Martin Atkins' Tour:Smart: New Yorkers Eat Their Young

A crazy week for sure. I cannot start dishing out information without mentioning the passing of bassist, artist and my bandmate Paul Raven. He was a charming, driven pirate and, maaaaan, he is so very sadly missed. Thanks to the staff at the amazing Lancaster Arts Hotel in Lancaster PA for making a couple of unbearable days more bearable, for the good wishes from everyone that have left messages on various sites and to David in DC for hanging with me through a chunk of it. My thoughts are with the family and anyone touched by his bright bright light.

http://www.invisiblerecords.com/martin-raven.jpg

This week we are looking at the ‘pay to play’ scenario that is across much of the US right now. Its pretty horrible and designed by promoters to make sure that they can turn a profit and stay in business even if all of the shitty bands that play don’t have much of an audience. There is a very sad by-product of all of this – audiences show their support for band #4 by arriving just in time to see band #4 but by also leaving just before the start of band #5. I understand this – it makes sense BUT it robs these bands of the ability to play to each others audience, it robs the audience of being exposed to other bands that might surprise them (yeah I know not always in a good way) but it also robs the band members themselves of playing in front of their peers – that’s a pretty good adrenalin shot wasted... and, if you accept the idea that sometimes its easier to learn what NOT to do by watching a terrible horrible band, drummer whatever – then all of the above are robbed of a valuable experience. All of this is pretty easy (I think) to circumvent but, alas, it involves effort, thought, reaching across barriers and work work work... heres something from Chvad SB who plays in the Brooklyn based punk-industrial band THINGS OUTSIDE THE SKIN about the NYC experience...

So you're in a band and you think you're ready for NYC? Here's what you can expect. According to Martin's new book, "TOUR:SMART" there are anywhere from 741 to 1235 bands playing in New York City every week. As I'm writing this, on a Friday evening, there are 374 bands playing in NYC (according to and that isn't even tapping into the plethora of shows that didn't bother to post on the site. There's FIERCE competition in NYC and in response to that, a lot of promoters create nothing more than what I like to call "meat grinder events". Every club in NYC wants a party every night of the week and they want people buying drinks ALL NIGHT. BRING IN THE BANDS! When you come to play a show in NYC one of the first things to expect is no money. It's common practice in NYC for promoters to only pay you IF you bring in at least 10 to 15 paying customers that ask specifically for your band. Bring in 15 or more, you get half the door amount for those patrons. Bring in 14. NOTHING. Did I mention you're also playing with anywhere from 6 to 9 other acts on the same night? Now the promoter can call it a FESTIVAL and thus a PARTY. Great right? You're gonna have a TON of people there to see you rock the fuck out right? Wrong, wrong wrong. Here's how NYC rolls, Band #1 brings in 15 of their friends to see them play. Band #1 finishes. Band #1 leaves. Friends of Band #1 leave. Band #2? Rinse and Repeat. The people you bring are the ONLY people that will be there to see you play. Some people would like to accuse all the others acts on the bill for being total asses for not hanging out and supporting the other bands. Honestly, 75% of the time you'd probably be right but even if all the bands wanted to stay and party the whole fucking night with you THEY CAN'T. This is NYC and space is something you find between people ears but NOT in clubs. 10 bands worth of gear won't fit in most small clubs so when you're done playing, you need to get the fuck off the stage and out of the club. Most promoters won't even allow bands to load in more than an hour before they are supposed to be on stage. There's no room. The club and promoter make out great though. Every band brings in a few people, 8 out of the ten bands won't break 15 people because everyone they know is out at one of the other 374 shows going on in the city that night. Meanwhile the promoter keeps most of the door and the club gets all of the bar. You can make money with merchandise right? You can't sell merch because there isn't any room for merch and if there is room, it'll be in the part of the club that everyone avoids because it smells like shit and piss. Literally. Sounds pretty bad right? It can be. How can it all be avoided? COMMUNITY. Contact the bands on the bill that play directly before AND after you. Trade promotional materials and share your audience. Hang out a LITTLE longer before the next band arrives, share gear if possible and there's more room for everyone (the promoter can't kick out as quick either if that's your amp on the stage). 45 people drunk off their asses trying to dance through your set is a hell of a lot cooler than your 15 buddies from work (no offense to work buddies of the world). Hell, some of them might even like your stuff. Wanna survive in NYC? Know people! Make friends on message boards, call bands, whatever. just know this: If you don't know anyone in NYC when you play, stay the fuck out. New Yorkers eat their young.

-Chvad SB plays in the Brooklyn based punk-industrial band THINGS OUTSIDE THE SKIN (www.outside-the-skin.com) and runs the dark music community Upcoming Dates for TOUR:SMART Book Tour:

Sunday, October 28th, @ Melody Inn (Indianapolis, IN)
Free Tour:Smart Band Seminar - 5:30pm
2-Hour seminar and info session, Also will be doing some DJ sets during the show at Melody Inn that night that begins at 9:00pm.

Monday, November 5th @ Gelato Vero Café (San Diego, CA)
Free Tour:Smart Band Seminar - 6:00pm

Monday, November 12th @ Canopy Club (Champaign, IL)
Free Tour:Smart Band Seminar - 6:00pm

Thursday, November 15th @ Eide's Records (Pittsburgh, PA)
Free Tour:Smart Band Seminar - 4:00pm

Friday, November 16th @ Erie Art Museum Annex (Erie, PA)
Free Tour:Smart Band Seminar - 7:00pm

Friday, November 16th @ The Beer Mug (Erie, PA)
DJ Set at the Pegasus Unicorn show - 11:30pm
(Check out one of the first Tour:Smart columns for the Pegasus Unicorn case study!)

Saturday, November 17th @ Harris Institute (Toronto, ON)
Tour:Smart band seminar - advance tickets are $4 - 12:00pm

Saturday, November 17th @ Velvet Underground (Toronto, ON)
Tour:Smart Band Seminar - 5:00pm
Advance tickets $4 through www.ticketweb.ca, or at Rotate This, and Circus Books & Music
Also providing DJ sets beginning at 11pm - admission covers entire event including DJ night.

web address: http://suicidegirls.com/news/all/22540/Martin-Atkins-TourSmart-New-Yorkers-Eat-Their-Young/