Blog 55: Band Management, Social Media Mismanagement, and Booking Shows…

So here’s the story, I think. I was filming and traveling all last week – and I got kicked off FB. I made a FB page called PAnon which was a parody of the QAnon movement – please please FB don’t take down this page too – I’m just trying to explain what I think happened here. It was funny for a minute – and then not so funny. All my FB content has been taken down permanently. Oh man, do I have to be a wise-ass all the time?
It’s a pain because Egg Eaters have a show this Saturday night at Seven Sisters Tap Room Black Mountain, NC at 7pm – with the amazing Amber Grace Joyner – and FB really is a good way to post an event and get the word out. Please wear a mask and socially distance – we love music venues and we want them to stay open.
I will now try to fix my karma: people ask me about booking and so this is my guarded insight into booking a show. Be very real. Be very real in creating new and interesting music, that really reflects your inner light or your inner darkness. Take your heart out and show it. Be very real when you play a show – and be grateful to the booker and the sound guy. Be very real with the other bands – scream and shout and dance and really get into their shows. Be more than words. However you spend your time shows exactly what you value. Go out to other shows. Be real. Fall in love with other bands. Adore another band’s music. Tell them. Fall in love with the music venues. Make your favorite experience a night at a small music venue watching loud bands. Bring your friends. The people who run the underground music venues do this because they are real. They really love music. They have dedicated their life to this music. They curate an authentic sound of this underground art. If you are doing the same then you will be in the same revolution. Your relationships with other bands and with music venues will be real – and then it will be easy to book shows.
I want to take a step back for a moment. I work in video/film. I have watched very successful reporters and directors charm an interviewee and then when they get the answer or soundbite – then they are done. I try to love everyone I film. I think every story is the coolest. Every life is an amazing narrative. I try to really connect and raise them up as heroes. We, Holy Crap Records Podcast and our crew and friends, we really try to be authentic with every piece of music we play. We fall in love with your songs every week. It is October and the nights are getting darker. Pandemic levels are rising again. It is hard to be real and vulnerable now. But now is the time to be smart and go out to those live shows and wear masks and socially distance and tip your music venue. Now is the time to be real with your friends. To tell the other bands and musicians in the scene how much you adore them – and not fake but real. Now is the time to be real with the music we create. What we do know will be remembered. Give and give and give until it bleeds.