How often to play

[VonCakeman]

I am wondering how often you think it makes sense to play local gigs as a band doing original music. I've heard various answers on this. It seems that there are two schools of thought.

-play as much as possible to build a fan base and tighten up the band
-don't play so often so that your events are special, and will draw more people

I think our band will be playing locally about every 1-2 months and trying to hit the suburbs or other close cities on the weekends so that we are still playing more often than that as a band to tighten things up on stage.

What has or hasn't worked for you in the past?

 

[Phalex]

I think there's a third school of thought:

Play as much as possible, but spread the venues out over a somewhat wide geographical area. It not only keeps the band tight, but builds fans in more areas. Also depending how often you hit a given area, your shows are still special.

I used to do a fair amount of fairs and festivals back in my original band days. It's a fair amount of driving to get to a gig, but the pay was pretty good.

 

[Jim Campbell]

I think there's a third school of thought:

Play as much as possible, but spread the venues out over a somewhat wide geographical area. It not only keeps the band tight, but builds fans in more areas. Also depending how often you hit a given area, your shows are still special.

I used to do a fair amount of fairs and festivals back in my original band days. It's a fair amount of driving to get to a gig, but the pay was pretty good.

worked for nashville pussy.....they refused home games until they had success elsewhere,and homecoming was a triumph of sorts....

 

[bassbully]

I think there's a third school of thought:

Play as much as possible, but spread the venues out over a somewhat wide geographical area. It not only keeps the band tight, but builds fans in more areas. Also depending how often you hit a given area, your shows are still special.

I used to do a fair amount of fairs and festivals back in my original band days. It's a fair amount of driving to get to a gig, but the pay was pretty good.

This is kind of what my band does. We do festivals in the warm months (8) this year along with a few small gigs here and there. The festivals are spread out and a couple are in the same area but months apart. We do well at those and get good pay with never having to worry about bringing a crowd or keeping one. We then tuck in in the winter for small gigs and this year will record and take some time off. spread out and hit diffrent areas and markets. You can play allot with original music that way and keep it fresh and find fans.

 

[guitarjam6]

I second the getting out to different areas part. Also, to build tightness, try and get a weekly paid gig at a bar with a built-in crowd. You don't have to promote those shows and you'll still get paid and play in front of people, then just push the big shows at better venues, or push the shows where you're auditioning for management, that way more people show up to the shows that REALLY matter.

 

[lowfreq33]

When you're first starting out it's not a bad idea to play more at first, even two shows a week, for the first month or two, just to get your name into people's heads. After that though I'd say two a month is the absolute tops. As soon as people can say "Oh, we can see them anytime" you've lost your draw. You really need to make every show in your hometown an event that people don't want to miss.

 

[rodl2005]

I'd go with that 3rd School too