General Music Chat

Lets say you covered your home town gigging-wise. You've secured the best venues numerous times, opened for most upcoming bands, have had those bands open for you, got your cozy established fan base.

Oh and you're maybe very passionate about music and your self-esteem as a band.

You decide to gigswap with a bands from the closest biggest town at reasonable driving distance. Send some emails via myspace, post some ads on cragslist.

A couple of days after your networking effort, 2 bands are interested.

One of them is the hot, upcoming, poppy-cliche type band that you know has many connections, a moderate street team, and can get you to play in a nice club.

The other is more avant-guard, plays better music by your standards, and is clearly something different from what you usually hear. Different in a very good way. But they are less established and can't get you in the best of venues, with all the promotional and lesser fan-base implications.

Which band do you choose to play your gig with?

This is not a real life situation by the way.

mruff !

Personally, I'd go with the band that best compliments my own band's sound.

Always go with the biggest venue and the group with the biggest fan base that might bleed over to you. I could care less whether they like my music or not, cause all you want is the most exposure you can get.

We are currently networking our band over a 150 mile radius of home. We are going in as the main act, for some reason a lot of bands are getting in touch with us wanting to open, but we may just put an acoustic act up front from 9-10, we play a set 10-11, then we will run our own Disco Inferno 11-12, and then we play a closing set from 12-1.

Maybe Im being cocky but I dont really see any need to associate ourselves with other bands. Most of them are young, cocky and just too damn loud. We have a soundman and he has been working out comfortable listening levels with a DB meter. He thinks 92-96 DBs is all you need to have before you start giving poeple ear fatigue. We have had no complaints about volume lately so I would hate to get some loud ass rock band in front of u sna druin the whole night and piss folks off.

On a side note, I was recently talking with a very good guitar player from our area that has done many national tours and he said. "You know John, Ive never lost a gig or a fan cause I was too quiet, but Ive run off a lot of customers cause I was too loud." And come to think of it I agree with him. Noone wants to feel uncomfortable and I want them to come back again and again.

I believe in destiny and work supports it. You can`t go wrong and wise dicesions help along the way . Great Post !

Ok I was expecting some would for the business side and others for the artistic.

I would tend to think that the most cocky bands are the ones who try to fit the mold because playing louder then others is the only way to differentiate them.

I think id go with the better sounding band If i really had to choose, but otherwise do both.

Im more concerned about reputation issues, since you dont know the town. Turning down the poppier band can close doors to a bigger scene, as tuning down the jazz/rock band can close doors to a tighter niche.

I understand the exposure debate, but I do have to agree strongly with philbymon. I went to see a buddy of mine play a few years ago in Denver. His band was kind of an industrial metal thing. They agreed to open up for a ska/punk band with a decent following. The crowd was clearly there to see the "headliners", and all but booed my friend's band off the stage.
Did they get exposure? Yes.
Was it positive exposure. No.
Was it worth their time? Maybe. Any movement forward is good. If they made one fan that night, they moved forward. The problem is, that is a LOT of work and preparation (+expenses) to reach ONE new fan. I'll guarantee they didn't pull in more than that one.

I guess what I'm saying is that I would personally go with the band that is closer to my genre.

F that. AVANTE GUARDE...

If you like the music they play, great. If you pick up with them because they are a big act = poseur night.

What happens if they ask you how you like their music?

You going to lie and say "it's great."

forget that noise...no need to lie.

Aw, Cap...I hafta disagree. Schmooze like a hooker. Tell them you love them. Tell them they're great. Then let them promote YOU, since you're such a big fan with such good taste.

Ain't nothin' wrong with a little lie to move things along nicely for you & yours. You could always find something positive to say, at the very least.

"Love that tone!"

"Good choice of material...how did you guys think of doing that?"

That kind of fluff can go a long way to making things move smoothly for you, no matter what or who you're dealing with.

If ya go out there with an attitude of "I'm all that & you aren't," it probably won't help you much. Schmoozing is a legitimate part of networking, if you do it tastefully & aren't too blatant about it.

Lie like a rug.

"politicians use lies to cover up the truth. Artists use lies to expose the truth."

I have no idea if that reflects on this discussion, but it seemed a good place to say it.

LOL Touche'

I don't tell people they suck. (too abrupt)

I say, "your levels on that mic sounded a little off."

If the instruments were off..

I say, "sounds like you guys were slightly out of tune."

And above all, plenty of haters out there, so I ignore most compliments and negativity. If you want a real review of your show du jour, ask your best friend(s).

What? You say he/she wasn't there? Maybe that tells you something. If your friends are not interested, maybe there's something to it besides they aren't into that type of music. ASK. When you ask the right person, they'll tell you more than you want to hear. Then you can work on making it better and know you are working on items that really need adjustment and not some bs.

DO BOTH... never shut the door on opportunity!

OOOOoooo - what does all that positive energy getcha, Cap? Lotsa good networking, I'll bet...referrals & such?

I have gotten referrals from the most unlikely of places just by saying how much I enjoyed someone's act, when in fact I didn't even listen to it other than to glean a title or two from their set to compliment them on. The rest of my time was spent chatting up a hottie or two, but I retained a song title to compliment the act on. After they heard how much I liked it, they were most helpful in giving me suggestions of places they normally play at, which they were more than happy to refer me to. Remember the old saying that you get more flies with honey than with vinegar, man. It really can help, & you don't hafta sell your soul to compliment someone on a job barely adequately done.

It's nice to get an "in" with a place from an established act, no matter what your opinion of their music is. 9 times out of 10, when I was working solo, the place they referred me to liked me even better, & I've gotten lots of work there.

Heck, I played a resort up in Deep Creek Lake, MD, like that for 2 years twice a month, & they quit hiring the guy that referred me. I referred him to some of the places I used to play at, for less $, & they were quite happy with him. I think he was happy to get the work, too, so I'd returned the favor, in a way.

I only ever went & played my best, & always tried to get more work, & helped other ppl if they warranted my help. It's always worked for me.

Just because you think their act is so much less in quality than your own is no reason not to give ppl kudos for doing it, & doing it well, to the best of their own abilities. It can also get you work, if you know how to get it.

Smooze it or lose it.

I wouldnt cut down anyone unless they really do sound bad. Just because I dont like another bands style of music is no reason for me to say they sound bad. The music community becomes a very small place when you get out and get active, and any bridges you burn can come back to haunt you. If we do a show with a band and there is something wrong with their sound I try to be real polite, and say you guys sound great, but if I was you I might do this...........

In my area, I guess its cause Im old and a lot of people know me from the past, most people listen to what I have to say. That doesnt mean that they do what I say, but they seem to take it in a positive manner instead of negative. I want everyone to sound good. If someone comes to our show and somethings not sounding right I would rather they tell. I dont think anyone can tell me at this point that I suck cause the stuff we play sounds as good as anyone in our area, and other musicians pick up on that and want to associate with better bands, so I guess I am lucky in that.

Minimize negativity to other performers, a little goes a long way. (but you can beat them up here in the forum) lol

I do the same with positive remarks, otherwise they think you are buttering them up. ( f the world, I wanna get off)

Anything I do is to have a good time. And I retain my morals, thus I don't play or open for rap, punk or any type of music I don't like. SHeet, I basically don't do anything I don't like. We do not play out all that often, but plenty of sh*t holes down this way I won't play in because I don't like the situation for one reason or another.

Yeah I may remain a nobody, but I sleep like a log at night and laugh all day long.