How to Book a Gig
Booking a gig is not as difficult a task as it may seem, even for a relatively inexperienced band. Local venues have live music calendars to fill, and if you throw your band’s hat into the ring, you are likely to get a call sooner rather than later. Get your name out there, give the venue the information it needs to hire you, and most importantly, make it easy for the venue to hire you.
Here are a few tips to help you book a gig at a local venue:
KNOW YOUR VENUES
The first step to booking a gig is to familiarize yourself with the venues you want to play. Visit the venue, find out what nights they offer live music and check out the venue’s crowd. Don’t waste your time (or the venue’s) by contacting clubs that don’t book live music, unless you think you can convince them that they should consider doing so. Additionally, make sure the venue books your genre of music – if you’re in a hard-core punk band, don’t find yourself in the position of wasting time and resources trying to
get your foot in the door at a venue, only to find out it’s a strictly traditional country music venue. Know the venue’s requirements and make sure you’re prepared to meet them. If the venue doesn’t provide sound equipment, it’s up to you to do so, and if you can’t, then you’re better off looking at another venue.
Make sure you have the correct name, e-mail address and telephone number for the person who does the booking for the venue. Pay attention to the little details – make sure you spell the booking agent’s name correctly in communications. As a booking agent, I have one artist who’s played for me on a repeat basis for more than six months now. Every time he contacts me, he calls me by a different first name, and never the correct one. I try to be impartial, but frankly, I’m only human. If he can’t even take the time to learn my name, it makes it a little harder for me to justify taking the time to give him first crack at gigs.
Visit the venue and get to know not only the booking agent, but the owner, the bar manager, the bartenders and the bouncers. It can’t hurt, and it just might help. These people generally have the booking agent’s ear and may be able to put in a good word for you.
Most importantly, be supportive of live music at the venue in general and of the other bands with which you play in particular. As a booking agent and a supporter of live and local music, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth when a band who has been after me to get their band booked finishes their set, then takes off to go party elsewhere when the next band takes the stage, taking their friends (and a chunk of the venue’s crowd) with them. It’s disrespectful of the other bands and the venue.
