Discussion Thread

I've had an interesting email come in from Jim, at the Chicagoist. I'd like to share it here with everyone, because he disagrees with something in the book. He has convinced us that it should change, and we will actually do so for the UK edition of the book, which is coming out in February. Also, if we ever did another edition of this one, we will certianly make a change.

Here's what he wrote:

Reading through a review copy of the Survival Guide sent to me for review and I have to admit a lot of it is really spot on. You gave one TERRIBLE piece of advice in the shows section. Throwing a party and clearing out the club of your fans after your set but before the end of the show is an excellent way to get banned from a club. Maybe it impressed U.S. Beer Co., but that place was easily impressed with any band that actually drew folks through its doors. For the most part -- and I speak from my years as both a club talent buyer and an independent promoter -- that sort of thing would definitely not endear a band to me.

You know what? Jim's right. It's bad karma to venues, bookers, and other bands. Although it worked for us.

I'd say that if I were writing it now, I would modify it to still suggest that they throw a party, but then make sure that the venue gets a count of their fans. (Which the better venues do.) Perhaps you could find a way to make it evident by making sure that all of your friends get a special hat, armband, or some other item that is related to your party.

The point is to make a visual statement on who you are bringing in when you first start your band.

Anyone else have any ideas about this?

In my city, it's like pulling teeth to get people out to our shows.  the mantra here is "if i can't get in for free i'm not going" and even if you put them on the guest list they still don't show up! this makes me very edgy, to promote the beans out of a show to play to the other band and their girlfriends.  If somebody found a way to get people to come out to see an origional music band let me know!

p.s. I'm not in a jam band or one of those trendy screamo bands that the high school kids are into now-a-days

Hey Smokin' Joe, there's a lot of practical ideas in the book and we're working on getting even more info on the site about these types of topics.  

This is an excellent topic for our How To section (in development, excuse our dust!) and so, if you have any other questions like this or topics, please post them here in the forum as we'll get to them. Thanks! 

Randy,

We print out business cards but we print them out as an Ever the Bear promotional item. We clear it with every venue before hand but we get a drink special, or a door special, or worst-case we make it a merch special. They're all one-time use cards which we have the venue or our merch table collect upon redemption. We then redistribute the cards as promo items for other shows. It works two-fold. It's a handout that most of the time makes it back into our hands, which means we drew in some new listeners. Two, if the venue (say the door or bartender) is the one that collects these cards, it lets them see that we're bringing people out.

Selling your merch during the gig and convincing people to wear out their own t-shirts is a good way to show the venue your draw too.

Of course, if you can get people into your set then it doesn't matter if you brought them that time. The way you affect the crowd makes it look like they are there for you, or at least that they'll return for you. This is something we work really hard at doing. We've had fans sing on some of our songs, brought fans up on stage for pictures during instrumental sections, and we teach people call back lines in songs that have them before we sing the songs. This makes Random Bar Jack into an Ever the Bear fan, even if it's just for that one night, which is all the venue sees.

Those are just a few ideas that we've worked with that work for us. I'd like to hear some other people's ideas as well.

-Anthony EvB

Try creating "Snippet CDs". These are about five :45 second samples of your best songs on cds and give them away for free, you may even throw in the whole single . The catch to it is to create an audio commercial on the last track: include all band contact info just as a regular commercial would. The idea behind this technique if you can't depend on the "so called (friend) fans go after the fans who aren't your friends in an effort to make them fans first and select your friend replacements. Look at it this way, how true is a friendship if they don't respect your dreams enough to show after being put on the guest list. Good luck in your venture!