DIY Booking.

[joeh]

Some people can't grasp the damn concept of searching for a club online, jotting down the phone number or email, and contacting the club, telling them that you'd like to play.

Do not go through a booking agent. They exist to make money. So do the clubs, but if you go directly through the club, you'll reduce the amount of commercialism flooding into the performance. If you don't think that this affects the performance, you're absolutely wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

If you're having bad luck and really need on a show, contact us (Sleep State) or Locker 280, I believe their bass player has already signed up on this board and that group organizes a great deal of choice performances to see.

[loren]

booking big tours and shows is pretty difficult to do.

even getting a booking agent is hard, it's just easier to DIY a tour and much much much cheaper. There are few online resources (byofl.org) but ultimately the best way to get shows out of town is to go to bands with similar mindsets as your own who already have connections with local venues.

[joeh]

As shameful as this sounds, myspace is actually a good place. If you hear a band that you like, just drop them a line and tell them when you'll be touring.

What's worked for me is going to the Lemp Arts Center and just plainly having discussion with the touring bands and hooking up connections that way.

We'll be playing at the DAAC in Grand Rapids, Michigan in March because of that.

[loren]

Dude, the DAAC is soooo cool. I love that place, we played up there in august and it was great, kids came up to us and said the only reason they came to the show was because they heard our mp3s on the internet. Who in saint louis does that??

[salparadise]

Got a gazebo in your town no one uses? Go to the municipal building in your town. they'll let you use it for free as long as you let them know beforehand. makes for a great outdoor venue.

[paul]

DIY Booking is definitely the only way to go...i'm learning this the hard way because we booked a show through mancuso productions and uptoeleven productions...uptoeleven productions is getting no money directly from us, but will obviously be reaping awards from our fans...

Mancuso on the other hand, we won't go there...

Definitely contact me if you would like a show. I book all Non-profit shows...most of the time the money from the night goes to a charity or organization....

But...

DIY Booking all the Way. Then you know everything about th eshow, and are not going through a middle man...Whihch seems to be the worst way to go....

[Curtis Tinsley]

We've (sleepstate) worked with mancuso, and you are right. Now, there's a path you don't want to travel.

By the way, Paul definately puts together awesome shows.

[joeh]

Oh yeah, Paul, we will be paying you back. I have ben quietly searching for places to organize shows and I haven't found any free places. But I am looking at two different community centers to rent out. We'll be returning the favor, heh.

[satisfaction]

amen, it just seems so much easier to diy, and its more fun that way.

[joeh]

well depending on where you want to play, it's easy. i mean, honestly, some joints are fickle about that business. especially in st. louis. creepy crawl hardly even does DIY shows anymore. I think all the punk got sucked out of their place. Even their website is pretty now. Pretty websites = lame.

[paul]

I agree with Joes Response about the Creepy...

But i believe it is more fun to play where there is no stage, a small PA, and a crowd of fans who will actually get into it and you can interact with them...and see there faces as easily as they can see yours...

But back to topic.

DIY Booking is proven the only way...

I've done one booking w/ Mancuso, and i'm to say "No Thanks" next time, unless it is a no strings attached show...

[joeh]

we did with mancuso once, and we were promised a show out in farmington, a town we haven't played yet. We didn't care about the size of the show or anything, we didn't even ask for payment, and he and the other bands were extremely rude to us. we were put on the show one day before, and drew 10 people.

[paul]

Yeah...And i hate the whole ticket sales shit...Dude...if Mancuso wants us to play again, it's cool...BUT I will not be selling tickets unless somehow the whole world falls in love with us over night...Because we can still draw a crowd if we don't sell tickets...I don't know..tickets are gay...and we don't need money either...ti's the whole we're playing in front of a crowd:)...

[joeh]

Mancuso loses a lot of money all the time anyway. I mean, the point of performances should be to have a comfortable outlet for bands to play and comfortable surroundings for people to see those bands.

[shadowgbq]

It's not really a bad idea, per se, to hire someone else to book a tour for you. (If you can't book the local shows on your own, you need some serious help). But most of the guys in the booking agencies are incompetent fuckholes. A band will end up with 4 different companies running four different aspects of the band and all wanting a chunk of the (nonexistent) profits. Most tour-manager booking types are self-important "I'm on a schedule" types who are incapable of sitting down for 4 minutes and discussing anything, and they'll lie to you to get the show booked and then disappear or neglect everything. They act really responsible and on top of the situation, but when the lamb bites the butcher most of them are completely worthless. A typical situation was when I booked Kryoburn through an agency, one of their TWO BOOKING AGENCIES, and they cancelled my show and an entire leg of the tour and didn't bother to tell the venues. I found out while making a routine call at 1 PM that afternoon. This wasn't some 12 year old punk band from wherever in their parents van, this was a nationally known and signed rock band, and it's just amazing to see the level of incompetence in management. If you book your own tours and you try reasonably hard and have a mentality above that of a retarded person or a groundhog, you've got the upper hand on most "connected" groups.