Hello everyone!
Nate here from Fusion Shows.  I'm truly excited to be introducing to you our brand-new website, which is up now at www.fusionshows.com.  We worked for over four months with our friends at Studio AKT in Florida on this thing, and it's been up now for about a week.  We're very proud of where it's going. 

Anyway, I want to reconnect with our local bands.  Not because it's what's going to make us money and keep going.  It's because it was my mission a long time ago to help locals, and I think that at times, Fusion Shows loses sight of that when we get offered the next big Manchester Orchestra, Bowling for Soup, or Whitechapel show.  We have a tendency to look at our locals as a means to fund booking our nationals, and that's just silly and unfair.  Opening for nationals can be awesome, but at the same time, it doesn't pay very often in this broken industry.  I truly apologize for all of the locals recently who have busted their asses on shows, selling tickets, to get stiffed on money at the end, because we lost money on a show!

So, how to reconnect?  Well, let's start putting together some bitchin local shows!  I'm open to ideas.  I can book at any of the following venues:

Mac's Bar, Lansing
The Small Planet, East Lansing
The Mixtape, Grand Rapids
Howell Opera House, Howell
Hartland PAC, Howell
The Annex, Brighton
The Well, Brighton
The Crofoot complex, Pontiac
Fischer Hall, Frankenmuth
The Factory, Rochester
I could have access to MANY other venues as well, for certain events.  Houses, coffeeshops, halls, bars, etc.  Any idea, anywhere in the state, we're interested in hearing about it!

The reality of things these days is this:
1.  Touring is hard.  Touring acts who get their guaranteed money aren't getting the support they used to, from their fans, from labels, from agencies.  Everyone's cutting their funding, and the first thing that it affects is promotion, which is why a lot of your favorite bands from five years ago aren't drawing as many people as they used to!  So, agents have pushed us as promoters to get locals to sell tickets to fill their rooms.  Sometimes, it makes sense to open these shows, to get in front of a new fanbase, but when do the locals get to make money? 

2.  Too many bands are touring.  If you're not absolutely blowing the doors off your venues at home, you shouldn't be on the road.  But when so many touring bands fill up the calendars at your local venues, it's hard to really build a fanbase! 

So what I'd like to do is start rebuilding the local scene, one show at a time.  Some of the best shows we have coming up are all-local shows (A Letter To You CD release, Apathetic Critic CD release, 2-3 holiday shows that will be announced this week).  We'll still be booking national acts, but only the ones that we think are worth it!

We work hard to promote every show.  We want you guys, armed with the new tools provided by us, to work hand in hand with us to build momentum in this area again.  We will provide flyer design and distribution, ticket printing and online sales, and organized and fair management of the show.  You provide the music and major ground support, spreading the word to not only your current fans, but also hitting schools, malls, parties, and other shows to gain momentum for the show!

I'm very interested in working with you to create a new local music scene, unified and determined to create an atmosphere where Michigan's finest acts can succeed and build the fanbase they deserve, and allowing new talent to develop in front of enthusiastic crowds!

So I'd like to ask you to do two things:
1.  Fill out this short info form to tell us what you're up to these days!

Band Name:
Hometown:
Genre:
MySpace link:
Email:
Phone:
A short explanation of where you're at as a band, what your goals are, etc.:

2.  Sign up on the message boards at www.fusionshows.com, and go to the "Michigan Music" thread to tell the masses about your band.  In just 5 days of operation, we've had 34 people sign up, and our major push has yet to come.  Get involved!

As I was saying, I'm very open any ideas any of you might have.  Shows aren't free, so please keep in mind that there are expenses involved in booking shows anywhere, but to have you behind us, excited and ready to work, sure beats the hell out of creating an event on our own!

Thanks for reading this, and please, let's be in touch! 

Love,
Nate
Fusion Shows