Show Attendance: Answers to the Question "Why Isn't Anyone Here?"

Many years have passed since promoting my first Rebel Sound event at the long gone Woody's Roadhouse in Washington MA, a venue owned by what many report to have been a borderline crook.  Woody's still stands and it is in fact in the middle of pretty much nowhere on route 8 where it hasn't moved for decades.  During the heydays of the (for better or for worse) 80's music scene in Berkshire County, Woody's was a destination of sorts somewhat centrally located (30 minutes from Pittsfield, about the same distance from Great Barrington and about an hour from parts of northern Berkshire County).  The distance to get there never seemed to phase anyone because the parking lot always seemed to be full with professional partiers who basically showed up regardless of who was playing, drank heavily and would attempt to drive home.  True, this was the golden age of cover bands, change the name of the band, the heads of the players and you have the same band playing night after night.  All of this was fine and good, frustrating too, but at least people left their house.  When I booked Woody's for an exhausting (but great) 13 band event I faced challenges right up to and during the show which are not related to the subject at hand.  At that time, there really weren't other shows to hand out fliers at or establishments willing to post fliers for much of anything other than benefit events.  A few places remain in the area that to this day are friendly to posting of fliers for random non-benefit gigs.

Times have changed and now in 2011 there are so many distractions, it's extremely difficult to not only promote shows, but to also get people to leave their house to attend them.  Promotion almost isn't a key factor any longer as people either ignore invites or postings on the internet or the classic their-dog-ate-the-flier-you-handed-them-on-the-way-to-throw-up-on-their-homework-it's prom night-the-carnival-is-in-town-I-feel-sick-I-had-to-go-to-a-picnic-I -am-camping classic excuse is used as to why they didn't show up.  Suddenly driving to other parts of the county is too far, but driving hours to Boston, NYC, (insert name of festival here) or elsewhere is not only okay but can become a mission of life or death for some unknown reason.  Handing out fliers/posting fliers has almost become as pointless as opening a store in a day and age where people can effortlessly steal what you're trying to sell them in 10 seconds online.

Is this directly anyone's fault?  Not really, but the bands playing shows are almost as guilty as the people who aren't coming to see them.  In most cases, people follow by example.  All individuality is thrown out the window if there is even the slightest chance that someone may go to a show alone, not know anyone and feel awkward.  I get that and I've done that very same thing.  I don't let it bother me and you shouldn't either.

"Why Isn't Anyone Here?"

This very difficult to answer with a simple one sentence response (sorry) but I'll try.

1) BAND RESPONSIBILITY It is no one's job other than your own to promote your show to your friends, family and co-workers.  Bands with more than one musician really should be promoting the show to as many people as they can via internet or in person.  Just because your drummer is promoting it to all of his friends doesn't mean you share the same friends and maybe, just maybe you should promote it to your friends too.  Odds are you have different friends unless you're a psychopath and start to dress, act and speak like your drummer.  Technically in a band of 4 people there should be on average 600 people getting an invite or reminder of your show.  Out of that 600, figure maybe 1/3 of them are common friends among the band and the remaining 2/3 are unique to each band member.  If the singer isn't notifying their friends but the drummer is notifying their friends, the friends of the singer will be left out and won't know about the show you're playing.  If the entire band doesn't promote the show, it's the entire band's fault regardless of the amount of promotion involved.

2) TELEPATHY DOESN'T WORK/BANDS YOU'RE NOT THAT GOOD  Wishing and hoping people will come to your show if you've hung or distributed fliers or told a limited amount of people is really unrealistic.  Odds are an excuse will come into play, so you can't rely on them.  You have to rely on people you don't really know all that much.  If you're from out of town, you have to hope that the local band did their job.  If the venue has other events close to your event, it's best to go to them, hand out fliers and talk to people.  If they don't know you or haven't met you then why should they care you are playing?  The fact that you're playing in Berkshire County should also be considered because people usually assume local means it's not good when it comes to music.  Regardless how good you think you are and what your friends tell you, to most people who don't know you, you're not a good band.  They don't care.  They've never heard of you and unless you're playing something they're familiar with they're not going to waste their precious time to come see you.  They're not going to drop everything and stop their lives to sit and watch you.  Sucks, but it's true.

3)  SUPPORT OTHER LOCAL BANDS  This goes without saying and goes beyond saying "yeah, I like them, I've seen them once."  If you are in a local band, you have to lead by example and go to as many shows locally as you can.  The bands should notice this and in turn will come to your show if you ask them.  I see this kind of behavior quite a bit where local bands (unfortunately) do not support other local bands.  Even if you're not a fan of the band but are friends with the band, it's best you support them whenever they play out.  It's more important than you'll ever know.  Which leads me to point 4.

4)  CLUBS ARE NOT PROMOTERS  Just because a club booked your band and created an event page, doesn't mean you can lay around and not promote your show.  Don't rely on the clubs to do it because again, they will know different people than you do and most of the times have such a diverse list of people they reach that it's almost like they are not helping you promote at all (and they shouldn't have to).  They booked you and that's the end of their job until day of the show.  The band has to hustle to get people there.  If the best band in the world plays to an empty club, the club will think long and hard about having you back.  It's nothing personal, it's just business and they have to make ends meet over and above the band getting gas money.  Without the club, there will be one less place to play.  Fair is fair.  The club is providing for you a place to play, the potential to draw an audience and have a great time.  Without the audience it becomes a glorified rehearsal and while the time can be utilized in that manner, it's not worth the time it took to get there for a simple rehearsal that could've been done at your practice pad.

5)  PEOPLE FOLLOW BY EXAMPLE  Set one and hopefully people will come see your band wherever you're playing.

eBay Hall of Shame

If you made this list, congratulations, you suck as a human being.

EBAY USER ID:  vynillvillain is a total and complete whiner cry-baby.  Andrew Cooley is based in Australia, works at the Grand Central Hotel in Lithgow and generally only buys stuff from the Hard-Ons.  Beware, if he doesn't deem whatever you sell him to be in the condition he believes it to be, he will threaten negative feedback.  Even after refunding him in full (including shipping), he'll deny receiving it and then still leave negative feedback.  At this time, he has less than 55 feedback points, meaning he's only been on eBay for a short time.  While those of us who have 5500+ feedback points are left at the mercy of his whim. UPDATE:  Here's more from the thunder down under and I've posted both his initial rant and my response.  I am finding this rather amusing.

Dear vynillvillain, This is over seriously, you got your money, a free record, the satisfaction of calling me a liar and thief, questioning my business practices. If I had purposely mislead 5000 + people, how could I even sell on eBay? Are you that new to this that you would really think that? What more could you possibly want? More money? - vinyl-pops

                     

Dear vinyl-pops, Talk about having a whinge & a whine yourself WANKER! LIST YOUR SHIT RECORDS ACCURATELY IN FUTURE! 10 YEARS TELLS ME YOU ARE MORE THAN COMPLACENT, YOU DELIBERATELY TRY TO MISLEAD PEOPLE. YOU'RE THE ONLY FUCKWIT THAT GIVES EBAY A BAD, BAD NAME. GROW UP YOURSELF YOU FUCKING CHILD. - vynillvillain

EBAY USER ID:  streetwiseg is anything but streetwise, this eBay bidder is another glorious example of a clueless newbie.  Less than 25 feedbacks and instead of bringing a minor issue to my attention, he leaves negative feedback.  I almost hopped a plane and flew to Greece to punch him in the face myself.  Georgios Papdopoulos is apparently a common or possibly a made up name, similar to that of "John Smith" according to my friend in Athens.  Not only did he get 2 rare pressings of a terrible LP, but he managed to successfully leave negative feedback over a truly minor issue.  He buys truly shitty American hardcore and won't file with eBay to remove the feedback.

EBAY USER ID:  gorgstein702 aka R Brunty lives in Las Vegas and I was just there, I should've checked on the so-called family emergency that caused him/her to be unable to pay for a $10 record plus shipping, maybe it was only an $8 record....?  In any event, I've heard these random mysterious excuses before "family emergency, dog died, I died, my dog ate my money....etc."  I mean, whatever absurdity he/she thought I'd believe, they've since managed to buy (and pay for) a few things since.  Again, another relatively new eBay member with under 45 feedback transactions.

Sellers cannot leave negative feedback on eBay, which is truly one-sided and rather ridiculous.