How do you invite people to your gigs?

[reverbbb]

I used to throw some great parties. All I would have to do is mention party, and my house would get packed.

Now many years later, I can't seem to get folks interested in my parties or coming to gigs. I know there is a LOT of various reasons (i.e. kids, money's tight, lazy, don't party no more, my wife hates your wife, you ain't as fun as you used to be, etc.). Age seems to be the biggest factor. Many of my friends are approaching 50, just like me. But I still get out and go to parties and gigs.

I send out 80+ email invitations and post flyers on newsgroups and such. I call my faithful party aninmal friends. But still, I can only get about 1 to 3 couples to come to a gig (the rest have not heard me play in a band for 30 years - surely they can't remember that far back ). My last party was a disappointment with only about 25 guest - and we had live music. We had food for 75 people.

So, do you have any solid suggestions on how to get more folks to attend gigs (without giving away stuff)?

[Michaell]

e-mail data base works well for me

phone calls when time permits

[fltpkr]

We have a spam list that people can sign up for at gigs, and send out emails a few days before we play somewhere.

[reverbbb]

We are a new band, so we don't have that many 'fans' that have joined the email list. I gotta remember to get a list started for this next gig.

[getbent]

I hate when friends come to gigs...even worse if it is family...

They will look at the music very differently from the regular patron and all that stuff is stuff I have to try to 'control' which I don't want to do. A couple of neighbors showed up sunday.... they love 70's classic rock (think bad company) nothing wrong with that, but when we are wearing cowboy outfits and playing 'blues plus booze means I lose' and twanging with fiddles, steel and teles... it is just painful for them. Their comment 'we loved it when you rocked out on hot rod lincoln'... just a drag to watch their faces waiting for a zep tune or something.

I don't much like going to friends gigs either: A) I don't want to sit in, I just want to listen B) I end up 'rooting for the band' instead of just enjoying it.

The exception is watching my nephew's band, but there the crowds are large and I can hang back and just enjoy watching him have fun...

I love the anonymity of playing in front of strangers or folks who just like to hear us play.... we had about 10 random folks who came up to the bandstand recently and said, "cool! I saw you guys awhile back, this will be fun!" We give out wooden nickels with our promo stuff on it and the people who dig the music will want to come.... for everyone else it has that 'recital' vibe which is not what I want at this stage....

my goal is to be like the band in the bar fight scene in Junior Bonner... cool, twangin' and anonymous.

So, I think it gets harder as we get older because all of our friends have to go to countless 'support' events for which they get nothing other than 'duty' points. Graduations, ball games, recitals, school plays, awards ceremonies etc... I'm always glad that I've gone, but I kinda dread going.... to that end, I think lots of folks in the 40-60 range are just worn out from doing duty.

I stopped going to see one of my favorite artists when I realized that he'd slipped and I was now just going to 'support him'... that sucks! A tribute,sure, a fundraiser in his honor, sure... but for everything to be vital and growing and improving... it has got to be music you want to hear by people you want to hear play....

There is a guy I know of who publically decries corporations and marketing and shilling and self promotion... and yet when I was on his myspace site the other day his marketing was the cheesiest! He's selling shirts, cups, the whole wad of CRAP and pushing his shows like a used car guy... Kind of 'everyone else sucks when they do it, except me'.... but he is very young and probably doesn't have the perspective (yet) to recognize the duplicity.

Last... I heard a woman on NPR yesterday talking about dances they used to have in Dublin when she was very young... she said the dances were essentially for the sole purpose of getting working class men and women together so that they could mate. When I was in my teens and 20's I went to clubs A) to mate B) because I loved music. I played in bands because A) I dug the music and wanted to make it for myself and B) it improved the odds of getting to mate.

If you are 50 and married.... it would have to be the music that would be the draw (I'd guess) and all the folks who are at the venue to mate get annoying really quick.

sorry for the long post...

pps. the best way to get folks to shows is to be good. have a good press kit, have a sound and play a lot. you'll build your following without having to create 'false' fans who are fans of you and not your music.

[tiktok]

Trying to get old (married, with kids, over 30, etc.) folks to come out to see you play is pretty much a waste of time unless you know that they're already prone to that sort of thing. It's just not on their menu of options and no amount of notification or pleading makes a difference.

[Big John]

Originally Posted by reverbbb

.........Now many years later.....

You hit the nail on the head right there, those old party animals are grown up with kids, mortgages, economic woes and busy being grown ups.
As muso's i think we get dealt a good hand in that we never grow up !, it must be the Peter Pan gene or something, just look at some of the topics our posts cover and some of the answers.

I'm frequently amazed and infuriated how all my school buddies all do act their age, where's the fun in that ??.
Guess to them i'm still the "sad guitar playing one who never grew up" ......

Anyway's if i feel like getting together with them it's phone and eMail and a bit of light hearted 'pushing' but yeah, for every one who turns up four won't.

I hate to say it but i'm not guaranteed to go out anymore these days just because someone i know is gigging nearby, of course i should but heck, sometimes i just get tired too.

[beach bob]

If your band has a myspace page (and it should!), you can send out notices of your upcoming gigs / events to your list of friends. Of course you have to get all those friend invites done, but once it builds up, people will find you and you'll have a list of at least semi-interested myspacers that you can spam repeatedly

My bud and I were talking about this last night... he has a pet peeve about getting a myspace notice from certain artists that lack the more obvious details. E.G. he got one from Ray Wylie Hubbard saying, We'll be at Martha's again this Friday! We're down here in FL, but have no idea if Martha's is in Texas, Maine, Seattle, or Florence SC

other than that it's a pretty cool tool

[Tim Armstrong]

We draw really well at a couple of beach bars. Five miles inland, we can hardly get ten people. My theory is that, at the beach, folks are either on vacation, or the kind of eternal youths that live at beaches! Either way, it's a unique kind of place, and we do very, very well there, and poorly elsewhere. Maybe we ought to start trying to get ski town gigs in the winter?

I've also crossed the "folks don't come to parties" line over the last few years.

Sigh...

Tim

[urbanhiker]

The age thing is certainly a factor.
I find that when our band plays on a Friday instead of Saturday, most likely the crowd will be smaller. Why? I send out e-mails to everyone on my list for either night, so it can't be that. Here's my opinion:
If the week (as in 5 day working week) has really been a bear, lots of times I'll have all good intentions of going to see someone play/go to a movie or out to eat/go to a friend's party on Friday night. But if I get home, have a drink, and sit somewhere comfortable, often as not I find myself saying to the wife, "Can't we just order a pizza and maybe watch a movie here?"
On the other hand, if I know I'm going to do one of those things on Saturday night, I can pace myself throughout the day and not wear myself out to the point that I'm no fun.
So: I try to book the band on Saturdays...

[Big John]

Originally Posted by Tim Armstrong

......We draw really well at a couple of beach bars...............
Tim

Nothing to do with the partially clad bar staff Tim ?

[fltpkr]

[quote=getbent;1243569] my goal is to be like the band in the bar fight scene in Junior Bonner... cool, twangin' and anonymous.


Man, you just perfectly summed up how I want to see my band...I'm going to use that quote if it's OK with you.

[Tim Armstrong]

Originally Posted by Big John

Nothing to do with the partially clad bar staff Tim ?

Who, these girls?



They only work at the one place, the other place has a considerably less, uh, vibrant staff!



Tim

[Big John]

Originally Posted by Tim Armstrong

.....They only work at the one place, the other place has a considerably less, uh, vibrant staff!

OK, Tim here's the plan, you go on ahead with the band to the 'other' gig and leave me at the Caribbean, it'll be tough i know but i feel i can fight them off !

I'll keep the engine running on yours !

[woodman]

re the age factor: the gravity that glues butts to couches after 9-10 p.m. increases alarmingly with every passing year. when i invite my old fans out, they just laugh and ask me when we're doing a 7 o'clock show!

[tiktok]

Originally Posted by woodman

re the age factor: the gravity that glues butts to couches after 9-10 p.m. increases alarmingly with every passing year. when i invite my old fans out, they just laugh and ask me when we're doing a 7 o'clock show!

I've done 7PM shows in walking distance of those people's homes: they still don't show. Friends are good for, at most, one show a year. Typically one show, period, usually your first one or a CD release party.

[woodman]

yeah, one show a year if you're lucky! that's the sad and sorry state of things.

[reverbbb]

Thanks folks! You guys are helping to assure me that I am not the only one that has this issue.

I have been playing a ton of open jams for the past 4~5 years. I guess I am spoiled to the fact that audience is still in party mode. But they don't represent to majority at my age.

I have been reading and discussing a lot about the lack of blues appreciation from the audiences. But now I am seeing a better picture that it is not just the blues failing to draw a crowd, it is the audiences themselves.

I suppose my job is to go out and find as many party animals as I can. It is highly likely that very few will be my friends from the past.

Fortunately, we are playing at a great Mexican Food Restaurant and the hours are 8:00 to 11:00 on Saturday evening. This in of itself seems like a good formula.

Funny thing is, I cannot stand to stay out past midnight myself. By 10:00, I find myself yawning a bit.

[robbysturgis]

Friends is one group, but you can't bank on them.

Folks who want to dance (if you are a dance band), but they don't drink much.

Folks who drink - to get up the courage - but are under court supervision to not do that too often anymore.

Other musicians - who avoid other musicians.

Anonymous consumers, who you've met for the first time, and might come back. Most often they are accidental and non-repetitive.

Reg'ler customers who are there every other Friday or Saturday night...mmm the sweet smell of Old Spice. They don't care if you come back or not.

Those who desperately want to get you nek'kid in 'da hot tub.

~ I'm convinced none of these folks want your eMail, or DO THEY?

[jonzer]

Everytime I've used our huge email spam thingy that goes to a couple hundred people it'd always draw only about 3 folks from that list. It's all the factors mentioned above....or maybe the band sucks. Maybe my band sucked.

I don't worry about getting people I know to a gig as much as I worry about getting anybody to my gigs. We do the email, myspace, walk around handing out fliers, posting fliers, talking it up, blogging it, nagging it, going to other bars in walking distance to hand out mini fliers until that bar kicks us out, etc.

Then when you ask friends who say "sure I'll be there...I really want to see you guys...I'm excited" then they say "can I be on the guest list and bring a friend?". I've even had people ask if they could jump on the band's bar tab. Seriously.

[woodman]

Originally Posted by reverbbb

Funny thing is, I cannot stand to stay out past midnight myself. By 10:00, I find myself yawning a bit.

haha! yeah, i know whatcha mean ... but as soon as we get going and the adrenaline kicks in, i'm 25 again! of course, the next morning, i'm like 95 ....

[gtech]

10-15 years ago, there were plenty of people to Blues Jams in a bar where I was playing regularly. Then musicians AND non-musicians stopped coming... until the owner of the bar said he was loosing money on us.

Not a lot of the original people go to these gigs. They got old or lost interest. And younger people prefer really big shows... once a year... or stay at home to get drunk without loosing their driver license...