Played my first show with new band....

hashbrowns · December 07, 2011, 11:11:22 PM

and the place was completely empty. The band we were opening were like a hideous combination of nu-metal and an completely out of context technical death metal lead guitarist. Their only "fans" were their 3 girlfriends haha. So yeah I'm pretty pissed about that. Any of you guys have any tips for how to promote my band? We played well and were doomy as hell so I think people would have dug it if they had showed up.

BrianDamage · December 08, 2011, 12:35:43 AM

One of the best ways I have found to build a fanbase is to go to the shows of bands you would fit well on a bill with (even if they aren't doomy and awesome). Make friends with them. Get on a show with them. Turn their fans into your fans as well. Worked well for me. Facebook is a big help as well.

hashbrowns · December 08, 2011, 01:07:02 AM

Awesome man I'll definitely have to give that a shot. What kind of bands do you think a slow ass doom band would fit with? A lot of the bands I see around here are either traditional metal like priest or maiden or really really fast thrash like kreator or exodus. I was thinking I might not fit well into that sort of show cause those bands play so fast their fans might heckle us for playing like slugs.

BrianDamage · December 08, 2011, 01:17:29 AM

Maybe they won't. I mean I liked Judas Priest AND Saint Vitus when I was a kid.

hashbrowns · December 08, 2011, 01:25:06 AM

Oh yeah man I'm definitely gonna try anyway regardless cause I know there will be at least a few guys who get it but I was just asking in your experience what sort of bands have you fit in well with during a show.

mortlock · December 08, 2011, 01:45:21 AM

fuck getting heckled..people need to accept new shit..im in a noise band and we're about to play a metal show..i expect some resistance..and im prepared to handle it with more noise..full scale assault..

BrianDamage · December 08, 2011, 01:50:37 AM

I have played in doom bands on bills with everything from disturbed type bands to black metal. Never got heckled at all.

hashbrowns · December 08, 2011, 01:55:43 AM

Sweet dude thats good to hear. I mean I'm not really worried about heckling. I'm the singer and my plan was if anyone was a dick I would just stare them down and scream my lyrics directly at them. I have this one line that goes "I... could care less... What..... YOU THINK OF ME!!!" that I could belt right in his face glaring at him hahaha.

liquidsmoke · December 08, 2011, 06:03:35 AM

Quote from: hashbrowns on December 08, 2011, 01:07:02 AM
Awesome man I'll definitely have to give that a shot. What kind of bands do you think a slow ass doom band would fit with? A lot of the bands I see around here are either traditional metal like priest or maiden or really really fast thrash like kreator or exodus. I was thinking I might not fit well into that sort of show cause those bands play so fast their fans might heckle us for playing like slugs.

Some of the traditional metal Priest/Maiden fans might be into more traditional doom metal in the vein of Trouble and Candlemass with clean vocals but if you are more stoner/sludge doom they might not be as interested. In either case if you can find local bands who sort of sound like your band you can support them by going to their shows if they are good and you like them and then you might get to know them and get asked to play with them. "hey great set! you guys are fuckin' heavy!" "oh thanks, I'm Jim, do you play an instrument or in a band?" "yeah blah blah blah" "oh cool I'd like to hear your stuff" etc...

Lumpy · December 08, 2011, 06:14:17 AM

Think of it as trying to bring new people over to the dark side.

Harm · December 08, 2011, 07:34:33 AM

Quote from: mortlock on December 08, 2011, 01:45:21 AM
i expect some resistance..and im prepared to handle it with more noise..full scale assault..

Harm · December 08, 2011, 07:35:42 AM

Quote from: hashbrowns on December 07, 2011, 11:11:22 PM
and the place was completely empty. The band we were opening were like a hideous combination of nu-metal and an completely out of context technical death metal lead guitarist. Their only "fans" were their 3 girlfriends haha. So yeah I'm pretty pissed about that. Any of you guys have any tips for how to promote my band? We played well and were doomy as hell so I think people would have dug it if they had showed up.

That sucks man, for starters get a youtube channel or something where you can upload your music.

Metal and Beer · December 08, 2011, 06:50:29 PM

Hashy, what's your band name and what city are you guys from/in ?

RAGER · December 08, 2011, 06:56:25 PM

Quote from: Harm on December 08, 2011, 07:35:42 AM
Quote from: hashbrowns on December 07, 2011, 11:11:22 PM
and the place was completely empty. The band we were opening were like a hideous combination of nu-metal and an completely out of context technical death metal lead guitarist. Their only "fans" were their 3 girlfriends haha. So yeah I'm pretty pissed about that. Any of you guys have any tips for how to promote my band? We played well and were doomy as hell so I think people would have dug it if they had showed up.
That sucks man, for starters get a youtube channel or something where you can upload your music.

they used to have this thing a few years back that worked really well for bands. i think it was called myspace or something. everything right there on one page super easy to navigate......................

mortlock · December 08, 2011, 11:39:52 PM

yeah, i think this place called facebook has that shit now too. you might have heard of it..my friend just told me about it..

hashbrowns · December 09, 2011, 11:14:12 AM

Social networking sites? What are those?.......

Naa haha we're called Black Tar Lung and we're from New Brunswick NJ. We've got fb ms and yt pages already but I'm trying to think of ways to draw people how are into rock/doom/sludge/stoner - ish stuff to our page.

Discö Rice · December 09, 2011, 03:04:06 PM

I'll tell you what gets my attention at shows - moxie and panache. You got 'em? Then you got me, seeee?

/1930's gangster impression.

In all seriousness a band has to be somewhat original and provide some sort of cathartic connection for me to be interested. If you're just recycling Kyuss riffs, I'll probably step outside, grab a beer, piss, whatever. If you're doing something brave or different (not just phoning it in) and it's good, there's a good chance I'll watch your set from the front and buy some merch. If you deal with hecklers well, I might even buy you a beer. The point is, I'm there to be entertained, and to hear good music, I'm not there to bear witness to your amplifier collection while you deafen me with shit you know deep down is not good. My feeling is, if you're not there to blow minds or bring the building down around you, don't bother.

hashbrowns · December 09, 2011, 08:48:34 PM

Quote from: Discö Rice on December 09, 2011, 03:04:06 PM

In all seriousness a band has to be somewhat original and provide some sort of cathartic connection for me to be interested. If you're just recycling Kyuss riffs, I'll probably step outside, grab a beer, piss, whatever.

Hm well thats cool cause we don't sound like kyuss at all. We're not really a stoner band more of a sludgey doom band. We do have moments where we get psychedelic though. We're not re-writing the book but I try my best not to bite people's riffs or sound too much like anyone band. and we're definitely not phoning it in we get far too much into our music for anyone to think that haha.

Discö Rice · December 09, 2011, 09:02:32 PM

I didn't mean to sound like you were doing any of the negative things in that post. I haven't heard your band, and I was speaking in more general terms. No worries, Mr. Browns.

hashbrowns · December 09, 2011, 09:07:03 PM

No I wasn't implying that you suggested we were derivative man I was just saying that post was reassuring cause we put a lot of effort into stage presence and developing our own sound. I also get annoyed by how many bands want to sound like kyuss. I love kyuss but I would never want to play that fast

jibberish · December 10, 2011, 07:12:43 AM

red giant got heckled when chimaera put them on the chimaera bill.

HOWEVER, once the RG unit started the grooving, the crowd got into it. kind of like an "audio intermission" from the furious in your face nu metal ness of the chimaera type bands.

so my conclusion is rawk like you never rawked before in the face of that hostility and they will respect your rawkness by the end of the set.

btw 2 things about nu metal:

a) chimaera is an amazingly good band. the attention to detail is stunning.

b) i'm not sure any nu-metal band has ever done anything "new" that ministry didn't do already way before. ministry still sounds up to date to me..

hashbrowns · December 10, 2011, 01:11:30 PM

Yeah problem was it wasn't an established band like chimaera it was some shitty band. The booking guy told me that we were opening for a ten year old band so I'm thinking that they'll have at least a small audience that we can attempt to win over. However, the only people who were there were that bands 3 ugly girlfriends and the bitches didn't even come into the room until we had finished haha. It was our first show so I hadn't much promoted cause I hadn't written lyrics yet so we were just looking to test our skills and ability to handle our gear quickly and efficiently which we did so it was good in that respect. Still I expected a 10 year old band to at least have one fan for each year active that wasn't their girlfriend

bloodofkings · December 10, 2011, 03:06:00 PM

Welcome to Jersey.

mortlock · December 10, 2011, 08:20:13 PM

im at the point where 3 people at a show is a huge crowd..

mawso · December 14, 2011, 08:35:57 PM

playing shows with horribly mismatched groups of bands is just one of those things you have to get through when you're starting out

my band's done it a number of times - we're blues based hard rock and we've ended up on bills with hardcore and black metal bands.. and also with pop/rock, indie lite and jazz/funk combos. you can try to make sure it doesn't happen but in my experience for your very first handful of gigs you rarely have that much control over how the show gets put together, and the guy that's running the night often ends up just wanting any old band who's willing to play, and they don't really care how well it fits in with everyone.

it gets a lot better - once you've found bands you work well with. until then, think of it as "character building" and all that bullshit (isn't it funny how we can use that excuse to rationalise anything that just plain sucks?)

you can also win over diehard fans at the most unexpected shows. not everyone goes along to a gig cos they love the band they came to see. often they're just tagging along with their group of friends. other people just have eclectic and varied interests in different sorts of music - and maybe what you're doing is going to fit in with that.

i sympathise with the situation tho dude.. it's really heartbreaking to put so much of yourself into your music, and to be really excited about what you've got going on, and then when you finally get to the gig you look out from the stage and see 9 out of shape black metal nerds in their runny make-up and spiked armbands with their arms crossed, looking bored. it just sucks, hard. been there many times.