Sound advice on supporting bands and live music by a real, live musician.
I’ve been reading Thought Pollution for a few weeks now and one thing seems certain – you all like music. This is all fine and good, but there is a good possibility some of you are doing nothing to support it. Case and point: Emily White’s commentary on the digital age of music.
I’d be hard-pressed to find a 20-something who hasn’t stolen any music or shared their hard drive with their friends, but few are as conscious as Emily. I’ve overheard conversations between friends, where one said to the other, “It doesn’t make any sense to pay for music. I don’t care enough to go to a show or buy a t-shirt.” This mentality is why touring bands need every ounce of help we can get. Here are some great ideas on how to help your local band on tour:
1. Tell your friends about the show.
I don’t care who you are, how good you think you are, how new or old you are to the scene – there is one thing all musicians can connect on: We don’t like to play to the bartender and the sound guy.
Empty rooms are the worst. Every musician will have at least a few stories about how the show they booked was supposedly going to be SO RAD and how the opener was going to bring all their friends. And then, no one is there.
If you are going to a show, tell others – especially if it’s cheap.
1.5. If you’re friends with the opener, try to stay the whole show.
This is something that could have fallen under number one, but I feel like it needs special attention. One of the worst feelings – even worse than playing to an empty room – is playing to an empty room that was just full. We were all there for the opener. We all saw you guys having fun and enjoying your friend’s brother’s girlfriend’s sister’s boyfriend’s cousin’s best friend’s band. You all crowded the stage after the set, sat and hung out with them at the merch table, had a pint with them, smoked a cigarette with them and never came back. You just assumed that when they finished, the show was over. We saw. We get it and it hurts. We know EVERY SINGLE PERSON doesn’t need to wake up at 5 AM for work.
2. Buy them a fucking beer.
We’re thirsty. No matter how the show went, we could always use a beer. With all of the bumps in the road (no pun intended) that we see on tour, you have no idea what we had to do to get to that show. A tire from our trailer just exploded and we needed to rent a U-Haul. We needed to get two, new batteries for the van. The promoter stiffed us for $300 the night before. We are broke. We are tired. Buy us a beer.
3. Buy their merch.
If there is one thing to take away from this, please let it be this particular point. Our merch sales replace those batteries, fill our gas tanks and pay for the fast-food and Red Bulls. Underperforming in merch sales will inevitably bring down the whole tour. Some of us needed to quit our day jobs to go on tour because they won’t just give us 6 weeks off. This IS our livelihood. Please treat it that way.
4. Make connections, become friends.
You may be as broke as the touring band. We understand that. Just because you don’t buy our merch doesn’t mean you can’t support us. Talk to us. Have a beer with us. We really just want to talk to people that care about our music as much as we do. Ask us where to find the music online, how to purchase it later, where we are playing next and maybe when we’ll be in town next. That one dude, who talked to me about my tone or picked my brain about how I write songs will be more memorable than that chick, who bought five of our shirts because she thought our singer was cute.
5. Give them a place to crash.
As you may have guessed from the language and topics in this article, going on tour is not cheap. Three things will take the most money from the band: gas, vehicle repairs and lodging. There are only so many nights you can spend on the floor of your van, in the parking lot of the venue. Some bands tour in such a way that it is impossible to sleep in the van. We would LOVE to crash on your couch or floor.
You have animals? Awesome. A place to do laundry in your apartment or house? Even better. A place to shower? Jesus Christ, yes please. Since I moved to Santa Cruz, CA almost a year ago, I’ve had a few bands stay with me on their tours. The first time we had a band stay, our living room looked like a war zone, like the band’s van puked on our floor. I know, it looked scary, but we are excellent packers. We’ve got it down to a science. To my girlfriend’s surprise, these five metal-heads cleaned up our living room until it looked better than before they showed up.
A well-stocked fridge is also a big plus. We like food. We like beer. Something to keep in mind: No matter how warm it is where you live, tell people from the Deep South where the heat is.
Also, don’t show us your collection of switchblades. Especially, the one in the shape of a pistol. Trust me.
I hope this helped any of you who thought you were doing enough just by downloading an album off of Pirate Bay. I hope this inspired you to go to a show, buy a record and support a touring band. Ultimately, I hope this helped some band on tour get a couch to crash on. I promise you, its appreciated.
Clinton Shaver can be reached at clinton.shaver@me.com.