye candy in this three piece, though.

I would say our vocals vary from "good" to "great" depending on the song. Our drummer has picked up vocal duty on a lot of songs, and he's excellent (he was in a band that was signed to Roadrunner back in the day).

Anyway, thanks for the feedback.

Edit: I don't remember if I posted it earlier, but you can find our Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/wataband . I do know we need some better pictures on there. We are also going to be doing a four song demo next month. The song clips on there right now were done straight into a board in our practice space.
 
#51
invader3k said:
I didn't handle that one, our guitarist did (since his company is this event's major sponsor) . Either way, how they handled things was completely tacky.
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Now that I think about it my company asked me about my band playing a company sponsored event this year.

I told my boss to give me a contract or we could use the bands contract for services.

Funny, I never heard anything more about the event after that conversation.

blue
 
#52
bluewine said:
Now that I think about it my company asked me about my band playing a company sponsored event this year.

I told my boss to give me a contract or we could use the bands contract for services.

Funny, I never heard anything more about the event after that conversation.

blue
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I guess some companies just figure you should look at it as part of your work duties or something.

Anyway, nothing new here. I made many calls and followup emails last week, and nothing has materialized. Guess our next show won't be until August, which sucks, but it is what it is at this point.
 
#53
invader3k said:
I guess some companies just figure you should look at it as part of your work duties or something.

Anyway, nothing new here. I made many calls and followup emails last week, and nothing has materialized. Guess our next show won't be until August, which sucks, but it is what it is at this point.
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That's too bad. There's Madison , but I hear it's tough for outsiders to get into Madison.

Blue
 
#55
maybe you need a better web presence? i googled "total posers wisconsin" and the best i got was drummer wanted. no facebook, nothing current, no demo- there was a page with a couple yt links but it was some guy doing poetry. possibly the same page said something like "demo provided on request". it's 2013. put your press kit on the internet. make it easy for me to want to hire you.

hope that doesn't sound harsh, don't mean it to be. also hope google (or me) missed something.
 
#56
the yeti said:
maybe you need a better web presence? i googled "total posers wisconsin" and the best i got was drummer wanted. no facebook, nothing current, no demo- there was a page with a couple yt links but it was some guy doing poetry. possibly the same page said something like "demo provided on request". it's 2013. put your press kit on the internet. make it easy for me to want to hire you.

hope that doesn't sound harsh, don't mean it to be. also hope google (or me) missed something.
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Sorry, that was the name of our old band. Maybe you got it from my profile? I need to update that. I posted a link to our Facebook page a few posts ago, which has our current band name and profile, song clips, etc. Here it is again anyway: http://www.facebook.com/wataband
 
#58
invader3k said:
Yeah very much so, unless you want to play for free, but we've already been over that topic.
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Yeah, Back in the 70s Madison was “hot” for all live bands. At that time probably one of the best cities you could be in for gigs. I am not sure what happened in Madison.

Milwaukee at least in the city has changed, the clubs and bars in the city of Milwaukee don’t pay as well as the burbs and they don’t treat bands very good either. It’s why we tend to stay in the burbs.

Hope to see you in June.

Blue
 
#59
bluewine said:
Yeah, Back in the 70s Madison was “hot” for all live bands. At that time probably one of the best cities you could be in for gigs. I am not sure what happened in Madison.

Milwaukee at least in the city has changed, the clubs and bars in the city of Milwaukee don’t pay as well as the burbs and they don’t treat bands very good either. It’s why we tend to stay in the burbs.

Hope to see you in June.

Blue
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I think part of our trouble right now is that while we're doing well in our "home town", we don't quite have the reputation to reach into other neighboring cities. Even Janesville is proving extremely difficult, and there are actually a handful of bars that regularly have live music. It's just tough getting people to take a chance on an "unknown" band for a certain area.
 
#60
invader3k said:
I think part of our trouble right now is that while we're doing well in our "home town", we don't quite have the reputation to reach into other neighboring cities. Even Janesville is proving extremely difficult, and there are actually a handful of bars that regularly have live music. It's just tough getting people to take a chance on an "unknown" band for a certain area.
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I wish my band could get something going in Janesville. Like playing Janesville on a Friday night and Fort on Saturday night would be fun.

blue
 

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