Members B-Bottom Posted June 25, 2010 Members Share Posted June 25, 2010 I'm curious about how many people you guys usually have show up to your shows and what kind of promotions you do and what have you found to be the most effective. My band 1000 Earth years (www.myspace.com/1000earthyears) is by far the best band that I have ever been apart of in my 18+ years of doing the band thing. We are tight and have a killer sound. We play shows once, maybe twice a month and our draw is kind of all over the place. We've played to 50 people and we've played to 2 people. Having done this for awhile I understand that their is no tried and true formula for getting people out to shows, especially playing all original music in a not so music driven area. But I am curious about how other bands are doing and how they are doing it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TrickyBoy Posted June 25, 2010 Members Share Posted June 25, 2010 OK, let me start by pointing out that the band that I currently play with is the antithesis of yours. We're straight up cheesy covers. That being said, I played in all original bands for most of my life and I think I'd do the following if I were you. For now... play LESS often not more. Focus on the rooms where you can draw 50 people. If that means only playing once ever 2 months for now, so be it. And take the time to PROMOTE THE {censored} out of those shows. Make every show special. Get the Facebook networking working for you. Make it so that people who dig your music come to EVERY show. (Hell, if I dig a band, I'd definitely go see them every couple of months. Twice a month, not so much) Then as your crowd grows, you can start branching out and playing more often. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members B-Bottom Posted June 25, 2010 Author Members Share Posted June 25, 2010 For now... play LESS often not more. Focus on the rooms where you can draw 50 people. If that means only playing once ever 2 months for now, so be it. And take the time to PROMOTE THE {censored} out of those shows. Make every show special. Get the Facebook networking working for you. Make it so that people who dig your music come to EVERY show. (Hell, if I dig a band, I'd definitely go see them every couple of months. Twice a month, not so much) Then as your crowd grows, you can start branching out and playing more often. This was our idea when we initially decided to only do like one show a month, and I think that it is a good idea too. One of the reasons why i am asking this is because we are supposed to play a show in about three weeks at a place that really doesn't get a great draw, in fact it's kind of a dive. Now this will be the third time that we've played there. The first time we had an awesome crowd, the second time not so much..and this is after promoting the crap out of the show. I'm kind of worried that unless we have a good angle we are really going to have a tough time putting asses in the seats. Now we just played a show like two weeks ago at a different place and billed it as a bike night. Now this got us a better draw than other shows but it still wasn't awesome. So I guess a better question would be, how do I promote an epic show at a dive bar in like three weeks?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Rezrover Posted June 25, 2010 Members Share Posted June 25, 2010 We sort of quit promoting, short of the Myspace/Facebook thing, and just play the gig, win them over and they're there the next time. I try to not book dates at a place closer than 6 weeks apart and it works for us cause I've seen bands that come back in two weeks after their last gig and people get tired of them real quick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mstreck Posted June 25, 2010 Members Share Posted June 25, 2010 We sort of quit promoting, short of the Myspace/Facebook thing, and just play the gig, win them over and they're there the next time. I try to not book dates at a place closer than 6 weeks apart and it works for us cause I've seen bands that come back in two weeks after their last gig and people get tired of them real quick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Kramerguy Posted June 25, 2010 Members Share Posted June 25, 2010 Hey B-Bottom - I think part of the issue is that there's just not much of a hard rock/ punk scene in hburg- You guys sound really good and tight- But I'd say focus on breaking into the philly scene, or even NYC. putting efforts into building a following in your area is damn near impossible. Even cover bands have a hard time there. Downtown H-burg has a really cool music scene but it's mostly blues/jazz and indie from what I've seen. Good luck! P.S. - "God Mode" kicks ass, great tune! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Kramerguy Posted June 25, 2010 Members Share Posted June 25, 2010 sorry I never really answered your question: So I guess a better question would be, how do I promote an epic show at a dive bar in like three weeks?? You know the answer- Print up 500+ fliers - Get a staple gun and lots of tape. hit the bricks Post all over town, on telephone poles, supermarket doors / bulletin boards, anywhere eye-level that people go. even go to the mall and plaster them on people's cars .. don't worry about pissing people off, you can't lose a fan you never had! good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted June 25, 2010 Members Share Posted June 25, 2010 You know the answer- Print up 500+ fliers - Get a staple gun and lots of tape. hit the bricks The more things change, the more they stay the same! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Dancebass Posted June 25, 2010 Members Share Posted June 25, 2010 The only way to survive as an original band these days is to create a family around yourselves. Let's take your 50 peeps on your good nights. Do they know each other? Have you introduced them to one another? Do they go out to dinner and movies with each other when you guys aren't playing. Have you introduced hot single girl (A) to future Veterinarian guy (B)? You must achieve retention or all the promotion in the world isn't going to help you. Build a {censored}ing gang around yourselves! Support them in their endeavors. We have models, actresses, film-makers, race car drivers, you name it. Not only do we support them but we bring the gang also. People see our name listed in the paper and say to themselves "well, I'm tired and all but if I go to this show tonight, at least everyone I know will be there." Promotion is done outside of this circle. When someone is interested enough in what we're doing musically to come see us, they don't get introduced to a new band, they get jumped into a gang of freaks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mstreck Posted June 25, 2010 Members Share Posted June 25, 2010 The only way to survive as an original band these days is to create a family around yourselves. Let's take your 50 peeps on your good nights. Do they know each other? Have you introduced them to one another? Do they go out to dinner and movies with each other when you guys aren't playing. Have you introduced hot single girl (A) to future Veterinarian guy (B)? You must achieve retention or all the promotion in the world isn't going to help you. Build a {censored}ing gang around yourselves! Support them in their endeavors. We have models, actresses, film-makers, race car drivers, you name it. Not only do we support them but we bring the gang also. People see our name listed in the paper and say to themselves "well, I'm tired and all but if I go to this show tonight, at least everyone I know will be there." Promotion is done outside of this circle. When someone is interested enough in what we're doing musically to come see us, they don't get introduced to a new band, they get jumped into a gang of freaks! :thu: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wheresgrant3 Posted June 25, 2010 Members Share Posted June 25, 2010 Dancebass agreed... People don't come out to our shows just to hear a cover band or hear their favorite music. They come out because our shows are like a little community. Since the very begining we've made coming out to our shows an inclusive event. We invite people onstage, to be a part of the show... we remember names and faces. In the early days (when we could count) we So what have we done over 8 years to build that community/following. #1- make people feel like they are a part of something. We post their pictures on our website, blog about the show, thanking them for attending them. Making them feel like they were a part of the success (on big gigs). We give them content (videos) in between shows to keep people buzzing in between gigs. We also do various publicity events to keep our name out there. Our focus is not about us... it's about them. Sometimes a regular face will disappear for a while, only to turn up a few years later after a break up.We've had people literally meet, get married, have kids and divorce all in the space of 8 years and coming out to our shows. In fact:[YOUTUBE]vs6wA84hRXg[/YOUTUBE] For original bands... you would probably want to approach things differen'tly. Assume ownership over things. After all a good cover band is about 'selling' and great original band is about creating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members B-Bottom Posted June 25, 2010 Author Members Share Posted June 25, 2010 Hey B-Bottom - I think part of the issue is that there's just not much of a hard rock/ punk scene in hburg- You guys sound really good and tight- But I'd say focus on breaking into the philly scene, or even NYC. putting efforts into building a following in your area is damn near impossible. Even cover bands have a hard time there.Downtown H-burg has a really cool music scene but it's mostly blues/jazz and indie from what I've seen.Good luck!P.S. - "God Mode" kicks ass, great tune! Thanks man. Yea we were talking about getting some shows around Philly and Baltimore. Harrisburg is a weird town. It really really wants to be a city but it's just a big town with a few tall buildings. Their aren't many music venues around anymore, and the one's that are don't promote that they exist so no one really goes there. We've even played a few 18+ places thinking that a lot of kids would at least show up, boy were we wrong. Those places were more dead than some of the dives that we've rocked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members keekross Posted June 26, 2010 Members Share Posted June 26, 2010 Do check out this great singer, her Corinne and Amy is so good. Hope you enjoy, thx.http://www.youtube.com/user/Urbansoul02#p/a/u/0/vFxGBint17o http://www.youtube.com/user/Urbansoul02#p/a/u/1/FzTeZUbIx_c Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted June 26, 2010 Members Share Posted June 26, 2010 Do check out this great singer, her Corinne and Amy is so good. Hope you enjoy, thx.http://www.youtube.com/user/Urbansoul02#p/a/u/0/vFxGBint17ohttp://www.youtube.com/user/Urbansoul02#p/a/u/1/FzTeZUbIx_c Well, she's pretty anyway.... but thanks for the spam! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LickmyGear138 Posted June 26, 2010 Members Share Posted June 26, 2010 CAN WE PLEASE STAY ON TOPIC :cop::cop::cop: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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