2 Huge Mistakes Made By Young Bands

I do not claim to be any kind of expert.  I have played professionally for over 40 years.  I have gone through what you are going through.  Some of the bone head things I did in the past are not relevant to today.  Times have changed a great deal. There are two things that I see everyday and consider mistakes.  One concerns a new venue that I did not have access to and the other is a mistake made from day one by just about every band I have ever known.  I will start with the latter.

Most bands get some material together and find a gig.  Right?  But that is what you are suppose to do, right? Absolutely!  You have to start somewhere.  But, even if you live in a huge city like Dallas, you have to make sure you have a plan in which you only play your home city maybe 2 times a year.  What!  How in the world are you suppose to do that.  I think that playing your home town should be promoted as something special.  Not just another weekend gig.  You have to reach a point in your performance that it will make it worth it to your audience to come out and see you. And when you reach that point you want to promote it and make it into something that will be talked about until the next time.  You can not do that if you are playing every dive in town that will pay you 50 bucks a head.  So how do you manage this?  Draw a circle around your hometown or the nearest large city in which you are currently getting most of your gigs.  How big a circle is up to you and your band members.  If you guys are working days, and at this point you really should be, then you have to take in consideration the time factor of getting off work on Friday and trying to make the gig on time.  There is no law that says you can not take a gig close by on Friday and another a little farther away on Saturday.  What you are trying to accomplish, besides making a little money, is fine tuning your act in preparation for your return home.  It is hard but worth it.  Fine tuning your act in front of your hometown crowd will only cause you to lose more fans than you gather and will give most venues a preconceived impression of who you are and what you do.  If you want the larger, better paying venue it is imperative to show how you can gather a crowd. Just consider it and see where you thinking takes you.

The second mistake I see way too often concerns YouTube.  I see a lot of junk on there that maybe should have been thought through.  Bands are way to eager to post videos with something like, "Check us out playing at ABC Club last Friday night.  The video is from and I phone and the sound is bad.  Why would you be so eager to post something bad?  Anyone can film you with their phones these days, but you do not have to post it on your very own YouTube channel.  Everything you post should be professional.  The more you post as an amateur, the more you are perceived that way. Be professional.  Look like you know what you are doing.