Why We don’t do battles

[Nephilymbass]

So my band has done a nice job avoiding battle of the bands type shows for the last decade. We got roped into one recently. It started off as fans go to the rock radio stations website and vote. Which we were like what the heck we’ll give that a shot. Then instead of a winner being announced, they announced on the air they would have the top 5 bands play a battle of the bands that was free to get into and none of the bands got paid for. Not having a scheduled gig that week we said what the heck and played the show and lost. One of the bands was from a neighboring state and they said screw it and didn’t even show up to the battle. No one in our band thought we played very good that night and we all congratulated the winning band in person and or online. But our fans are pissed off. They are posting comments on social media about it being rigged and dogging the radio station out which none of our fans listen to because they mainly play classic rock and rarely anything modern. We had a nice crowd draw and also made a lot of new fans at the show, our merch table was busy all night and I hadn’t signed that many autographs in years. But our fans are pissed. We have the radio station DJ who was the main guy who set it all up sending us messages with screen shots of our fans comments saying it was rigged. Which really 3 out of our 4 band members called the winner as soon as we heard about the venue, judges etc. So now the radio station DJ pissed at us for what our fans have said.

Tons of red flags that have been posted by fans about the band that won

1-drummer owns the club that hosted the battle
2- they didn’t play a cover (each band was required to play two originals and one cover)
3- one of the judges works with and is roommates with the bass player. conflict of interest
4- they left they're stuff onstage to play after the winner was announced as if they knew ahead of time they were going to win(no mention of this before night of the show)
5- Drummer and Singer of winning band buy adds weekly for the rock venue and the tattoo Shops they own from the radio station that set it all up and ran it.
6- Band was acting super cautious and weird through the show before announcement
7-radio station DJ hangs out with band almost every weekend at Different venues and he was singing along to there songs.
8 crowd reaction when winner was announced was clearly a “what?”moment, followed by a combination of cheering and booing.
9 was supposed to be a rock competition and the winner has been labeled country music by everyone posting on social media.

Some of that stuff our band agrees are legitimate red flags but this is way too much drama for playing a free show. This is why we don’t do battles anymore. We’ve won half the ones we’ve been in. But when we don’t win our fans are very outspoken about it.
They radio station says they are doing the same competition next year. Yeah we won’t be entering. It’s a damned if you do damned if you don’t scenario. People give us crap if we refuse to participate, people complain about our fans not being happy if we lose.

 

[buldog5151bass]

Most are rigged and/or thinly disguised pay to play, since you sell tickets, and the audience often votes, or their reaction is taken into account. Other than our state blues society challenge, I haven't done one since I was 15.

 

[Bullitt5135]

Yeah, you got played. At least you moved some merch and won some new fans. You might consider taking the high ground with the radio station. Thank them for supporting the local music scene. Tell your fans to chill out. Tell the radio station you’d like to headline another event with them and let them do the promo.

 

[dreamadream99]

There’s only one Battle of the Bands I’m interested in watching:

Two lead guitarists, armed only with egos, go into a cage. They ring a bell. The battle begins.

Two go in—one comes out.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

Two go in—one comes out.

Two men enter,
one man leaves!

 

[Nephilymbass]

There’s only one Battle of the Bands I’m interested in watching:

Two lead guitarists, armed only with egos, go into a cage. They ring a bell. The battle begins.

Two go in—one comes out.

Two men enter,
one man leaves!

Need to watch that one again it’s been years since I’ve seen it

 

[jmattbassplaya]

I played in a BOTBs at my high school my senior year, and I was in two different groups. One was a rock cover group and the other was literally the school's jazz band (which I was in). No joke, the jazz band won best performance of the night and people were pisssssssssed.

Personally, I thought the Jazz group was more of a novelty that didn't need to win anything but that's not how the votes came in. Other bands thought the battle was rigged but, to be fair, our jazz band consisted of like 6 All State jazz and wind ensemble players. We actually were pretty darn good

 

[fasto]

4- they left they're stuff onstage to play after the winner was announced as if they knew ahead of time they were going to win(no mention of this before night of the show)

^ LOL ... smart move.

 

[Downunderwonder]

So my band has done a nice job avoiding battle of the bands type shows for the last decade. We got roped into one recently. It started off as fans go to the rock radio stations website and vote. Which we were like what the heck we’ll give that a shot.

Then instead of a winner being announced, they announced on the air they would have the top 5 bands play a battle of the bands that was free to get into and none of the bands got paid for. Not having a scheduled gig that week we said what the heck and played the show and lost.

One of the bands was from a neighboring state and they said screw it and didn’t even show up to the battle.

No one in our band thought we played very good that night and we all congratulated the winning band in person and or online. But our fans are pissed off. They are posting comments on social media about it being rigged and dogging the radio station out which none of our fans listen to because they mainly play classic rock and rarely anything modern.

We had a nice crowd draw and also made a lot of new fans at the show, our merch table was busy all night and I hadn’t signed that many autographs in years. But our fans are pissed.

We have the radio station DJ who was the main guy who set it all up sending us messages with screen shots of our fans comments saying it was rigged.

(Which)

really 3 out of our 4 band members called the winner as soon as we heard about the venue, judges etc. So now the radio station DJ pissed at us for what our fans have said.

Tons of red flags that have been posted by fans about the band that won

1-drummer owns the club that hosted the battle
2- they didn’t play a cover (each band was required to play two originals and one cover)
3- one of the judges works with and is roommates with the bass player. conflict of interest
4- they left they're stuff onstage to play after the winner was announced as if they knew ahead of time they were going to win(no mention of this before night of the show)
5- Drummer and Singer of winning band buy adds weekly for the rock venue and the tattoo Shops they own from the radio station that set it all up and ran it.
6- Band was acting super cautious and weird through the show before announcement
7-radio station DJ hangs out with band almost every weekend at Different venues and he was singing along to there songs.
8 crowd reaction when winner was announced was clearly a “what?”moment, followed by a combination of cheering and booing.
9 was supposed to be a rock competition and the winner has been labeled country music by everyone posting on social media.

Some of that stuff our band agrees are legitimate red flags but this is way too much drama for playing a free show. This is why we don’t do battles anymore. We’ve won half the ones we’ve been in. But when we don’t win our fans are very outspoken about it.
They radio station says they are doing the same competition next year. Yeah we won’t be entering. It’s a damned if you do damned if you don’t scenario. People give us crap if we refuse to participate, people complain about our fans not being happy if we lose.

Now that I have punctuated it I can see your dilemma. Sort of.

 

[Downunderwonder]

Yeah, you got played. At least you moved some merch and won some new fans. You might consider taking the high ground with the radio station. Thank them for supporting the local music scene. Tell your fans to chill out. Tell the radio station you’d like to headline another event with them and let them do the promo.

that is a magnificent plan that might actually work.

 

[Nev375]

It's showbiz. It's all bullcrap.

 

[spaz21387]

The ones i played were rigged. Or they were pay to play style where the one who sold the most tickets won...

 

[Spidey2112]

I played in a BOTBs at my high school my senior year, and I was in two different groups. One was a rock cover group and the other was literally the school's jazz band (which I was in). No joke, the jazz band won best performance of the night and people were pisssssssssed.

Personally, I thought the Jazz group was more of a novelty that didn't need to win anything but that's not how the votes came in. Other bands thought the battle was rigged but, to be fair, our jazz band consisted of like 6 All State jazz and wind ensemble players. We actually were pretty darn good

Don't tell me... the cover group played a 45 minute version of, 'Rocky Mountain Way'...

 

[Hand slap]

So my band has done a nice job avoiding battle of the bands type shows for the last decade. We got roped into one recently. It started off as fans go to the rock radio stations website and vote. Which we were like what the heck we’ll give that a shot. Then instead of a winner being announced, they announced on the air they would have the top 5 bands play a battle of the bands that was free to get into and none of the bands got paid for. Not having a scheduled gig that week we said what the heck and played the show and lost. One of the bands was from a neighboring state and they said screw it and didn’t even show up to the battle. No one in our band thought we played very good that night and we all congratulated the winning band in person and or online. But our fans are pissed off. They are posting comments on social media about it being rigged and dogging the radio station out which none of our fans listen to because they mainly play classic rock and rarely anything modern. We had a nice crowd draw and also made a lot of new fans at the show, our merch table was busy all night and I hadn’t signed that many autographs in years. But our fans are pissed. We have the radio station DJ who was the main guy who set it all up sending us messages with screen shots of our fans comments saying it was rigged. Which really 3 out of our 4 band members called the winner as soon as we heard about the venue, judges etc. So now the radio station DJ pissed at us for what our fans have said.

Tons of red flags that have been posted by fans about the band that won

1-drummer owns the club that hosted the battle
2- they didn’t play a cover (each band was required to play two originals and one cover)
3- one of the judges works with and is roommates with the bass player. conflict of interest
4- they left they're stuff onstage to play after the winner was announced as if they knew ahead of time they were going to win(no mention of this before night of the show)
5- Drummer and Singer of winning band buy adds weekly for the rock venue and the tattoo Shops they own from the radio station that set it all up and ran it.
6- Band was acting super cautious and weird through the show before announcement
7-radio station DJ hangs out with band almost every weekend at Different venues and he was singing along to there songs.
8 crowd reaction when winner was announced was clearly a “what?”moment, followed by a combination of cheering and booing.
9 was supposed to be a rock competition and the winner has been labeled country music by everyone posting on social media.

Some of that stuff our band agrees are legitimate red flags but this is way too much drama for playing a free show. This is why we don’t do battles anymore. We’ve won half the ones we’ve been in. But when we don’t win our fans are very outspoken about it.
They radio station says they are doing the same competition next year. Yeah we won’t be entering. It’s a damned if you do damned if you don’t scenario. People give us crap if we refuse to participate, people complain about our fans not being happy if we lose.

Well at least you were able to sign a lot of autographs! That's awesome!!!

 

[pie_man_25]

I played one battle of the bands, I wasn't too surprised about the band that won, they got to use their own kit and the sound guy actually gave thema sound check. I was less surprised when I found out that the guy organizing the show (who ran the bar it was in) was their manager.

You guys did your best, sometimes that's all you can do. Since then I've boycotted that bar, and while being polite about it, I've encouraged others to do same.

Maybe don't go that far, after all - it sounds like you can be diplomatic about this stuff, and it's probably in your best interests. This was a passion project for me, and now I live a timezone away, so boycotting is kind of easy for me.

 

[Nephilymbass]

I played one battle of the bands, I wasn't too surprised about the band that won, they got to use their own kit and the sound guy actually gave thema sound check. I was less surprised when I found out that the guy organizing the show (who ran the bar it was in) was their manager.

You guys did your best, sometimes that's all you can do. Since then I've boycotted that bar, and while being polite about it, I've encouraged others to do same.

Maybe don't go that far, after all - it sounds like you can be diplomatic about this stuff, and it's probably in your best interests. This was a passion project for me, and now I live a timezone away, so boycotting is kind of easy for me.

The frustrating thing is our band doesn’t really care it’s our fans getting the radio station DJ all worked up. Here’s an example of what they are posting on FB lol

 

[pie_man_25]

The frustrating thing is our band doesn’t really care it’s our fans getting the radio station DJ all worked up. Here’s an example of what they are posting on FB lol
View attachment 2826461

And that's the unfortunate thing, having been in for at least ten years I suppose you knew better than to expect things like fairness, you just had a good time and did your best. I suppose those less experienced expected more. But hey, music is an entertainment business, not a meritocracy.

It just is what it is, and do your best to speak out against outcry - but you already know that.

 

[lfmn16]

I'm not sure why people keep falling for this scam. It was a scam when I started playing 45+ years ago, it's a scam now and it will be a scam when my nephews kids are old.

Here is the only red flag you need - It's a battle of the bands.

 

[Wesley R]

More drama than a gig should have. Sounds as if your band is fairly well established and reasonably happy, move forward.

I did not know they still did battle of the bands, which in 1968 were generally not much more than a popularity contest. May as well have been a bunch of 9th grade boys standing in the hallway arguing Chevy vs Ford.

 

[Nephilymbass]

I'm not sure why people keep falling for this scam. It was a scam when I started playing 45+ years ago, it's a scam now and it will be a scam when my nephews kids are old.

Here is the only red flag you need - It's a battle of the bands.

This one actually wasn’t a battle of the bands show initially. It started out as fans voting online, then instead of announcing a winner they announced the top 5 bands would do a battle of the bands I was like oh hell.