Getting some local recognition... now what!?

Hey all, so my band Syd has gotten picked up by two local clubs. One has been voted the top music venue in the area and we're gunna be playing there every friday for the after work crowd with interspersed opening gigs for their evening shows, which are usually more well known acts.

We have also been picked up by a bar across town to play every weekend and they want to pay us $250 a show!

Then as a result of one of our shows so far, a local magazine wants to feature us in an article as an up an coming band....

Things are starting to get a little over whelming and I'm not sure what the next thing to do is. We want to start building a more dedicated fan base and obviously these shows will help us do that, but just mentioning our myspace at/during the show I don't think is going to do it...

Any tips on how we can promote ourselves with these shows?

We've been offered the chance to play at larger venues, but they want us to guarantee a draw of X people and I don't feel comfortable doing that yet... So, what's the trick?

 

There are worse problems to have there, man! Sounds like should be enjoying the fruits of your fine jamming efforts! I dont know your sound or your market, but here is what I try to do with my own group.


Try talking to some of the guys in the headline acts you open for, and see what info you can get from them about booking other clubs.


Roll with the article in the magazine, and include it in your press kit. If you dont have a press kit, make one. Im guessing you have a CD and photo to get gigs with, an article is always a good addition!

Get your CD and presskit to area press - magazines newspapers whatever. Reviews are good, and also go into the presskit.


Negotiate the larger venues down on the number of people you should draw. This one is tough, because any show is a gamble for getting a crowd. The venue will know how much it costs to staff the event, and wont take less than that in most cases. They wont always tell you what that number is, but its not hard to get a base figure from them while discussing the details of a show. If the venue thinks your group is hot, they may be willing to take a little risk to bring you in.

Find out how much advertisement the venue provides, and how much you will have to do do yourself. Try to get a prime night, weekends only when asked to draw a specific number.

Dont be afraid to turn down a gig now and then. Letting bookers and bar owners know you will say no changes how they negotiate with you.

Never take less money than you made at your previous paying performance.

most of all, enjoy the ride man!

 

Thanks Samson, working with the venues has been pretty good. But I'm more concerned about getting some kind of reliable fan base from the people that listen to us and like us after seeing us at a show. What kind of promotion in that regards would you suggest? Last time we had our friends walking around with stickers.

 

That, my friend, is the trick.

If you happen to figure it out - I will take gallon bottles of it! lo
l

Giving away stickers and other freebies is always a good way to make friends for the band and reward folks who support your group. I cant say it ever adds large amounts of people to the fanbase, but it does give you a chance to get the word out in person about the shows.

Giving away a CD is always good to help the gigs and get folks who like your band a chance to turn others on to it, but its easy to give away so many that you lose money having them made.


We always make flyers for our shows, handbills with freaky artwork/images, even if the venue is providing promotions. You can usually arrange with the club to give a dollar off the covercharge with the band-made flyers. It gives you a great idea how many people you actually draw, but it also costs a few bucks to find out so I suggest this trick at a show that isnt your biggest planned gig. Taking the loss to see how your drawing power is can be a gamble at bigger events.

Promotions are a tricky bizness, and lotsa people are really protective of their contacts and methods. A big factor is where you are, and what the live music market is like there. Each place is different so you may have to learn on the fly what works where you are.

Interrogate local bands for any info they may have! I rarely get any real help from our locals, but it never stops me from trying to see what might be working for them.

If you havent already, start kicking a few bucks into a coffeecan to cover future promotions - those things can get expensive!

Good luck man, hope it helps a little

 

Thanks dude! I'll definitely put some of those tips into action.

 

damn how did you get recognized by the club? Did you play during open mic night or something?

 

we had been playing at little open mics and college shows in the area for about a year or so, but that's not how we got recognized there. Once we had our shit together we dropped some money on a PA system, and used it to set up a home practice space and recording studio.

The PA lets us line directly into my computer. So we got to work and recorded some samples, got a myspace page and sent the club an email that said we were a local band with about 4 hours worth of original and cover material and were looking to play. They sent us an email back and gave us a shot opening up for some well known bands in the area. So we did, and they liked it so they asked us back.

Meanwhile my band mate got in contact with the other club and did the same thing, sent em an email with samples. We're one of the only bands in the area that plays the kind of stuff that we do. There are a lot of different classic rock tribute acts that play all floyd or all zeppelin, or all the stones, etc etc. But virtually no one that plays it all. Also the fact that there's only two of us, and that we have A LOT of material to play has made it easy for us to get gigs that other bands can't/won't take.

We played at a bar in September and had to play a 3 hour set. A lot of bands around here don't have enough material, or don't want to/can't play for that long.

We're still at the very low level of the totem pole for sure but the support of these popular local places has been very nice.

The big thing for us was having the PA. In addition to letting us record and practice, it lets us play at clubs that don't have an in house sound system.

This is our myspace: www.myspace.com/seeSYDrock

 

I dig your music, but if your playing at bars id suggest getting a drummer and a bassist. Drunk people like full sounds, plus its wicked for instrumentals and just jamming.

 

No way. I've been in plenty of full bands, and might join up with one again. But it's just too much for our project. The fact that there's only two of us makes for an interesting stage dynamic people never quite know what to think when we get on stage.

 

I'm listening right now to your cover of Another Brick In The Wall parts 1-3. I like what I'm hearing.

 

Thanks man, we used to play that all the time. That recording is so old. We're gunna rerecord a lot of the Wall next week. Thanks for the support!

 

Do you have any of your own songs on your profile? I know some of the covers there, but I'm not familiar with some of the songs.

 

Yeah; Questionable, Less than Clean (LA Woman Intro), Sunshine Acid, I'm Sorry, and Hey Girl are all originals. We have more that just aren't up.

 

Listening to Sunshine Acid now. Really trippy. Keep it up. Only wish I could see you perform live.

 

Yeah, the phillippines is sorta out of our playing radius right now

I'm hoping one of my friends will record a show so we can get footage up. If not we might record something low budget.

 

all you have to do is go out and play on the street and hand out flyers for your next show. give the people what they want without making them work for it. go to them and play them your song. if you can feel the groove, you can communicate the groove and any mother fucker that hears it is going to like it. so, just get out there and play for everyone, music makes people happy!

keith

 

Thanks Keith. We just landed a bi-weekly gig at a local bar so that's a lot of built in regular audience which will be nice. We made up some fliers and have a CD almost ready so I think things are going to be working out nice.