Why Being a Band in Hampton Roads is a Waste of Time.
Just when my hopes and dreams build up to a point that I confuse myself and allow happiness to creep in, a healthy dose of reality checks me and puts me back in my place.
6 weeks ago, I approached a booking company about a Six Feet Under/Decapitated/Cattle Decapitation/Krisiun show in Fredricksburg. After a little bit of haggling, we were added to the bill and told that we were to sell 50 tickets. No problem. Then we were told SFU dropped. We were sad, but again, no problem, we'd still play.
Then we see a bulletin that advertised the same show, WITH Six Feet Under in VA Beach the day before the original show. We explain to the booking company who had already said that they overbooked the locals on the Fredricksburg show and needed to drop some that playing the VA Beach one would be so much better for us, since we are based out of Norfolk. A little back and forth and we are added to this lineup with 60 tickets expected of us. No problem. When we agree to ticket sales, we realize that there is the possiblity that not one ticket will sell and we have to be prepared to purchase them all ourselves. Then we get another email saying that we would now be expected to sell 75 if we wanted to stay on the bill. For such an amazing lineup, we were slightly irritated that the commitment kept changing, but went with it as this would be our first major show.
Then Six Feet Under and Cattle Decapitation dropped. The two biggest draws. Not the booker's fault, no harm no foul. But our ticket commitment did not change. This is a $1125 commitment. But we stay on because it's still a good lineup and this again is our first really big opportunity.
I am then informed by my friend in one of the other local bands that they were only asked to sell 60 tickets. Kind of pissed me off but since we were told that the more tickets you sell the higher in the lineup you get to play, we dealt with it. A month goes by, we bust our asses selling tickets and promoting the hell out of the show, all is well.
The flyers and tickets for the show advertise that the show is to start at 6pm with 6 local bands and 3 headlining bands. We recieved the final lineup and schedule yesterday. It has 3 local bands and says that the show has to be over by 10. We are to play second at 6:20pm for 20 minutes, load in at 4:30pm.
Let's do some math.
3 National Headlining Acts. No less than 30 minutes per set, 15 minute set change for Nationals. (This is a very low estimate, nationals are far more likely to play for 45 with 30 minute setups, but for the sake of being a smartass, I will continue.)
30 minute set + 15 minute set change = 45 minutes per National band.
10pm - (3 nationals X 45 minutes) = 7:45pm Nationals start playing.
7:45 pm - 6pm start time = 1 hour, 45 minutes for locals.
1 hour, 45 minutes / 6 local bands = 17.5 minutes per local band, including setup time.
17.5 - 10 minute set change per band (if show starts on time and no band dilly dallys, bare minimum time needed to load gear and set up and tune) = 7.5 minute sets, per band.
$1125 / 7.5 = $150 A F'ING MINUTE CHARGE for us to play on a stage IF EVERYTHING WAS EXACTLY AS PLANNED.
We actually get 20 minutes since there are now only 3 locals (as of 2 days ago), but we start at 6:20pm.
OTHER FACTORS:
Show is in VA Beach on a Friday, starting at 6pm.
No one over the age of 18 gets out of work before 5:30.
In my vast experience with shows, no one shows up to a metal show before 7 at the very earliest, more likely 8 or 9. There will likely be a crowd of maybe 20 at most for us at that time, realistically.
Friday rush-hour Hampton Roads traffic, enough said. Going to cause complications for us getting all of our band members to the show on time.
Shows NEVER go smoothly, bands always run over and take too long to setup. My time estimates above were if everthing went exactly on time down to the minute.
The Peppermint Beach Club is known for it's crappy house sound, so there are bound to be technical hang-ups causing more delay.
*RANT ON*
The bookers know what time a venue closes at the time they set up the show with them. They KNEW from the get-go that the show had to be over by 10 (though we were not told of this). They KNEW they were going to start the show at 6. They THOUGHT there would be 6 locals until 2 days ago. They actually asked the remaining 3 locals to share equipment to save time. Sure, what a great idea. I really want people I don't know playing on my multi-thousands of dollars investments, changing our tunings and settings that we have worked hard to perfect and potentially damaging our stuff or walking away with stuff that isn't thier's. The 10pm cap on time was never disclosed to at the very least my band ahead of time. I am going to have to explain to my fans and ticket buyers why when they show up at 9, all of the local bands and 2 of the 3 headliners have already played. I can only imagine why the other 3 bands dropped off the bill. Perhaps they have more sense that we do. Just goes to show that in Hampton Roads, local bands mean nothing but $$$ to bookers and venues. We are a dime a dozen, so if we stand up for our rights, 50 others with less self-worth will fill our void. Anyone who has ever worked with us or played any gig with us knows that we are the easiest and most accomadating, hard working, polite and friendly group around, we pride ourselves on that above everything else. Not to mention we think we sound pretty decent. But at some point you get tired of taking it up the ass. And what's even more depressing is that this still isn't as much of a bum deal as playing a show at the Norva. I will never play another show like this again, once bitten forever shy for me.
*RANT OFF*
*****************1pm Day Before Show Update*****************************
Brandon just called me. He just spoke with the owner of the booking company. Turns out, the other two remaining locals called and said that they will not be able to make it to the show at these new early times (like we can??). These bands have sold 15 and 25 tickets each. We have sold (or made the commitment to pay for) 75. He told Brandon that we would have to now open the show, even though we sold the most tickets and the other two locals would get to play AFTER the headliners. Then he tried to tell Brandon that the local bands have been jerking him around on this from the beginning. See the preceding info in this entry for proof otherwise. If we are the only local band that is to play, I will gladly open. However, if bands that have sold a third of the tickets that we have get to play after us, there will be trouble. They won't get a penny from us. We were told that the reason the show ends at 10pm is because it would cost an additional $500 from the booking company to play past that time. Boo-fucking-hoo. It's costing me and my fans $1125 to play at 6pm with horrible sound. Cry me a river. He's supposed to call us back and let us know the update from the other bands. The saga continues....
6 weeks ago, I approached a booking company about a Six Feet Under/Decapitated/Cattle Decapitation/Krisiun show in Fredricksburg. After a little bit of haggling, we were added to the bill and told that we were to sell 50 tickets. No problem. Then we were told SFU dropped. We were sad, but again, no problem, we'd still play.
Then we see a bulletin that advertised the same show, WITH Six Feet Under in VA Beach the day before the original show. We explain to the booking company who had already said that they overbooked the locals on the Fredricksburg show and needed to drop some that playing the VA Beach one would be so much better for us, since we are based out of Norfolk. A little back and forth and we are added to this lineup with 60 tickets expected of us. No problem. When we agree to ticket sales, we realize that there is the possiblity that not one ticket will sell and we have to be prepared to purchase them all ourselves. Then we get another email saying that we would now be expected to sell 75 if we wanted to stay on the bill. For such an amazing lineup, we were slightly irritated that the commitment kept changing, but went with it as this would be our first major show.
Then Six Feet Under and Cattle Decapitation dropped. The two biggest draws. Not the booker's fault, no harm no foul. But our ticket commitment did not change. This is a $1125 commitment. But we stay on because it's still a good lineup and this again is our first really big opportunity.
I am then informed by my friend in one of the other local bands that they were only asked to sell 60 tickets. Kind of pissed me off but since we were told that the more tickets you sell the higher in the lineup you get to play, we dealt with it. A month goes by, we bust our asses selling tickets and promoting the hell out of the show, all is well.
The flyers and tickets for the show advertise that the show is to start at 6pm with 6 local bands and 3 headlining bands. We recieved the final lineup and schedule yesterday. It has 3 local bands and says that the show has to be over by 10. We are to play second at 6:20pm for 20 minutes, load in at 4:30pm.
Let's do some math.
3 National Headlining Acts. No less than 30 minutes per set, 15 minute set change for Nationals. (This is a very low estimate, nationals are far more likely to play for 45 with 30 minute setups, but for the sake of being a smartass, I will continue.)
30 minute set + 15 minute set change = 45 minutes per National band.
10pm - (3 nationals X 45 minutes) = 7:45pm Nationals start playing.
7:45 pm - 6pm start time = 1 hour, 45 minutes for locals.
1 hour, 45 minutes / 6 local bands = 17.5 minutes per local band, including setup time.
17.5 - 10 minute set change per band (if show starts on time and no band dilly dallys, bare minimum time needed to load gear and set up and tune) = 7.5 minute sets, per band.
$1125 / 7.5 = $150 A F'ING MINUTE CHARGE for us to play on a stage IF EVERYTHING WAS EXACTLY AS PLANNED.
We actually get 20 minutes since there are now only 3 locals (as of 2 days ago), but we start at 6:20pm.
OTHER FACTORS:
Show is in VA Beach on a Friday, starting at 6pm.
No one over the age of 18 gets out of work before 5:30.
In my vast experience with shows, no one shows up to a metal show before 7 at the very earliest, more likely 8 or 9. There will likely be a crowd of maybe 20 at most for us at that time, realistically.
Friday rush-hour Hampton Roads traffic, enough said. Going to cause complications for us getting all of our band members to the show on time.
Shows NEVER go smoothly, bands always run over and take too long to setup. My time estimates above were if everthing went exactly on time down to the minute.
The Peppermint Beach Club is known for it's crappy house sound, so there are bound to be technical hang-ups causing more delay.
*RANT ON*
The bookers know what time a venue closes at the time they set up the show with them. They KNEW from the get-go that the show had to be over by 10 (though we were not told of this). They KNEW they were going to start the show at 6. They THOUGHT there would be 6 locals until 2 days ago. They actually asked the remaining 3 locals to share equipment to save time. Sure, what a great idea. I really want people I don't know playing on my multi-thousands of dollars investments, changing our tunings and settings that we have worked hard to perfect and potentially damaging our stuff or walking away with stuff that isn't thier's. The 10pm cap on time was never disclosed to at the very least my band ahead of time. I am going to have to explain to my fans and ticket buyers why when they show up at 9, all of the local bands and 2 of the 3 headliners have already played. I can only imagine why the other 3 bands dropped off the bill. Perhaps they have more sense that we do. Just goes to show that in Hampton Roads, local bands mean nothing but $$$ to bookers and venues. We are a dime a dozen, so if we stand up for our rights, 50 others with less self-worth will fill our void. Anyone who has ever worked with us or played any gig with us knows that we are the easiest and most accomadating, hard working, polite and friendly group around, we pride ourselves on that above everything else. Not to mention we think we sound pretty decent. But at some point you get tired of taking it up the ass. And what's even more depressing is that this still isn't as much of a bum deal as playing a show at the Norva. I will never play another show like this again, once bitten forever shy for me.
*RANT OFF*
*****************1pm Day Before Show Update*****************************
Brandon just called me. He just spoke with the owner of the booking company. Turns out, the other two remaining locals called and said that they will not be able to make it to the show at these new early times (like we can??). These bands have sold 15 and 25 tickets each. We have sold (or made the commitment to pay for) 75. He told Brandon that we would have to now open the show, even though we sold the most tickets and the other two locals would get to play AFTER the headliners. Then he tried to tell Brandon that the local bands have been jerking him around on this from the beginning. See the preceding info in this entry for proof otherwise. If we are the only local band that is to play, I will gladly open. However, if bands that have sold a third of the tickets that we have get to play after us, there will be trouble. They won't get a penny from us. We were told that the reason the show ends at 10pm is because it would cost an additional $500 from the booking company to play past that time. Boo-fucking-hoo. It's costing me and my fans $1125 to play at 6pm with horrible sound. Cry me a river. He's supposed to call us back and let us know the update from the other bands. The saga continues....