how do you network with other bands?

so the more shows i try to book our band into, the more times i get asked to find a couple of other bands. basicly doing the job of the booking guy who gets to sit around and get the credit. and lately i have been having trouble getting dudes lined up to play cuz their mom is in town or they have to wash their hair or they have a gig 3 days later or some shit. so i was wondering: 1. is this "make-yr-own-bill" shit some bottom rung reality? 2. when you play a show with a band do you ask them for contact info and follow up? 3. or more likely when the booking dude asks you to come up with other bands do you just call yr buddies? let us discuss

drugs

hah! then what?

What venues are you trying for?

pretty much every show my band every played was 1) you ask for a night at a certain venue - in those cases, yeah you're usually responsible for setting up the bill; or 2) you see a certain band you want to play with is playing somewhere and you ask the booker if you can open - in these cases, they usually handle all the booking

2. when you play a show with a band do you ask them for contact info and follow up?

If you know the name of the band, it should be easy to find them online, no? Just send them a message on MySpace or whatever.

yeah there's this awesome site have you heard of it myspace

I think n/a's got it right for the most part. With the exception of when you play shows out of town, you're not usually expected to put the bill together yourself (for obvious reasons) -- you're mostly just hoping that there's a bill that the booking agent can put you on during the time you'll be in town.

o i do the myspace messaging thing. and i guess i haven't been assertive enough asking for a certain night at a certain venue. usually i just ask to play at a certain place and say the dates we definitely cannot do.

yeah in my experience it definitely works better to pick a specific show or shows and ask to open rather than just generally asking to play sometime. obviously be realistic; if it's the first time you've played a venue you shouldn't ask to open for i dunno sonic youth but maybe just some touring band that you like

1. is this "make-yr-own-bill" shit some bottom rung reality?

yes.

ack- i knew it. sometimes it's fun to do tho

but most times it's a total bummer

but most times it's a total bummer

On the other hand, it's great when another band invites you because then you don't have to deal with booking it yourself.

we have had that happen only once. and this year so far we've been having trouble cuz the booking dude asks us to get a couple of bands together, and i ask them and they decline. so i've started a "call list" so that i can just go down the line and hopefully some band will say ok.