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Promoting "competing" bands

bigboy_78

bigboy_78

Jun 1, 2011
1,362
2,089
Coraki, Australia
#1
Our singer recently put up a FB post along the lines of “Rare night off. Went to {venue} to check out {not my band}. What a great show. Definitely check them out if you get a chance.” With a photo and link to their page.

Now our guitarist had a bit of a rant about promoting the “opposition”. This is in small-town cover-band land, where we’re all competing for a dwindling number of venues, but I’m on the side of our singer. Promoting live music on the whole is good for everyone. More people checking out bands at venues, means more venues putting on bands, means more gigs for everyone. It’s the flip side of Dad-Bands playing rubbish blues for free is dragging down the image for everyone.

Discuss……
 
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#3
bigboy_78 said:
Our singer recently put up a FB post along the lines of “Rare night off. Went to {venue} to check out {not my band}. What a great show. Definitely check them out if you get a chance.” With a photo and link to their page.

Now our guitarist had a bit of a rant about promoting the “opposition”. This is in small-town cover-band land, where we’re all competing for a dwindling number of venues, but I’m on the side of our singer. Promoting live music on the whole is good for everyone. More people checking out bands at venues, means more venues putting on bands, means more gigs for everyone. It’s the flip side of Dad-Bands playing rubbish blues for free is dragging down the image for everyone.

Discuss……
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My two pennies - what your singer did is something that helps create a scene...whether or not it actually has direct impact is debatable. Your guitarist's rant seems disporportionate to the issue.
 
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#5
I am often jealous of bands that are okay getting better shows, I’m also extremely competitive.
However, I will only support other bands no matter how jealous I may be. I think that’s just the right thing to do. If a band is terrible I’m not going to go out of my way to support them...there are some bands that don’t need to be. But if you’re decent or even better imma support.
 
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#6
Yeah you see it all the time with original bands, they are always plugging gigs for other bands, but there’s also the chance of a support role at future gigs as well.

The guitarist is really weird about the community aspect of “the scene”. He also was very upset when I subbed for a friends band (mutual friends) and the gig was as promoted having bigboy78 from {band} joining them on bass for the night. He felt that the other band was using our popularity to boost their profile……Kind of like Coke complaining if Pepsi paid for a billboard promoting Cola Flavoured drinks and had a Coke logo included.
 
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#9
dreamadream99 said:
Scenes don’t change in response to anything musicians do or don’t do. The live music scene in your locale is dependent upon clubowners, audiences, and economics.
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I don't buy that. Musicians supporting other local musicians is the number one thing that fosters a "scene" in my experience.

Yes, there needs to actually be a critical mass of musicians in the area in question to make it work, but even if those other factors are unfavorable, a large enough community of artists will find a way around them.
 
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#10
coming from originals bands, it's always been a good thing to cross-promote other bands and generally build relationships. it helps get gigs and even tour slots, and in the best version of events you can end up with your own little scene that is bigger than the sum of its parts.

that said, i can see it would be different if you're doing commercial covers in the same territory with a limited number of venues. do the other band have a similar setlist?
 
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#12
"Dad-Bands playing rubbish blues for free is dragging down the image for everyone."

Are you saying that you compete with them? A huge chunk of change gets spent by Dad bands and their friends. Dad bands also support retail purchases of gear and bring music to clubs and events that would otherwise not have music. Gotta start somewhere. Nobody trys to play rubbish blues, although I am tired of that style, I still appreciate when it's done well.
 
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#15
I think your signer did the right thing. We always try to cross promote with other bands, we also make big efforts to include other bands on our bills if we can. The payoff has been that we get invited to play a lot more multi band bills than the bands that don't put in an effort. These other bands that we help support also tend to show up at our shows to spectate. We might be in "competition" with each other in a sense, but in a larger sense we are a community, and we have always felt that contributing positively to that community is more important than the 1 or 2 gigs we might be able to "steal" from another act.
 
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#17
Jay Corwin said:
The cover band competition thing is always laughable to me....like who wants to compete for the right to play Bon Jovi songs at a sports bar?

But musicians should support other musicians. At least the ones that aren't arsholes.
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+1

Most of us would much rather play originals in the basement, or in a club filled with our five closest friends for a big time take of $10 for the night! :D

Seriously though, I don't understand this putting down cover bands. How about we do our thing and let other people do their without being all judgmental about it. Being in an originals band doesn't make anybody special, and putting other people down because they don't agree with you just makes you a ...
 
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#18
The guitarist needs to understand that this is a business opportunity. Our BL actually books cover bands that are more or less "the competition." The difference being that she books them into places that can't or won't meet our price. She's out three or four nights a week checking out other bands and running open-mics. Other members of the band, including me, go with her from time to time. We benefit in all kinds of ways: Bands that we support also show up at our gigs, and people who participate in her two open-mics produce a small but steady stream of new fans.
 
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