We Need Help Getting A Show

[cheezes]

ok so ovbiously my band needs help gettin a show. weve been a band since about april. we have about 15 songs down like the back of our hand. about 7 or 8 of them are good songs. were like a funk rock band. we kinda have a red hot chili peppers sound but we do just about everything in 12 barre blues. it a pretty unique style. but ya so thats our sound. but i mean we've been ready 4 for show 4 months n we cant get 1 newhere every place just gets our info n says "we'll call you". so i was wondering if any1 has any advice on gettin a show it would be greatly appericated. thanx alot

[Mr. Grill]

Whore your band as much as possible.

[Whitecloud]

Ask around everywhere you can, pubs/clubs etc. and you can usually find gigs. If you really can't get any that way, see if any of the local venues let you rent the place out (many places will) and put on your own gig. Remember to look everywhere and start low. A totally unknown band will usually find it harder to play in the clubs where they have quite well known acts regularly playing. Also i notice your in New York, you'd probably have a better chance with the smaller pubs and more rural areas than the city clubs and stuff.

All in all just keep trying and you'll get one eventually, In the meantime keep practising so you'll put on a killer show when you do get a gig and then you should hopefully be invited back:thumb:

[10571z]

battle of the bands are easy as to get gigs

[Flik]

this will probably bridge onto a whole other subject, but a lil' demo might be a good idea.

As in, anyone can call up a venue, but its hard for the man on the other end to judge your band through, "yea, uh, we play psycadelic jazz pop".

I suppose that applys mainly to 'bigger' venues but not a bad idea i think.

[deathscreamingsheep]

Hah well at least you're not in my area where the live music rules are "...no artists who are in a group of more than two..."- to get past this rule, the pubs ask for a licensing fee that costs shitloads and as such only a few places have said licenses and so only run the bigger bands.

This is a result of the crappy conservative council who created these laws back in the late 80s to try and stifle the Bromley punk contingent (Souxie Sue, Sham 69 and others all came from fairly near my area)- however, they brought out the rules far too late. Unfortunately as most of the councilers then are pretty much the same as they are now (very conservative) there is hardly any live music.

The nearest and pretty much only club we can play in is the Croydon Cartoon 10 miles away. Not bad you might think, but being still 16 and 17, we can't drive yet or afford cars at all. More importantly the Cartoon is in the crappy end of Croydon (i.e. your gonna get beaten if your seen with a guitar case) so you've pretty much gotta drive.

And to top it off, the lack of rock culture has meant that Bromley is utterly infested with chavs and near me, to be seen on your own in non-street gear (i.e. non gangsta clothing) is to be chased by a bunch of thick yobs with no provocation needed at all.

OK I'll stop whinging now, it's just recent stress at attempting to organise my own gigs (plus recent unpleasentness with said chavs) is really getting to me.

[LeDbOx]

in my area southwest VA there are NO metal clubs just country bars so what most of the metal bands do is set up a week day show and one of the 2 or 3 bigger bands in our area will use a bar for one night and have an all ages show there. because there are no clubs the bands do all of the booking of support slots personaly which brings me to my point, if u could make a demo (nothing fancy just audible) and distribute it to big drawing bands they might help u get booked...also dont be afraid to step outside your genre when ur thinking about getting started if your good i doubt people would walk out on u?

[Eclypsis]

Rent a place. Doesn't need to be metal. Just a place where they usually play rock music should be fine...

[The Establishment]

I am in a fairly new band, around a month or so old, and we already have booked around 4 shows and are in the process of booking a few more.

1) Battle of the Bands is always a good way to go (go to concerts and sometimes people are looking for bands to sign up to play these)

2) Bowling Alleys actually sometimes look for bands if they have big restaurants/bars inside

3) Call local Internet Cafes and things like this and often times they will book you without even hearing you