The Catch 22 of Playing Gigs in NYC

authored by Marc Montfleury (aka Eloh) of Indie Band Guru

 It’s 9:30 pm on a rainy Saturday night. You have spent the last two to three weeks sending out sending out bulk emails, passing out flyers, texting everyone in your circle. Your Facebook, your Myspace and your Reverbnation pages are stock full of event invitations that you have sent out and posted in hopes of filling out a room.

An isolated room, in the back of or down a staircase, of any random bar in the city. This room costs no less than $10.00 to get into. You are scheduled to go on at 11:00 pm. Yet by the time you load in and try to get settled, someone with a clipboard steps up to you with one of two lines. “We are running late so you will have to go on at 1:00 am”. Or “I know you are scheduled for 11:00 pm, but get your stuff onstage now and get your set started as quick as you can”.

 You are a good sport right? So you do as you are told. Even though the band ahead of you was slated to hit the stage after you, and you are forced to play a 30 minute set as opposed to the 45 minute set you came prepared to display. You get on. You do your thing. Some people clap, others just stare as if you have done them some cosmic wrong in a past life. By the time you are finished, everyone that played before you has taken all of their “People” and moved either upstairs or to the front room of this random bar.

 You pack your stuff up and for the final kick in the balls, Mr. or Ms. Clipboard comes to inform you that instead of 15 people, you only got 12 in the door and next time you need to hit the minimum or they will not be able to work with you again. Oh, and you will not be paid.

This is where I get a little pissed off….. *(read the rest of the article Here!)