Ive been having a lot of qualms lately about the rising phenomenon of local support bands being asked to sell tickets to shows. It seems the practice has really creeped up in prevalence in the past couple years and is possibly starting to do more damage than good to the live music scene. I think just a couple years ago, I started seeing it, mainly at a couple all ages clubs on the east coast. Basically it worked like this: a tour would roll into town and the local opening act(s) would be asked to publicize the show and sell tickets. In exchange theyd usually get around $2 a ticket for every ticket they sold. From the perspective of a touring band, this seemed to work out really well. The show got extra publicity, tickets got sold in advance and the local bands had potential to make some extra money too. These are three major problems that the practice really helped address.First up, having the local bands help publicize a show for a touring band is really essential to the success of the show. Ive seen it way too often where the promoter either really doesnt know how to reach the right kids or is too lazy or overwhelmed by other shows to do the right publicity. Lets face it, Ska has its own culture and its a relatively obscure one. A lot of cities, if not the majority of them, might only have one promoter that is willing to take a chance on booking a Ska show. Odds are that person doesnt really have intimate knowledge of the scene, so it really does take the local bands to get the word out. Many bands, on the other hand, just assume there job is just to show up, play the show, and go home. Ive been to shows where the local bands didnt even get their friends to show up. Secondly, getting tickets sold in advance, is basically a huge insurance policy that the show will do decent and end up selling more tickets overall. If kids buy tickets in advance, it means they arent going to lame out at the last minute and sit at home and watch TV. It also means that once theyve shelled out their $10, theyll be encouraging their friends to do so too. Thirdly, it gives the local band another way to make some money. Obviously its really expensive to start out a band. T-shirts must be printed, demos recorded, broken drumsticks replaced, websites hosted, etc, etc.. A lot of shows, just dont have the budget to pay local band much if anything and this allows them another avenue for making money. On top of all this, in many cases it helps the fans buy cheaper tickets and avoid shelling extra money for Ticketmaster and website service charges. So everybody wins right?
The first thing I started noticing, and this is probably way too obvious, but the quality of the opening bands can be really hurt. It doesnt really matter in a lot of places, where there are only a handful of ska bands and they end up with show anyway, but I noticed in places, with massive suburban populations, especially places like northern New Jersey and Long Island, that have about eighty gazillion local ska bands, the opening slots arent necessarily going to the best bands. More often than not theyll go to the bands that have sold the most tickets in the past. This usually means high school bands that havent had much experience writing and performing, but quite frankly have a shitload of friends and shitload of free time to sell those friends tickets. Bands composed mainly of people who are out of school and working to pay rent and be in a band are at a huge disadvantage. To be more frank, it gets to the point where it makes it so easy to be so cynical as to blow off even watching the opening bands when its obvious the promoter put on another slew of RBF/LTJ clones that cant tune their instruments, but can sell a shitload of tickets. If you ever wonder why the headliner is sitting in their dressing room drinking beer instead of watching the opening band.well there ya go. (for all its worth, Im really trying to make an effort to check out a couple songs of every band we play with though).
Now, dont get me wrong though, a lot of the time it kind of works out the opposite way. A lot of time the bands that sell the tickets are the ones who are organized and committed to being successful. They are the ones that are serious, willing to work harder to promote their band and the show and deserve the slot. I get extremely frustrated with bands that, I have given a really good slot on a show or a tour and then tell me something like, wow, thanks so much for giving us this awesome show, were breaking up next month and really wanted to go out with a cool show. I usually just smile, nod, and think to myself I wish I had given the slot to another band it would have helped out and would be sticking around to support the scene.
Okay, so here we are, a couple years, down the line, and the practice has evolved and infiltrated the Midwest and probably just about everywhere in between the coasts where it started. I guess Im starting to think its getting out of hand. Lately I was talking to a dude in local band and he told me the promoter told him if he didnt sell 100 tickets, his band could forget about playing that venue again. Creepy. This is getting dangerously close to the 1980s metal band practice of pay to play, where promoters, would basically force bands to buy, say 100 tickets for $10 each. If the band didnt sell all of them, theyd have to pay for the ones they didnt sell. Super-creepy.
I have to admit, for me, this all really came to a head within the last two weeks. My band, Mustard Plug is in the process of setting up an east coast tour along with Against All Authority and Westbound train. Bomb the Music Industry is also on most of the dates. I was also trying to get another established and signed NYC band on a few of the local shows around the NYC area. Despite my best efforts, and despite the fact that this band is excellent and well liked within the scene I wasnt able to add them to any of the shows, all because the promoters insisted they needed other locals who could sell tickets. I suspect the problem is, this band is well out of high school and needs to spend the majority of their time paying rent in the NYC area and focusing on songwriting musicianship rather than selling tickets. Now when push comes to shove, the show has to be successful. If promoters loose money on ska shows, there wont be any more ska shows. That is the bottom line. Unfortunately the scene isnt quite together enough yet to guarantee that every show is going to do great.
So whats the answer? The solution? Is the practice all good or all bad? I guess I cant say yet. From my very narrow perspective, it becomes clear that headlining bands and booking agents need to ensure that they retain the right to choose local support. Its also up to the every one to support the shows and the bands both local and touring, so the promoters dont have to rely on locals selling tickets to make a show successful. Do I recommend buying tickets from a local band instead of Ticketmaster? Definitely. Especially if you know the band and like them. Quite honestly I dont see this all going away anytime soon. Hopefully, it wont spin further out of control.
Skank on daddio.