Our band would like your help if you are from these major midwest cities

[jndietz]

Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, Des Moines, Minneapolis, and Indianapolis.

This summer we'd like to travel for a couple weeks and just play around the region with a couple other bands from my area. I was wondering what kind of bars/venues are available in these cities and if you guys had any reccomendations on them. We're mostly looking for bars right now, unless of course you happen to have the ability to book us with a bigger act at a venue.

What is the music scene like in these cities?

Thanks everyone,
jndietz

 

[suprstar]

Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, Des Moines, Minneapolis, and Indianapolis.

jndietz

Well, you didnt say 'Milwaukee' but I'll mention one place here - The Rave - www.therave.com - They have a couple bars with small stages and the mainstage on the ground floor..

Local bands get 1/2 hr sets starting ~ 1.5 hrs before the headliners. The last few times we played there they sold us $800 worth of tickets for $400 a month or 2 in advance. You suck pretty bad if you cant break even with THAT deal. Then it's up to you to sell em, give em away, throw em away, whatever.. They got paid, they dont care. After the 1st batch of tickets, they wont give you any more for 1/2 price.

Cool place, good bands, decent sound, $7 beers .. We had sevendust watching us and headbanging a couple years ago, the last show I played there. That's the best place to play around here.

There's a few other smaller places - Vnuks, MainStage, and BBC play bands several nights per week, have house sound, lights, decent stage setup, etc.. Most other places you gotta bring your own PA and lights..

 

[jndietz]

We're actually going to mail our presskit + EP to The Rave, we decided to throw Milwaukee in there

I guess my question is how do you sell tickets to people that live around there that aren't familar with your band?

 

[suprstar]

We're actually going to mail our presskit + EP to The Rave, we decided to throw Milwaukee in there

I guess my question is how do you sell tickets to people that live around there that aren't familar with your band?

We sold tix at less than face value. You get in to see the headliner too, so we might get $26 tix for $13 ea, sell em for $18-20.. We'd go to the UWM campus, 20k+ students, and post hundreds of flyers in every building, outside every classroom, in the rec center, dorms, everywhere.. Even if they couldn't care less about your band, they are happy to get in to see Papa Roach or Sevendust for a discount. And if you still have any left on the day of the show, you can stand on the corner and undercut the box office before or after your set.. Which they really grim on btw

 

[jndietz]

We sold tix at less than face value. You get in to see the headliner too, so we might get $26 tix for $13 ea, sell em for $18-20.. We'd go to the UWM campus, 20k+ students, and post hundreds of flyers in every building, outside every classroom, in the rec center, dorms, everywhere.. Even if they couldn't care less about your band, they are happy to get in to see Papa Roach or Sevendust for a discount. And if you still have any left on the day of the show, you can stand on the corner and undercut the box office before or after your set.. Which they really grim on btw

Well, I suppose that was easy for you guys to do since you're from Milwaukee. We're from Omaha and we'd have to sell the tickets to people in and around Milwaukee. No one from Omaha would buy one (lol). I think playing there might be kind of hard for us since we're from out of town.

Unless we can get some radio play out there on Lazer 103 or on 102.1 or at least advertisements. Or we'd need to find some people that go to school there that could put those flyers up for us.

 

[suprstar]

Well, I suppose that was easy for you guys to do since you're from Milwaukee. We're from Omaha and we'd have to sell the tickets to people in and around Milwaukee. No one from Omaha would buy one (lol). I think playing there might be kind of hard for us since we're from out of town.

Unless we can get some radio play out there on Lazer 103 or on 102.1 or at least advertisements. Or we'd need to find some people that go to school there that could put those flyers up for us.

Yeah, sounds ez, and prolly would be for most bands, but I had to do all that crap myself. Front all the ticket $ every time, make flyers and get em out, deliver tickets, etc.. pitfa cuz my band was especially unmotivated, you wouldnt beleive some of it.. Beers drank far outweighed songs rehearsed at a 4 hour practice I finally quit just for that reason.. gl with the radio stations, we never got played. We shoulda at one point, but thats another embarrasing story....

What's your band name, you got a site or a myspace page or some mp3s somewhere or something? If you make it to the rave I'll come check ya out.

 

[jndietz]

Yeah, sounds ez, and prolly would be for most bands, but I had to do all that crap myself. Front all the ticket $ every time, make flyers and get em out, deliver tickets, etc.. pitfa cuz my band was especially unmotivated, you wouldnt beleive some of it.. Beers drank far outweighed songs rehearsed at a 4 hour practice I finally quit just for that reason.. gl with the radio stations, we never got played. We shoulda at one point, but thats another embarrasing story....

What's your band name, you got a site or a myspace page or some mp3s somewhere or something? If you make it to the rave I'll come check ya out.

We have one decent recording at http://www.myspace.com/indecisionomaha and the rest of them are pretty crappy. We're working on a short EP disc right now that we can give away at our shows and most of those songs will get uploaded to myspace hopefully by summer. hopefully we'll hit the rave once this summer. i'll have to make quite an effort it sounds like, because, like you, have to do all of the footwork. the other guys are definitely into the music playing, but not the business part of it.

 

[TerraMortim]

Cool place, good bands, decent sound, $7 beers .. We had sevendust watching us and headbanging a couple years ago, the last show I played there. That's the best place to play around here.

I've played for those guys before! lol. nice guys, actually.

 

[TerraMortim]

Well, I suppose that was easy for you guys to do since you're from Milwaukee. We're from Omaha and we'd have to sell the tickets to people in and around Milwaukee. No one from Omaha would buy one (lol). I think playing there might be kind of hard for us since we're from out of town.

Unless we can get some radio play out there on Lazer 103 or on 102.1 or at least advertisements. Or we'd need to find some people that go to school there that could put those flyers up for us.

yeah, your best bet is to get on the bill with some bigger bands. built in crowd...then you wow em.

 

[TerraMortim]

Cool place, good bands, decent sound, $7 beers .

wow...how do they get away with $7 beers there? I mean.. they do that here all the time, but you go to the liquor store and beer is like $25-$28 for a 12 pack...a bottle of wine minimum (the cheapest wine you can find) is $10 a bottle, hard liquor is like.... $35 - $38...etc...

I'm surprised people don't lynch the owners of that place for having such expensive beers! lol

 

[TerraMortim]

We have one decent recording at http://www.myspace.com/indecisionomaha and the rest of them are pretty crappy. We're working on a short EP disc right now that we can give away at our shows and most of those songs will get uploaded to myspace hopefully by summer. hopefully we'll hit the rave once this summer. i'll have to make quite an effort it sounds like, because, like you, have to do all of the footwork. the other guys are definitely into the music playing, but not the business part of it.

really interesting music to listen to. Very cool. Add. It kind of reminds me of... days of the new...only on electric guitars.

 

[suprstar]

wow...how do they get away with $7 beers there? I mean.. they do that here all the time, but you go to the liquor store and beer is like $25-$28 for a 12 pack...a bottle of wine minimum (the cheapest wine you can find) is $10 a bottle, hard liquor is like.... $35 - $38...etc...

I'm surprised people don't lynch the owners of that place for having such expensive beers! lol

Damn, liquor is REAL expensive in your area.... They serve miller lite, which you can get in 1/2 barrels around here for $60 or so. (It's made here so..) That's about 84 12oz beers which is about $588, a 980% return.. What a f'n racket! Then they give away all those 2-drink-minimum tickets the day before every show!

 

[suprstar]

We have one decent recording at http://www.myspace.com/indecisionomaha and the rest of them are pretty crappy. We're working on a short EP disc right now that we can give away at our shows and most of those songs will get uploaded to myspace hopefully by summer. hopefully we'll hit the rave once this summer. i'll have to make quite an effort it sounds like, because, like you, have to do all of the footwork. the other guys are definitely into the music playing, but not the business part of it.

Well I guess you are your own worst critic, I think those tracks sound good, songwise and production! There's a ton of shit bands that do the "pre-show parties", cuz they pick bands based on how many tickets and beer they can sell and not how good the band actually is. I imagine that's the case with any venue. If there's any justice you shouldn't have any trouble booking there.

 

[jndietz]

Well I guess you are your own worst critic, I think those tracks sound good, songwise and production! There's a ton of shit bands that do the "pre-show parties", cuz they pick bands based on how many tickets and beer they can sell and not how good the band actually is. I imagine that's the case with any venue. If there's any justice you shouldn't have any trouble booking there.

How far in advance did you guys buy the tickets and book your act at the Rave, anyways?

 

[suprstar]

How far in advance did you guys buy the tickets and book your act at the Rave, anyways?

Tickets as available as they announce a show, usually 1-2 months before the show. They decide how many local band's they're gonna have, then the 1st x bands to show up with the ticket $ gets em.

Some shows for really popular bands have 9 local bands on 3 bar stages booked in a week, some shows they can't even get 3 bands on the main bar stage until they email everyone a week before the show offering tickets for 1/4 price or less.. We took one of those deals once and got 40 tickets for Breaking Benjamin for like $200, and ended up throwing half of em away!