promote - promote - promote!!!

[smr71+@pitt.edu]

On Sep 23, 2005, at 9:38 AM, Brian J. Parker wrote:

> I think Manny hit on soemthing insightful some time ago: a big problem
> is that most goth bands are too big for their britches with the
> guarantees.

Do you know what it costs to tour?  Let's say your shows are each 340 
miles apart, which is pretty average in my experience, once you take 
into account the distance added for driving to and from crash space, 
food, getting lost, etc.  Especially when you're doing more than just 
the East coast.  In a van full of gear, you'll get 17 MPG, thus needing 
20 gallons of gas.  Let's say it's $3/gallon.  That's at $60 for gas 
alone every day.  Food?  Let's say you've got four guys and you're 
doing the cheap thing of getting grocery store food instead of 
restaurants.  That puts you at $25/day additional.

Wow.  Only $85 a day!  That's great.

Not quite.  Do you know how much it costs to rent a van?  Dollar will 
give you a minivan for $350 a week, tax included.  That's assuming you 
can fit 4 people plus a drumset, guitar/keyboard rig into a minivan.  
You very probably can't.

Ok, pretend you can.  You're now at $135 a day.  Still pretty cheap, 
right?  Sure it is if you can get a show every night, which you can't.  
Let's say that you can get 5 shows every 7 days, which is harder than 
you think, by the way.  (Try to convince Topeka to book you on Monday 
night and hear them laugh.)  That means you need to make 7/5 of the 
previously stated amount every show.  7/5 x 135 = $189.

That means for about $200 per show, you too can drive 6 hours a day in 
a cramped van filled with the same 3 meals to choose from, no personal 
space at all, no lodging (unless a kind promoter lets you use his 
couch, though only two of you will fit), and no insurance on your gear 
if it gets stolen.  And to top it all off, you miss a week at your job, 
where you could have made $300 to $600 instead of, well, nothing!

So yeah.  $200 is a pretty comfortable amount for a promoter, given 
what all those greedy bands could be charging.

If more promoters knew how to do their job, the crowds they'd draw 
would allow them to shell out the extra $50 for a hotel room, and it 
might lead to bands not hating them.

Mind you, some acts (plenty) of them are actually greedy, but heck, I'd 
pay $200 for Diatribe today.  That first EP, produced by Ogre, was 
solid coldwave.

-Alex