Book Yr Tour: Bandcampus Booking Party, Sunday
You might remember a while back that the good people at the Caroline Collective were putting on those Bandcamp things; it’s been a few months since they’ve done any of ’em, I think, but this coming Sunday, January 31st, they’re putting on something they’re calling Bandcampus: BOOKING PARTY.
The idea is to help out bands who want to tour outside of our fair city, giving them real-live experience at booking shows in venues in Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, and Corpus Christi. The BandCampers are providing a handy guide to setting things up in each of those cities — which’ll be published for free download the day after the Bandcampus, although you can check it out online right now here — free Internet access, and “mad-libs style” email and phone forms folks can use for actually emailing and calling different booking agents & venues. Experienced people will be there to help out however they can.
Needless to say, I think this is very cool. Historically, H-town bands just plain don’t leave this city real often — we’re three hours from everybody else, at the very least, so getting elsewhere is expensive and time-consuming as hell. This isn’t the East Coast, and gas costs a shitload these days. Bands need to be touring extensively outside our little town, and yet when I hear of bands doing just that, it’s pretty damn rare, and mostly with more established bands.
Besides the logistical issues, too, knowledge of this sort of thing is pretty sparse; I’m glad to see the Caroline Collectivites(?) doing their part to try to give everybody a leg up. The more people who play elsewhere, the better they make H-town look and the better things get for everybody in this weird, cool scene of ours.
Anyway, this thing runs from 2-4PM, over at the Collective (naturally) — 4820 Caroline, Houston, TX. 77004. Make your plans…
Well, I think part of it is also laziness and another part is attitude.
While we are three hours[ish] from the next major city, there's no good reason that bands from this town shouldn't be playing all over the area. If you're an established band on a mid-level indie label, then yes, you shouldn't be playing every town.
There's no reason, however, that Houston bands shouldn't hit each of these towns, all of which are within a days drive & could be strung together for touring purposes.
Galveston
Beaumont
New Orleans
Baton Rouge
Lafayette
Nacodoches
Denton
Dallas
Fort Worth
Waco
College Station
Austin
San Antonio
Corpus Christi
Admittedly, they're not all glamorous markets. However, you have the big cities [NO, Baton Rouge, D-FW, Austin, San Antonio], several college towns [College Station, Huntsville, Nac-a-nowhere, Waco, Denton, Lafayette] with plenty of student-body audience, and some other towns with bored kids [Galveston – four small colleges + more high schools, Beaumont – small college + high schools, Corpus, heck even Conroe, San Marcos].
If you're smart about who you contact/when you play a city then you should be able to get a decent showing for every city. Kids get caught up on "where they have to go" and not where they ought to play.