What is your best technique for getting people to your shows?

  • Thread starter Thread starter David Hooper
  • Start date Start date

What is your best technique for getting people to your shows?

  • Giving out free sampler CDs.

    Votes: 6 14.3%

  • Mailing something via snail mail.

    Votes: 3 7.1%

  • Mailing something to my email list.

    Votes: 2 4.8%

  • Word of mouth through friends and fans.

    Votes: 31 73.8%
  • Total voters
    42
you have to be different....you have to stand apart from all the other wanna-be's.....you have to have good looking people in your band with nice hair.....always bring good looking half naked girls around with you.....whip the ol' pecker out everynow and then during a show.....
 
Just last weekend, a local band did a show in a strip club. No kidding. The publicity was amazing. They got a male stripper too. Apparently, it was a blast. You gotta stand out in some way...
 
Play everywhere and anywhere. My band got known mostly by playing everywhere and anywhere we could. No party or gig is to big or to small play. We played parties for old people and parties for young people, hell we even played at a Tim Horton's (donut shop chain in canada) camp day in their parking lot.
Eventually the word will spread. It also helps if your band is good.

Love, Peace and Chicken Grease
 
i think its in your live shows...

if you are a good band, with good songs, thats great, but if onstage you stand there, occasionally stepping on pedals, or tapping your foot while you stand behind the mic stand waiting for the second verse to begin, you wont gain any intrest from anyone who is seeing you for the first time...

a band that 'goes off' live is an interesting one. moving around the stage, and if the music permits, jumping and that sorta thing make the show so much more interesting. getting up ontop of the PA speaks and leaping 3 meters will get everyone in the venue watching, and they wont forget.

BE DIFFERENT!!!

im 17 and im in a band. before one of our gigs back in june, we (myself and the guitarist) got together some of our mates (about 5 of them) who went to the local McDonalds and 'borrowed' over 200 of the plastic balls from the ball pit in the playgroud...and then during the second last song, proceeded to hurl them at our bassplayer...it got the audience (at that stage of about 110 people) up and moving, and the last song was the best we have EVER played, as the audience grabbing whatever balls they could find threw them at eachother...
the number of positive comments after show was astounding...

if you do something that will make them remember you, they will be back...

Tim
www.bens_own.live.com.au
 
Quote:
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but if onstage you stand there, occasionally stepping on pedals, or tapping your foot while you stand behind the mic stand waiting for the second verse to begin, you wont gain any intrest from anyone who is seeing you for the first time...
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Hmmmm...
Well, it worked just fine for Eric Clapton to do exactly what you just said. As a matter of fact, he had such a HUGE following that he packed (and still does) every venue he's ever played.
Mobs of rabid fans would carry signs proclaiming "Clapton Is God!"
All this for a guy who would just stand there and play.

Now, jumping on the PA speakers and all around the stage isn't "different"... lots of acts have been doing that stuff for years.

There really isn't much that hasn't been done already.

The young-uns at a concert or bar gig are feeding off the energy of the band because they're either drunk or high or generally just enjoy jumping around all over the place.

But to say that a band has to flip around all over the stage in order to kick some ass is totally false. Guitarists like Clapton, Page, or Steve Morse can just stand there and blow you away with their talent.

Jumping around and using props while performing is just a fun form of entertainment, often utilized by less-talented musicians.

When you get a rare player like Eddie Van Halen, who can run and jump around all over the stage and still play some great guitar, that's really fun to watch. ;)
 
Don't make a speech between songs if you want to have those people back...
 
Way back when, when was in a duo ("The Bill & Tom Show") playing Happy Hours on Cape Cod (Back when they could have Happy Hours on Cape Cod... ...Now I'm aging myself) We used to bill ourselves through word of mouth, and through performance as "the band who got more drunk than the crowd". In a Duo playing Happy-Hours, you could get away with it. We'd go from the ridiculous to the sublime... ...usually judging how the gig went by how much shit was broken in the bar at the end of a gig (remember, we were playing for crazy college kids). Also, as an added summer bonus, if the beginning of the gig started off rocky with the crowd, we'd hand our packages out the sides of our shorts (we sat on bar stools when we played... ...less of a chance to fall down drunk) and pretend we didn't notice. It would at least get a group of drunk girls to "hang out" in front of the stage; followed by drunk guys... ...etc. Ahh, the good ole days. I have stories from that duo project that would make Spinal Tap seem boring:D . Tom.
 
Here's something I posted on the cave

I came here after posting this at the cave (cause that was more griping and not really based on promoting my recording) -

I think the "cover charge" can kill a lot of bands...if the band is good, who cares...people will buy stuff...otherwise, it's just a way of milking your friends...and I hate doing that.

Here's what I wrote...

I'm wore out...I've gone over this with a friend time and time again...and I'm talking to my own asshole here.

I've been opening for a friend acoustically at a dining/drinking establishment in a college part of town here in Minneapolis...there are two floors, and the music is upstairs. The downstairs is also open via balcony to upstairs...so most of the music is clear downstairs as well.

My friend, whose band hasn't been drawing big crowds lately...insists on the $3 dollar cover charge...I think he figures he can get $30-40 bucks out of our friends and coworkers, then it's worth it...

I say it's better to play to a room full of people you don't know for free then to a room of your friends who you hit up for 3 bucks a head.

It was also real disheartening to see 40 or so people come up, find out there was a charge and then go downstairs...then you see the place just absolutely hopping downstairs...with some people even DANCING to the music upstairs...

so no one knows who his band is...and none of those girls in the hot leather pants came upstairs to see me play...which is also heartbreaking...I had someone thank me for the music when I walked downstairs with my guitar...which just highlights the fact they didn't know who we were...cause I didn't play with the band.

I'm thinking of ending my association with him after this if he doesn't change his mind...what do you guys think...Is it better to milk a smaller audience, or play to a bigger audience of unknowns, hoping that will translate into album sales and emails that you can promote to your next show...

RB
Click to expand...

even a disinterested coffeehouse audience can buy the occasional cd, but NO ONE will pay a buck or two to see someone they don't know...better just to stay at home...

that's my best advice...get as good as possible and count on the music sucking them in.
 
lie

I just lie until everyone belives it to be true even me.
 
Hey Rocky, when you live in Queensland, and you sing songs about screwing pigs, Im surprised that hillbillies from all over the country aren't flocking to your shows.....or are they :D

seeya
`Link
 
Open up for Britney Spears.


Now for a plug-

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You are getting very sleepy...you will listen to "Your Angels".
You will immensely dig "Your Angels"
It will rock you.
Mountain Mirrors.
Dark, ambient, hypno-bluesy spacerock from a Void...
Love to all who enter here.
 
floging

people are flogging at my gigs but are also flocking away, oh an just an up date I do it with dead people now (in song only)
 
A knew a band called 'Frisco's For FREE!'... :D
(With Frisco's being some kinda ice-cream with chocolate on a stick. Don't know how you american dudes call it....)

Other good names:
Free drinks!
Free Beer!
Naked band!
Topless drummer!
...
 
One technique that helps is to open for a more established band for free. You might not get a great mix, but people will begin to recognize your name and who you are.

That and stuff a foil-wrapped cucumber down your shorts.
 
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