Okay, so my modern metal band MEDUSA just played a Tues night at one of Phoenix's better venues for a reggae-dub band (what the dub stands for I don't know but that's what it says in the ad) having decided it would be a great way to analyze our live performance via camcorder to Utube. Good thing we did c'os my vocals were shakey, a few songs got Tempoitis, overall some easy fixes. Better on a Tues night for one set at a lousy $50 + $20 bar tab, than at a high profile gig before max capacitiy. We already did an open mic Wed there some months ago, played 5 songs, talked business during tear down. Booking dude brought up the concept of "selling tickets" for a Friday night gig with several other local bands and a "national act" to sweeten the deal. I've been around this scene for years, drummer is just 19, bass player Croatian but experienced, last lived in NJ. Like me, he's been there but "dormant" for some time. The guys left biz up to me. I pushed for a break, skip the tickets, we'lll promote ourselves our way and bring in ticket buying public, hand out demos, URLs, build mailing list. Never happened. This last gig only happened when my bass player saw it via craigslist as this headliner starts real late, actually pulls a not too bad crowd who love their white bread funk but now need a drummer and don't appear to have enough material for a full set; we went on at 10:30, finished at 11:30 and they still figured we'd be happy to play longer. NO DEAL DUDE. Pay us more, sure. Complete mismatch anyway. Now we have a gig on April 22nd, a Friday night, at an even bigger venue; the difference is our band name is right there on the club's web page, with a huge national touring act, but now I went for the tickets. The club management are pretty cool, I have to admit. I have met FAR WORSE. And, they have a quota of ticket sales we need to meet, at least half, for a decent price. Most of my "far away" friends are those who live right by the club and last time I went out with them on a weekend just to hit a few bars, they easily burned over $30 each just on drinks alone and I'm asking barely 1/3. They ain't gots no more excuses - "Well, no way I'm driving way out there on a Tues night. Emial me when you guys get a weekend gig" TIME TO PAY THE PIPER DUDES! Q: DOES THIS TICKET THING END AT SOME POINT? LIKE WHEN THE CLUB KNOWS YOU BRING THE GOODS?
