Anybody else fed up with "Battle of the Bands"

[jeffery.addison]

 

Originally posted by 50calexplorer Most Battle of the Bands that I've been in have had a pre-determined winner before the first note has even been played.

 

 

+1

 

Ever go to a strip club on amateur night and notice that the winner is usually head and shoulders above the rest of the field? Do you think the she might be an employee of the club perhaps planted into the contest so that the bar doesn't have to pay out the $500 for first place? Same concept with Battle of the bands competitions...

[JacieFB]

We had this "Rock Star Cincinnati" thing going around last year. They promoted it like it was going to be a pretty cool thing. Submit $50 (which sucked as I was unemployed at the time!!) and a CD and they would go around to local bars and clubs on popular nights and play the CD amidst 4 or 5 other CD entries. The people at the bar would vote and whoever won advanced BOTB style to playoff rounds. The winner got some precious 'thing' or 'recognition' at the end of it all. They let on like they were going to just pop into the happening bars and let the crowds there decide. Turns out, they scheduled the CD plays at crappy hole-in-the-wall bars that people only go to if they are going to see a band + the dozen or so regulars that come to drink away the woes of the work week. So it was just like a BOTB show...you had to bring your crowd out to vote. Only you didn't get to play. You just had your CD play. So, meanwhile, we're playing shows across town where we have to try to get our crowd to so that we can continue to play and book there. To add insult to injury, people that voted had to pay a "cover charge" to vote...to the tune of $10! A friend of mine that was a regular at the bar where our CD was played and in a band we were friends with gave me the report. He said he walked in, heard our CD and was very excited to get to vote for us....then it came down to having enough cash for 4~5 drinks or voting. You can guess which he chose, and I don't blame him one bit. We had played numerous shows together and supported each other's bands for years. I wouldn't ask something like that of a good friend and a musical peer, why would I ask that of my fans? For one thing, you could buy the CD for $10 anyway! Sheesh.

 

Very frustrating.

[elsongs]

Emergenza sucks, and is evil.

Their address speaks for itself:

 

 

Emergenza US Entertainment

666 Fifth Avenue, Suite 341

New York NY 10103 - USA

Toll Free 1.888.923.2263

[vanlatte]

 

Originally posted by elsongs Emergenza sucks, and is evil. Their address speaks for itself: Emergenza US Entertainment 666 Fifth Avenue, Suite 341 New York NY 10103 - USA Toll Free 1.888.923.2263

 

 

Ha!

 

I don't know if that is funny or scary...

[JBJ]

i refuse to do them anymor ebecause the majority of them are absolute shambles.

 

emergenza for being a big franchise is the absolute worse but if they're done right they're ok.

 

not wanting to blow ones own trumpet but the best BOtB i've ever done was one that my band one it was run oincredibly professionally even though it was only a couple of girls doing it for a college project. they got some great prizes given their means they got proper judges ie guys int he music industry, good bands and the defining thing was that the judges didnt just have score cards or a ballot, they actually got to write down their scores and why.

 

in the end it was out of us and one other band and we won by a couple of points even though we hadn't played great and they were pissed off considering theyd just lost out on a

[HuskerDude]

If you're ever paying money to play a gig, you're being ripped off. Plus they encourage competitiveness (not creative, musical competition, just unpleasantness) between musicians, which is bad for your music scene, and bad for the musicians involved.

[Cap]

I've never been in a "Battle" but one of the bands I was in did a few "Showcases" put on by our booking agent back in the early 80s

These were done during the day and not open to the public with only club owners in the place

 

It would be 4-5 bands playing 1/2 hour sets

 

I dont think we got any jobs from them but I learned a lot about sound from hanging with the sound guy

 

[zekmoe]

Interesting thread. I didn't realize they did BOB anymore. I remember playing a couple when I was a kid (probably 1979-80). They were always at high schools, and consisted of mostly high school bands. You had 4 bands each set up with complete equipment in each corner of the gym. You played a few songs, and if you won, you got like $100 and could play the rest of the nite. You won by how many friends you had. I didn't really understand, but it was fun none the less. We used to be ultra mean and critical of each other. I wouldn't do the same thing today, but then again, I'm not 16 and stoned.

[Brian Krashpad]

 

Originally posted by HuskerDude If you're ever paying money to play a gig, you're being ripped off. Plus they encourage competitiveness (not creative, musical competition, just unpleasantness) between musicians, which is bad for your music scene, and bad for the musicians involved.

 

 

I agree about pay-to-play. I haven't done it and won't. But in some scenes for more commercial-oriented bands they may not have a choice.

 

As far as BotBs encouraging competitiveness, in the few I've been in, most if not all of the bands realized the inherent silliness of the concept of bands (especially those in wildly different genres) "competing." There was no unpleasantness at all.

 

I'm sure that's not true all the time, but my point is that such unpleasantness is not necessarily a byproduct of a BotB.

 

BK

[vanlatte]

Originally posted by Brian Krashpad As far as BotBs encouraging competitiveness, in the few I've been in, most if not all of the bands realized the inherent silliness of the concept of bands (especially those in wildly different genres) "competing." There was no unpleasantness at all. I'm sure that's not true all the time, but my point is that such unpleasantness is not necessarily a byproduct of a BotB. BK

 

That was my experience as well; in the Emergenza fiasco we met a lot of really cool and fun people. All of us seemed to share the same opinion of the mess, and each band was supportive of the others. In fact we all ended up voting for each other most of the time

[low5bass]

I did two BOTB's with a former band. Both were on Sunday afternoons when the clubs would be dead anyway. The crowds were basically just the other bands and their friends who came to vote for them. "Crowd response" was the basis for winning, but what it really came down to was who had sold more $10 tickets (money goes to the promoter of course, plus the $25 "entry fee")

 

Funny thing was we won one of them because one of our guitarist left all of his tickets in his locker at school, and his dad had to write a check for $200 to cover the cost! He was pissed. We got $50 for winning. Oh, that and a chance to do it all again.

[jake not]

That's funny this topic came up......We just had a BotB at the high school I do tech and AV work for, I did the sound for the event that a student put together. To say it was complete insanity is an understatement. I should be a little vague about some of the details because that certain Music TeleVision channel was involved in it, video taping for one of those reality shows. A "special guest" professional band on the verge of making it big, who were integral to the premise of the show, and a certain large music store chain in the north east, offered to provide all the amps and some real nice FOH speakers since the stuff at our high school wasn't quite up to what was needed. The only problem was I was never told exactly what we'd be getting.......scary but I was up to the challenge. The show was to start at 6, they didn't get there until 8 with all the stuff. The bands were going nuts by this time and the student putting it together deserves a medal or at least some therapy. ....... Lots of people going out to keep a packed auditorium from leaving. Needless to say at that point, in a nut shell I'm running around telling people where to put stuff and figuring out how to plug these really nice Mackie powered speakers/sub into our system. (While I was waiting back stage for 2 hours I prepared all these cables and adapters for whatever scenarios I could think of). I flew upstairs to do a sound check and we had a show started in 10 minutes.

 

The point is, after all that, by the time the bands played they got past all the attention from the video taping and the "music channel" and were able to relax. All these high school kids blew the doors off the place. It was unbelievable to watch. A few of us were wondering if this "drama" of the late arrival was created for the show. I guess we'll find out when this reality show is broadcast in December or January. There is tons more stuff I could say about this but I just wanted to share the stuff about the actual BOTB show.

[Weirdocat]

I'm totally fed up with Battle of the Bands... the last battle of the band one that I did was a complete {censored}ing joke and we actually got through to the finals...

 

long story, we were disqualified (lets just say... don't put on a "headlining" band, let them play for 45 minutes and then cut everyone else's slot because it took 30 minutes to change over the drumkit. I was unhappy and the crowd knew about it. Biggest mosh pit for the whole show:D)

 

It was hilarious and thus started a massive argument between a judge and myself, turns out he had been receiving e-mails saying that we should have gone through! It was a good feeling to know that fans were on our side

[elsongs]

 

Originally posted by low5bass but what it really came down to was who had sold more $10 tickets (money goes to the promoter of course, plus the $25 "entry fee")... [snip] ... We got $50 for winning. Oh, that and a chance to do it all again.

 

 

That reminded me of a scene in this past Sunday's episode of "The Simpsons," where Moe made Homer enter the arm-wrestlin circuit. A sign outside a building read:

 

ARM WRESTLING CONTEST

$50 Entry Fee

$50 Grand Prize

[Outrider]

We lost my first BoB back in college to a noise band named "Sham-Poo-Poo" who had been together for two weeks and ended their set by throwing their guitars in the air and making feedback. We were a well-rehearsed, pop-rock trio with harmonies and good original songs. Lesson: showmanship.

 

Fast-forward fifteen years or so to 2005, and my band participates in the local Blues Society's "Battle of the Blues Band" (even though we're not a traditional blues band.) $50 entry fee, plus another $35 for a band membership in the society.

 

I gotta say, I have never seen a more professionally-run event. No kidding...10 minutes between acts. That's all. They had our gear offstage before we could stop smiling and unplug! We got good feedback about our performance, and the crowd response was great because we had more fonky energy than most bands that night.

 

So here we are, 9 months later, and we kinda "crash" one of the Society's open jams. One of the Society Officers runs up and gushes..."You guys oughta start a band and play in our Battle of the Blues Bands!"

 

My bass player looked her in the eye and simply said, "We don't pay to play."

 

End of discussion. New band policy. I'm not saying "never," but not anytime in the foreseeable future.

[Jimmy James]

Contests for bands are just scams to get people to play for free. Whoever wins gets an atta boy. They get a mere fraction of any payoff compared to the revenue that the club has been generating throughout the competition. Even worse is when you get nothing except the honor of playing for free opening for another so called more well known band.

 

"Think of the exposure you'll get!"

 

Who's the pimp and who's the HO?

[damage04]

I dont think that their all that bad depending on how their run. All the battle of the bands in my area are crowd voting, so it should actually be called battle of the Fans in stead of the bands. They should have judges there that have been, or are in the music industry pick the winners. I could care less about the battles though, i know there are bigger bands in the area than mine, but we play them anyways, since its a show under our belts, and its a good way to promote/get your bands name out there.

 

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BBE Sonic maximizer.

[rangerkarlos]

 

Originally posted by Jimmy James "Think of the exposure you'll get!"

 

 

Where I live people die of exposure.

[Matter-Eater Lad]

I was in a band that did one of these about back in 2002 I'd say. I did not give a crap, thought it was dumb but the other guys were so into "winning" (interestingly they were all into watching football and I wasn't/am not). We kept winning and I kept telling them the only reason we are winning is because we wear costumes, jump around and {censored} and play a sort of "butt-rock" fun music. The other bands just sort of wore street clothes but were equally, sometimes more talented and had equally good songs. They got mad at me and said i was being negative. I simply don't fall into that mindset that music is competitive. We weren't "better". We won the whole thing and the prizes weren't bad. 10 hours recording at a decent enough place that had ProTools. Though we tracked someplace else for free and brought it there to mix. and a couple hundred bucks to spend at a music store where i got about 15 sets of strings.

[DrunkPunk]

Most Battle of the Bands are a variation of the pay-to-play scenario. You sell tickets, you keep a dollar for every 10-15 dollar ticket you sell. Whoever sells the most tickets for the promoter is gonna win, no question about it.

 

Don't participate in ticket scams, and don't play in B.o.B.'s. They will slowly kill your scene.

[DrunkPunk]

 

Originally posted by Jimmy James Contests for bands are just scams to get people to play for free. Whoever wins gets an atta boy. They get a mere fraction of any payoff compared to the revenue that the club has been generating throughout the competition. Even worse is when you get nothing except the honor of playing for free opening for another so called more well known band. "Think of the exposure you'll get!" Who's the pimp and who's the HO?

 

 

 

 

Ah yes, the national act scam. Very popular around Cleveland. "Hey, does your band wanna open up for Band X? They're touring and we'd like you to play! All you have to do is sign for these 100 tickets, sell them for 10-15 bucks a piece, and bring us back the rest. If you sell more than 75 of them, you'll get to keep up to 2.50 a ticket."

 

So bands get sucked in, arrive reaaallll early (mandatory) at the venue and find out the promoter scheduled 6 other local bands, plus the one or two openers that are touring with the main act.

 

So your band goes on at 5:30 - 6:00 pm, and you play for all the other suckers in the other local bands who showed up, because there is nobody that comes out to a show that early. You do 20-30 minutes are yer outta there.

 

The local band who sold the most tickets gets to go on before the touring openers, so they get to be seen by the first arriving members of the paying crowd as they trickle in. Of course, this band probably bought most of the tickets themselves, so they're out 500-1000 dollars for this priviledge.

 

I won't do it, and neither should you.

[LateGreats]

 

Originally posted by DrunkPunk Ah yes, the national act scam. Very popular around Cleveland. "Hey, does your band wanna open up for Band X? They're touring and we'd like you to play! All you have to do is sign for these 100 tickets, sell them for 10-15 bucks a piece, and bring us back the rest. If you sell more than 75 of them, you'll get to keep up to 2.50 a ticket." So bands get sucked in, arrive reaaallll early (mandatory) at the venue and find out the promoter scheduled 6 other local bands, plus the one or two openers that are touring with the main act. So your band goes on at 5:30 - 6:00 pm, and you play for all the other suckers in the other local bands who showed up, because there is nobody that comes out to a show that early. You do 20-30 minutes are yer outta there. The local band who sold the most tickets gets to go on before the touring openers, so they get to be seen by the first arriving members of the paying crowd as they trickle in. Of course, this band probably bought most of the tickets themselves, so they're out 500-1000 dollars for this priviledge. I won't do it, and neither should you.

 

 

Got sucked into this one once. A Big Local Venue here in Hartford (locals will know which one I'm talking about) pulls this same scam all the time. It's good to see that a lot of bands won't put up with it, and won't dance anymore. But they still get those bands with young kids in them, because all they want to do is play.

[vanlatte]

Originally posted by DrunkPunk Ah yes, the national act scam. Very popular around Cleveland. "Hey, does your band wanna open up for Band X? They're touring and we'd like you to play! All you have to do is sign for these 100 tickets, sell them for 10-15 bucks a piece, and bring us back the rest. If you sell more than 75 of them, you'll get to keep up to 2.50 a ticket." So bands get sucked in, arrive reaaallll early (mandatory) at the venue and find out the promoter scheduled 6 other local bands, plus the one or two openers that are touring with the main act. So your band goes on at 5:30 - 6:00 pm, and you play for all the other suckers in the other local bands who showed up, because there is nobody that comes out to a show that early. You do 20-30 minutes are yer outta there. The local band who sold the most tickets gets to go on before the touring openers, so they get to be seen by the first arriving members of the paying crowd as they trickle in. Of course, this band probably bought most of the tickets themselves, so they're out 500-1000 dollars for this priviledge. I won't do it, and neither should you.

 

That describes it to a T. I have seen otherwise intelligent people fall for this over and over and over...each time saying "Sure all the other bands got screwed but *we* wont"

 

 

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck...

[Brian Krashpad]

Originally posted by DrunkPunk Most Battle of the Bands are a variation of the pay-to-play scenario. You sell tickets, you keep a dollar for every 10-15 dollar ticket you sell. Whoever sells the most tickets for the promoter is gonna win, no question about it. Don't participate in ticket scams, and don't play in B.o.B.'s. They will slowly kill your scene.

 

Key word here is MOST.

 

Our local newspaper has put on a BotB two years running which was NOT such a scam. NO pay-to-play and a decent prize for the winner with fairly decent cash (plus grub, beer, and free T-shirts) even for the runners-up, all of whom got to play on a ginormous stage at the county fair. I've never done ticket scams or pay-to-play, and won't.

 

So while the majority are scams to be avoided, there are still a small number which are actually pretty cool.

 

The trick is figuring out which is which.

 

BK

 

Finals round of last year's BotB at Alachua County Fair: