Northern Tier

When I was in bands back in ’08 getting gigs was hard. The opportunity to play in front of strangers was in control of very aggressive gatekeepers. Also, there just weren’t that many venues. DIY was a thing. You could pool your money together to rent an art gallery or the front of a closed Wendy’s or something but those opportunities were dogged by every other band looking for that spot. Playing music professionally is about attention and feel. Playing in a basement in front of fifteen teenagers who hate you by default is definitely a feel. Playing a driveway at 9pm with ten minutes remaining before the cops show up is a better feel, just way more risky.

Gigs now are a lot different because they lean into the attention thing more than the feel thing. The big spots are still hard to get into. They want numbers, obviously. View counts, post impressions, followers, they want to know if you can fill a room. The mid-size and small places will book just about anybody and they’re nice about the whole numbers thing. You don’t have to bring anybody. Just show up and play. It’d be nice if you did but you’re mainly there to be proof that they even do live music while the patrons enjoy baskets of chicken strips or whatever. You can build a bit of a following in these spots but they aren’t long term. Secretly, deeply, every talent buyer really wants to book that act that goes big. They wanna be able to put your picture on that wall when you sign the multi-million dollar deal (if those even exist anymore) because it’ll bring them some kind of prestige. “Oh man you booked Foo Fighters? Well I’ve got 350,000 views on Tiktok of this song…”. Some of these big spots are catering to that whole crowd exclusively. Show up to hear [first name, last name] play the full song from the ten seconds he/she posted to the clock app. No one else on the bill. Whatever, business is business.

One reason I suspect venues have changed a bit has less to do with the economic environment of music and more with how we’ve changed as musicgoers. Many venues have adopted the language of safe spaces which tend to attract younger, broader audiences. Whereas the places that primarily cater to live music used to be just bars — you’re playing to get people to drink more — many venues are coming around to the whole ‘all-ages, no alcohol’ thing. Festivals have taken over as the dominant medium with which we physically engage with music performance. And most people in the US don’t live in a music heavy market where they have a venue on every corner. You spit in LA (don’t please) and it’ll land on the sidewalk outside some dude’s burger shop that does live jazz in the back on Tuesdays. Thirty person capacity. Food not included with ticket price.

Getting booked is easy. Make songs you want people to hear, develop your act, and start talking to buyers. Buyers are cool but they want you to think your social media presence or whatever matters. It doesn’t really. And the ones I know and have talked to could care less about an Instagram post going viral. They aren’t labels or managers, in fact they have the lowest stake in whether you are successful or not. If they won’t book you then book yourself. Find friends who have spaces they’ll let you steal for an hour. A backyard (invite the neighbors), a living room, a taco stand next to an empty lot. Anything is a venue if you make it that way.